Mike400

"Having set on pilot"

Its funny, coming from the scholar that has nothing better to do on the forums but find things to rant on and on about while hiding behind a username, you should proof read things yourself. I made a single grammatical error and you attack me like this? Get a life man seriously, really pathetic that you had the time to do all that

The dude

Although my experience at Aviator (Ari-Ben) was some time ago, I'll give my negative recommendation. I did get in and out with my flight time I was there for but the overall experience was very poor.

-After they said they'd pick us up at the airport in Palm Beach after we flew in on JetBlue, they left us at the airport for nearly five hours before coming and getting us.

-They said they had a "rental car" for a daily fee. The car was a complete beater and broke down on us twice.

-They didn't tell us we'd have to fly in the middle of the night until after we were there.

-Very poor maintenance. We brought in the logbook after writing up a totally failed Mag.... guy takes logbook from us without even looking at airplane and says "There's nothing wrong with the airplane"... and puts it back in the ready to fly column. I was there two weeks and had MANY mechanical problems with the airplanes. Seemed like they didn't want to spend money on problems.

If I tried hard I could probably think of much more to say about my laughable experience there, but that's what comes to the top of my head.

It definitely was the cheapest multi-time available and I guess you get what you pay for. I just feel for you guys paying what you're paying for your training these days. Ridiculous!!!

texavia

I went to Aviator about 20 years ago, my husband 15 and yes, both MX and TJ could be annoying there, bearing that in mind we later recommended a friend go to ATP instead of Aviator.

Big mistake -- It was obvious to us and soon to him that ATP at Grand Prairie was the blind leading the blind, he quickly left ATP for Aviator. This was 10 years ago and things may have changed at ATP since then, but I seriously doubt it.

FWIW, the only thing that counts is multi time.

One more thing, this ain't the profession it once was -- do something else.

Flyhayes

There are plenty of mom and pop places where you can get professional training at great prices. Do yourself a favor and compare the local part 61 outfits and not just the pilot mills. Looking back, I wish I would have done this as I would have saved a ton on my flight training.

love2av8

+1
Glad I wasn't the only one thinking that while I was reading it. It's one thing to mistype on your phone, it's a completely different thing to be virtually incoherent.

PhilipTexas

I was there for nearly 2 years, I just left last summer after instructing there about 1,000 hours.
I think most of the complaints about the MX were for 5+ years ago before their current director of maintenance stepped in.
They are old airplanes, but they also got abused and beat up a lot. They did have a lot of down airplanes because they actually DID the maintenance. They don't defer or ignore issues with the airplanes. I never saw their MX doing anything unsafe, I did see a lot of time builders squawking airplanes for operator error though
I did their whole pro course and don't regret it at all. It wasn't perfect but they have some great instructors, a great director of maintenance, and an awesome chief pilot.
Oh and you FOR SURE want a car if at all possible. You are far more likely to go crazy if you are stuck at the housing and end up eating at the tiki twice a day.

TheDH

I went to ATP at KIWA, and toured aviator as well as a few others. ATP was the way to go for me mainly bc of price, multi, and time. Got through all of it quick and I had awesome instructors. Aviator had no idea what to even do with me when I came down for a tour. I also scheduled a tour at ATP before going there and they we ready for me when I came in. After going there I understand why you had to sit a wait if you just walked in off the street. Their CFI's work all day everyday. Getting that multi is important at least to me. I have over 200 now and only need to worry about getting tt instead of both like most.

seattlepilot

Find a small flight school in your area.. Talk to the owners and see if you can help them out giving them business and getting some discounts.. I always work with people when it comes to the training.
I find it amazing that people go to these fast pace places, get their certificate without the great experiences of GA world and then come back ask for a job at small schools in their local area.. Then they complain about not having enough students

jerjon7

I went to Aviator and did there 150 hour program, the one just under Commercial. that took me through multi-private to multi-commercial and gave me 150 hours of multi-time. I had my concerns when going there as i had heard a lot of bad things. They are definetely getting better, honestly a lot of the negative stuff being said is because of the students, not because of the school, there are a lot of lazy guys there. One thing you will have to do is be self-driven, i had to be on it, my program was supposed to be only 8 weeks long, i did it in 9-10 weeks, but only because i was at the airport from 7 in the mornint till 8 at night most days. The time they give that a particular program is to be finished is not realistic, and for the most part the instuctors aren't concerned about time either, but as i said, i think this is mainly the students, most of these guys are foreign and are just kinda coasting, which would be completely normal if it wasn't called a accelerated program.

