Pro course now $36,000

Ok so the Pro Pilot Course at the Aviator is $35,995.00
Books are $600.00
Insurance and Administrative Fee $ 200.00
Written Exams $ 680.00
Examiners Fees $2,200.00

Total $39,675.00

That includes 3 months of housing

It does not include any food or other miscellaneous expenses while at the school.
Other charges that would not be included are such things as busting a check ride and having to retake it, Going extremely over your hours for any one of the ratings.

I would highly recommend to anyone that is looking for a better price break down to call the school and talk with Mary she will break it down for you and let you know what you can expect to pay for each rating.

Oh and by the way there Is not $1,500.00 fuel surcharge Yes fuel did go up this year and the price of the Pro course along with the time building cost went up accordingly. As you may see at the Gas pump Auto fuel has went down, however with 100LL being a specialty fuel the price has not gone down that much.
 
Did you include only the flying and/or ground time that ATP instructors get paid for? When I talked to them before I made my decision to come here, every time I called I got one of their instructors on the phone. I'm guessing most flight schools with guarantees have other admin/etc. work that needs done helped out with by instructors not flying or teaching ground. It's not mandatory here but I know a lot of instructors who are helping out around the school doing various things to supplement their income if they don't have a source from elsewhere which would make up a lot of the difference you have in your equation. I'd also hate to think my instructor was forcing more ground on me than I'd need just to supplement their paycheck or so they wouldn't have to answer phones or do some filing. Granted, you also want an instructor that gives you enough ground even if it's not paid so that you do well, but I think most instructors would want a pass for you anyway or wouldn't want you to go to another instructor and lose you entirely.

Frankly I'm not sure how you get $2000 for books...based on my costs when I got here it came out that once I removed minimum flight hours for the program I came out to about $1800 left over out of the total and subtract the 3 months "included" rent which would is at the stated $500 per month and that left about $360 for books of which I have quite a pile. Knowing what books cost (especially the POH and you also get a fuel strainer jar), that's not too bad, IMHO.

Now, as to the costs of the programs....ATP requires you have your private with 25 hours of PIC cross country AND a total time of 85 hours and Aviator does not. This cost hasn't been addressed on the ATP side of the equation. They offer C172 time *if* they have schedule and availability for you (right from their prerequisites web page). However if you just finished your PPL with 40 or 45 hours, you're going to basically have to double that before going to ATP or pay for it there before you start the 90 day program there. 40 hours in a plane costing $90 an hour is $3600...that's probably a decent average...some places may vary in cost and then if you're like me and don't have an FBO with several planes to get it done it might take a while to do it.

For me ATP would have been a LOT more expensive and the extra interest on loans would have added even more to that in the time it takes to pay them off. They didn't want to do a finish up job on my PPL for me and I didn't want to start it over. Here I was able to do it quickly and after letting them know how many hours I had I came in about $400 under the guestimate I was given which is always a good thing. Plus I didn't have to then do a bunch of PIC cross-country time in order to start the Professional Course, I went right into it. If you start with no hours at ATP or here, look at the price difference there...you're looking at another $4000 easy. This is definitely the best bang for the buck for me and many others in trying to minimize debt, get some good multi-engine time in, and for me finishing up my private which was taking forever back home.

Oh, and checkride fees here are pretty much $300 per, so just counting the Pro program it comes out to more like $2200 or something if you don't fail any checkrides (which nobody wants to do, right?) and that takes about $800 more off of the Ari Ben side of the equation.
 
CommPilot76 said:
however with 100LL being a specialty fuel the price has not gone down that much.
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At the Jet Service Center
Price last year $3.50
Price right now $3.25 according to Airnav

Mike likes to brag that he gets fueled so cheap but the price of the program is going up.

for disclosure purposes I think it's important that everyone knows both Catherine and Commpilot76 are paid employees of the school
 
Gonzo said:
At the Jet Service Center
Price last year $3.50
Price right now $3.25 according to Airnav

Mike likes to brag that he gets fueled so cheap but the price of the program is going up.

for disclosure purposes I think it's important that everyone knows both Catherine and Commpilot76 are paid employees of the school
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I would like to note that Catherine made posts like that when she was a student and training before she was ever employed by the school.
 
BrianNC said:
I would like to note that Catherine made posts like that when she was a student and training before she was ever employed by the school.
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Catherine has been receiving compensation for posts on jetcareers for a while even while she was just a student.
 
That's a very sensible argument Catherine. I did not know that ATP required you to have the 85hrs before you start with them. To be honest though, like many other guys, I DID have the 85hrs when I started at the Aviator so it would not have been an issue had I chosen to start with ATP.

However you have taken at least 9-10 months to get your ratings. That is about average for a motivated student, courtesy of all the mis-management BS you have to put up with at the Aviator. At ATP, motivated students like you get done in three months. That's 6 months sooner at ATP. One month of livings costs about $1000 so that has cost you about $6000. Add in the fact you would have been earning money at ATP as a CFI and the financial picture changes quite a bit. Today Catherine, had you attended ATP, you could be starting ground school for an RJ, rather than having to face the prospect of working for Aviator.

I admire your loyalty to the school and the way you present your arguments. I think it's misplaced loyalty though and those dirtbags who run the show at Aviator ain't doing you no favors in return! How does it feel to have taken so long to do a course that was scheduled for 5-6 months? Time to see the light people.
 
