Aviatior College

* correction. I think I was misunderstood. Aviator pays for pre and post flight. All I was trying to say it that they have consistent ground classes. The flying instructor still gets paid for the time before and after a flight...there just isn't that many "ground" hrs because the "ground" instructor takes care of that.

IMO...it is a good set up for people wanting to build time instructing and move on. Your "duty" day is less with aviator due to the reduced ground instruction needed.
 
jgheggie said:
* correction. I think I was misunderstood. Aviator pays for pre and post flight. All I was trying to say it that they have consistent ground classes. The flying instructor still gets paid for the time before and after a flight...there just isn't that many "ground" hrs because the "ground" instructor takes care of that.

IMO...it is a good set up for people wanting to build time instructing and move on. Your "duty" day is less with aviator due to the reduced ground instruction needed.
Click to expand...

Aviator does not pay for pre and post flight....the ground instructors get paid for the classroom. I work with someone who instructed there for 800 hours and according to him "Absolutly not! they do not pay for any ground work as a flight instuctor, anyone who thinks that is a complete retard". You sir, are wrong.
 
abolton1 said:
Aviator does not pay for pre and post flight....the ground instructors get paid for the classroom. I work with someone who instructed there for 800 hours and according to him "Absolutly not! they do not pay for any ground work as a flight instuctor, anyone who thinks that is a complete retard". You sir, are wrong.
Click to expand...
How long ago did he work there? I just text an old instructor that still works there and he is the one that told me they do.

It doesn't matter I guess. The original poster can make his decision based on what all of us have said. I'm not defending the pay. Perhaps it comes out below average. I'm not an instructor. Just giving insight to what I observed as a student at aviator.
 
jgheggie said:
How long ago did he work there? I just text an old instructor that still works there and he is the one that told me they do.

It doesn't matter I guess..
Click to expand...

It absolutely matters! If you have have 4 students a day and spend .5 with them between pre and post flight each, you short yourself 2 hours a day....40 bucks a day, 280 bucks a week, 1120 a month....granted .5 may be a little high, but with the average aptitude of aviator students its not that far out of the relm of possiblity...
 
abolton1 said:
It absolutely matters! If you have have 4 students a day and spend .5 with them between pre and post flight each, you short yourself 2 hours a day....40 bucks a day, 280 bucks a week, 1120 a month....granted .5 may be a little high, but with the average aptitude of aviator students its not that far out of the relm of possiblity...
Click to expand...
I didn't mean the extra .5 doesn't matter. I mean it doesn't matter to me how they pay...the OP has to choose...not me. So hopefully we have all given him enough info (good or bad) to make his decision.
 
Thanks for the information everyone,like I said before, this isn't the job I exactly have my heart set on, but never the less its a job, and Florida is in my scope. its a hard decision simply because I don't want to waste my time going down there for an interview, and the place ends up sucking. Even though working for Delta I can fly down there for free but it would suck missing work from both of my jobs, wasting my time, and the interviewers time, and yea to me pay does matter. Does that mean i'm trying to drive a mercedes to work every day? No, I just want to be able to pay my bills ,and at least afford a pack of ground beef. I do want to go to the airlines eventually, but i'm not in a rush to get to 1500 and zoom out, I want to instruct for a while and pass on all the knowledge I can to students to make them safe pilots. The biggest things i've heard was about MX, and I never heard the pay mentioned until I read the post on here, and yea not getting paid for Pre and post flight would suck. I'm not trying to rape students pockets, but lets be honest some students need more time than others,and it adds up.
 
Talk to instructors and see how many hours they really get a month. As a new instructor, don't expect to get more than 30 hours a month. That can really hurt, as you are paying more in rent/food/gas then you are actually making. Don't just listen to the marketing people, talk to the CFI's. Their planes are used A LOT. They are fairly well maintained, but it is not unusual to not be able to fly for 2-3 days at a time because everything is down. Checkrides get first priority, as do stage checks, so a normal lesson can get pushed back several days.

The campus is ok, and the airport is pretty good for training. The controllers are used to working with students, and are pretty good. I have been on approach for a visual on 10L and a "pilot" that doesn't speak or understand English is supposed to be on the ILS to 10R, and had them cross over and cut me off (within a few hundred feet) and land on 10L. They didn't even know that they did anything wrong. The Fort Pierce is a terrible area to live, in my opinion. I spent about 4 months there, and couldn't wait to get out. The area is just depressing.

