Nr - by coincidence, I travelled to southern California the first week of December last year, also planning to fly. I wanted to attend the Robinson factory safety course, but it was to be held later in the month. I called the factory asking if I could simply hire one of their instructors for a couple of hours. That wasn't possible, but they referred me to a helicopter business whose owner served as one of the factory pilots once a month. I talked to him and told him what I wanted, and he set me up with his chief pilot. The outfit is HeliStream, based at John Wayne airport. I flew with Andreas Moser, an Austrian, and had a great time. Andreas says he has over 5000 hrs in Robbies. Could be. He was very good with the machine.
When you exit the elevator to get to their office, three stories up, the sign welcomes you to the world's largest private heliport. There are three landing pads outside the long hangar. They had a half-dozen R22s, including an IFR trainer, an R44, a 206, and an AStar, maybe a 350.
We took off and went over the main runway, with a 727 rolling out 400 feet below. Nice view! Just a few minutes away are some good sized hills (I'm not sure they are large enough to classify them as mountains). We went down in the valleys and did some confined-area work, and max-perf TOs. Back up higher, I wanted a demo of vortex-ring state. Yikes! The bottom dropped out. It brought back memories of my first spin in a FW. We had planned some touchdown autos, but ran out of time. What a kick coming back for an approach to the pad on the roof. I know the old-timers on this board have done it in their sleep, but it my first try. All in all, well worth going.
As I recall, the rate was $160/hr, dual. I do distinctly remember that it was about $40/hr less than I had been paying in my one-R22 town. You can check their site at:
http://www.helistream.com
Next month, let us know where you ended up, and how it went. Have fun!
(Edited to take out the animated faces that didn't show up in the post, only their URL. Haven't figured out how to make them display yet........)
[ 15 November 2001: Message edited by: rotorfan ]