Pro course now $36,000

Catherine said:
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.
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Well I'm glad that you have come out of the closet so to speak. Honestly I always wondered due to you're definately bias pro Ari-Ben post if you were a paid representative.

Now I don't have a problem with you posting but I do have a set of questions. Since you're employed with Ari-Ben are you going to be able to call a spade a spade when need be? You know when it is obvious,are you going to be able to highlight both the good the bad and acknowledge problems and honestly say "that's bad" or unacceptable and we will strive to improve and do better. Or will you gloss over things much like a politician pretending everything is fine and status quo as the Titanic sinks?

I'm giving a very serious look at completing my training at Ari-Ben. The school and training environment look compatible with what I want and need a school to be for me. ATP looks great but I think that they might move too quick for my pace.

Every school has problem none are perfect I both understand and except that. But I think the bigger difference is the school or person that makes a mistake or acknowledges wrong openly and works hard at trying to fix said problem.

Hopefully Ari-Ben can be that place for me and we can both further each others bottom line!
 
Maximillian_Jenius said:
Well I'm glad that you have come out of the closet so to speak. Honestly I always wondered due to you're definately bias pro Ari-Ben post if you were a paid representative.
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I wouldn't say Catherine came out as much as being pushed out by overwhelming evidence. As far as her being honest I would not count on it.

Catherine said:
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.
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Only a few days after saying this

Catherine said:
I'm not an advertiser for the school...just here to give my opinions.
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Here are some of my favorite Catherine quotes:

Catherine said:
Am I happy here? No...not all the time...do I feel like every little nitpicking thing that annoys me I need to post about? No. Life is hard...believe me, I know...I've been through some serious crap in my time, but I know when to say it's temporary and I will come out of this with knowledge and whatever and move on. In 20 years you won't care that much about it so think about that as well for whatever you post.
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Catherine said:
I hope to God that my time here at this school ends soon and I can move on with the real reason I'm dealing with the stuff here that I am.
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Catherine said:
I've dealt with far worse people than anyone I've met here and temper my feelings along those lines and deal with things and move on.
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and here's my personal favorite
Catherine said:
If the school doesn't get students, I'll never get my hours as an instructor here and get to move on. I know the people here and don't want to have to go to another school and discover what stupid stuff is going on there while trying to work for a few months again. No school is without issues....no job will be without issues and days you hate it so bad you want to run screaming out the door (don't do this at 37,000 feet!) and no part of life is completely without problems. I understand how to deal with things here and don't want to have to spend the time and money and energy to find another school to teach at for a few months...that's my motivation to want to respond...nothing else.
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Let me throw the cards out on the table first, I've been at the Aviator for almost 15 months and I get paid by the school as an instructor and working at the front desk, but not as a paid representative for the school on JC like Catherine.
Rent does cut a big chunk on budget, but if you are willing to do the paperwork and search, you can find cheaper places to live in Vero or Ft. Pierce and find work at the same time. I know a few students and instructors that work somewhere else and they manage to cut costs down and get all their ratings. I've done it and I finished the course in a year. If you minus all the time I have taken off to see my wife or my wife come see me, and the hurricane from last year, I would have finished this course in 8 months. If you cut down on going out on weekends, ordering pizza or McDonalds whenever you are hungry, quit drinking or buy domestics for a year, find a cheap apartment or room, find a cushy outside part time job where you can study at the same time, study two hours at home, sleep six to eight hours a day, leave the lesbians across the street alone and have a sense of responsibilty, you'll be finished within a year and start instructing. When you start instructing the same applies, only whatever you make instructing is spending and saving money, or better yet start paying off your loans while you are deferred. Moral of the story, time management is key. Thats why I'm gonna go now.
 
You can go back and see my posts from early on in my being here and see virtually the same things in my posts then as lately. Really no changes at all, the same satisfaction is there as is the same positive feelings about the school.

Yes I can...and I can post negative as well as positive things and I've been asked to bring issues to the administration to see what can be fixed and made better and report those kinds of things here so that everyone here can see. I can't promise changes to every little thing that someone brings up, but they will all be looked at and I can bring information back here about it.

As people bring up some real issues we'll see exactly how it works and try to make it work as well as possible to bring the issue up and seek to find a solution to it or at least to bring the school's side of the issue up to perhaps find out why it looks different from both sides and maybe a resolution can be found that way through seeing both sides. So we just have to climb on and see where the ride goes.



Maximillian_Jenius said:
Well I'm glad that you have come out of the closet so to speak. Honestly I always wondered due to you're definately bias pro Ari-Ben post if you were a paid representative.

