Hi, I am new to this forum. I am currently 16 years old and currently attending high school as grade 11. I live in Duncan, BC area and I'm looking around for a flying school for my PPL. My goal is to get my PPL by this summer and ultimately become a commercial pilot. I've already read about VFC and Pacific Sky in this forum and from what I've read, they seem to offer very good service. However I would like to know how they compare to Vital aviation. I'm leaning towards VFC (since I've took their familiarization flight) but it's just the fact that it's a hour and a half drive to just get there whereas Vital is only 40 mins away. I'm hoping to get some information from people's experience about these schools and aviation in general on this forum since I don't have anyone to talk to about aviation that I know of.
Oh, and I also made arrangement with one of the VFC instructor for tomorrow so I know how the school works but I believe his information could be biased so I'm asking here as well
I apologize for the long read but, thanks in advance
-Dan
Any Experiences With Vital Aviation, VFC, or Pacific Sky?
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exists1997
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Re: Any Experiences With Vital Aviation, VFC, or Pacific Sky
Hi!
I'm the CFI at Pacific Sky. We are not currently offering training to the general public. We are a sister company to Viking Air and as such are committed to training pilots for the 400 series Twin Otter.
This may change in the future. I can say is that VFC is a great facility. I know virtually nothing about Vital.
Good luck!
Robin
I'm the CFI at Pacific Sky. We are not currently offering training to the general public. We are a sister company to Viking Air and as such are committed to training pilots for the 400 series Twin Otter.
This may change in the future. I can say is that VFC is a great facility. I know virtually nothing about Vital.
Good luck!
Robin
Aviation- the hardest way possible to make an easy living!
"You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it into peace!" Michael Franti- Spearhead
"Trust everyone, but cut the cards". My Grandma.
"You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it into peace!" Michael Franti- Spearhead
"Trust everyone, but cut the cards". My Grandma.
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sportingrifle
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Re: Any Experiences With Vital Aviation, VFC, or Pacific Sky
Dan...I sent you a pm, you must have missed it.
I am the president of the Duncan Flying Club, give me a ring.
Cheers. Kevin.(250)746-0362
I am the president of the Duncan Flying Club, give me a ring.
Cheers. Kevin.(250)746-0362
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RadicalRadial
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Re: Any Experiences With Vital Aviation, VFC, or Pacific Sky
VFC is a good place to get your PPL but as far as CPL I would not recommend it based off personal experience. I got bounced around between four different instructors because they all had too many students so I was paying a lot and not getting very far. I left and got my MIFR somewhere else and came back to finish off my CPL at VFC and the instructor I was assigned didn't have his IFR or MEL rating so I almost felt as if I was taking a step backwards.
When it came time for me to do the flight test, my instructor refused to write a recommend and said I need 30 more hours. I had been doing mock flight tests with my friend all week and knew I was ready so I went to boundary bay at Pacific flying club, had one flight with an instructor and got the recommend the next day. I ended up getting 83% on my flight test which the instructor at VFC failed to recognize thus losing a CPL graduate from his instructing record.
In my opinion VFC is good for a beginner learning the basics but as soon as you make the commitment of the CPL they will do whatever it takes to suck every last penny out of your bank account.
Also the flight ops manager withheld my training documents (which is illegal) because he wanted to go home early rather than fax them or delegate the task to someone else to do in the last 4 hours that they were open for the day. It caused me to stay an extra day in vancouver waiting for my documents and missing work because of it.
When it came time for me to do the flight test, my instructor refused to write a recommend and said I need 30 more hours. I had been doing mock flight tests with my friend all week and knew I was ready so I went to boundary bay at Pacific flying club, had one flight with an instructor and got the recommend the next day. I ended up getting 83% on my flight test which the instructor at VFC failed to recognize thus losing a CPL graduate from his instructing record.
In my opinion VFC is good for a beginner learning the basics but as soon as you make the commitment of the CPL they will do whatever it takes to suck every last penny out of your bank account.
Also the flight ops manager withheld my training documents (which is illegal) because he wanted to go home early rather than fax them or delegate the task to someone else to do in the last 4 hours that they were open for the day. It caused me to stay an extra day in vancouver waiting for my documents and missing work because of it.
Re: Any Experiences With Vital Aviation, VFC, or Pacific Sky
I write this as someone who is just finishing up his CPL with Vital (Passed the written two days ago, will be flight tested in the next few days, anyone looking for a fresh CPL holder?). They are a great group of people. VFC, just a check ride on one of their 172S models cost me 3 hours of instructor time last year to do basics and even that was with 3 different people! Not saying they are bad. But Vital has a nice tight group of instructors. Lynda and Don genuinely care how their students do and are aware of the money and trust. The "extra" time it took for my PPL was because I wasn't ready for the test standard, and I knew it. But all in all I was done in just over 60. Which is alright.
Vital has an interesting CPL program (2 months done in Arizona during the winter months you'd otherwise be shut out due to weather). I just did my CPL in Vegas! But I have a feeling that this their last year. As Lynda puts it, she wants to spend more time in the garden. I would at least inquire though. If the interest was there I'm sure they would make something happen. Anyway. That's my $0.02 worth.
Vital has an interesting CPL program (2 months done in Arizona during the winter months you'd otherwise be shut out due to weather). I just did my CPL in Vegas! But I have a feeling that this their last year. As Lynda puts it, she wants to spend more time in the garden. I would at least inquire though. If the interest was there I'm sure they would make something happen. Anyway. That's my $0.02 worth.
