Aviation program at sault college, Ontario.

[allan125]

Hello all, I am thinking about taking the aviation program at Sault College. I have no flight experience but have always dreamed of flying. It is a three year course, ending with an advanced college diploma. I would like to work for an airline in the next 10-15 years, or as fast as possible. The following was taken from the Sault College website:

Your flight training at Sault College concludes with your successful completion of the
flight test for the Group 1 Instrument Rating. You will have
approximately 200 hours of flight training, with 100 hours of pilot in command time. You will have earned a Commercial Licence
endorsed with a Group 1 Instrument rating (multi-IFR rating).

I was just wondering if you all could give me advice on the steps i should take to become an airline pilot, and if anyone has taken this program, how has it helped you? Any information will be greatly appreciated.

[BKerns]

Good way to start a career as a pilot.

But a great way would be Confederation in Thunder Bay.

[imac0960]

I would recommend Sault College or Confederation College. It all depends on where you want to end up. In my opinion, Confed seems to be geared towards Bush Ops but you get done a year sooner. Sault College however is more geared towards airline ops. I know many people who have graduated from both and are happily employed in flying careers. When you break it down, Sault College gives you a CPL SMEL Grp 1 instrument rating. Something valued at around 40-50k depending how fast you complete it. All you pay is 7 semesters of tuition. Confed, CPL SELS, IATRA and INRAT for 5 semesters of tuition.

I wouldn't say either is better or worse, just different. It all depends on what you want to do.

[DCL415]

I have done the same research and I'll be applying in both colleges next year.
The big difference is that in Sault College the first semester is all books and no flying, you start flying if you pass the first semester to start flying and in confed you start flying from the first semester.
Please correct me if I'm wrong

[Docbrad]

Like imac said, it depends what you want. If you want to take an extra year and get a degree, Seneca is also a good choice. I am currently in my third year at Sault College. You can PM me if you have any specific questions.

[imac0960]

Correct. No flying at Sault until second semester and you have to maintain a 3.2 GPA to keep flying. Confed has a nice new shiny campus and a large fleet of aircraft that vary in size and have different equipment. Sault flies the Zlin which is a pretty slick plane and I believe most have Garm 430's installed. Can't go wrong really. Either way will end up saving you a ton of cash and it's not what you know but who you know that will get you a job in aviation. The first job is the hardest IMO

[Docbrad]

Correct. No flying at Sault until second semester and you have to maintain a 3.2 GPA to keep flying. Confed has a nice new shiny campus and a large fleet of aircraft that vary in size and have different equipment. Sault flies the Zlin which is a pretty slick plane and I believe most have Garm 430's installed. Can't go wrong really. Either way will end up saving you a ton of cash and it's not what you know but who you know that will get you a job in aviation. The first job is the hardest IMO

Just to correct you on a few things about Sault College. The required GPA is 3.1 (approximately 73% average) and only for first semester. After that, you only have to maintain a passing grade in all courses. Mind you, some courses require a 70% to pass.

The zlins are very well equipped with the new Aspen PFD 1000 display, which has all the flight instruments you need, and it's surrounded by all the original steam gauges, in order to learn both setups (glass and steam). All zlins are also equipped with the Garmin in GTN 650, a touch screen GPS that is WAAS enabled, so we can do LPV approaches

Edit: spelling

[Canoehead]

I've heard that some students are in their sixth year trying to complete the course.

If this is true, look elsewhere. All the Garmin/Aspen/WAAS/'glass' catch-phrases in the world won't make up for that kind of lost time.

[Docbrad]

No one is in their 6th year

There are some that are behind, but it is in no way the school's fault. Personally, I am on time, and a majority of my graduating year will be good to go by the end of the summer, latest. The people that fell behind are those that took time off when they should have been flying, and who call in sick because they don't feel like flying, or actually failed academically and therefore got held back a year.

Don't be so quick to blame the school, just because they do

[DCL415]

I had the change to sit in one of those Zlins last year and visit the hangar and campus. For starting this year is too late for me but ill be applying for the next

[imac0960]

Sounds like they have a pretty nice setup at Sault now. Good luck to all applicants! As for Confed grads, I would recommend a drive up to Red Lake in the spring and see if anyone needs a dock hand. A lot of people get up there and hate it and walk out in the middle of the night. If you want to fly floats it's the place for you. Usually some people get onto a C180/185/206 by the end of the season but it is not always the case

[Alpha_Bravo_Charlie]

Correct. No flying at Sault until second semester and you have to maintain a 3.2 GPA to keep flying. Confed has a nice new shiny campus and a large fleet of aircraft that vary in size and have different equipment. Sault flies the Zlin which is a pretty slick plane and I believe most have Garm 430's installed. Can't go wrong really. Either way will end up saving you a ton of cash and it's not what you know but who you know that will get you a job in aviation. The first job is the hardest IMO

Never knew Confed had a 'new' campus. What campus is this?

