PlayaSteelo
New Member
To all,
What you are about to read may offend some and may enlighten others. Please note that this is simply my experience and results vary for each individual. I am in no way trying to encourage nor discourage anyone from attending Accessible Aviation. This is simply my personal experience. I only think it is right that I share my experience as many JCer’s have done in the past.
Some may ask, why after 3.5 months of leaving Accessible Aviation are you now writing your experience? Simple, I did not realize until now, how much of a negative impact this experience would actually have on my life. Further details will be discussed in the conclusion.
Wooo Saaaah! Bare with me as I write this, I am opening old wounds, which have yet to heal and still anger me. But my psychiatrist says this is part of the healing process.
So what’s all the fuss about?
Lets start from the beginning. I contacted Carl Nuzzo (Manager) around December of 2007 and I requested more information about the Instrument – Commercial courses being offered. I also described exactly what I was looking for and emphasized on the extreme importance of receiving high quality ground school. I was assured that all my demands would be met for a reasonable price.
As recommend by many JCers, I visited the school and brought a list of questions to ask. I met Carl and began the tour of the facility and later sat down for a detailed discussion. I’ll admit, he was the nicest flight school manager I had ever met and to say the least I was impressed! He told me exactly what I wanted to hear. The school has two hangars, a classroom and the office. They were the only flight school on the field at KGTR and the airport had very low activity. Which meant no long waiting times for departures, and more actual flying time. The airspace was not congested and seemed perfect for flight training. Most importantly Carl described how in-depth the ground school and flight training would be, and how it was structured very similar to the USAF. If there’s anything Carl is good at, it’s being a salesman. That same day Carl drew up a contract outlining everything we had discussed and we both singed it. My last question was when could I start? Carl’s response “late January early February 2008”.
When I got back home I was excited, determined and nervous all at the same time. I began studying full-time to prepare myself in advance. I even quit my job figuring I had enough money saved up and would be able to use the time to better prepare myself (big mistake). As time went on, I kept in contact with Carl and did what was necessary to complete the Sallie Mae loan process as quickly as possible. In mid February I asked Carl if he had any updates on my expected start date and he responded “It looks like we can start training you in mid-March or so. We are finishing up one student in a couple of weeks.” (actual response from email). I said wow at least he is honest and truly does limit the amount of students. So I continued to study and wait patiently. In late March I finally received an email stating that I could begin my training. At this point I was a tad bit worried about the future of my financial state since I had only planned to be unemployed for a maximum of 6 months. 1 month of prep studying (writtens), 3-4 months for Instrument and Commercial training and 1 month for the CFI. I thought ok so I was a little late to start the program. No worries, I’m a champ; I can finish in 3 months with my hard work and dedication.
So I made the move, Mississippi here I come! I’ll admit the apartment was nice. It’s right across from MSU and was designed for the average college student with a study desk in each room. I finally got setup and tried to sleep knowing that I had a big day ahead of me. The first day I arrived at the school 30 minutes early and awaited the arrival of Carl who was currently flying with an ATP student. Now the moment of truth, I see him walk in the office with a student and I patiently continue to wait. He sees me and says “hey” (1st sign, not exactly the best greeting after I just gave him a s**t load of money). I thought ok he is just really busy and dedicated so I’ll just wait until he finishes. An hour goes by and he says, “Welcome let me get your study material” (ahh much better). He shows up with a Jeppesen 141 Inst/Comm kit. He then sees my old Jeepesen Private Pilot bag and says, “Oh since you already have the bag here’s the Jeppesen Inst/Comm book”. I said all right but what about the syllabus, knowledge test, PTS, foggles, etc. and he replied, “we’ll hold on to that since students have a tendency of losing things” (2nd sign). “Now go to the classroom and read chapters 1-3 (80 pages) and we’ll do ground later today”. I was like damn this is a fast course, when they say three months they ain’t playing!! After 6 hours of reading I decided to walk back to the office to use the restroom. I see him talking with the ATP student and he tells me “you know I think it’s best if you go to the apartment and continue reading we’ll meet up tomorrow”. I thought, hmm strange but ok you’re the boss (3rd sign). From their on it was all down hill!! :banghead:
Now the remainder of this post will simply be a brief summary of my experience.
