Where can one rent helicopters in the Bay Area, and what does it cost?
I  am only interested in helicpters of the type Robinson R22, which is
the most common type.

---

Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 05 Nov 2002 20:46 PST

Are you wanting to rent one for a charter or rent one to pilot?

---

Clarification of Question by sanfran-ga on 05 Nov 2002 21:00 PST

I would like to rent one to pilot myself.

---

Request for Question Clarification by hailstorm-ga on 05 Nov 2002 23:26 PST

how close to the Bay Area would you require? For example, within a 50
mile radius of San Francisco?

---

Clarification of Question by sanfran-ga on 06 Nov 2002 00:12 PST

All within 100 miles of San Francisco would be of interest, but the
ones within 50 miles or so are most interesting.

Hi Sanfran,

As I’m sure you know, the R22 is one of the most popular training
helicopters (though the Schweizer 300CB is definitely gaining on it),
so you’re probably going have the best luck finding one at a flight
training school/facility offering helicopter flight instruction. 
Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be a lot of them available in your
area; there are far more in Southern California.  However, I did
locate four companies in your general area.  Hopefully one of them
will work out for you, or put you on track to find others.

Spitzer Helicopter Leasing Company – leases Robinson helicopters to SF
Bay Area FBOs and flight schools.  http://www.helilease.com/   An
email to them received the following reply:

----- Original Message ----- 
From: MSpitz6685@aol.com 
Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 9:06 AM
Subject: Re: R22 Rentals SF Bay Area

A school in San Carlos called Diamond Aviation has an R22 for rent.
The owner's name is "UJ"
Also, you might try Nice Air at Reid Hillview in San Jose.
Or Sierra Academy at Oakland, but I don't know if they rent to non
students.
Good luck. Let me know if they all say no, and I'll find a couple
more.

Matt Spitzer 

--Diamond Aviation’s website is here: http://www.ksql.com/ where they
list a wet Hobbs rate of $175/hr for the R22, with a block discount
available: http://www.ksql.com/aircraft.htm

--Nice Air’s homepage is here: http://www.niceair.net/index.htm 
However, their pricing page doesn’t list an R22.  You might want to
call them to see if they do have one in their fleet that just isn’t
listed.

--Sierra Academy’s website is here: http://www.sierraacademy.com . 
They list no information on pricing at all, so you’ll need to contact
them directly.  Their phone number is (510) 568-6100 or (800)
243-6300.

In addition, Helicopter Adventures, Inc. in Concord specializes in
professional flight training, but nevertheless posts a Non-Student
Solo VFR rental rate of $205/hr for an R22.  I would assume this is a
wet Hobbs rate, but you’d need to make sure of that since it’s not
clearly stated.  Their price list is here:
http://www.heli.com/training/prog_pricelist.html#Non-Student%20Flight%20Rate
Main page is here: http://www.heli.com

General search terms used:

“Bay Area” helicopter OR rotorcraft instruction flight training rental

In addition, I searched the following additional databases:

Landings.com list of California FBOs/Flight Schools :
http://www.landings.com/evird.acgi$pass*49702934!_h-www.landings.com/_landings/pages/fbo/fbo-ca.html

AOPA’s list of California Flight Instructors/Schools: 
http://www.aopaflighttraining.org/school/schoolresults.cfm
Use the “Edit” “Find” feature on your browser with the term “ROT” to
locate those with helicopters.   Since I’m not familiar with all the
suburb names in the Bay Area, there may be some I overlooked.

Blue skies,
Byrd

Great answer.