Originally Posted by DutchmanAZ
Thanks for the info...what is an FBO?
Does anyone know if there are ways to get the contract voided? He'd rather simply cut his losses and leave, but not if it means losing ~25K for withdrawing.
FBO = Fixed Base Operator. This is the business at local airports that provides fuel, tie-downs, hangers, supplies, airplane rentals, maintenance, car rentals, flight instruction, basically whatever local and transient pilots might need. Some provide flight instruction in their own planes, others simply act as a meeting hall for instructors, students, and clubs with airplanes for rent. The price is normally about 1/2 to 1/3 of the big name "glossy brochure" rip-off operations like RAA, and the quality varies. You would want to pick carefully, but the good thing is that you pay as you go and can walk away at any time. I would generally recomend a local FBO or smallish local flight school for career students.
As far as voiding the RAA contract...I'd show the contract to an attorney, and ask about the best way out. Operations like that usually dish out so much abuse that you can probably find some aspect of their performance that was unsat. A common problem would be where the big school doesn't have enough planes and/or instructors to keep all the students flying at a good pace...if your nephew is not flying pretty much every day, the school is obviously wasting his time (and money, cuz time is money) by failing to provide the contractual services...