Hi there I just wanted to know your personal opinions about the 30 day CFII program that AF offers. Is a good investment or there are other schools around. Best jet320

 

It does take a bit longer than the 30 days advertised....from what people have told me.

 

I am a graduate of A.F. CFI/II Program. Started the program after starting my CFI briefs at another school, and was glad that I did. Dont know wich school location your looking at but I attended the one in Pompano Beach,Fl. Awesome instructors who are not there to make $ off of you like alot of people out there are. It took me 45 days to complete all the school, take the tests(written), and do both of my checkrides. I did have to wait a few days each time to take my checkrides as the examiner was booked up , but I would say out of my class the average was about 40 days to complete everything and have your tickets in hand. Good luck and like I said i was extremley happy with the whole program. I attended Comair Aviation Academy for all of my ratings, have two type ratings from Flight Safety, have taken numerous CRM, Int. Procedures training classes from SimuFlight and I can Rate the training and the instructors at American Flyers(Pompano Beach, FL.) among the best in the buisness. (I cant speak for the other locations ) They have alot of Instructors that are not wet-ticket CFI's and really know how to teach. The main CFI Academy instructors name is Patrick, I cant remember his last name, but anyways the guy is an unbelievable instructor that is teaching because he loves to do so and not to build hours,like I said earlier alot of there guys are seasoned pilots, Ex 135,121 etc. Good luck and I hope my posts helps you out. Let me know if theres anything I can help ya with

 

I have to disagree. At AF the clock starts on your account the moment you walk in the door. If you are there for 2 hours but only did 1.5 ground guess what you get charged. This is how it was in DFW at least. I would not suggest them in any way. I hated the CFI course there. Cost me more than double the qoute, and I wasn't out of practice or anything. I did my first flight for my CFI with an instructor there and he said he would sign me off. Two weeks later when I had my checkride he went back on his word because "AF policy is that signoffs are no longer valid after 2 weeks!!!" What about 90 days as issued by the FAA. It is just another way for them to get your money. New instructor everyday, and half the time the instructor had just gotten his license. On more than one occasion we ended up teaching the instructor a thing or two. As for all the ground school, well that just means there will be an instructor somewhere in the building for you in case you need him. We got about 20 hours of instruction, and spent the other 100 teaching eachother lesson plans over and over. GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!! PLEASE, unless you have about 7 grand and two months, don't take the 3 grand 30 day course at AF.

 

The AF CFI academy CAN be a good deal, but your mileage can definately vary...see the previous posts, both are valid. The quality of the course depends on who is running the CFI acaceemy at the time you enroll. The only way to find out for sure is to talk to current/recent CFI students at the branch i question.

 

I work at AF in Fort Worth and we do not offer an academy at our location, the previous poster may be talking about our Addison (suburb of Dallas) office. However, we will train you one on one here in Fort Worth. One of my students just passed his initial certificate (CFII) after two weeks of (pretty intense) one on one training. In another week he'll have his CFI-A, and hopefully his MEI a week after that. I guess it depends on how much effort you are willing to put into it. I received my certs (CFI-A and CFII) through AF in about six weeks. I could have gotten them quicker, but it was over the Christmas holidays so there was a delay in getting an FAA examiner. YMMV, I guess.

 

I did do the Addison location. It wasn't all bad. They did cover alot during the two weekends that were written prep. That was worth the cost. I had trouble getting an examiner as well so that slowed down things. All I was trying to say is that it is hard to make everything work in 30 days. It doesn't matter where you do it, it will be about the same story. Unless that school has examining authority. AF has its good parts and bad parts, the problem is the bad parts cost about $200 an hour.

 

Like I stated my location was in Pompano Beach,(NOTICE ABOVE STATEMENT-I cannot speak for other locations) and it was some of the best training I've recieved with some of the best instructors I know. Sorry you had such a bad experience but labeling all of the schools bad because your location sucked is just not right. I forgot thoe that I heard a while back that they were only going to do the CFI Academys at a couple of the schools, if this is true than I would def. do as stated above and go and talk to some of the currently enrolled students. Once again thoe the Pompano Beach Instructors for the most part are all exprerienced guys who have alot of aviation background and knowledge-good luck in whatever you choose to do, I am not affiliated at all with A.F. just a happy satisfied former customer and CFI/II Academy graduate.

 

I never said all locations were bad. I can only speak for the one I went to and I was honest about that fact.

 

I'd second the comments on the Pompano Beach location. Got my CFI and II there in about 35 days, due to scheduling. I also felt that it was some of the best instruction I've ever gotten and well worth the money IMO.

At AF, I actually learned something and felt very prepared to go teach my first student the moment I walked out the door.

I got my MEI add-on through All ATP's and they did their job and got me my ticket, but I don't feel like I learned anything compared to the time I spent at AF in KPMP.

Checko