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flyingpilot99
PostPosted: Mon May 07, 2012 4:47 am 
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I am debating on which school to do my ppl/cpl at?? any suggestions/ good/ bad experiences??


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North Shore
PostPosted: Mon May 07, 2012 5:14 pm 
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Location: Straight outta Dundarave...
Which is better, Ford, or Chevrolet? Depends on who you ask.

The key to it is you. Albert Einstein could teach you physics, but if you don't do the homework and put your effort in, then his talents would be wasted.

Go to both places and spend a few bucks buying coffee for your potential instructor, and find out who you like. Remember, you're going to be spending a fair amount of time jostling shoulders with them, so if you don't like the way they look/speak/comb their hair/slurp their coffee, then you might want to find a different instructor. Then, treat it like a part-time job: show up early, with your homework done, and ready to go. Review afterwards, and fly regularly. That's a big one right there - try and have the cash for at least your PPL up front and ready to go, then you can go twice/three times a week, which will stop you from doing the 'two steps forward, one back' progression - saving you money.

There's tons of other suggestions on here - just trawl through the forum, or use the search, and you'll find them.

Have fun!


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MMTA1
PostPosted: Mon May 07, 2012 5:51 pm 
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Having been a student in the past at Harv's Air for me it was the easy choice as they have accommodations on the field, vehicle available for grocery shopping, and aircraft fleet that is second to none. I believe the rate per hour is even less than at Winnipeg aviation.

After emailing several schools, that I was considering, Harv's Air got back to me within a half-hour after every email I sent. Most other schools never even responded to any of my questions.

I would recommend you stop by for a visit of each school.


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gonzo21
PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2012 2:53 am 
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As someone who went from 0-CPL at Winnipeg Aviation, you can see how my opinion will be a little biased. At this point it's been over a year since I've flown at the school.
When I was there they had a mix of C152's and PA28's as well as a seneca, warrior, arrrow and C172. Maintenance is good, never had a problem in my time there. The planes were equipped with your run of the mill VFR instruments (the seneca, and I believe the C172, arrow and possibly warrior are now IFR equipped, but don't quote me on that). The PA28's and 152's don't (or didnt when I was there) have any GPS installed. Which I am now thankful for, but beware it makes you work harder on cross country flights.

One of my favorite things about the school was availability of planes. I could almost always go online and get a flight(s) for the next day (with instructor!). I was mostly on the PA28, the Indian students really stuck with the 152's which I never flew anyway. A lot of my friends flew at harvs and had to book weeks in advance fairly often. At the time that I was doing my training a couple years ago, Allied wings started hiring and took several of the better instructors from Harvs.

The Owner of WA (Dan Reeves) seemed like a good guy and really knew his stuff. I'm pretty sure it is more expensive per hour, but hey you get what you pay for, and if I had to do it all again I'd go with WA. For straight timebuilding Harvs might be a better choice as far as cost is concerned. I also would recommend Mountain City Aviation for time building in Morden, MB. It's a bit of a commute from YWG but if you're interested in getting a bunch of hours fast, they charged me I believe $105/hour in the c172, although I recently learned they imposed a fuel surcharge.

That's just my take on things. Your training will really be what you make of it

EDIT: One more thing, Harvs has an excellent selfstudy for just about every licence at pilottraining.ca I highly reccomend it


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BEFAN5
PostPosted: Mon May 14, 2012 11:14 am 
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I did my training at both. Both have their positives, and both have their negatives.

Harvs - Don't try to take up flying in the summer with Harv's, you are the bottom of the priority list (air cadets) and all of your bookings will get cancelled. Newer airplanes(or look newer), nice facilities, costs a little less per hour. When I trained there, the instructors followed a training syllabus (good and bad things come to mind with a syllabus). Flight Test examiner on staff.

Winnipeg Av - Not sure if the planes are older or they just don't care as much about annual paint jobs, but I never had any mechanical issues, flights cost a bit more per hour, instructors create lessons around you and your skill (vs's following a set school plan). Facilities=not so nice. Interior design isn't their specialty. Flight test examiner contracted out. They went out of their way to help me when I needed it. Taking a plane for an extended period of time was never an issue, and Dan never charged me a minimum per day.

My personal verdict is that at Harvs, I was a customer. At Winnipeg, I was a student.

To each their own. Do your research.


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tyndall
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2012 1:46 am 
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BEFAN5 wrote:
My personal verdict is that at Harvs, I was a customer. At Winnipeg, I was a student.

Well said.

Harv's seems flashy, fast paced and impersonal. WA feels like you're learning from a friend.

Both schools are good (well, with the exception of harv's at air cadets time). It all depends on your personality.


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praveen4143
PostPosted: Fri May 18, 2012 6:20 pm 
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Hey guys,

I've was a student with Harv's for my 0-200 at CPL and Class 4 FI rating, and I have also worked as a dispatcher and as an instructor. This was all at the Steinbach location.

From what I have seen, both as a student and as an instructor, the overall essence at Harv's Air is to keep things as friendly and personal as possible.
As a student, I've always found instructors very approachable and helpful. And as with any place, there were a few people that were ready to go out of their way to help and there were some that would work to the book. As an instructor, I saw that the administration (family run) always promoted the same ideology that I noticed as a student.

As far as possible, unless you've come for a joy ride, you are treated as a student first and then as a customer. But being a large organisation, there will always be that factor/sense of being impersonal, especially for someone who comes in only once in a while... It's true that Harv may not know everyone by name, but he's probably the most approachable person I've seen!

The standards of flight training, maintenance and overall flying at Harv's Air is kept quite high and everything there is done by the rule book! The only issue that I've noticed that students have is that those who stay at the school's accomodations provided on site have to be regular/full-time flyers and they would charge a fine for not flying regularly enough, and repeat offenders are told to look elsewhere for accomodations. This, I thought was fair as the on-site accomodations were always in great demand and this ensured that only the most serious of flyers were given this facility.

Would I recommend this place to anyone else? Yes, without batting an eyelid... I truly believe that you get the best bang for the buck here...

Disclaimer: I was a student at Harv's Air for 1 year (CPL and FI rating), dispatcher for 6 months and an instructor for 18 months. I might be going back to Harv's Air to work as an instructor again in the near future.


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Go Juice
PostPosted: Mon May 21, 2012 11:22 pm 
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Old school is better!!!!


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corfucmd
PostPosted: Wed May 23, 2012 8:58 am 
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After emailing several schools, that I was considering, Harv's Air got back to me within a half-hour after every email I sent. Most other schools never even responded to any of my questions.

I would recommend you stop by for a visit of each school.
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