Originally Posted by nouseforaname
Looking to do my rotorcraft add on in NorCal. in June this year.
Does anyone know about any schools out there or can anyone recommend any? I've been looking but just get loads of them when I google for it.
Thanks.
I live in San Jose. Here are my comments about schools that are in my general area. Note that I'm mostly commenting only about schools that am fairly familiar with.
1. a friend of mine runs High Sierra Helicopters, in Placerville.
http://www.highsierrahelicopters.com. He offers an ab-initio package that results in 200 hrs and CFII, with other program options being available of course. My editorial is that that would be a beautiful environment to get ratings, with plenty of high altitude practice - Placerville is in what is called "Gold Country" which is a mountainous area with lots of California history (e.g. the Gold Rush of 1849). HSH is R22-based at the moment (there may be a 300CB showing up at some point as an instrument trainer).
2. I trained at Nice Air at Reid-Hillview Airport (RHV) in San Jose for private add-on and commercial ratings; I just finished the latter a couple weeks ago and was very impressed by the CFI that I flew with (Marcus). Two 300CB aircraft.
http://www.niceair.net. Note that the listed Bell 206 is a hangar queen and has been since I started flying in 1999. The school owner doesn't seem to be inclined to update either the site or his printed ads, which really irritates me for some reason.
3. Golden Gate Helicopters is in San Carlos (SQL) - they have 1 or 2 R22s and an R44 Clipper (with hydraulics). I don't know who their CFI(s) is/are since RobertS left. No web site that I'm aware of.
4. Specialized Helicopters is in Watsonville (WVI), on the coast. One of the owners, ChrisG, is a former airshow pilot with Showcopters. I did an R44 SFAR73 checkout with him a couple years ago - he's a good guy and knows his stuff. I have not been down there yet to check out their operation.
http://www.specializedheli.com/
5. Verticare/Showcopters is in Salinas (SNS), near the coast and Monterey. The owner/chief pilot (JimC) has "more hours than God" (ex-Vietnam fellow). I've flown with him several times on ferry trips; he is a master of the Robinson aircraft (and a dealer too).
http://www.verticare.com
6. HAI is in Concord; I know next to nothing about them other than that HAI's main location is in Florida and the Concord operation is much (much) smaller.
http://www.heli.com/contact.html. The Nice Air CFI I mentioned above trained with them although I think that was in Florida.
That's all of the schools that I am aware of that are reasonably near to my location. Good luck with your training...
Dave Blevins