Pan Am FL?

Here's a question for anyone that has left PanAm. Has anyone been able to leave WITHOUT paying the penalty? I dont see how it costs more to disenroll someone who has 30k left on their account than someone who has 2k. I think the 10% is bull s**t, and is almost like profiteering. What would happen if someone said, "Hey, I'm not going to pay the penalty!" It would cost PanAm more to hire an attorney than to just let you keep your money. I guess if they decided to keep it, you could take them to small claims court. Anyone thought about these options? The only reason I have to stay is that there is practically a guaranteed instucting job when I finish, and they seem to have an inside scoop on who's hiring. I just hate feeling like a slave to a contract that I'm not sure would hold up in a court of law. Do any other flight schools do this to their students?
 
I have only heard of one person getting away without paying the disenrollment penalty. The only reason that it happened was because he didn't start his initial training and Pan Am never got the money from Key Bank, the deal fell through even though he had signed the "Death Certificate". He even got his deposit returned. Other than that, Pan Am WILL whack your account. You can say "I won't pay" as much as you like, they simply deduct it from your account before they send whats left of your training money back to Key Bank. They will conviently hold whats left of YOUR money for 60 days to draw interest on it as well. The "Death Certificate" says they will hold it 30-60 days, count on it being 60 (no matter what they tell you). I have said it before, it only takes about an hour or two, to audit the remains of your account, cut Key Bank a check or wire the money back to them. So Pan Am has what you spent in training, they gained 60 days worth of interest off of YOUR money, and finally rip a gaping hole in your ARSE with the 10% or 2K withdrawl penalty. On top of that, they are RUDE about it !!! The freaking vampires !!!! OMG...I'm re-living it again, I had better stop before I get pissed again.
 
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you're looking at instructor/student time from the point of the PPL course and instructors. try this, count how many instructors there are in the whole school, count how many students and do the basic math. then count how many new CFI candidates are up for hire ("guarenteed CFI")and add that into the mix...it doesn't look good for the low end CFI's unless some of the high timers here start moving on. i'm personaly very worried about this, and i hope for our sake and the high timers sake that they can get hired on with a regional. turn-over here isn't happening, hopefully it'll spool up soon though.
 
Thats true dak. Recently at phoenix we have been seeing a large influx of new students rendering some of the instructors unable to fulfill the two missions a day idea for students that aren't in ground school. It goes month to month, it all depends on how many students are starting anew. Plus the private is the first rotation. as we all know, the numbers dwindle from there. for every 5 people who start the program probably 3 to 4 go to instrument and maybe 2-3 will be left by the time you get to commercial. That has been my observation anyway. That is one reason the multi jobs are so coveted, that is a major drop out point and there aren't nearly as many students who make it that far as there were for private.
But all indications are up, albeit slowly, that the regionals are going to start pulling people, creating openings at the top and hopefully smoothening out the flow and improving the moods of the senior pilots who worked there asses off just to have september eleventh lock them into the flight academy.
 
i hope the start grabing some of our CFI's for my sake and yours...and everyone else at Panam.
 
I know of one person that got away without paying as well. his dad was dying and he needed to take care of him. good one, why didn't i think of that?

Phoenix is cooling down. 750ft per min. climb rate is possible in the archer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
"I know of one person that got away without paying as well. his dad was dying and he needed to take care of him. good one, why didn't i think of that?"



too bad that situation is all too often true for some people in their life. if that guy was lying about his dad dying to get out of paying for the penalty, then hes a scum...if not, then you yourself shouldn't joke of using it as an excuse. its a • excuse, and those of us actually going through it/ or who have gone through it don't much appreciate it.

sorry to take it personally, but i do for unfortunate reasons...no harm no foul though bro, just think before you say that kind of thing.
 
Sorry about that Dak. Didn't mean to offend you.
I am pretty sure that is what happened. I personally wouldn't do it, but I did think it clever.
 
no big deal man. it is good to hear that if you do have a serious problem though, that there is hope for sympathy from the school in terms of early cancelation agreements.

on a happy note, we had a Huey helicopter land at our hanger on the ramp today. it was a real big deal, guess its for a documentary that Discovery Channel is putting out about this chopper they restored and are flyting all over the country. it was a real cool ceremony, all kinds of vietnam vets and we got to talk with them and check out the hardware. also had a C-130 doing touch-n-go's for about a half hour. it was real cool, learned alot and really respect those guys who went through the war in vietnam. look for the show whenever it comes out, its called "in the shadow of the blade"
 
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