[SM16]

No one is in their 6th year

There are some that are behind, but it is in no way the school's fault. Personally, I am on time, and a majority of my graduating year will be good to go by the end of the summer, latest. The people that fell behind are those that took time off when they should have been flying, and who call in sick because they don't feel like flying, or actually failed academically and therefore got held back a year.

Don't be so quick to blame the school, just because they do

One of the most uninformative post ever. Yes some are behind because of failing. But the school played a major part in why many are behind. Best thing I can say is stay ignorant. Just keep flying. But don't say "don't blame the school"

[Colonel Sanders]

Not sure anyone cares, but if you wanted to,
you could get those qualifications in one year
of flight training.

I remember meeting a guy in the USA that
went from zero to CPL/IFR/CFI in one year.

I guess we do things slower here. Back to
your six year program.

[Docbrad]

I chose to take three years to do it here, because all of my flying is paid for by the government, among other things

[photofly]

I chose to take three years to do it here, because all of my flying is paid for by the government, among other things

Ah... the Canadian way!

[Pop n Fresh]

I chose to take three years to do it here, because all of my flying is paid for by the government, among other things

Ah... the Canadian way!

I wonder if they'd buy me a monkey? Or pizza! I like pizza.

[Colonel Sanders]

all of my flying is paid for by the government

It's not hard to see why the Ontario government
has racked up $300 BILLION in public debt, spending
money on addressing the critical shortage of 200hr
wonders.

That's not federal debt. That's just the looney
provincial government:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_government_debt

Under Dalton McGuinty-led Liberal government, the total debt has more than doubled from $132.6 billion in 2002-2003 to over $288.1 billion in 2013-2014

Keep on voting for Dalton, people! He's your hero!

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/02/20 ... e-company/

TORONTO — Ontario Provincial Police executed a search warrant Wednesday as part of their investigation into the deletion of emails on cancelled gas plants by staff in former premier Dalton McGuinty’s office.

Police would say only that the search warrant had been executed, and would not confirm media reports that the raid took place at a Mississauga storage facility where old government computers are kept.

Police were called in after the Progressive Conservatives complained senior staff in McGuinty’s office deleted emails about the Liberal’s decision to kill planned gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga prior to the 2011 election, at a cost of up to $1.1 billion.

You elected him THREE times - you can make the
same mistake again!

[Pop n Fresh]

You still had a bunch of money left after you paid taxes last year Colonel. The government needs it to educate the kids so they can afford to sign bonds to become pilots flying the retired politicians private jets.

Oh and they need catering, coke and champagne in the galley. Thanks.

[Colonel Sanders]

Back on topic ... Sault St Marie must be
the worst place in Ontario for flight training.

It has weather as bad as the east coast.

If I was going to solo someone there, I
would be sure that they could do a zero/zero
ILS in known icing.

[Alpha_Bravo_Charlie]

Back on topic ... Sault St Marie must be
the worst place in Ontario for flight training.

It has weather as bad as the east coast.

If I was going to solo someone there, I
would be sure that they could do a zero/zero
ILS in known icing.

How 'bad' is bad?

[Colonel Sanders]

Look at a map of the Sault. When the wind is
from ANY direction except the northeast, moisture
is scooped up from a great lake (pick one) and
dumped on it.

Travelled from CYOW to CYQT yesterday and
was reminded of this. Perfect wx everywhere
except the Soo, because the wind was out of
the west. Can't have a wind out of the west
at the Soo, because you have lake effect off
of Superior.

There's always the easy way, and the hard
way to do things. The great lakes make a
lot of IFR wx, which is not what you want
for ab initio flight training. Or even IFR in
the winter, if you can't get rapidly above it.

[Elessar_44]

The argument of "government paid for my flight training" from Soo or Confed or whatever is misleading. The student still has to pay tuition, which is quite high. Talking to some coworkers who are grads of those various programs, none paid significantly less than another who did their training sans college program.

In my opinion, better off to do your training via a decent FTU and get a post-secondary education in something other than "Aviation Science" or whatever those programs are called. Because, guess what, if you shoot your eye out with a BB gun or develop diabetes at age 34 and lose your medical, no other profession will care about your degree in aviation.

[SM16]

The argument of "government paid for my flight training" from Soo or Confed or whatever is misleading. The student still has to pay tuition, which is quite high. Talking to some coworkers who are grads of those various programs, none paid significantly less than another who did their training sans college program.

In my opinion, better off to do your training via a decent FTU and get a post-secondary education in something other than "Aviation Science" or whatever those programs are called. Because, guess what, if you shoot your eye out with a BB gun or develop diabetes at age 34 and lose your medical, no other profession will care about your degree in aviation.

I'm thinking about getting a history major just incase I lose my medical. I know companies will be jumping at the opportunity for me to work for them.

Planning ahead 101

[checkremarks]

allan125, I graduated the Sault Program not long ago, PM me if you have any specific questions if you like.