ASA - American School of Aviation

Matthias

Matthias

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Okay guys, I have been studying a lot of offers and in the end I decided between Florida and California, and it is going to be the ASA - American Schoolf of Aviation in Atwater, CA. The prices are fair and they seem professional - during your career you can change between 7 different kinds of aircraft. Anyway, they have a god offer for europeans to do the capl there and afterwards the conversion to JAA in Norway... I think thas the right way for me. Anyway, for those who want to do the CFI you can do this as well and later on they offer you to work as FI in the school in order to make your ATP. I am one of the fortunate ones to live in europe so I dont have to get 1500hrs to get my atpl JAA. But though I am going to build some hours there to leave the U.S. with at least 500hrs.:rawk:

The only pain in the ass is the conversion to JAA, learn all the theoretics again.... :banghead:

Anyone has been to ASA or knows anybody who has been there??
 
I was looking at them too and this is what I found:

Recently some of their students from India contacted the media and the Indian consulate in regards to poor training and allegedly dishonest practices by the school. The students claimed they were kept in ground school and not allowed to fly because the school lacked enough instructors and airworthy airplanes.
The school counters the students in question are poor students.
 
Friday, May. 30, 2008
Flight school's follies lead to closure
By SCOTT JASON
sjason@mercedsun-star.com

A flight school at Castle Commerce Center is being sued for $56,000 in unpaid fuel bills.

Gemini Flight Support, which sells gasoline at the former Air Force base, filed a complaint Thursday in Merced County Superior Court against American School of Aviation.

It alleges that a $24,400 check from the school bounced May 19 due to insufficient funds. ASA also has about $32,000 in outstanding invoices, according to the complaint.

"A check of this size being returned is more than what we can bear," Gemini Flight Support vice president Jim Price said. "Given the price of fuel, we just absolutely can't afford to carry that kind of a debt load."

The flight school will also be investigated to see whether it was an accounting error or if the company knew the check would bounce, said Tom MacKenzie, spokesman for the Merced County Sheriff's Department.

The court case is among the recent issues with the flight school, which primarily trains foreign students, often from India, to become commercial pilots. It's been at Castle Commerce Center since 2005.

County officials grounded its flights earlier this month because the school no longer had a valid insurance policy, and Merced city leaders found that ASA was using its airport as makeshift training ground without a necessary business license.

Also, a few students have been demanding that their tuition be returned because they're unsatisfied with the amount of time they spent in the sky. A couple of others have won small claims against the school.

Last month, a judge awarded student Shailendra Kapoor $7,500 for breach of contract and emotional stress, according to Merced court records. Tuition for a pilot's license can run about $40,000.

ASA president Manpreet Singh, who typically goes by Prince Singh, only responded by e-mail. He was served with a copy of the lawsuit late in the day and didn't respond for comment about the civil case.

Earlier in the day, he wrote that about 5 percent of the students are unhappy or drop out because their learning style doesn't match up with the American School of Aviation's standards.

"And this is quite normal and expected," he wrote.

The business is in the middle of a restructuring so it can train more students. It's preparing to move to a larger building at the former U.S. Air Force base. By August, Singh hopes to train about 300 students at a time.

Amarnadh Kachepalli, a 26-year-old student from Andhra Pradesh, a state in India, left the school in March after three months because he only spent one hour in the sky training.

"There's no education at all," he said. "There's no flying."

Kachepalli said he believes he should have recorded about 80 hours in that time. School officials assured him that he could earn his pilot's license in six to eight months, he said.

Each student needs to spend about 200 hours in the sky and the same amount on the ground to qualify for license, Singh said. Most of the early coursework is done in the classroom.

A commercial license typically requires a year's worth of training, he said.

Kachepalli has been contacting various local, state and federal agencies as well as the Indian Consulate to see if they can force the school to return about $52,000, which includes his tuition, living expenses and the cost to transfer to a different school.

He holds a master's in business administration and said he left his job working for a hospital to come to America for a year.

Kachepalli heard from current students that the school has been shut down for the past two weeks and are unsure of what's happening.