Scheduling:
When I first arrived Carl had a brilliant plan of dual enrolling me in both the part 141 Instrument and Commercial training. So my first couple of hours was solo cross-countries and I progressed pretty fast (I thought to myself, I’m doing it I’m really doing it!). Once I completed most of my single engine cross-countries it was time for the multi engine private add-on (woo hoo!), which meant every flight, had to be dual. This is where my training came to a stand still (booo!). There were 4 full-time students but only one Seneca was certified for 141 training. To add insult to injury there were only 2 MEIs including Carl, and both worked at the Air-Force base full-time. After several weeks of not flying I quickly realized Accessible Aviation was not Carl’s main focus but instead a part time job for extra income. Scheduling was nearly impossible to say the least.
Now apart from all that, there were quite a few ATP and ALPS (International Air Force/UPT) students who seemed to get preferential treatment, but come on who am I to disagree, ATP student pays $2,500 and I pay only $35,000. I mean it’s obvious who deserves the best treatment.
Up until late June, Callador did not have his MEI so there was not much flying going on. After he got it things picked up a bit until we got some more full-time students, ATPs and ALPS students. Once again, my flight training came to a screeching halt. There were times when I would not fly for 3 weeks straight. Not including every Sunday, U.S. Holiday or the nice 2-week vacation Carl and his family took to France while I just sat in the apartment waiting for him to reopen the flight school.
Bottom line, flying was very sporadic and inconsistent, not to mention that one day I would be preparing for the instrument rating and the next day working on cross countries for the commercial. Sometimes even combined. The syllabus called for 1.5 of local practice ILS or Localizer training but instead we end up flying about 2.2 of cross-country and squeeze in about 2 approaches the entire flight. But again who am I to complain.
Instructors:
That’s a good question. I only met 3 instructors throughout my stay. 1 full-time (Callador) and 2 part-time including Carl. As for the other instructors, I never once saw them. Could this be part of the reason why scheduling flight time was nearly impossible?
Carl (Part-Time flight/ground instructor, chief pilot, and manager): I never really understood what he was talking about. One sentence would consist of three different subjects. Which was quite entertaining especially when he taught a 5-minute ground school session and would say “Glad you understand, I have to go to work so I’ll see you later”
anic:. I also used to think he had multiple personalities for example, when I first visited the school he was really nice. When I actually started training, and he received the funds he would not give me the time of day. From one day to the next his attitude would really fluctuate. He also had a way of trying to belittle students and had very little respect for others. Strangely enough, he liked to punish me (as if I was in grade school) every time I expressed my unhappiness after continuously waiting patiently I would be put on the “black list” or just banned from flying altogether. The most recent example I can recall is when I was going to take my Instrument written in August (yes I know April to August, wow that’s a long time for an Instrument rating). As I previously mentioned the flying was very sporadic and before my Instrument written test I had flown about 10 hours (you guessed it, comm. cross country) in 2 days and I requested about 1 extra day to study. LOL, that really sent Carl into a rage! He banned me from flying for 2 weeks (August 5 – August 19 to be exact) !! He wouldn’t even respond to my phone calls, text messages, or emails. But I’m pretty sure it was for my own good. Or in his words “You see this is why students can’t finish, they want 90 days but they are never prepared”.
Little note: he thinks everyone’s headset is garbage and demands that students use only one headset which belongs to the school and smells like s**t. Try dealing with that for a 4 hour flight.
B*****n (Part-Time): Decent instructor as long as I did my part. Sometimes I felt a little intimidated to ask questions and few times it seemed as if he wouldn’t go the extra mile. But I couldn’t really blame him, after all he just finished working a long day at the AFB. Little note: he loves that cross-country time.
Callador AKA Tiny AKA Lazarito AKA El Tigre (Full-Time) The best IMO. This guy can teach a monkey how to fly. It’s in his blood and he is a true aviator! He goes above and beyond even when he was not getting paid. He also had a certain way of breaking down everything into steps so I could better understand what the heck I was doing.
Little note: He really likes the number fifty-five! :buck:
Ground School:
I’m afraid I am unfamiliar with that term. Once again what ground school? In the many emails I wrote to Carl, in the contract, which he created, and we both signed, and being that it was part 141 training, I would have never questioned the fact that I should receive 105 hours of ground school.