Now I don't have a problem with you posting but I do have a set of questions. Since you're employed with Ari-Ben are you going to be able to call a spade a spade when need be? You know when it is obvious,are you going to be able to highlight both the good the bad and acknowledge problems and honestly say "that's bad" or unacceptable and we will strive to improve and do better. Or will you gloss over things much like a politician pretending everything is fine and status quo as the Titanic sinks?

I'm giving a very serious look at completing my training at Ari-Ben. The school and training environment look compatible with what I want and need a school to be for me. ATP looks great but I think that they might move too quick for my pace.

Every school has problem none are perfect I both understand and except that. But I think the bigger difference is the school or person that makes a mistake or acknowledges wrong openly and works hard at trying to fix said problem.

Hopefully Ari-Ben can be that place for me and we can both further each others bottom line!
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my bad, bisexual then. Now I see why you guys were in a frenzy. How have you been Gonzo? Did you get that King Air job?
 
Since this has morphed from a "gotta state if you're an employee" to a pissing match, lemme move it to the lav.

Notes:

1. No, no one asked/told me.
2. I am under no obligation by anyone to do so.
3. It was my own personal decision.

Questions? PM the webmaster.
 
It was a falcon 20 job. Unfortunately my buddy quit as chief pilot to take a job as a captain for fortune 100 company.
 
Ok, Doug Taylor's turn.

Catherine was posting and didn't identify herself as a person who was on the payroll. That's been corrected.

Now I'm embarking on a quest to talk to other people, many who don't even post in their specific flight school's thread to identify themselves as an employee if they post in their employer's thread.

But in the meantime, with all due respect, I'm not going to send a death squad to Florida to liquidate her because the problem has been addressed.
 
Nah, just limited resources to moderate grudge matches this week considering I'm on the road and preparing for NJC06.
 
Have you considered snipping it at the moment it started going downhill and leaving the informative based info up in the forum... right around post 23 or 24 perhaps?

Bob
 
Yeah, I have. It's on the list of 'administrative duties' I've got this evening.
 
As I said in a pm to doug. I think it should be kept in the aviator forum and locked. Most people who don't understand the dynamics of the school would be surprised at how much support I get the of phone calls, e-mails and private messages from current and past student and instructor's.
 
I have to say Gonzo, you've got real balls to stand up to that back woods Saddam. Man, when I did it I didn't dare let my real identity go. I was at the school though and he'd have probably pulled some crazy stunt. Still man, credit where it's due, you've got them on the run.

But, do you wish you'd have listened to my advice (a year ago) and gone somewhere else to train; or do you still think it was a semi-good place to do some ratings?
 
Captain_Bob said:
Have you considered snipping it at the moment it started going downhill and leaving the informative based info up in the forum... right around post 23 or 24 perhaps?

Bob
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I agree. This should be posted, ppl shouldn't have to search the Lav. for the truth.
 
Florida_Flyer said:
I have to say Gonzo, you've got real balls to stand up to that back woods Saddam. Man, when I did it I didn't dare let my real identity go. I was at the school though and he'd have probably pulled some crazy stunt. Still man, credit where it's due, you've got them on the run.
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It's easy to discredit a nameless person on the Internet I did it to you and was partially wrong. I wanted my name to be known not so much to put him on the run but may be so he would evaluate the flaws of the school. I chose jet careers because this is the schools most powerful advertising tool. Unlike most businesses the school gets very little referral business(most business owners would look for the cause of that). The school gets by my unscientific polls roughly 60% to 70% of students from jet careers.


Florida_Flyer said:
But, do you wish you'd have listened to my advice (a year ago) and gone somewhere else to train?
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Yes and no. I say no because I got to meet a lot of good people some of which I hope to stay in contact.

I say yes because a lot of what you said was correct. It's quite frustrating as a former student to see a school that in my opinion as the best multi-engine training aircraft, some of the best instructors I've seen(all but two but we won't name names), and a great location the airport has ten approaches can be bogged down with such mismanagement. Every problem at the school boils down to one of five people(no names). Most of these problems cannot be seen from a tour of the school and unfortunately by the time you're there and realize the scope of these problems your already under contract or as Catherine said in an earlier post to financially and emotionally invested in the school to leave. I think the most frustrating part about the school is most of the problems could be fixed at zero financial cost. The problem is the cost of People's egos and pride is too great for any of them to take. Until the problems are fixed I cannot recommend anyone to go to the aviator.

I'm all for fixing the school because I think it can be a great school. I'll be more than happy to publish the list of problems(as Catherine stated in her earlier message and if management is willing to put the egos and pride in check) if permission is granted by the school. (Most of the problems are apt to do with mismanagement and might be interpreted as slander)
 
ok, i put the thread back in place cuz your right.. it is a good thread BUT, if it starts getting wacky again... we'll move it again....


:)
 
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