County spokesman Mark Hendrickson said Castle managers grounded the school's flights May 15 when they learned the business' insurance policy had lapsed.

The county could have been held liable had any of the flights crashed. The ban was lifted Thursday when the school showed Castle officials that it had a new insurance policy, Hendrickson said.

Singh denied that the county ever grounded the school's flights.

The school's planes were spotted at Merced Municipal Airport last week in the midst of the county's flying ban.

The city airfield was being used as a makeshift school until Thursday, city spokesman Mike Conway said. Airport officials were unsuccessful in contacting the school's managers.

ASA was operating without a business license, Conway said, which amounts to a misdemeanor. The city's evaluating whether to call for an investigation.

Stan Thurston, Gemini's president, said he heard from a school manager that it was going to suspend its operation until next week.

He won't be selling the school any gasoline until the court case ends, either by a judge's decision or when the school pays its outstanding bills.

Reporter Scott Jason can be reached at (209) 385-2453 or sjason@mercedsun-star.com.
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Yeah, I think it might be a good idea to pass on that one. Come on, not even a business license! :banghead:
 
I think this is the same guy (Prince) who did his flight training at my flight school, Wings Over California, San Jose in 1995. He had come from India on our 1-yr student visa, and ended up overstaying it, and is probably staying illegal in the US. I had also heard that he used to work at a liquor store without INS permission. He had cheated our school of $4000 which couldn't be proved. I don't think this guy has much of a respect for rules and laws of this country.
 
Friday, Jun. 20, 2008

Flight school scrambling to find a buyer

By SCOTT JASON
sjason@mercedsun-star.com


CASTLE -- Manpreet "Prince" Singh sat in his office at Castle Commerce Center hunched above his laptop computer and smoking Camels. He's been busy trying to sell -- and save -- his fledgling pilot school.
Time's running out.
"It's been busy around here," he said in his smoke-stained voice, adding that he's more of a pilot than a businessman.
As a result, his flight school has hit a patch of turbulence.
ASA's fleet of planes is grounded by a Merced County order, a lawsuit was filed against the school for $52,000 in unpaid gasoline bills and the FAA has been keeping tabs on what's happening there.
ASA's management blames the school's financial troubles on recruiters in India who stole thousands of dollars in student deposits and tuition, the increase in fuel prices and the loss of a lucrative relationship with a top Indian airline.
Those factors eroded the business' profit margin leaving its managers the option of thinning the operation, shutting it down or selling it off, said vice president Reny Kozman.
The school must raise $605,000 in the next three months to survive, according to a breakdown of the business' troubles shared with the Sun-Star.
At the moment, ASA is for sale and a few companies are interested, she said. An announcement may be made in the coming days.
If those options fall apart, the school will be forced to close it doors and declare bankruptcy, she said.
Until now, American School of Aviation's management has declined to elaborate on what's been happening at pilot training operation, which has been a Castle Commerce Center tenant since 2005.
Vocal former students, demanding tuition refunds, have blasted the school for not paying up and fault it for not providing adequate training. Current students defend the school and say they believe Singh will find a way to resume their training.
"I'm not worried," said Dee Bak, a 28-year-old student from Bombay who's a few months shy of his commercial license. "I know whatever he promised, he will deliver."
Kozman concedes that some former students deserving refunds have not been paid because of the school's money problems. However, the school maintains high standards and some students can't handle the academic rigor.
Aviation students must be self-starters. Many of ASA's, often from India, get distracted by living in America and away from home, Bak said.
"When it comes to this school, you have to deliver," he said.
The company's financial woes began in April 2007, when company employees in India pocketed student deposits and $140,000 in tuitions, Kozman said.
Months later, Kingfisher Airlines canceled a deal with the flight school that guaranteed job interviews for some graduates, Kozman said. The school doesn't know why the relationship ended.
That loss resulted in fewer students applying to the school, and meant the school had to spend $72,000 on marketing in other countries.
In the past year, fuel prices have increased, nearing $6 per gallon. ASA based its tuition on $3.50 a gallon and has recently begun charging students a fuel surcharge.
Complicating matters is that the school's planes have been grounded for the past two weeks because it isn't carrying an insurance policy demanded by Merced County. Kozman said the demand came out of nowhere.
Also, Federal Aviation Administration officials have been frequently inspecting its records. She counts 109 visits in the past 12 months, a number the FAA won't confirm.
"I need to have the FAA off my back so I have something to sell," Kozman complained.
FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said the FAA watches pilot schools regularly and checks records for safety standards.
"We do more surveillance on the schools we receive complaints about," he said, declining to elaborate.
Bhavana Naik, a 21-year-old student from Mumbai, is trying to get an $8,500 refund for her tuition because she decided against going for a private pilot certificate.
Kozman concedes the school owes Naik money, though the refund depends on ASA's future.
"If I can, I will," Kozman said. "If I can't, I won't."
Reporter Scott Jason can be reached at (209) 385-2453 or sjason@mercedsun-star.com.
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It's about time all the wrongdoings the people of this company caught up with them. Feel bad for all the people who aren't going getting their money back.
 
