Complaint Review: Niclas Herle Heliaviation LLC Sarasota FL

Wow! I really do not know where to begin. Niclas Herle is a thief, false advertiser, overcharged me and stole my log book. Yes he actually ripped it out of my hands and ran from me like a four year old little boy. That is like stealing a drivers license. I had flights in there from different schools/CFI pilots.

We decided to go with Heliaviation (which should be renamed HELLAviation) because they advertise a three week helicopter pilot school. Once you are there a few days you releaze there is no way you can finish in three weeks!

Firstly, they tried email fraud by asking us to send money to a complete strannger in Ohio. Then they recanted and said they were a victim of email fraud. Based on my indepth tracking of emails, it was apparent to me that Niclas was behind it all the time.

When Niclas stole my logbook I called 911 and the airport police arrived. I was shocked about how unprofessional and uneducated they were regarding logbooks. They were talking and laughing with Niclas like good friends. Meanwhile I coould not get my logbook back because in the contract it mentions Heliaviation owns your logbook until you finish which is basically forcing the student to finish with them. I reported this to the FAA and they were shocked and are investigating with the FBI about the case. They said that they have been watching thsi school closely due to all the complaints.

Luckily for me, him taking my logbook had absolutely no loss to me because I had my phone with me with location tracking on. so I recreated my logbook to the exact minutes and hours flown. I am now finishing up with another company that is much more understanding and not out to get every dollar you have.

My instructor was very young, a good pilot but he had a bit of short fuse, kind of a Napolean complex. I felt bad for him because he was stuck in the niddlew of it all.

Just before leaving the school I just had 10 solo hours left which they said I was not ready for and I believe they were corrrect here; however they tried to get me to buy 10 more hours of "PILOT IN COMMAND" HOURS which is where a CFI sits in the craft with you but is only there to prevent an accident. Here is where they tried to falsify information. They told me that "PIC" hours can count as Solo Hours which is not true. I looked it up and even called the FAA and they stated that is only for helicopters which require or recommend two pilots and only for your commercial license. I was going for my private license so I would have paid another $3K or so and would still have to do my solo hour

Final note: on my last day there, a nice Austrian guy came up to fly with me but he was unaware of all the problems we had. In any case the R22 was not running well. You could hear the carburator detonating and they still wanted to take me up in it.

Conclusiong: never go to this company to learn to fly. They are just too shady. When Niclas stole my logbook I was so shocked; it was like he had a pyschotic episode that he could not control. I hope he gets help. I think he is mentally ill. For any one interested, The airport police have a complete report of course of their version. The cops just seemed to be so biased and goofy. Our company was way overcharged - Niclas just adds all of these lies to the invoice. When the cops came he said "his company owes me $400, then 30 minutes later he came out with this invoice which was a complete joke - I cannot recall the exact amount but it was like $1,400. I did not and will not pay a penny to them.

PS - Never use a credit card with this company - Niclas will run it all the way up on you.