Pilot51

I have read several blogs here on Flight Schools. Some of which have no actual basis. I would like to explain to everyone a few things about RAA Regional Airline Academy in their defense.
First RAA in Mesa Arizona is still operating. A previous post noted ATP telling potential customers RAA is out of business and has taken everyone’s money. Obviously an attempt to gain cliental.
RAA was recently bought out last year by some Southwest Airline Captains. Their vision is to make RAA’s flight training program number one out in the industry. They are diligently working to upgrade their fleets and bring professional airline pilots into the business to accomplish this goal. And I might add are doing a wonderful job of it.
With all this they have also worked at making RAA solvent another job which has proved to be a reality. Their Florida campuses work with foreign students as well as some domestic while Mesa’s works with domestic.
The Mesa division has moved from Williams Gateway to Falcon Field they are in the process of having a new facility built at the Falcon Jet Center. They have also obtained new Twin Star aircraft for their multi engine fleet and are soon to have DA 40 aircraft as well as newer Piper Arrows. They also intend to replace their Piper Cadets with Piper Archers. It is obvious they are working every angle to meet customer’s needs.
Their Flight School has an Assist Chief Pilot who was previously trained by RAA and returned after hours of flying Corporate Jets to head up 141 operations. The atmosphere is not as previously blogged a Military regiment type but a customer service type working very hard to serve their customers needs. They still have a very good placement of students to the Airlines. I suggest anyone who wishes to down these flight schools out there do there own work at investigating them instead of listening to disgruntled students blogs. Every school has their negatives and positives.

rickair7777

Technicality: these are forum posts, not "blogs".

Sounds like you work for RAA...I'd personally be worried about a flight school (or any organization) whose staff has a lack of basic grammar skills. Care to share your aviation background, current job, and employer? I didn't think so

Talk is cheap...all that you say may or may not be true. Most of the posters on this paticular website are real aviation professionals who are interested in open communication...you can't write them all off as "disgruntled students".

RAA has earned it's repuation...if someone wants to come in and change all that, great, but they are going to have do it the hard way, over an extended period of time.

Might I suggest that the new owners post an apology for the past on the RAA website, and an explanation of how they intend to operate differently moving forward?

Pilot51

Thank you for the corrections on my basic grammer skills Professor. No not an employee but a friend of some who work there for them. As for my background I have over 30 years in the aviation industry, How about you?
Yes, talk is cheap from both sides here. Yes I would assume most of us here are professionals. And finally I have to agree with you on maybe they should post something here meaning "New Owners". But I do not think it would be an apology. They haven't done anything wrong have they?
anyway have a great flying day.
BTW is my grammer okay on this post?

de727ups

"RAA was recently bought out last year by some Southwest Airline Captains. Their vision is to make RAA’s flight training program number one out in the industry"

Honestly, they would be better off changing the name to something other than RAA. The place has had a pretty bad rep on the internet for a long, long, time.

By the way, I didn't see anything wrong with your grammer the first time.

CPOonfinal

Pretty passionate post for being a "friend" of some people who "work" there for "them".

Pilot51

Yes I agree they should have changed their name. May have been strong words yet I can give you strong words about mostly all the flight schools in the Phoenix area which would be just as good as the one posted. Point being is to check all them out and make your own decision. I really don't know RAA's past and maybe my judgement on there current situation is limited. Again from my point of view and dealing with the areas flight school I feel they all have very good programs and top flight instructors.

USMCFLYR

Pilot51 -

I didn't see much wrong with the grammar skills either. I certainly understood the intent of your post.
About this line though -
"atmosphere is not as previously blogged a Military regiment type "
Exactly what was meant by the military atmosphere? I basically flew with two flight schools when I was first learning. The first awas a much more loosely run organization; kind of a do it on your own and when you would like approach. My second flight school was very different. Brief, fly, debrief, a gradesheet with set goals for that particular flight, one main instructor with progress checks along the way from other instructors, etc... I did much better under this type of instruction and progressed along my training track much quicker.
Once I finally started military flight training I found it to be almost exactly the style that I had become accustom to at the end of my civilian flight training, to include the On-Wing instructors and Off-Wing progress/standardization checkrides.
So.....I wasn't sure how to take the comment about the "military regiment type" training; but it worked for me!

USMCFLYR

the King

Upon a second reading I'm more aware of the grammar than before. The first time, you can tell something isn't quite right, but I was concentrating on the meaning. I can see why Rickair commented. It was bothersome when I reread. Number 1 rule of business communication is that spelling and grammar errors distract from your purpose and cause your audience to form opinions about you without all the facts. It's like listening to a boring teacher; they just get tuned out.

de727ups

Like I said, it didn't bother me at all, whatever it was. Critism over grammer as a way to belittle someone you disagree with comes across to me worse than the bad grammer was in the first place. And it was the belittling I noticed.

CPOonfinal

I'm very disappointed when I read posts from educated people that contain more spelling and grammar mistakes than a Junior High term paper. Indeed, spelling and grammar errors distract from the intent of the post as well as cast doubt on the credibility of the author. I realize the informal nature of a forum but pride and professionalism shouldn't be shed and cast aside with the uniform. JMO.

I checked into RAA and was quoted 55K from PPL through instructor ratings. I've concluded that the price quoted is the absolute minimum a student could expect to pay. Even with GI Bill I think that's pretty steep. Besides, if a student utilizes the GI Bill they must pay the program price up front. The GI Bill is more-or-less a reimbursement program as it relates to flight training.