Helicopter Flight Information
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Helicopter Flight Information |
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Flight Training - Deciding on a Flight School... Click for more detail: Sallie Mae Financing How long should training really take? Is a part 141 school really better? You are faced with a tough decision that could have a long-term effect on your life! If you don't read this in detail, you are selling yourself out! I have had three very good friends who at different times, were the victims of flight school scamming. I have since made it one of my primary goals to keep as many potential students informed in an effort to prevent them from becoming the victim of a scam. Flight training is expensive and every student deserves a fair shake while at the same time, they owe their instructor and the flight school involved, their complete devotion to their teaching efforts. Here are some flags which may indicate that a school that may be scamming: Be very cautious of any school which hides their programs inside blanket pricing (more schools are doing this now than ever) statements and which also gives false indications of cost comparisons to market averages. A quick look on the internet is an easy way to find such schools. Outrageous costs should be a flag as well. Any time your (career pilot) training is going to cost significantly more than $65,000 something may be wrong. Be cautious of schools that put down (degrade) certain makes and models of helicopters stating that they are not real helicopters, or insinuating that they may be dangerous. This is a definite indicator of a school desperate for YOUR money. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is! Be cautious of in-house financing, or of signing a contract which will result in you losing your money if the flight school defaults. Just because a flight school is large is absolutely no indication that it is a good school; some of the biggest rip-offs of all time have been from the largest part 141 flight schools. Often times a smaller school will take better care of their students on a much more personal level, because they need your good word-of-mouth, and you should do just that, be vocal about your good training experience. Large schools often can not get students through in a reasonable time due to aircraft scheduling problems as a result of student/aircraft/instructor ratio congestion. If you are thinking about going to a large school, ask how many students they have, and how many aircraft they have. Then you can do the math yourself. No school is going to turn a student away even if the can not actually accommodate another student on the available aircraft schedules. A serious student should be able to log a minimum of 40 flight hours per month; this is an average of 10 hours per week, or 1.4 hours per day. A given aircraft can only accommodate 3 full-time students, and a few part-time students. Any more than this, and someone is not going to be flying, period. With the above schedule, the aircraft will fly 120 hours a month, and often much more. There will be maintenance issues, and there will be weather days. You would be surprised just how much a flight schedule will get backed up from just one day of unscheduled maintenance, and unscheduled maintenance will occur; anyone who says otherwise is lying. Any serious student can achieve their ratings according to this schedule:
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