Florida_Flyer said:
However you have taken at least 9-10 months to get your ratings. That is about average for a motivated student, courtesy of all the mis-management BS you have to put up with at the Aviator.
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That is the best quote I've seen. Most of the problems at the aviator have nothing to do with the price or the planes or the weather or maintenance. Most of the problems have to do under qualified (and sometimes just rude) people running the school in every department. They don't know their job responsibilities or the law regarding their job responsibilities.
 
Gonzo, how long till they take down this post? I guess the lightning bolts you promised are finally here. How's the commercial single coming?
 
The post is not going anywhere I haven't said anything untrue or taken personal attacks and any one.


How come you haven't been picked up by Colgan yet? How is my boy Nick doing you should invite him to the web site.
 
Gonzo said:
The post is not going anywhere I haven't said anything untrue or taken personal attacks and any one.


How come you haven't been picked up by Colgan yet? How is my boy Nick doing you should invite him to the web site.
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I had to go to my sisters wedding along with a few other things. Right now I'm sitting in the computer lab at my Alma Mater while my girlfriend defends her dissertation. So I haven't applied to Colgan yet. However, Andy got hired though along with Joe and John from crystal river. Nik just passed his instrument ride so he's doing ok.

I didn't say that you were making personal attacks on anyone, just that you're being your typical Gonzo self ;). (what do you mean it's rude to ask if someones dad is a scab two minutes after you meet them.)
 
You can't let John beat you to Southwest. I like Nick he is a good guy and it was more like five minutes after him. FYI: I was right
 
Gonzo said:
You can't let John beat you to Southwest. I like Nick he is a good guy and it was more like five minutes after him. FYI: I was right
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I know you like Nik, I'm just saying that you were being Ernie. Who else would go through the trouble of studying a 30 year old scab list. You know if the medical thing doesn't work out I bet you could get a job with the Mossad hunting Nazi gold.(not intended to be a poke at your ethnicity, but it probably is.) John won't beat me, I have a college degree....famous last words
 
Gonzo said:
Catherine has been receiving compensation for posts on jetcareers for a while even while she was just a student.
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that's a pretty *big* statement there Gonzo.. got any physical proof to back that up? Feel free to PM doug or myself.
 
First, I'd like to see the denial from Catherine. If somebody has accused me of being paid to make positive posts then I would deny it pretty fast. Unless, it was true. Even if it's true and she is just Mike's latest puppet, I say let her post. She's only putting Mike's view forward.

As for removing the post, well, yeah, I'm sure MC, will have called JC, by now to see what he can get done. But, the posts that I made and the ones Gonzo, made were both backed up with hard figures. It's hard not to make personal attacks when it's just a few specific people who are at the route of the problem. Truth hurts, as they say.
 
There is no denial. I've just been busy and wanting to get everything clarified before posting. I was asked to come back to the boards by Mike after I had been missing for a few months when I got busy with my ratings and timebuilding. I continued to offer advice and regular postings as before, however since it's been brought up, Doug has asked that if I want to be on here and paid to be a representative of the school just to let everyone know in my signature as had been done on other boards so I have modified my signature to show that. I'm happy that Doug wants to have official representation by schools here in such a fashion so that potential students and even current ones can ask direct questions and get them answered in an official manner.

Mike is happy to have me here offering advice and opinion knowing that I've had a very positive experience here and I have a very positive attitude about life in general. So I'm now an official representative for Ari Ben Aviator here on the forums. So if anyone has any questions about the school you can ask me and I can either direct you to the right person or get the information for you.

Why am I doing this? Because I believe in this school. I've gotten exactly what I paid for here and I still believe that it was and is the best route for me to have taken with my flight training. I like being here, this school and where I'm at are home to me, I do not feel like home is elsewhere right now. I do know that there are some people who've had bad experiences here and I believe you have the right to tell people about them, however the school will now have an official voice on here if need to be tell their side of the story as well...your Avatar is right Florida Flyer, this should be a Free Speech Zone where you can speak of your experiences with this school and that the school has that same freedom to speak of their experiences or opinions as well. That doesn't mean personal attacks, but common respect for each other here in discussing those experiences.

Some of you may think I'm just a puppet, and yes I am helping to forward the view of the school officially now and but I'm also a satisfied customer wanting to put forward my personal opinions as well.

Thanks to Doug and Kristie and everyone who runs JetCareers for such a great forum for people to discuss their aviation experiences. I know this board made a difference in my choosing of a school and in how that worked out.
 
Florida_Flyer said:
As for removing the post, well, yeah, I'm sure MC, will have called JC, by now to see what he can get done.
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Factually incorrect.

Let me go check the caller-ID in the home office and my SkypeIn voicemail before I speak to make sure I'm not talking out of my butt and embarassing myself...

Nope, no calls from Ari Ben whatsoever.

Standards and practices of Jetcareers.com isn't deleting and tailoring forums to please advertisers, it's pretty much an open forum until there are blatantly slanderous posts that would wind me up in legal difficulties.

Here's the scoop, representatives are more than welcome (and invited) to post in the forums as long as they identify themselves as such. Catherine didn't identify herself, but she is now and that's hunky dory -- but I take the blame for that because I presumed everyone remembered my admonition that the DCA/Comair reps do such and my rule wasn't clear.

I'd like to foster a smoother flow of information on the forums. We could rant and rave amongst each other about "OMG! 1234AB is down for MX! I can't believe they're passing on increased fuel costs to the consumer!" but unless the message is reaching people who can make a difference, it devolves into inward contemplation of one's navel and doesn't accomplish anything.
 
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