How is This School Doing
Moderators: Right Seat Captain, lilfssister, North Shore, sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako
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Re: How is This School Doing
Could someone with experience with hour rates and requirements see if their training hours look normal?
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Re: How is This School Doing
Go check out PFC then. They're right next to CFC in ZBB. I went there and can recommend it. Lots of great pilots have come out of that school.
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Re: How is This School Doing
I honestly wouldn't really worry about the exams. You can self study easily and write them once you hit 750. Our ATPL exams are worthless overseas anyways. Might want to look into that if you are thinking of flying in Europe. It's a totally different license. I wouldn't make my choice in schools just because they have an iATPL program.
Re: How is This School Doing
Licensed pilots can fly down to Transport Canada weather minima. Students must observe flying school weather minima, which are much stricter.David Bayyari wrote:Weather is not a factor. I believe their minimums is 1 mile? Works for IFR, unless I am wrong.
...laura
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Re: How is This School Doing
It's unlikely to help you getting a job outside of Canada, and most certainly not in Europe (even assuming you have the right to reside/work there), I wouldn't consider that to be a factor in your decision-making.I still want ATPL exams done, in case I could get a job elsewhere, like Europe.
As other posters have suggested, correspond with former students regarding their experiences to get a grasp of what you may be dealing with. Flight Schools are a business, first and foremost...their goal is to take your money from you. Your goal is to get the best training and value-for-money possible from them in exchange for your cash, which is what they're all trying to sell you...but once you're signed up and underway, reality often doesn't meet expectations. You're unlikely to get an honest appraisel from anybody except former students who are prepared to share the good and the bad they experienced.
Don't worry about the uniform, from what I've seen it's usually another way to make a few dollars out of students and that white shirt will get very dirty very easily.
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Re: How is This School Doing
If it were an option, I'd strongly recommend not doing training in Boundary Bay, especially ab initio. The airport is freakishly busy for a low time pilot to focus on more important things like flying an airplane. Try a slower or quieter airport. The time you spend going to Glen Valley for the practice area each flight can also add up quickly $$$$. Maybe CFC understands this and that's why they suggested their Kamloops base. I do see more of their international students fly up here...
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Re: How is This School Doing
Meh, I agree and disagree. Yes, there are days that it can be annoying but training in ZBB was a good experience. Busy airport, lots of radio work, transition of other busy airspace. It make the transition to an actual working environment easy. And the whole argument of the time to fly to the bees nest is $$$ is invalid. Last time I checked it's 200 hour to get a CPL. Having to fly 10 minutes to the practice area isn't really going to increase your costs and there is lots you can work on during the transit. There's also Pitt Lake and Pitt Meadows airport to practice at.