The DPE's are "interesting" in that area. If you need your CFI-Initial, you will likely get McColgan. He was the gay that gave JFK Jr. his license. He also is one of the few DPE's that has gotten beat up after a check ride. He intentionally tries to make the student mad to see how they will react in a stressful environment. There are other ways of doing this, in my opinion. Most of the other FAA checkrides are given by Corchran. Decent guy, and a pretty easy check ride for most all ratings.

If I needed a CFI job and it was local for me, I might consider it. It would depend on the number of active students that they have, or are on a guaranteed contract to have, and how many CFI's they have and are hiring. It wasn't a terrible place, but I think that other schools are a little more reputable.
 
Last edited:
I'm not sure how that place has changed since 2008, but it was terrible then. I could write a book on it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PK
sweeps said:
I'm not sure how that place has changed since 2008, but it was terrible then. I could write a book on it.
Click to expand...
But was really that different than most other flight schools? I am no fan of Mike or the school but they seem about the same as 99% if the schools out there. Sad that most flight school are dirtbags but true.
 
Just this last weekend I did CFI spin training for one of their CFI academy candidates. He said it was pitched as a two month course and he's been there 7 months with no end in sight. The Aviator has a sister flight school that caters to foreign students and both outfits share the fleet. He described it as mass chaos amongst English and not English speaking staff and students. Plane scheduling is difficult, often double booked for the other operation and management runs around like a chicken with its head cut off, and they seem to enjoy that environment.

Sounds like a fun place. Good luck.
 
Gonzo said:
But was really that different than most other flight schools? I am no fan of Mike or the school but they seem about the same as 99% if the schools out there. Sad that most flight school are dirtbags but true.
Click to expand...

Well I guess you're probably right to an extent. I've never been to any big flight schools other than that place for comparison. I went there on the VA 141 program that I was told I could do in 90-120 days if I put all my effort into it. To quote Mike, "If you're not out partying and slacking in your studying it's totally possible." So I planned on not working, just living off of savings and flying and studying 5-7 days a week. Maintenance was a pretty big issue when I was there, so there was not much availability. Went through a lot of instructors, which I would expect at pilot mills, but even then I only had 2 good ones the entire time, and some pretty bad ones. It seems like I had to teach myself half the time. Their chief instructor was pretty cool, just overworked and unappreciated in my opinion. 7 months later I only had my Multi-Inst-Comm done, and was told they would be starting a 12 week MEI ground school in 3 weeks. Yeah, no thanks. I took what little money I had left and did my single comm add on and CFI at a 61 school in all of 2 months. Plus side was I got 170 multi while I was there, so I guess it was worth it in the long run, but I was never able to get my MEI or CFII due to lack of money. Guess I don't really need it now but I wanted to get all of that done.
 
sweeps said:
Well I guess you're probably right to an extent. I've never been to any big flight schools other than that place for comparison. I went there on the VA 141 program that I was told I could do in 90-120 days if I put all my effort into it. To quote Mike, "If you're not out partying and slacking in your studying it's totally possible." So I planned on not working, just living off of savings and flying and studying 5-7 days a week. Maintenance was a pretty big issue when I was there, so there was not much availability. Went through a lot of instructors, which I would expect at pilot mills, but even then I only had 2 good ones the entire time, and some pretty bad ones. It seems like I had to teach myself half the time. Their chief instructor was pretty cool, just overworked and unappreciated in my opinion. 7 months later I only had my Multi-Inst-Comm done, and was told they would be starting a 12 week MEI ground school in 3 weeks. Yeah, no thanks. I took what little money I had left and did my single comm add on and CFI at a 61 school in all of 2 months. Plus side was I got 170 multi while I was there, so I guess it was worth it in the long run, but I was never able to get my MEI or CFII due to lack of money. Guess I don't really need it now but I wanted to get all of that done.
Click to expand...
Every experience is different I guess. It's sad that schools cannot keep it consistant. I went there already having my private and I finished everything else with 190 multi in a little over 2 1/2 months.

Who is mike? I kind of remember an assistant chief pilot named mike but not sure...

