I'm a student pilot who will be soon moving to Vancouver. I'm planning to train at Boundary Bay airport for my MIFR with either ProIFR or SeaLandAir, have you had any experience with either schools? Anything to watch out for? Any postive feedback?
I'm also looking around for a place to stay for a short while that is within walking distance to the airport, I do have relatives in the area but I don't want to trouble them by having to drive me to the airport every time I need to go flying, I would really really appreciate it if someone could tip me off with a place, even ''crash pads'' are fine as long as it's close to the airport. I'm currently checking out kjiji but with no luck.
I did all of my training in the Vancouver region and then went on to instruct there for a couple of years. I don't currently work at a flight school, nor does the school I used to work for currently have an MIFR program so this is all unbiased information.
I did my Multi IFR at Canadian Flight Center and I would not recommend it. I found it to be very disorganized and leadership from management was almost not existent.
From what I gather ProIFR is a shell of what it used to be, although their IFR program is/was very highly rated so you may be o.k. there. They certainly have been doing it for a very long time.
A friend of mine did his MIFR at Sea Land Air on the Twin Star and raved about it. They have a sim instructor there who is a training captain at a regional airline so you are getting some good, real world experience. Of course this is second hand information, so take it with a grain of salt.
You ll find accomadation that close to the airport difficult. Ladner is too far to walk. Pro IFR has a flophouse....and Im only exagerating a bit when I say that...around the corner.
Some folks use the bus. Others buy or rent a car. There are lots of guesthouses and b and bs in Ladner. Pro will give you a list of them.
PositiveRate27 wrote:
I did my Multi IFR at Canadian Flight Center and I would not recommend it. I found it to be very disorganized and leadership from management was almost not existent.
Was this before or after Ron sold the business? I haven't touched a plane in almost 3 years and even before that, a lot of CFC instructors left. Last time I rented from them, the plane was over filled, weight-wise and not over flowing, and they just all stand there and told me they can't remove the extra fuel basically SOL. I was left standing in their office and no one offered to help me figured it out or make suggestions. Also, they didn't bother to teach you how to marshal the aircraft properly and lend you a tow bar for rental.
My question is why are you picking CZBB only? There's also Pitt Meadows and Langley. With Pitt Meadows, I think you may have an easier time finding housing close to the airport.
I stay NOT suggest Boundary Bay unless you enjoy spending most of your time going back and forth between the practice area near pitt meadows and waiting to get into the circuit while the air is filled with ppl that have NO idea what they are doing.... Your best bet is pitt meadows plus BB is in the middle of nowhere literally
Mr. moocow, I'm attracted to CZBB because of ProIFR (I heard good things about them) and SeaLandAir because of their DA42 fleet, I would like to do my MIFR on the DA42, besides that one of my relative is close by.
Mr. westcoasting can you expand on that? The practice area seems to be about 6-7nm northeast of CZBB and 2-3nm for CAJ8 and Langley which is a lot closer, am I looking at the right practice area? And ''the air is filled with people that have no idea what they are doing'' is it that bad? Are you implying the chinese cadets or just generally new pilots in that airspace?
I do apologize I am new to Vancouver. Thank you both for your answers.
I did my private out of Boundary Bay. I trained in a much more isolated area for my commercial. It's fantastic not spending 20 minutes waiting for take-off, transiting to the practice area, and then only getting 20 minutes of work in because I've only got the plane for a two hour booking. I'm not sure about the quality of schools, but assuming they're all equal, pick one that's quiet, and close to the practice area.
Well I only done PPL at CZBB so I can't really comment on CPL & MIFR experience out of that airport. CZBB during summer time is close to impossible to get circuit time. Consider the number of FTU and their fleet size, you will probably end up doing circuits at Pitt Meadows. Glenn Valley is horrid because you have students from Boundary Bay, Abbotsford, Langley, and Pitt Meadows using it. I did a quick look at YPK's website and then the FTU's website, it seem only 1 of them have a twin.
Who's training the Chinese cadets now? Wasn't it used to be a company that starts with an M-something (can't remember). I don't see their business being listed on CZBB's website.
What about Pacific Flying Club (PFC) in Boundary Bay? I did my multi there. I liked it enough there to continue on with my IFR group 1 - just finishing up with pre-checkride prep.
