Thanks for pointing this out, it's still relevant all these years later.

For the noobs, NEVER, EVER deposit a large sum of money with any flight school for any reason. They are notorious for going BK with zero notice...and of course the owners will abscond to the islands with whatever cash was left over.

Pay as you go, if they absolutely must have it in advance never more than a week or so at a time.

I would probably make an exception only for Flight Safety. Since the vast majority of their business is type training for established professionals and airlines, they would not damage their reputation by playing shenanigans with their ab initio student's finances.