Westwind was great to me!

250blue said:
I agree that WW was a good place to be when I was there. I didn't mind the progress checks in general as I think they find some "holes" that an instructor flying everyday with the student may not uncover. However, I thought there were too many checks (could do 1 or 2 at the most per rating), and that some of the check airmen took them well above and beyond what they were supposed to accomplish.
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The main problem is that they do not have quality training to get the students past their rediculous number of stage checks.

I remember the check pilot (if you want to call him that) asking me the most off the wall questions during the oral portion of the stage check. I managed to get through his off the topic questions but asked him....... where is that in the flight instructor PTS? He said, it's not. I said, stick to the PTS, this isn't a 121 ride. Nothing they did at Westwind made sense. Jim Pitman just tried to make up his own curriculum, which was a disaster waiting to happen in my eyes.

I think the effort was there, he just lacked the experience to be a Cheif pilot...

ILS
 
CLR4ILS said:
Jim Pitman just tried to make up his own curriculum, which was a disaster waiting to happen in my eyes.

I think the effort was there, he just lacked the experience to be a Cheif pilot...

ILS
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I met the guy a couple of times and have to say that he tried to pull some crap over on me. What a tool.
 
turbinesurgeon said:
I think WSA is more like a $2 hooker but you pay $100,000
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I think that was probably the case for a few people I met there, but I went through the program at the cost they quoted and almost in the same amount of time. One other guy who started with me finished even quicker and also on budget. Another guy I knew there wound up not being able to finish his CFI after spending over $100,000. So who knows. I studied a lot, and now I'm at a regional, so I have no complaints (about Westwind). I'm not Jim Pitman, or Wally Z, nor would I defend their anal retentiveness. Maybe I got lucky with the instructors and check airmen I had, but it is possible to make it at Westwind. Or at least it was when I finished up there in '04.
 
ORDinary said:
I think that was probably the case for a few people I met there, but I went through the program at the cost they quoted and almost in the same amount of time. One other guy who started with me finished even quicker and also on budget. Another guy I knew there wound up not being able to finish his CFI after spending over $100,000. So who knows. I studied a lot, and now I'm at a regional, so I have no complaints (about Westwind). I'm not Jim Pitman, or Wally Z, nor would I defend their anal retentiveness. Maybe I got lucky with the instructors and check airmen I had, but it is possible to make it at Westwind. Or at least it was when I finished up there in '04.
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I didn't have any problems with the instructors. I had a few good ones and a few not so good ones which is the norm for most flight schools. The problem is there is no accountability and that is why some people finish at $100,000. Westwind doesn't care that students go way over budget because thats just more money in their pocket. The sad part is when I was flight instructing at another school I would get a lot of ex Westwind students who were treated this way. We were accountable for keeping students on budget and on track for there training needs. I fly for a very good airline now, but I will not give WW any credit for that, I will give the good flight instuctors that trained me credit but not WW. I just think that WW has very poor bussiness practices.
 
turbinesurgeon said:
I didn't have any problems with the instructors. I had a few good ones and a few not so good ones which is the norm for most flight schools. The problem is there is no accountability and that is why some people finish at $100,000. Westwind doesn't care that students go way over budget because thats just more money in their pocket. The sad part is when I was flight instructing at another school I would get a lot of ex Westwind students who were treated this way. We were accountable for keeping students on budget and on track for there training needs. I fly for a very good airline now, but I will not give WW any credit for that, I will give the good flight instuctors that trained me credit but not WW. I just think that WW has very poor bussiness practices.
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Where are you at now turbinesurgeon. I think we were in the same private groundschool.
 
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