Student Financing
 

I'm currently searching for a reputable student financing company, in hopes of being able to offer my students the ability to finance their flight training.

Does anyone have experience with loans through Pilot Financing Inc.? It seems to me as if they are the most well known company that deals with part 61 flight schools.

Any insights to the company good or bad would be appreciated.

We have had limited experience with them. They turn down most of our customers that apply, but the one (that's right, the one) they approved spoke very highly of them. He paid on time, and they rebated some of his interest. It was pretty easy for us to deal with from the flight school end too - just fax them a signed receipt and the check shows up in a few days.

He just came back in last week to add an instrument rating and is using Pilot Finance again.

One issue I've found with Pilot Financing is they are looking for the part time student and not somebody who is looking to fly all the time. AOPA use to offer pilot financing but has placed it on hold for a period (unknown) period of time. I ran into this same problem because I couldn't find ANY bank to lend me money to a flight school during these tough times. The only school that can even get loans it seems like is ATP but I lost my GI Bill since they no longer have a VA program. I am sure I could've gone to Ari-ben but that wasn't feasible for me.

Hey, wait a minute, aren't they the ones that complain about the decline of pilots!? :D

Many reasons why I'm no longer a member...

Valid point. I have no idea why they got rid of it although I do know it wasn't very long ago

Aopa
 

AOPA got rid of their finance program since most of its lenders can not pay back the loan as pilots. The key point here is that you have to start out as being rich to afford life as a pilot.

I doubt we will ever see loans again for pilot training as we did a few years ago.

Skyhigh

Or have parents that are rich and are paying for your flight lessons. Had a kid in my flight school that loved to brag about how his daddy was paying for all his flight lessons. Hell, even the father bragged at how he was paying for it, and since he was paying for it, only the best for his snowflake. (So, he flew the new model, G1000 Cessna, while the rest of us flew the steam gauge Cessna's. Since I'm old school, I still prefer steam gauges actually.)

If your students are also university students they should be able to work with student loans through either the government or student loans through banks.
The nice thing about the gov. loans is that some are subsidized some are un-subsidized. Granted, interest rates are through the roof, but holding off on accumulating interest for some time is nice.

You mean borrowers.

The only place I could get a loan from was Sallie Mae. I ultimately had to go with ATP to finish up my flight training and am happy with my decision even though I am losing my GI Bill. I am using the Guard as a way to help offset the $500+ monthly loan payment for the next 13 years.