Ok I did receive ground school but according to my calculations it was a total of 7 hours ground school for the entire program. Out of that 7 probably about 4 hours were good instruction with “Callador” and that was out of his own personal time because as Carl told me “I don’t have money to pay instructors for ground school”. The remaining 98 hours of ground school, which is required as per 141, I guess would be the Jepessen videos located in the classroom. I sure feel confident after watching those videos!
Flight Instruction:
Was awkward at times, but was great if Callador was sitting right seat.
Funny thing was, for my multi private add-on Carl had me doing long cross-countries 17 hours to be exact. Mind you those are not PIC and some do not count for the Commercial long cross-country time. Which at the end of the course came back to haunt me as I almost didn’t have enough cross country PIC time for the commercial multi check ride. So when I told Carl that I would not do anymore cross countries until I received my private multi add-on, he said alright and gave me exactly 0.6 of actual pattern work and flight maneuvers then put me on the check ride. I guess I pissed him off again. Why do I always seem to piss him off?
Maintenance:
3 stars.
Every time a plane broke down we would have to fly to Georgia or Florida just to pick up a mechanic at the expense of the students flight time. Don’t even get me started on the mock charter operations.
Overall the planes were ok and would do the job for the most part.
Advertisement:
This is where I take quotes http://www.accessibleaviaton.com (from 2008) and see which statements were accurate or in this case misleading.
“Small class sizes, maximum flying, minimum waiting!”
Half and Half.
Small class sizes: true because there was never any ground school going on.
Maximum Flying: false my log book shows the following:
First flight with Accessible: 4/9/08
Private Multi add-on check ride: 6/1/08
Instrument check ride: 8/27/08
Commercial Multi check ride: 11/14/08
Commercial Single add-on check ride: 11/21/08
Minimum waiting: False There’s days when I was scheduled for a 9:00 am flight and would have to wait till 6:00pm for Carl to get off work. Or better yet, the good ole “oh I meant to call, we’re going to have to cancel”. That gets annoying after driving 15 miles each way and occurs on numerous occasions.
AVERAGE 4 HOURS OF TRAINING TIME PER DAY!
False, unless that was suppose to indicate self-study.
Training Packages price breakdown
Ground Hours
Instrument 35
Commercial 70
False, as stated previously in the ground school experience.
INSTRUMENT AND COMMERCIAL RATINGS IN 90 DAYS!
Best for last!
Extremely False, I completed the program in 8 months. But if I know Carl he is still blaming it on the Indian students from 2007. Poor man, he is traumatized.
It appears as if I was misled through deceptive advertising, a verbal agreement and heck even a written contract.
In conclusion, I have not spoken with anyone from Accessible Aviation since I left, therefore I do not know the current state of the training quality. I seriously hope they have changed for the better. Accessible definitely has the potential to be a top-notch school, but unfortunately I will never be able to vouch for them.
Now what are you so mad about? Well after 3.5 months of leaving the school I have finally seen the detriment of my choice to attend Accessible Aviation. As stated previously, I planned financially for a maximum of 6 months of unemployment not 12 months, and that’s being nice cause I am not including the fact that I have yet been to obtain my CFI due to current financial issues.
Apart from financial troubles I gave up three semesters of school (not including Jan-June 08) to attend Accessible Aviation.
So why didn’t you just leave?
Sure I could have left. But would have Carl given me a pro-rated refund, nope (even though I asked about the refund policy during the initial meeting). So I faced the choice of either hanging in there to try and get it finished or leave and take him to court for a very time consuming lawsuit.
I am a strong believer in forgetting about the past and just moving forward. But it’s really hard when the past is still having such a negative impact on the present. One thing I do know, is that this experience has made me extremely motivated to be the best damn flight instructor I can possibly be. I will always remember how I started my aviation career, and will do my best to treat each student with the dignity and respect they deserve. Who knows maybe one day I’ll even own a flight school at KGTR.
As previously mentioned what you’ve just read may offend some and may enlighten others. Please note that this is simply my experience and results vary for each individual. I am in no way trying to encourage nor discourage anyone from attending Accessible Aviation. This is simply my personal experience.
Now that I am closing this chapter of my life it is time for me to get back and focus on my upcoming CFI certificate and if you actually read all this it’s time you find a life.