Overall i don't regret going there, I came and did what i was supposed to do in close to the time i was supposed to do it in. with the money i saved, it was well worth it, depending on the program, you will probably spend a little more than the program is designed for, but that is totally up to your ability's, it took me closer to 15 hours to get my Multi when they have 10 designated, but i was ready for my instrument under the time alotted, but with the minimums i still had to complete the rest of the training. My commercial was right on, left there with 252 hours and CMEL instrument.

nehringer

I’m a recent graduate of Aviator also and I have nothing bad to say about them. I searched long and hard to find a school that would provide the training I needed to fit my unique situation and one that would provide that training under the Post 9/11 GIB. Aviator was the ONLY school who fit what I needed. I came to them with several thousand hours of helicopter time, commercial/CFI/CFII helicopter, a private/instrument airplane and some prior multi-engine time. I passed 5 check rides in under a month and did it all under the original cost estimate. I now only have two problems to deal with; one is the fact that while I have all of the ratings I sought, I don’t have enough multi-engine time to be marketable. Since all of my new ratings were add on’s, my aeronautical experience requirements by FAR 61 were met with my helicopter time. Most full time students there graduate with a few hundred hours. My other problem is I can’t seem to light a fire under anyone to file my VA claim. There is only one person on the staff that handles Post 9/11 GIB claims and he is swamped most of the time. I’m sure it will be done eventually and every bit of my training costs will come back to me. Even if that process takes a few months, I can’t complain about getting those ratings for basically nothing.

I also found myself in the unique position of having 20+ years on my room-mates and class mates. They all assumed at first that I was someone’s father just visiting! I instantly became a mentor to my younger room-mates and I made some very good friends while I was there.

Another thing I found attractive was the instructors are also students, many of whom are recently certificated CFI’s. This is a good thing as they are very fresh and proficient on the school’s teaching process, flight maneuvers and regulations. This is an advantage over schools with a “revolving door” for their instructors, or those who have had a cadre on staff for decades who have all passed the point of caring. Each of the student intern instructors has a vested interest in the success of their students and it shows.

Maintenance is constantly being done and most of the aircraft are in the hangar for a 100 hour inspection about every other week. That’s a lot of flying! I didn’t fly due to maintenance only a couple of times when a replacement aircraft wasn’t available.

As stated earlier, much of the bad talk about Aviator involves former students who didn’t come with the proper attitude. No one is going to hand you anything and showing up with the expectation that little to no effort will be required on your part is a sad misconception. Assuming that just because you had a bad day, or that you busted a check ride is justification in slamming the whole program publically probably isn’t the best way to embark on a career as a professional pilot. This has happened more than a few times and the associated rumors have cost the school.

My only complaint doesn’t involve the school, but rather ATC at KFPR. They suck! I realize that KFPR sits right smack in the middle of an Alert Area that exists due to the high volume of student training along the East Coast of Florida. The impatience expressed over the tower frequency and the total lack of professionalism on part of the FAA controllers tells me that THEY don’t acknowledge the significance of that Alert Area. Students often do dumb things and many of the international students are difficult to understand on the radio. That is no reason for ATC to conduct themselves with such a lack of professionalism and disregard for safety. I filed two NASA reports while I was there and action has been taken to correct the problem. I personally spoke with the tower chief about two incidents and he acknowledged that I was in the right and the controllers involved had been counseled. That sort of thing shouldn’t be going on at a facility with such a high volume of student training.