ssh closed

[romeowhiskey]

Anyone else think Mr. Robinson might be a little pissed?

 

I sympathize for those of you who look like your going to be left with the bill for his party.

Thanks for the sympathy. We all wish we'd never listened to Jerry Airola, who will likely try to disappear with his millions intact. He's made a lot of enemies with this fraudulent scheme, and I'll bet he tries to skip the country. As soon as I see a wanted poster with his picture on it, I'm a goin' huntin'! Who wants to join the posse?!! YEEEE HAWWWW!! Warning, the suspect should be considered armed and dangerous.

 

Frank Robinson will be fine. He's a very smart guy with a booming company. He probably saw this coming, like the rest of us.

 

I really wondered about Randy Rowles hiring on at SSH when I saw it happen. He had a super reputation before that, and I hope his association with SSH doesn't tarnish it too badly. Anyone who knows him, knows that he isn't the problem. The corporate management at SSH was badly screwed up (greed will do that) way before he was trying to fix things, as he said.

 

RANDY ROWLES is a good man. Don't punish him. I can think of numerous Airola cronies who should be named in a law suit, though.

 

I TRIED TO WARN YOU GUYS ABOUT THIS COMPANY.

Too bad I can't travel back in time and warn myself, or would that create a quantum paradox, and unravel the space-time continuum and destroy us all?!!

 

We might as well try to keep a sense of humor; but I still want to go huntin'.

[mechanic]

My flight instructor just called and said after their last flight they were met by armed guards, who told them to take their headsets and get out....Dallas

 

Did you read what you quoted or did you just hit reply to vent? Wonder why SSH feels the need to hire armed guards. Maybe they know what they did was wrong,

[Goldy]

Holy Crap !

 

Yes, this is horrible for students, who now have to wait months or years to get back 1% of their payments..

 

For flight schools though, probably the best thing yet. We all did what we could to steer people in a direction where we felt they would be best treated..this will give the entire industry a black eye however, as people will only associate all flight schools with SSH.

 

Me thinks I'm looking for an R22..or a R44.

 

Now here's another question. How does this effect Robinson ?? To lose your single largest customer cant be a good thing.

 

I'm in shock, not surprised, just in shock that it finally happened....if all we hear is true.

 

Goldy

[Chopperjess]

Wow....Just wow...

 

I feel really bad for you CFI's and Students... I wish you the best of luck =(

[AdminLB]

Yes, it is true. The emails are real. This issue did surface on Saturday in the forum at Justhelicopters.com and came to fruition just last night.

 

This is a very difficult pill to swallow for the industry. It is case study that will go down in history and there will be much discussion on the issue for several months to come. Personally, I am trying to wrap my mind about the ramifications and I think that on a macroeconomic scale there may be a silver lining.

 

More to come after a little more thought on the subject.

[KeysCapt]

The doors are shut and locked at FXE, and the rumor is that SSH here just took on 16 new students.

One has to wonder if those 16 paid in advance, and if so, how sad is that?

[RotorWeed]

"IF" this email is true, of which I want to think it is.. The Gov needs to step in and seize all of Jer's and the Corp assets. To liquidate the property and repay all these private loans.

 

I feel its a well thought out plan.. He sells the company to get clear of the recoil. Then the "NEW" contract comes out to strip away large amounts of money thats on account.

 

If the banks are left to EAT all this mess, then this will certainly kill the flight training market. Then what are the current schools/CFI's gonna do for students or student loans? I lost my Key loan because of this kinda crap that some flight schools pulled a few years back. If sallie mae goes away, and it seems that Loan to Learn has gone away too, that only leaves AOPA flight training loans and Pilot Finance. These loans won't cover helicopter training costs.

 

Someone was worried about R44's flooding the market, wait till all those 22's start to hit the market.

 

Going to be a interesting next few months.... Anyone care to speculate what salaries will do in the hour range of 1000-1500 hours TT..

 

Later

 

Everyone, SSH doesn't own anything! I repeat they don't own anything! All the aircraft are on lease from other companies, mostly LLC's. There are no assets to recover! Period.

[Galadrium]

I feel bad for the people who are getting screwed by this... but on balance, this is probably a good thing for the industry.

[Galadrium]

Here is Wikipedia's page on SSH, including the email statement by Jerry. Looks like its for real.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_State_Helicopters

[icqa]

Here is Wikipedia's page on SSH, including the email statement by Jerry. Looks like its for real.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_State_Helicopters

 

 

Just about anyone can add anything to a Wikipedia page. Its interesting that nothing has hit the newswires yet.

[rick1128]

Did you read what you quoted or did you just hit reply to vent? Wonder why SSH feels the need to hire armed guards. Maybe they know what they did was wrong,

 

Actually that is not unusual when a company closes the doors like that. It is generally done to protect the company's assets and the assets of the lessors.

[Apache]

Just about anyone can add anything to a Wikipedia page. Its interesting that nothing has hit the newswires yet.

 

 

Here's an article on Aero-News:

Linky

[SunHelo Mark]

After reading all this, I find this document very very interesting.. note the Date.

 

http://www.silverstatehelicopters.com/Pres...Release9-10.pdf -

Edited February 4, 2008 by SunHelo Mark

[michaelking42]

Go to aero-news.net and have a look. Front page there. Sorry to all those people affected by this. Don't know how the expenses exceeded the company's income...I'll bet there's a nice fat little (or big) bank account in the Caribbean or Switzerland with Airola's name on it.

 

Good luck to the SSH people.