Fly safe!!
What you are about to read may offend some and may enlighten others. Please note that this is simply my experience and results vary for each individual. I am in no way trying to encourage nor discourage anyone from attending Accessible Aviation. This is simply my personal experience. I only think it is right that I share my experience as many JCer’s have done in the past.
Some may ask, why after 3.5 months of leaving Accessible Aviation are you now writing your experience? Simple, I did not realize until now, how much of a negative impact this experience would actually have on my life. Further details will be discussed in the conclusion.
Wooo Saaaah! Bare with me as I write this, I am opening old wounds, which have yet to heal and still anger me. But my psychiatrist says this is part of the healing process.
So what’s all the fuss about?
Lets start from the beginning. I contacted Carl Nuzzo (Manager) around December of 2007 and I requested more information about the Instrument – Commercial courses being offered. I also described exactly what I was looking for and emphasized on the extreme importance of receiving high quality ground school. I was assured that all my demands would be met for a reasonable price.
As recommend by many JCers, I visited the school and brought a list of questions to ask. I met Carl and began the tour of the facility and later sat down for a detailed discussion. I’ll admit, he was the nicest flight school manager I had ever met and to say the least I was impressed! He told me exactly what I wanted to hear. The school has two hangars, a classroom and the office. They were the only flight school on the field at KGTR and the airport had very low activity. Which meant no long waiting times for departures, and more actual flying time. The airspace was not congested and seemed perfect for flight training. Most importantly Carl described how in-depth the ground school and flight training would be, and how it was structured very similar to the USAF. If there’s anything Carl is good at, it’s being a salesman. That same day Carl drew up a contract outlining everything we had discussed and we both singed it. My last question was when could I start? Carl’s response “late January early February 2008”.
When I got back home I was excited, determined and nervous all at the same time. I began studying full-time to prepare myself in advance. I even quit my job figuring I had enough money saved up and would be able to use the time to better prepare myself (big mistake). As time went on, I kept in contact with Carl and did what was necessary to complete the Sallie Mae loan process as quickly as possible. In mid February I asked Carl if he had any updates on my expected start date and he responded “It looks like we can start training you in mid-March or so. We are finishing up one student in a couple of weeks.” (actual response from email). I said wow at least he is honest and truly does limit the amount of students. So I continued to study and wait patiently. In late March I finally received an email stating that I could begin my training. At this point I was a tad bit worried about the future of my financial state since I had only planned to be unemployed for a maximum of 6 months. 1 month of prep studying (writtens), 3-4 months for Instrument and Commercial training and 1 month for the CFI. I thought ok so I was a little late to start the program. No worries, I’m a champ; I can finish in 3 months with my hard work and dedication.
So I made the move, Mississippi here I come! I’ll admit the apartment was nice. It’s right across from MSU and was designed for the average college student with a study desk in each room. I finally got setup and tried to sleep knowing that I had a big day ahead of me. The first day I arrived at the school 30 minutes early and awaited the arrival of Carl who was currently flying with an ATP student. Now the moment of truth, I see him walk in the office with a student and I patiently continue to wait. He sees me and says “hey” (1st sign, not exactly the best greeting after I just gave him a s**t load of money). I thought ok he is just really busy and dedicated so I’ll just wait until he finishes. An hour goes by and he says, “Welcome let me get your study material” (ahh much better). He shows up with a Jeppesen 141 Inst/Comm kit. He then sees my old Jeepesen Private Pilot bag and says, “Oh since you already have the bag here’s the Jeppesen Inst/Comm book”. I said all right but what about the syllabus, knowledge test, PTS, foggles, etc. and he replied, “we’ll hold on to that since students have a tendency of losing things” (2nd sign). “Now go to the classroom and read chapters 1-3 (80 pages) and we’ll do ground later today”. I was like damn this is a fast course, when they say three months they ain’t playing!! After 6 hours of reading I decided to walk back to the office to use the restroom. I see him talking with the ATP student and he tells me “you know I think it’s best if you go to the apartment and continue reading we’ll meet up tomorrow”. I thought, hmm strange but ok you’re the boss (3rd sign). From their on it was all down hill!! :banghead:
Now the remainder of this post will simply be a brief summary of my experience.
