HELP, Im lost- Flight School
 

Hi guys!


Ok, here we go :o ..
First off: PLEASE DONT REFER ME TO ANOTHER THREAD! :cool:

Im currently lookin for a flight school (what a shocker, right!?). I allready have my CPL-MEI (need CPL-SE add on though) and frozen ATPL, but to low on the hours. My EASA convertion is gonna cost me hell of a lot money and because of my situation the total price I would pay today with low hours VS. getting my CFI, CFII and MEI aswell as the hours, would be the same :rolleyes:

Been ****ed hard once by a flight school. They took my money and ran (got my PPL and IR for 50K+ out of it). Attended another as I needed a new school, wich was really good, but can midly be described as robbery.

Sooooo...been reading around at diffrent forums, and as I`ve not gotten any wiser (maybe its just me!?) I felt like I`d start a thread...

Sure, I`ll need som refreshers and stuff, but got the grip on all the CFI groundschool stuff as I prepared that a while back.

Wich schools today would give me most "bang for the buck"?
I`ve looked up US Aviation Acadamy, Flight Safety, SAA and so on.
I dont care wich state the school is located, what I do care about is job opportunities, fleet (new vs old, maintenance and quip), student to FI ratio and so on..
As you probably can understand, its not that easy for me to travel to each school, thats why Im asking..


Whats your experience? Whats your toughts? And whats your pro`s and con`s?

if you are talking about SAA in Gillispie, don't even consider it, they stole my money, flyhaa.com the best option, they're quite fair and excellent training.

What area of the country?

Since I feel I`ve "done" FL, the Western part would be great, but Im not picky about it :)

The things that matters for me, since Im probably looking at a cost of 25K of the other training is the possibility to get hours out of it and the experience.

And as many of you know the flightschool`s can be shady, at best.
I have a decent/good job here, but its not what I want to do for a living and Im not gonna let a flightschool stop my dream of becoming a proffesional pilot one day :)

Check out Pirate Aviation/Plus One Flyers in San Diego.

I am really considering HAA! I sent you a PM KiKe! So far they have been pretty spot on with my questions. Just need to make a trip over there to see the facility!

Have you thought about purchasing an airplane and hiring a local instructor to give you the training you require? Build hours, get your training, then sell the plane?

Yeah, actually.
It doesnt seem to be a bad investment in the long run, but at the same time i think the total cost considering maintenance, insurance and the time for reselling is a little high.

Got any experience doing so or know anyone who has done it? :)

I have some friends that went there. I know its good and fair priced, but the partnership school which I have contacted basically said their main focus was heli and that the school didn't have that many fixed wing students anymore?
I dont know if this is true, but whats your experience?
What did you get out of it? :)

I wouldn't just look for the lowest advertised cost, especially if burned before.

There should be a bunch you can sift through in AOPA's 'Flight Training' magazine.