Castle flight students evicted over school's overdue bill

By SCOTT JASON
sjason@mercedsun-star.com

About 100 student pilots at Castle Commerce Center were evicted from their dormitories Friday because their embattled flight school didn't pay its overdue water bill.
"The enthusiasm and feeling of excitement in the U.S. is no more," 19-year-old student Nauman Ahmed said sullenly. "We trusted (the school's owner)."
Ahmed has been an American School of Aviation student for a year-and-a-half and is about 20 hours of flying shy of his commercial certification.
Like most of ASA's students, he's owed money and not sure what his future -- or the school's future -- holds.
The sullen move-out was filled with students cracking dry jokes about their hopes and dreams, now dashed.
Expectations remain low. The school's being sued by Gemini Flight Support for $52,000 in unpaid gasoline bills and also by a former student wanting $23,000 in tuition returned. Most recently, it didn't pay its Merced County water bill, due in late May.
County lawyers are deciding what to do to collect the unpaid bill, spokesman Mark Hendrickson said. Any action would go before the Board of Supervisors for approval.
The students were forced to leave the apartments, rented by ASA and subleased to them, because it's against health code to live somewhere without running water.
Some of the students are staying with friends and others have flown back to India.
The school is shut down and either in the process of being sold or relocated, according to its managers. Students were told Thursday night by owner Manpreet Singh that he was opening it in Sacramento, where their training would resume.
He didn't say when or at what airport. The students, expecting bankruptcy, will believe that when they're back in the air.
Singh didn't respond to the Sun-Star for comment.
"We're totally confused," 18-year-old Nigel D'Souza said. "We don't know if we should trust him."
Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said the school relocating would have to be cleared with Homeland Security because it relates to the students' visas.
Students with wealthy parents can afford to transfer to a different flight school. The ones with bank loans, usually about $41,000, have to hope that he pulls the business out of its nosedive.
Ahmed sat outside of the apartment complex rolling up a poster with hand-drawn depictions of planes and the scrawled names of former students. It used to hand in his room, and he took it as a memento of his experience at this United States flight school.
In the center someone wrote, "Life is great."
Reporter Scott Jason can be reached at (209) 385-2453 or sjason@mercedsun-star.com.
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I worked there for about.. oh a week.. before I figured out they were corrupt as hell. This was back when they were at the Reid-Hillview location. They tried to open a location at another airport but didn't pay the power bill so the power was shut off. They told me to work an empty office with no power and only one piece of ####, not airworthy by any stretch, 152. Then when I said no, they told me they wouldn't pay me the money I had earned the previous days. To which I said "My lawyer will be in touch with you this afternoon." They paid me and I walked out. They were pushed out of Reid, no one wanted them there. Prince has always been a cheat and Reny is no better. The problem is that most nationals knew better and stayed far far away, but those who aren't used to American culture and business didn't see the warning signs and are now financially devastated. It is tragic. I hope those two burn.
 
FBI looking for Prince and Reny.
So is court system to serve them with lawsuit.

Wonder if their home is in foreclsoure?
 
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