No, they don't have a huge student base. They have a huge base of gullible people who were foolish enough to give them money up front. Big difference.
Branch off? Like they're going to hire you to do these things? Not a chance. Take a look into the number of their aircraft that have been destroyed, and that should give you a starting point for the willies.
One story of many, a friend decided he'd take his chances there, and gave them some money up front. He got soloed but found that more often than not, he would arrive and sit all day, with instructors drinking coffee or not showing up, and never fly. He'd ask to go fly, and he was told they were too busy. One day he went out for a solo, and did pattern work for quite a while, taking the opportunity where he could. When he landed, the instructors told him he'd been out too long (nobody else waiting), said he couldnt' fly there any more, and told him as he had paid up front, there were no refunds.
A certain attorney in Las Vegas, a certain high powered attorney, heard enough of these stories he volunteered to sue Silver State for no charge, for every person who had a complaint. Silver State likes to open up branch offices, make a lot of money, wipe out a few students, and then go somewhere else and do the same thing. This attorney locked them up, froze everything, and forced them to cough up and play fair. When my friend came to visit, a phone call dropping this attorney's name was enough to force them to play ball.
Even then, they refused to pay him back. They said they'd give him a few hours, what worked out to be a couple of hours, in a turbine helicopter instead.
Will they hire you or get you a job? Probably not. Are you qualified to go get a job when you're done? Not at all.
Don't be convinced that because you're adding ratings you have an advantage with fixed wing experience. You don't. It's more like a liability. You can read a chart and know how to navigate and talk on the radio, and that's about all the commonality that there is between fixed wing flying and rotor wing flying. Be prepared for a certain amount of re-education.
I mentioned Quantum out of Phoenix because they have a long respectable history, they only hire their own students as instructors, and after nine months to a year, you're most likely to get hired into a turbine helicopter flying on the gulf...that's where all their people go. You won't see that opportunity at most flight schools.
Yes, they use the R-22, but that's the most common training platform out there in the civvie world right now. Having a R-22 background is no liability. Some say that if you can fly the R-22 safely with students, with it's low blade inertia, then you can fly most anything else comfortably. Try it and decide. If you have the R-22 training, you can transition to other helicopters to fly or instruct without much difficulty. However, if you don't have the R-22 experience, you cant' transition into a Robinson to instruct or spray or whatever without some expense. Just a thought.
Branch off? Like they're going to hire you to do these things? Not a chance. Take a look into the number of their aircraft that have been destroyed, and that should give you a starting point for the willies.
One story of many, a friend decided he'd take his chances there, and gave them some money up front. He got soloed but found that more often than not, he would arrive and sit all day, with instructors drinking coffee or not showing up, and never fly. He'd ask to go fly, and he was told they were too busy. One day he went out for a solo, and did pattern work for quite a while, taking the opportunity where he could. When he landed, the instructors told him he'd been out too long (nobody else waiting), said he couldnt' fly there any more, and told him as he had paid up front, there were no refunds.
A certain attorney in Las Vegas, a certain high powered attorney, heard enough of these stories he volunteered to sue Silver State for no charge, for every person who had a complaint. Silver State likes to open up branch offices, make a lot of money, wipe out a few students, and then go somewhere else and do the same thing. This attorney locked them up, froze everything, and forced them to cough up and play fair. When my friend came to visit, a phone call dropping this attorney's name was enough to force them to play ball.
Even then, they refused to pay him back. They said they'd give him a few hours, what worked out to be a couple of hours, in a turbine helicopter instead.
Will they hire you or get you a job? Probably not. Are you qualified to go get a job when you're done? Not at all.
Don't be convinced that because you're adding ratings you have an advantage with fixed wing experience. You don't. It's more like a liability. You can read a chart and know how to navigate and talk on the radio, and that's about all the commonality that there is between fixed wing flying and rotor wing flying. Be prepared for a certain amount of re-education.
I mentioned Quantum out of Phoenix because they have a long respectable history, they only hire their own students as instructors, and after nine months to a year, you're most likely to get hired into a turbine helicopter flying on the gulf...that's where all their people go. You won't see that opportunity at most flight schools.
Yes, they use the R-22, but that's the most common training platform out there in the civvie world right now. Having a R-22 background is no liability. Some say that if you can fly the R-22 safely with students, with it's low blade inertia, then you can fly most anything else comfortably. Try it and decide. If you have the R-22 training, you can transition to other helicopters to fly or instruct without much difficulty. However, if you don't have the R-22 experience, you cant' transition into a Robinson to instruct or spray or whatever without some expense. Just a thought.