Scheduling:
When I first arrived Carl had a brilliant plan of dual enrolling me in both the part 141 Instrument and Commercial training. So my first couple of hours was solo cross-countries and I progressed pretty fast (I thought to myself, I’m doing it I’m really doing it!). Once I completed most of my single engine cross-countries it was time for the multi engine private add-on (woo hoo!), which meant every flight, had to be dual. This is where my training came to a stand still (booo!). There were 4 full-time students but only one Seneca was certified for 141 training. To add insult to injury there were only 2 MEIs including Carl, and both worked at the Air-Force base full-time. After several weeks of not flying I quickly realized Accessible Aviation was not Carl’s main focus but instead a part time job for extra income. Scheduling was nearly impossible to say the least.
Now apart from all that, there were quite a few ATP and ALPS (International Air Force/UPT) students who seemed to get preferential treatment, but come on who am I to disagree, ATP student pays $2,500 and I pay only $35,000. I mean it’s obvious who deserves the best treatment.
Up until late June, Callador did not have his MEI so there was not much flying going on. After he got it things picked up a bit until we got some more full-time students, ATPs and ALPS students. Once again, my flight training came to a screeching halt. There were times when I would not fly for 3 weeks straight. Not including every Sunday, U.S. Holiday or the nice 2-week vacation Carl and his family took to France while I just sat in the apartment waiting for him to reopen the flight school.
Bottom line, flying was very sporadic and inconsistent, not to mention that one day I would be preparing for the instrument rating and the next day working on cross countries for the commercial. Sometimes even combined. The syllabus called for 1.5 of local practice ILS or Localizer training but instead we end up flying about 2.2 of cross-country and squeeze in about 2 approaches the entire flight. But again who am I to complain.
Instructors:
That’s a good question. I only met 3 instructors throughout my stay. 1 full-time (Callador) and 2 part-time including Carl. As for the other instructors, I never once saw them. Could this be part of the reason why scheduling flight time was nearly impossible?
Carl (Part-Time flight/ground instructor, chief pilot, and manager): I never really understood what he was talking about. One sentence would consist of three different subjects. Which was quite entertaining especially when he taught a 5-minute ground school session and would say “Glad you understand, I have to go to work so I’ll see you later”
anic:. I also used to think he had multiple personalities for example, when I first visited the school he was really nice. When I actually started training, and he received the funds he would not give me the time of day. From one day to the next his attitude would really fluctuate. He also had a way of trying to belittle students and had very little respect for others. Strangely enough, he liked to punish me (as if I was in grade school) every time I expressed my unhappiness after continuously waiting patiently I would be put on the “black list” or just banned from flying altogether. The most recent example I can recall is when I was going to take my Instrument written in August (yes I know April to August, wow that’s a long time for an Instrument rating). As I previously mentioned the flying was very sporadic and before my Instrument written test I had flown about 10 hours (you guessed it, comm. cross country) in 2 days and I requested about 1 extra day to study. LOL, that really sent Carl into a rage! He banned me from flying for 2 weeks (August 5 – August 19 to be exact) !! He wouldn’t even respond to my phone calls, text messages, or emails. But I’m pretty sure it was for my own good. Or in his words “You see this is why students can’t finish, they want 90 days but they are never prepared”. Little note: he thinks everyone’s headset is garbage and demands that students use only one headset which belongs to the school and smells like s**t. Try dealing with that for a 4 hour flight.
B*****n (Part-Time): Decent instructor as long as I did my part. Sometimes I felt a little intimidated to ask questions and few times it seemed as if he wouldn’t go the extra mile. But I couldn’t really blame him, after all he just finished working a long day at the AFB. Little note: he loves that cross-country time.
Callador AKA Tiny AKA Lazarito AKA El Tigre (Full-Time) The best IMO. This guy can teach a monkey how to fly. It’s in his blood and he is a true aviator! He goes above and beyond even when he was not getting paid. He also had a certain way of breaking down everything into steps so I could better understand what the heck I was doing.
Little note: He really likes the number fifty-five! :buck:
Ground School:
I’m afraid I am unfamiliar with that term. Once again what ground school? In the many emails I wrote to Carl, in the contract, which he created, and we both signed, and being that it was part 141 training, I would have never questioned the fact that I should receive 105 hours of ground school.