Pierre was/is the chief pilot
 
Hi phill yeah I was recently there in November. And I had very good experience I went therefor time building and to get my multi commercial. I've seen some guys do very well there I've seen some guys do poorly. I had a great experience I went I got instructor she help me out tremendously very very high standards help me get done in a timeframe which was more than reasonable. I met some guys who had very bad attitudes and I noticed and get much done so I can't speak for what their experience was but the people I met see very positive. Some of the students are are young so they don't have the maturity to go there and fly get everything done so you have to take everything with a grain of salt. I met Mike the owner and spoke to him before I went there. I met him when I was there and every time he saw me he came over asked me how I was doing and made sure that I was happy with my instructor. Mike was probably one most caring as far as being out there walking around and checking on people and see that they were getting done. you can't please everybody it's impossible to run a business where you have hundreds of students and everybody's hundred percent happy but you're looking to go there flying to build hours I had a great experience. if you're looking at going to be an instructor they have lots of students so my experience was with nothing but good. And as far as from the maintenance side anytime I had any question within the plane a mechanic would come help. I even met with Chris the director of maintenance and had a question about some part of the plane and he took the time to sit down and explain it to me. you're not going to get that experience at a lot of fight schools. At least I haven't. All this was my experience of last month so I would take what you read online is a grain of salt and go check it out.
 
^^^ mike Cohen the owner...duh! I can't believe that slipped my mind. I thought he was a stand up guy! I had a maintenance issue time building at 3 am so I called dispatch. They said a mechanic would call me right back. Instead Mike called back and told me to take a cab to the holiday inn and he called ahead and gave them his credit card. When we got to the hotel the front desk gave us a bar menu and breakfast menu. She told us Mike said to order whatever we wanted.

Then Chris...Chris is an awesome pilot and director of maintenance! He flies so I think it makes him a better mechanic. He greeted me upon arrival home on several occasions just to ask you the plane was and how the trip was. He was very into meticulously maintaining his aircraft. Personally...I thought the maintenance was top notch.

But as I said in other posts...maybe the instructor pay isn't great?? I don't know...I'm not a cfi and I never instructed there. Just a student perspective!
 
jgheggie said:
Every experience is different I guess. It's sad that schools cannot keep it consistant. I went there already having my private and I finished everything else with 190 multi in a little over 2 1/2 months.

Who is mike? I kind of remember an assistant chief pilot named mike but not sure...

Pierre was/is the chief pilot
Click to expand...


Wow, that's what I was looking to do... Too bad it didn't happen. Apparently they've cleaned up their act somewhat. Pierre was great while I was there. Mike, not so much. Or that lady that ran the office. Glad it's worked out better for people.
 
sweeps said:
Wow, that's what I was looking to do... Too bad it didn't happen. Apparently they've cleaned up their act somewhat. Pierre was great while I was there. Mike, not so much. Or that lady that ran the office. Glad it's worked out better for people.
Click to expand...
I've hear bad things about "that lady" but I never actually saw her. When I was there her office was way out away from the school and she didn't seem to be involved with student life. Maybe it has changed...I don't know. Mike really stepped up the one night I had maintenance issues and he went above and beyond what I expected from the owner.

Plus...as for getting all your hours done fast, your instructor has to be willing to fly as much as you want. My instructor flew with me at 9pm often just so we could fly every day sometimes twice, and still accommodate his other students. And then when time building, I went mostly at night to avoid any scheduling woes. I have 290 tt and like 110 is night x country lol
 
It seems like its a bit of both worlds as far as experiences with this place. Sucks that Fort Pierce is in the middle of a swamp though, but can anyone tell me what ideal instructor pay is? Pardon my ignorance but this would be my first instructor job.
 
jgheggie said:
I've hear bad things about "that lady" but I never actually saw her. When I was there her office was way out away from the school and she didn't seem to be involved with student life. Maybe it has changed...I don't know. Mike really stepped up the one night I had maintenance issues and he went above and beyond what I expected from the owner.

Plus...as for getting all your hours done fast, your instructor has to be willing to fly as much as you want. My instructor flew with me at 9pm often just so we could fly every day sometimes twice, and still accommodate his other students. And then when time building, I went mostly at night to avoid any scheduling woes. I have 290 tt and like 110 is night x country lol
Click to expand...


Availability of planes was a big issue when I was needing the instruction. I did 55 hours of night solo XC in 11 days when I was at that portion in my syllabus. But during the day with all the students fighting over a handful of planes with check rides and stage checks it was a mess. Like I said it seems like they cleaned it up which is good. Maybe Mike got tired of all the bad info getting out on this site haha. Doesn't help me now though :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top