Helistream

Long over due review. I have taken both a helicopter ride and flight training. My 16^th birthday present (2005) was a 30 – 45 min flight ride with I think it was Andres (I think from Austria). Great guy with good personality. That ride pushed me to go after my license when I was 19 in the summer of 2009 I decided to spend my whole summer 5 days a week going through flight training. The paper they had at the front counter and online gave the rough estimate of $ 11,500 for entire flight training, but could go higher if you need more training. My honest opinion is this is way too low of an estimate. Both my parents and older brother are pilots. I grew up in the skies and know a lot about airports and flight operation.
I would go 5 days a week for about 4 hours a day from June-​August. My instructor was Mike Duckworth who I believe was newer to Helistream when I started. Fairly nice guy, but not the best. I felt like we hardly had any ground school, he gave me homework every night to read-​study-​problems to complete or prepare for a flight or solo. I saw others sitting with their instructors longer and discussing ground school versus us flying. Don’t get me wrong, getting hands on is great but at $ 250 per hour (200 for helicopter and 50 for instructor) is expensive. Versus $ 50 an hour for ground school just for the instructors time.
They say you have to get a minimum of 60 hours of flight time and 10 of which is solo to get the license. I burned through about $ 15,000 in those 2 – 3 months and had just over 60 hours of flight time.
Overall, they really underprice what you will spend on training. Was not a fan of Mike because he wasn’t too personable, brief ground school, and just purely seemed to lack knowledge. My checkpoint ride with Nobu was great! He is a chief pilot and it was fun. He taught me a lot in our short flight together and realized some things I haven’t been taught that I should have. I would have estimated if I stayed to completely finish my license it would be almost $ 20,000. I used everything I saved up and spent even an extra $ 4,000 and here I am with no license. It was a great experience, but regret the loss of money.

Like it says, the training and instruction here is as good as it gets. I have been a Pilot for 11 years and came back to Helistream this year with the goal of completing my IFR rating March, 2015. Even though it is a difficult rating to obtain, my Flight Instructors were patient with me and I was successful. I definitely recommend Steve or Mark on the full-​time staff, if you’re looking for advanced training. On the weekends, Rich is a good Instructor too!
On the safety side, Helistream has a great group of mechanics on-​site, and the Instructors insist on a thorough pre-​flight inspection EVERY flight!
Helistream easily has the most helicopters of any flight training school I’ve seen in Southern California. Everything from a «Huey» style Bell to several R-​22s. There is a good reason why federal and local law-​enforcement Pilots are sent to Helistream for in-​service training. Because they are the best.

What an awful experience with this company!
I went twice to do some training with them, the first time was really nice because of the person that I fly with (Mark Robinson), second time (a year later) was terrible! What a bad customer service!!! English is not my first language and this people in this company was very rude, I was trying to ask for my company’s name in the invoice and they told me by phone that’s impossible and looks like suspicious… And maybe they need to call the FBI… Really??? Please, don’t go there, use revolution aviation, is in the same airport and they know how to talk to a customer.

I’ve been going here for the past several years for recurrent training. Staff is extremely knowledgeable and experienced.

First ever helicopter ride. Smooth ride and the pilot, Gil, was awesome. Would definitely go with airstream again.

Every time I come to HeliStream I enjoy the flight instruction and the flying. I’ve been coming here for the last six years and the flight instructors are very experienced and professional. All the flight instructors have thousands of hours of experience dealing with emergencies and normal operations. I would trust any member of the HeliStream team to fly me or my family. I have never had a bad experience here they have all been excellent!

the was nice i like helicopter i will go back agen.

I recently took a photo flight with Helistream for the Orange County Register, covering a paddle out for Hobie Alter off the shore of Doheny State Beach. Mike was great getting me there on time, flying exactly where I need to be and getting me back in quick time. I’ve flown with this company several times, covering the news, and they are very efficient and professional.

I learned flying with Helistream in 1993, and have been a loyal customer ever since. They’re the ones who train many professionals like the Border Patrol people, and their motto is always «safety first».
If I were a layperson and had to pick a company for a tour, I’d rather be concerned about the offers that sound too good to be true.

Came here for a tour of the beach. My wife was blown away by the surprise … Happy anniversary ! Rod was our pilot, super informative and professional. The tour was about half an hour over Laguna beach… Just amazing … Thank you Helistream !!
Loved it I’ll be back

Helistream is the epitome of a malevolent company. With complete disrespect for their costumers and false advertising. I recently purchased a groupon issued by Helistream which stated it was for a 30 minute coastal tour of Orange County with a craft capacity of 3, may upgrade ½ hour tour to private for $ 25 and 1 hour to private for $ 85. Anyone with half a brain would conclude that this offer is good for ONE helicopter tour of up to 3 passengers, but if you wanted to fly alone you would have to pay extra. When I called to make my reservation for my 3 out of town cousins visiting for Christmas, they said that the offer was only good for a single passenger! Nowhere in the fine print does it specify that it is only good for one passenger, in fact the only number it gives in relation to the offer is that the craft capacity is 3. The so called customer service person at Helistream told me that I needed to bring up the issue with Groupon and that it was NOT their problem. I contacted Groupon and they said they could only refund my groupon account. They also said in Groupon’s legal fine print on their website it clearly states that it is the merchants responsibility to honor the groupon that was sold. Helistream continues to insist that the offer clearly states «one passenger» but also continually fails to show me where in the offer it actually states this! They made a MAJOR mistake in the wording of their offer and yet continue to say that I am the one that is «confused». I warn anyone who is considering using Helistream’s services that this company has no ethical values and is only out to take your money. If Helistream is this negligent with how they advertise their business, I shutter to think how negligent they must be while flying their aircraft.