Financing/grants for flight training

mintchris · Post by **mintchris** » Mon May 21, 2007 8:17 pm

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone has any info on options for paying for commercial flight training? I know of a few line of credit programs but is there actually a grant program out there for student pilots? I am not really talking about going to a 4 year college type thing but more of just going through all the ratings from private through commercial at a local flight school in Ontario. Any info would be help,
Thanks!!!
Chris

petite · Post by **petite** » Mon May 21, 2007 8:47 pm

May I suggest the alluring side job of male exotic dancing?

Some Ontario FTUs are covered by OSAP. I'd say check to see which ones in your area. Besides that I've only known people to use a line of credit or the parent bursary to fund their training. Good Luck.

victory_aviation · Post by **victory_aviation** » Mon May 21, 2007 9:52 pm

Waterloo is the only one in ontario that is covered by OSAP as far as I know. It seems to be a good school and I think you can get about half of the course cost from OSAP. You can also attend schools outside Ontario that are covered by OSAP but I wouldn't waste your time. OSAP can be very very hard to work with when you are outside ontario.

Bank of Montreal offers a student line of credit (up to $10,000) and I think TD had a special LOC for aviation students but they may have stopped that.

Freeski · Post by **Freeski** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:00 pm

RBC is great for giving student line of credits. Their current rate is prime plus 1% (or 7%).

All you need is proof of enrollment along with a cost breakdown for the course. You can likely open up a normal student chequing account to save on fees and transfer the funds back and forth within the same branch.

fingersmac · Post by **fingersmac** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:21 pm

Try Confederation College (18 month program).

The flight training is paid for by the government and to pay the tuition you can use OSAP. It was the only way I could afford to do it.

RBC wasn't very helpful. I couldn't qualify for a student line-of-credit on my own and they wouldn't even accept my mother or father as a co-signor.

moetorious · Post by **moetorious** » Tue May 22, 2007 6:50 pm

RBC is alot harder to get student line of credit, CIBC is actually pretty easier to get a student line of credit.

Golden Flyer · Post by **Golden Flyer** » Wed May 23, 2007 2:37 am

It would also be a good idea if you can save half of the required funds and obtain the other half from OSAP. You'll have no interest rates to pay while you're training and won't be in alot of debt. In that case, I guess you'd have to train in Waterloo.

Pilot_adam · Post by **Pilot_adam** » Wed May 23, 2007 9:46 am

Well the catch is if you go to waterloo it will cost you 1.5 what it will cost you in a small FTU. because OSAP will only fund the full time program which involves a lot of ground hours (OSAP will only fund 40% of the cost and you will have to come up with the rest),meaning it will cost you about $ 47000.00 for a CPL/Multi-ifr while you can go to a small FTU and get it for 10gs cheaper..

The program itself is fantastic and I know a lot of wwfc's graduates who loved it and said it is worth the money(two of them were my instructors).

Adam

dirtpoorflyr · Post by **dirtpoorflyr** » Tue May 29, 2007 6:40 am

Hi Chris , I know that funding can be available through HRDC (Human Resources Canada)...If you qualify and jump through all the hoops and are persistent enough, they have Lot's of our money. The counselors will try to deter you because of the cost, but they have a positive case history.

Northern Skies · Post by **Northern Skies** » Tue May 29, 2007 7:56 am

I would recommend staying away from OSAP. Read my other posts on the topic for details.

In my experience, the student line of credit was the way to go.

And I'm really glad I waited until I had some savings, and broke up the training to work and get enough cash to do it in clumps of hours instead of a long unproductive process.

Elessar_44 · Post by **Elessar_44** » Tue May 29, 2007 1:14 pm

My RBC student line of credit has been a life saver. Prime + 1 is a really great rate considering, and you get a full year from end of education until you have to start making payments towards your balance.