Aside from PFC, I have flown at Sealandair, and the "M-something" one. I'm not gonna knock any of the schools as I think they all have their pros and cons.
Personally I picked each school based on the machines I wanted to fly. I liked the newish 172R and the even-more-newish 172SP the "M-something" had. Liked the DA-40 at Sealandair. However, when it came to getting my multi, I had always wanted to fly the Seneca, and didn't really think of the DA-42 as a "real" twin. My idea of a twin has always been that it has to have more than 4 seats and in general bigger than a 4-seater. To me, the DA-42 is a DA-40 with one more engine strapped on. Granted, the glass cockpit on both is very nice. And Sealandair does have a nice sim which is basically a full replica of the DA-42 down to the leather seats.
I didn't go with Pro because they only have a Duchess IIRC, which is still a 4-seater.
PFC has 2 Seneca's so you're not likely getting grounded for mechanical problems. Their instructors tend to be young, but they all teach to the same system at PFC which typically they underwent themselves as part of the BCIT program. *And*, both Seneca's are getting their Aspen glass retrofit upgrade ... On the single side, PFC has lots of older Cessnas, but also has one 172R, and a brand new 172SP with G1000.
Also, one of the PFC Seneca's has full de-ice and they're not afraid to use it. Because of that, I not have only logged a few hours of actual IMC, some of that was in (light) icing condition. I thought that was very cool.
Finally, I like bigger more open spaces where a lot of people can fit without getting too crammed - PFC has lots of space - sofas in the reception area, smaller offices / rooms upstairs which you could grab (I've been able to have hour-long conference calls for my day job while not training because of it), and a pool table. People are generally pretty relaxed.
Sealandair on the other hand, has what I call a pretty intimate space - aside from the dispatch room where there is one sofa directly across from dispatch (more for sitting there while paying for flights), there is a lunch room with another small sofa set and a TV. I think I've seen the TV on maybe once. And no coffee unless you make it (the staff there were not coffee drinkers). There is a classroom too but every place has that. I would venture to guess PFC has at least 10 times the square footage of Sealandair. Square footage is not everything, but at Sealandair I had the feeling that I was in someone's living room and you don't really want to overstay your welcome. Whereas at PFC, you could lounge out there all day and you would just be one of many people there ...
PositiveRate27 wrote:I did all of my training in the Vancouver region and then went on to instruct there for a couple of years. I don't currently work at a flight school, nor does the school I used to work for currently have an MIFR program so this is all unbiased information.
I did my Multi IFR at Canadian Flight Center and I would not recommend it. I found it to be very disorganized and leadership from management was almost not existent.
From what I gather ProIFR is a shell of what it used to be, although their IFR program is/was very highly rated so you may be o.k. there. They certainly have been doing it for a very long time.
A friend of mine did his MIFR at Sea Land Air on the Twin Star and raved about it. They have a sim instructor there who is a training captain at a regional airline so you are getting some good, real world experience. Of course this is second hand information, so take it with a grain of salt.
I did some training in this region as well and have been instructing here for the past 12 months. I did my MIFR at Sea Land Air on the Twin Star, there are several guys teaching in the sim with commercial experience (last I heard they're bringing on an AC guy) but you'll have to go through Aaron Shortt (the IFR guy/PRM at SLA). Chances are you will either be flying with Aaron or Jim on the DA42. Aaron's new to the gig, but Jim (a PE and an ex-Cathay pilot) comes in on weekends and has been helping with quality control at the school (similarly with the "guys with experience" in the simulator keeping quality control in the sim at SLA).
SLA's setting is different from the bigger school's out at ZBB. Of course being a plane with Thielert engines the maintenance on it takes a long time that can be annoying when you get closer to your ride.
There is some structure to their syllabus. The training captain who PositiveRate is talking has been helping SLA develop their program to be somewhat similar to the training program at certain regional airlines.
First of all I thank Tail-Chaser, moocow, tommywcom and kmf.kenif for your inputs, I really appreciate it and it will help me make an informed decision. I will probably drive around and visit the schools and have one last look beforehand. Just got my CPL and will try my best for the multi training.
Yes, I meant Montair. Are they still operation out of CZBB? I found their webpage but CZBB doesn't list them anymore. I remember that day when one of their cadet or renter struck one of CFC's Piper and the rudder looked like a metal taco.
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