Ok I did receive ground school but according to my calculations it was a total of 7 hours ground school for the entire program. Out of that 7 probably about 4 hours were good instruction with “Callador” and that was out of his own personal time because as Carl told me “I don’t have money to pay instructors for ground school”. The remaining 98 hours of ground school, which is required as per 141, I guess would be the Jepessen videos located in the classroom. I sure feel confident after watching those videos!
Flight Instruction:
Was awkward at times, but was great if Callador was sitting right seat.
Funny thing was, for my multi private add-on Carl had me doing long cross-countries 17 hours to be exact. Mind you those are not PIC and some do not count for the Commercial long cross-country time. Which at the end of the course came back to haunt me as I almost didn’t have enough cross country PIC time for the commercial multi check ride. So when I told Carl that I would not do anymore cross countries until I received my private multi add-on, he said alright and gave me exactly 0.6 of actual pattern work and flight maneuvers then put me on the check ride. I guess I pissed him off again. Why do I always seem to piss him off
?Maintenance:
3 stars.
Every time a plane broke down we would have to fly to Georgia or Florida just to pick up a mechanic at the expense of the students flight time. Don’t even get me started on the mock charter operations.
Overall the planes were ok and would do the job for the most part.
Advertisement:
This is where I take quotes http://www.accessibleaviaton.com (from 2008) and see which statements were accurate or in this case misleading.
“Small class sizes, maximum flying, minimum waiting!”
Half and Half.
Small class sizes: true because there was never any ground school going on.
Maximum Flying: false my log book shows the following:
First flight with Accessible: 4/9/08
Private Multi add-on check ride: 6/1/08
Instrument check ride: 8/27/08
Commercial Multi check ride: 11/14/08
Commercial Single add-on check ride: 11/21/08
Minimum waiting: False There’s days when I was scheduled for a 9:00 am flight and would have to wait till 6:00pm for Carl to get off work. Or better yet, the good ole “oh I meant to call, we’re going to have to cancel”. That gets annoying after driving 15 miles each way and occurs on numerous occasions.
AVERAGE 4 HOURS OF TRAINING TIME PER DAY!
False, unless that was suppose to indicate self-study.
Training Packages price breakdown
Ground Hours
Instrument 35
Commercial 70
False, as stated previously in the ground school experience.
INSTRUMENT AND COMMERCIAL RATINGS IN 90 DAYS!
Best for last
!Extremely False, I completed the program in 8 months. But if I know Carl he is still blaming it on the Indian students from 2007. Poor man, he is traumatized.
It appears as if I was misled through deceptive advertising, a verbal agreement and heck even a written contract.
In conclusion, I have not spoken with anyone from Accessible Aviation since I left, therefore I do not know the current state of the training quality. I seriously hope they have changed for the better. Accessible definitely has the potential to be a top-notch school, but unfortunately I will never be able to vouch for them.
Now what are you so mad about? Well after 3.5 months of leaving the school I have finally seen the detriment of my choice to attend Accessible Aviation. As stated previously, I planned financially for a maximum of 6 months of unemployment not 12 months, and that’s being nice cause I am not including the fact that I have yet been to obtain my CFI due to current financial issues.
Apart from financial troubles I gave up three semesters of school (not including Jan-June 08) to attend Accessible Aviation.
So why didn’t you just leave?
Sure I could have left. But would have Carl given me a pro-rated refund, nope (even though I asked about the refund policy during the initial meeting). So I faced the choice of either hanging in there to try and get it finished or leave and take him to court for a very time consuming lawsuit.
I am a strong believer in forgetting about the past and just moving forward. But it’s really hard when the past is still having such a negative impact on the present. One thing I do know, is that this experience has made me extremely motivated to be the best damn flight instructor I can possibly be. I will always remember how I started my aviation career, and will do my best to treat each student with the dignity and respect they deserve. Who knows maybe one day I’ll even own a flight school at KGTR.
As previously mentioned what you’ve just read may offend some and may enlighten others. Please note that this is simply my experience and results vary for each individual. I am in no way trying to encourage nor discourage anyone from attending Accessible Aviation. This is simply my personal experience.
Now that I am closing this chapter of my life it is time for me to get back and focus on my upcoming CFI certificate and if you actually read all this it’s time you find a life
.Fly safe!!
