Pan Am AVOID AT ALL COSTS !!!!
I was a student at Pan Am (Ft. Pierce) from late Oct. 01 til may 02. I can honestly say that Pan Am will rip you for as much money as they can possibly suck out of your account. I will try to give people general info about the school as well as my story.
At first (when you are not a student yet), the staff is friendly, courteous and very helpful. Everything they say and do is positive and they give a GREAT salespitch. They rely heavily on the "Pan Am" name and push their new facilities and new aircraft.
Once you become a student, you will be scheduled for two events a day. If you are in ground school, you will only have one flight for that day and then attend the ground school. If the groundschool is over, you will be scheduled for two flights a day. In my case, I was up and flying before ever attending a day of groundschool. Also, I started my Instrument groundschool while I was still half way through my PPL course. Trying to study for the PPL Oral and Practical, while flying daily, then attending Instrument ground school and studying for those tests as well proved to be extremely challenging at best.
Once you enroll and Pan Am has your money, if there are any financial problems, you will run into a brick wall. There will be virtually no help at all. There are many students who have disenrolled due to this and a few more who have filed lawsuits as well. Pan Am loves to hide behind their contract, READ IT ALL !!!!
If you disenroll, Pan Am will charge you about $2000.00 extra and it takes 60 days for Pan Am to reissue the remaining tuition back to the lender (why so long?). Pan Am actually sits on this (remaining tuition) money and collects the interest, YOU will eventually have to pay this back to the bank and if you have the full 80 K loan, you do the math. If you call and ask ANY questions about your account PRIOR to the 60 days, you will be treated as a 3rd class citizen and probably told that "it is none of your business" what they do with YOUR money. Trust me on this, I am going through this process as of 6/24/02.
The "briefs" are nonexistant and you do sign a form that says that you WILL be charged a brief for every dual flight even though you may not get a brief every time, then they give you lip service and tell you that some instructors will give you extra time and that will make up the difference...I never saw that happen. My briefs, pre and post, were a total of 10 minutes on average and the post flight brief was usually conducted on the ramp on the way to dispatch as the instructor usually had another student that was already preflighting and ready to go. It is not uncommon to tie down the aircraft and look up and see the next student standing there ready to preflight, even before the fuel truck can get to the plane.
Also, they WILL charge you extra time for "ground" if the briefs run too long..this is usually at the instructors discretion. Of course admin. pressures the CFI's to charge for ALL time spent with the student...compassionate instructors know the real story, thank you to the CFI's who were compassionate.
In my situation, I encountered a personal problem and could not make some flights. Even though I requested not to be scheduled, scheduling put me in for flights anyway. Dispatch and scheduling were scheduling me for flights they KNEW I could not make. When I had to cancel, they charged me for them. The total was almost $1500.00 for the aircraft and "brief" time (multiple flights were charged). When I tried to rectify the situation, I was met with a cold shoulder. They would never give me an answer as to reimbursement. They would not hear my story, look at my documentation, return my calls or answer my emails. Thats when I decided to disenroll from Pan Am.
Now, I have spent almost 10 K on just my PPL. This includes the $1500 they stole from me then there is the additional 2 K that they are charging me for leaving the school. It does add up fast.
The facilities are EXTREMELY nice and new, the rent for housing is incredibly expensive and should be avoided, the aircraft are new and most have operating A/C but who gets to pay for all of that? THE STUDENTS DO !! Bottom line, Pan Am is too expensive. They are greedy and inconsiderate towards those who actually pay their bills. Just remember when you go for your tour, they are putting their ABSOLUTE BEST shoulder forward. It all goes downhill once they get your money. Remember, the tuition is based on a few more hours than FAA minimums, you have to pay for your books ($2000.00 from the PPL starting point), headset and other supplies and your FAA checkrides are out of your pocket ($300 per license/certificate/rating) and not included in the tution. The practical stagechecks can be failed fairly easily as Pan Am seems to hold their students to higher standards than the PTS, which is GREAT and can make you a better pilot but can add up quickly as you have to take the flight or oral over again, depending on which part you failed. Of course you are charged for the flight and the brief.
ALL IN ALL...I would NOT recommend Pan Am to any one that wants to become a professional pilot and live on a small budget. They WILL rape you.
