It is an older article, but it's the first I heard of it. Anyone else have any updated experiences?

I understand many flight schools may have been milking the system, but shutting the whole thing down seems extreme. It's the VA, go figure.

Is this really accurate? Has anyone been able to go to Higher Power or similar programs in the last year?

VA sends notice to veterans, canceling all tuition payments for flight schools

Unfortunately I believe it may happen. I just checked out two different flight schools to get my commercial rotor add on, and both schools told me the VA was cracking down and I may not be able to use my VA benefits.

I hope it doesn't happen as I would like to use some of my VA money for a type rating and my ATP when I reach the 1500 hr mark.

It looks like they were referring to the "gold ribbon" program, which I have to admit was an egregious waste of money. Having come from a flight training background, I dealt with this personally and had students ask to do ridiculous things that would waste time and not be part of the goal to get a certificate or rating. I wouldn't waste taxpayer money then or now. I had other students that wanted to fly and there's no way I could justify giving student A a 300nm XC for no reason when students B-G were just as important and when it didn't serve any purpose or back to back flights that were detrimental to what we were actually trying to learn that day. The amount of taxpayer money wasted was huge with this program. Helicopter training of course is particularly expensive, so that probably attracted a lot of attention. As a veteran, I used VA money to help get some of my ratings and certificates, and I'm sure you will be able to as well. I don't know if they are still honoring the program, but as I understand, it applied to a certain number of veterans that signed up for a specific program within a specific time period, if outside of that, you may not apply for the "no cap" yellow ribbon program. I've not heard that it is not being honored, only that the VA has gotten more aggressive in determining if a school is wasting money, which is a good thing, because usually the schools that are out there wasting money right and left are the ones that have poorly structured programs. The more structured programs usually have more accountability and less issues with this in the first place.

Personally, I feel we should overhaul the system and offer free tuition, no set number amounts, to any public college/university, for serving your country for a reasonable service period under a program. If you want to be a doctor, great, be a doctor. If you want to be a pilot, be a pilot. If you want to be an accountant, be an accountant. I would draw the line at private universities, no VA money for that. This gives incentives to keep the public university system going and gives fair compensation to our veterans IMO.

Agree that the system should not allow gratuitous time building above and beyond certs and ratings. I did see that sort of thing back in the day.

When I was using the GI Bill for some FW add on ratings there was a dude at the school doing a program under "vocational rehab" which was like the GI Bill on steroids. He had essentially a blank check to fly whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, with no syllabus excedence limits. Flew a school owned king air at almost $1000 an hour, the baron at over $500 an hour, and the bonanza for almost $300 an hour building his 1500 hours. What I didn't get is how he qualified for voc rehab but could still have a medical. He had nothing visibly wrong with him. Never really asked though. But he had spent almost half a million taxpayers dollars on his flying at the time I was there. We had a gravy train program with the GI Bill and yellow ribbon thing and I almost felt guilty, but this seemed insane.

I think you only have to be on 20% "disability" to qualify for voc rehab, so it would be really easy to qualify for a medical with that low of a rating.

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I'm curious about what state this was in? I know that sounds odd because it's a federal program but each state does things differently. I've been getting the run around from voc rehab since 2009! They are known for shady practices and blatantly lying to your face to discourage you from pursuing your goals. They 100% do pay for training but they tell you that you need a private license first. This is a lie, as long as the flight training is part of an accredited degree program that requires flight time (ie, Bachelors in Aviation with flight concentration) then you can get the private included with the other certs.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/21.134

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/21.4235


Yes the medical can hold you up but I guess there is a common misconception with people with disabilities. Not everyone with a disability looks like Stephen Hawking! Not to pick on him but that's the best example to paint a picture for everyone. The VA hands out disability ratings for all kinds of things that wouldn't affect a person's ability to pilot a plane. The best thing you can do here is contact the right authority at the FAA and find out what they want as far as documentation. Have everything ready before you even schedule your flight physical to prevent delays with them deferring to headquarters, or if they do anyway you already answered the questions that they want answers to. Another good source of info is Benjamin Krause, who is a lawyer that is constantly trying to help veterans and expose VA scandals.

https://www.disabledveterans.org