Silver State Helo's Shutdown

I remember seeing them on an episode of American Choppers where they were getting a custom chopper made from Paul Jr. and the boys. Those things aren't cheap, and I kept wondering how could a flight school afford something like that. I figured it was just a big marketing ploy to get their name out there on a popular TV show, and when a school spends a lot on marketing and advertising they are going to have to recoup that somehow. Unfortunately it seems it was in large upfront payments by the students. ATA anyone?

Is the whole company shut down or just the flight school? How profitable or not were their other enterprises? Their website shows a lot of other helicopter related businesses that they are involved in. More examples of flash rather than substance?
 
Well, at least I don't have to worry about them trying to kill me at CRG any longer.


This sucks for all their students.
 
I had no idea!!!

There were two cop cars and a TV news crew in their parking lot this morning at KPVU, I thought it was an accident or something.


Sucks for their students, but I have had so many near midair collisions with those guys I feel safer knowing that they won't be up any more.
 
I went to their seminar at CRG last year. It almost felt that something was not right the second you walked in the door. I hope the students make it out okay with this one.
 
esa17 said:
Well, at least I don't have to worry about them trying to kill me at CRG any longer.
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Amen to that...

"951SH I told you to land on 32 SECOND SIDE, NOT B4!!". Andre regularly had conniption fits over the radio with them.
 
I hate to say it but they tended to breed a cocky kind of pilot that made us all look bad. I did my II at the Boise location and one of their guys was pretty rude to me. He was pretty much looking down his nose at me as I filled out the forms to do a checkride asking if I thought I could start it without overspeeding or needed help. Its ok I left with their checklist on my kneeboard.
Shane
 
What a scam.

Part of me feels bad for the guys who are being taken by these guys, but part of me also does not feel sorry for them because the writing was on the wall.

SSH has been known to be nothing more than a shady business, yet people still flocked there.

I just don't get it.

All the best though.
 
FiveO said:
I went to their seminar at CRG last year. It almost felt that something was not right the second you walked in the door. I hope the students make it out okay with this one.
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Same here, except I watched their commercial on their website. It's a "too good to be true" feeling.
 
surreal1221 said:
What a scam.

Part of me feels bad for the guys who are being taken by these guys, but part of me also does not feel sorry for them because the writing was on the wall.

SSH has been known to be nothing more than a shady business, yet people still flocked there.

I just don't get it.

All the best though.
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:yeahthat: The feeling is Mutual
 
"The students paid 70,000 upfront for their training."

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP DOING THIS. IT IS NOT A SMART DECISION.
 
People get sucked into that feel good now auora they presented. The used the same pressure tactics that timeshare people use. Statements like we are only accepting a limited amount of students so you better hurry if you want in on this. I would have liked to see them shut down a while ago but not like this. Utah stopped them from accepting new students last year but they were able to start again a few months back. If the trend is true they paid 70,000 for ground training and a few hours in the sim. One word comes to mind the entire training market is screwed. 500 resumes just went out today some as CFII some as line pilots. The market just got flooded.
Shane
 
JDMcFly said:
"The students paid 70,000 upfront for their training."

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP DOING THIS. IT IS NOT A SMART DECISION.
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Correction

Most of them took out a loan for $70,000

They will most likely pay almost twice that by the time its all said and done.
 
As shady as they were (and as many times as I almost smacked into one while sharing ramp space with them at IWA) many of their instructors were good people. I'm hoping most of the ones I was friends with have long since moved on to better things.
 
kfour said:
Amen to that...

"951SH I told you to land on 32 SECOND SIDE, NOT B4!!". Andre regularly had conniption fits over the radio with them.
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Those guys apparently weren't aware of the traffic pattern ceiling for rotorcraft either. The only good thing about them was they were a great teaching aid for what NOT to do as a pilot. Now I'll just have to let my guys eff up on their own, what fun is that?!
 
I want to say somewhere in their training contract it stated that they (students) only had 8 months to complete their training PPL-CFII? I know it's something along those lines. If you didn't finish, they still took your money.

First of all, the average student takes about a year to complete all of the helo ratings, and second, at SSH, you have 100 students, 20 CFI's and 10 Helicopters...you do the math. It's not going to happen in 8 months!
:panic:
 
Jerry Airola is a byword among nations. I "met" him when he bought out the flight school I worked at a few years back.
I was suspicious...
 
bdhill1979 said:
Correction

Most of them took out a loan for $70,000

They will most likely pay almost twice that by the time its all said and done.
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In those situations, does the loan financier disburse the funds on a piecemeal basis, or do they give the school the lump sum?

If it's the former instead of the latter, the students may be able to get the pro-rata amount shifted to another school, in which case there is a delay in their training while they pursue another option, and they're not necessarily 70K in the hole, you know?

If I owned a helicopter school, this would be a perfect chance to expand - you've got a set of students ripe for "saving" and they already have funding in place. Talk about a target market...

Probably a paperwork nightmare though.
 
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