flying13

Hi there. I was wondering if any of you have gone to American Flyers down in Santa Monica, CA? If so, what did you think of the school? I'm looking for the positive and negative stuff. I am currently going to a horrible flight school, I won't say any names just yet, but let's just say they, erm, screw you over royally! Anyhow, I want to go to another school but don't want to jump into the same kind of problem/deal. So, any information on AF in California would be very much appreciated. I've spoken to some of the staff at AF over the phone and they seem like a very good school and very interested in helping people achieve their goals. Let me know what your experience was like or anything you have heard about the school. Thanks so much!

rickair7777

AF in general is overpriced, and the top managers always impressed me as being focused on monthly billing of students...ALL other considerations were secondary at best. Also, career students generally had lowest priority on the schedule. They viewed your time as flexible and expendable, as opposed to the busy (and wealthy) doctors, lawyers, and businessmen who payed full-fare for PPL and IR.

However, a few of the remote branches were pretty good schools (aside from the price) because the local manager was good...unfortunately the owners tend not to like managers who look after the students, so they don't last forever. SMO used to be one of the good ones, but the manager at the time has moved on and I'm not sure where they stand now.

I'd go down there, hang out on the ramp, and try to find a career student (as opposed to an old rich guy doing an IR) and ask him about his experiences.

flying13

Thanks for the tip and for replying! I will definately head down there and check out the place. I'm hoping it's alright. I realized that in my last post, I didn't say that I was interested in the CFI/CFII academy there. If anyone has any information on that, I would really appreciate your thoughts. And, as I said before, good or bad, I'd like to hear them all. As to what you said about the managers and tending to the rich folk before the career oriented students, that sounds messed up. Did you have the unfortunate experience of going to AF? Please, please, if there is anyone out there who has gone to AF in Santa Monica, please share your experience with me. You have no idea how grateful I will be to you! Thanks a bunch!

Triumph

... that's what I'd call that dump down in Santa Monica. I went down there several years back to look into getting my CFI. They put me with some old tool who thought his Sh!t didn't stink because he was a mechanic for evergreen and apparently the only idiot with enough experience to teach a CFI. He wanted to "check" my knowledge to see if I was capable of doing a CFI in a couple of weeks. So, he gave me this GK (general knowledge) session that lasted a couple of hours, and taught me nothing. Then charged me $250 for it. Needless to say, I gave that place the finger, and never went back. You'd be better off going to a Mom-and-Pops flight school, where they won't at least pretend to be something they are not...

Good Luck

avanti

I did my instrument and comm at AF SMO very recently and have sat in on the CFI academy numerous times to see what it's all about. If it's up to date info you want, PM me.

roroflyer

I am planing to attend their cfi/cfii acedemy in dallas any info would be helpful

avanti

Well, you are there for 30 days straight. Pretty much every day starts at 8am with a 3 or 4 hour session with an instructor (or two 2-hr sessions with two different instructors). Around noon or so people break for lunch and then come back to the classroom to prepare their individual lesson plans and practice teaching them to the rest of the class, giving and receiving critiques. In terms of the AF curriculum you will start with mind-numbing ground study in preparation for the FOI/CFI/I writtens. This is totally stupid and you would be better off doing it with Mr. Gleim. The text that AF has created and then makes you buy is a waste of money. Anyway following that you will be required to prepare CFII lesson plans first, then CFIA following that. THe CFII checkride comes first, about ten days into the thing. The CFII ride is done in house, no one ever fails it unless you are really ill prepared. The initial CFI with an FAA examiner is a much much harder ride. Hints: 1. bring a laptop computer 2. commute from a house or hotel closeby 3. if you can, finish the writtens ahead of time and then ask about entering the program after the first week. Don't know if this is possible but it sure would save some money and about a week of stupidity. The following three weeks are worth it though, dont get me wrong.

iceman32

I highly recommend AF of Santa Monica. You definitely want to go with all your writtens done. You really need to have a laptop.

As for Triumph it sounds like you didnt make it through the program which is no reason to give AF the finger. If you put in the time each day like they tell you to and you come with solid flying skills it is not a difficult program to get through. If anyone goes through the program there in SMO I suggest getting Pat Carey for the checkride.

The one thing they do not tell you before you get there is that the $3000 that they advertise is part 61 and to get the two ratings its a whole lot easier and cost effective to go part 141.

I did learn that ATP sucks from guys that came from there...just FYI.

mshunter

this is why i quit working there. $190 an hour for solo in a 172. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! When I found this out, I went job hunting. I couldent see myself charging the outrageous price of $220 an hour for a 172 w/instructor. Where I am at now, it's only 151 an hour for a better equiped 172, w/ instructor. Not to mention the fact that the airplanes are better maintained at the FBO I'm at. We rent a 182RG for less than a 172 at AF. Most of their airplanes (AF's) don't have the best maint. either. They do the bare minimum to keep tem legal. I came across an instructor I used to work with the other day at AF, and he was 400AGL at VNY when the engine started to sputter and die. They also had an accident recently in an RG where the throttle cable detached from the carb because the bolt came loose. I thought things like that got saftey wired. Just give em a call and ask Lou what happened. He was on a Comm. checkride with a student. For the kind of money they charge, you'd also think that they would pay their instructors better.

rickair7777

They charge a lot and advertise themselves to the doctors and biz-men as the "premium" flight school. The uninformed wealthy folks assume that top price = top quality. Of course, their instructors are the same 300-hour types you'd get at any puppy-mill

They have some newer 172's, but they don't justify $200/hour.