Originally Posted by
maddog81
They way I've always heard it explained to me is that the flight schools that require a deposit up front are using that money to pay last month's bills, and as already mentioned with the financial trouble that we are going through there is a possibility that the company will fold and if so you are out of luck with the money you placed in, other than through legal action as already mentioned and even then you can only expect a fraction back plus legal fees. Basically a ponsi scheme.
10K for the private? What school/airport are you at now?
I train at a flight school called Air East but it also operates as a charter company under the name Ventura Air. Its based out of Republic Airport in Farmingdale, New York. They charged me $7,100 up front and I was able to use it all without a problem. It might end up costing more than 10k though because with that $7,100 I've only flown for about 47 hours. How much does a PPL usually cost assuming it took someone 70 hours to receive their license?