[KeysCapt]

This is from EOS Partners website:

Silver State Helicopters -

 

In 2007, Eos invested in Silver State Helicopters, the leading provider of helicopter pilot training services in the country. The Company’s 400-plus FAA Certified Flight Instructors currently serve over 2,500 students across 33 schools in 15 states and its fleet of almost 200 helicopters (primarily Robinson R22s and R44s) represents the largest training fleet in the country. The Company flies more hours every month than the U.S. Military and at safety rates four to six times the industry average. Silver State also owns and operates a small commercial fleet of turbine helicopters that serves a variety of customer needs including law enforcement, agricultural support and utility work.

 

EOS Partners needs a new partner ... one who investigates a little better. Never mind the laughable claims about the safety record.

http://www.eospartners.com/privateequity/ssh.html

[RockyMountainPilot]

Go to aero-news.net and have a look. Front page there. Sorry to all those people affected by this. Don't know how the expenses exceeded the company's income...I'll bet there's a nice fat little (or big) bank account in the Caribbean or Switzerland with Airola's name on it.

 

Good luck to the SSH people.

 

 

It sucks that so many people lost their jobs, but I wonder why so many people continued to work for this sinking ship. I have to think that with all the negative actions of this company, that many of the employees are to blame. Especially the people in the accounting end. Someone gives your company $70K and they end up with 30 flight hours and no certificates? How many people did this happen to? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Why didn't someone step up and say "Hey, this company is ripping people off!" Oh, thats right, people did! And no one listened.

 

I might have been scammed out of a couple hundred, maybe even a thousand before (Mostly on vet bills), but $70,000??? How do you let that happen? How do you NOT do research to protect yourself? The information has been out for years and this forum is easy to find. It comes up as number 8 when you Google helicopter training.

 

I think the students of SSH were their own worst enemy. They didn't even do a proper pre-flight of the company before they signed the contract. This goes to show you that people will believe what they want to believe even in the face of enormous evidence to the contrary. A long known lie is more powerful than a new truth. This is why people still vote Democrat or Republican, eat meat and dairy, and take everything their doctors tell them as gospel. Oy!

[betr_thn_Icarus]

So if he skips town and doesn't return calls it will be like my old school only on a much bigger scale. I can sympathize. It sucks to show up one day to fly and find no chopper and no school. I got my money back but it took a lot of time and a lot of effort....many months. Only differences are that I had a contract stating I WOULD get my unused money back and it was a few thousand. $70,000.00 ? Seriously....

 

I feel for everyone and hope for the best. Good Luck!!

[betr_thn_Icarus]

It sucks that so many people lost their jobs, but I wonder why so many people continued to work for this sinking ship. I have to think that with all the negative actions of this company, that many of the employees are to blame. Especially the people in the accounting end. Someone gives your company $70K and they end up with 30 flight hours and no certificates? How many people did this happen to? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Why didn't someone step up and say "Hey, this company is ripping people off!" Oh, thats right, people did! And no one listened.

 

I might have been scammed out of a couple hundred, maybe even a thousand before (Mostly on vet bills), but $70,000??? How do you let that happen? How do you NOT do research to protect yourself? The information has been out for years and this forum is easy to find. It comes up as number 8 when you Google helicopter training.

 

I think the students of SSH were their own worst enemy. They didn't even do a proper pre-flight of the company before they signed the contract. This goes to show you that people will believe what they want to believe even in the face of enormous evidence to the contrary. A long known lie is more powerful than a new truth. This is why people still vote Democrat or Republican, eat meat and dairy, and take everything their doctors tell them as gospel. Oy!

 

I'll tell you why. It's the same reason nobody stops to help a broken down motorist... the same reason nobody helps the lady who just got her purse stolen...and the same reason people don't turn in shoplifters when they see them...so on and so on. A LOT of people only consider themselves and those they care about directly. They don't see how it will benefit others, only how it will hurt them. They don't see how it will hurt others only how it will benefit them. <_>

[Clay.Kent]

Yes it is true, i just confirmed it with two of my CFIs in Mesa, AZ. SSH is DONE, and we all got screwed. THANKS JERRY!

[wiggledeez]

im a student at silver state. ive only been in for about 20 or so hours and got through with ground school. should i be contacting a lawyer or will that even matter? i dont really know what i should be doing since im only 19 and havent had something like this happen. any inputs from people that are intelligent please!?

[Scarab]

Anyone else think Mr. Robinson might be a little pissed?

 

There isn't a light bulb that gets out of the factory without being paid in full. Don't think for a minute that Frank let out 200? helicopters that weren't paid for.

[HelliBoy]

Good Riddance. They were driving up accident and insurance rates anyways.

 

What I'm interested in is where are their helicopters going and whats going to happen short term to the 22 and 44 market for purchase and lease???

 

Does anyone know what company/companies they lease their aircraft from??

 

200 training helicopters showing up on the market is going to have an impact...anyone feel like speculating?

[AngelFire_91]

Anyone else notice that there are a lot of people reading this topic right now. I don't think I've ever seen this many people reading one topic on this form more. Right now it says 72 people. Just wanted to point that out. Kind of cool actually.

Edited February 4, 2008 by AngelFire_91

[southernweyr]

My co-worker here in Mesa AZ also confirmed his flight today was cancelled and they are closed. Fortunately for him he is ready for his CFI checkride and already has it scheduled so it won't impact him too much.

[AV8R]

My co-worker here in Mesa AZ also confirmed his flight today was cancelled and they are closed. Fortunately for him he is ready for his CFI checkride and already has it scheduled so it won't impact him too much.

I called the SSH office number in Tulsa this morning. No answer. Just a recording saying, "We are currently unavailable. Leave a message."