Reality Check

Would you buy a car without looking under the hood?

There was a post a while back in which a CFI complained that a prospective student wanted to know about his experience. The particular CFI was slightly offended.

it shouldn't be that way. If I sell a product, I need to be open about what the product is and why it's worth what I'm charging for it. If CFI's want to "raise the industry a few bars...", then they need to open up to that idea!

If the CFI doesn't want to share his experience with you, go find another one - and tell your friends to find other ones.

Sorry, I'm a customer-oriented type guy....
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True. I will be paying for it so I am the customer and therefore should be able to request stuff.
 
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True. I will be paying for it so I am the customer and therefore should be able to request stuff.

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Uh. Yeah. Sounds logical dosen't it?
 
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They wouldn't get pissed off or anything?

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If you do and (s)he finds it objectionable, well, there's your answer!

But the only problem is, as a primary flight student, your ability to ascertain if he's a highly experienced instructor or just a guy with a bunch of dual given is a little difficult.

I'd suggest having someone experienced tag along with you when evaluating flight schools.
 
Well I do have a pilot friend who tells me about the local flight schools. Problem is that every pilot has at least one local flight school they don't like. That's where I come in I guess on preference. Also, could I ask the flight school for a safety record or something? And how do I know how often they run maintenance and such? I see many pilots do it so it must be important.
 
what i don't understand is how DCA says they are the only school authorized to serve the delta connection system. or something to that effect. they list all these airlines and I know people who fly for most of them that went to different schools. chautaqua(?) and a few others hired like 20 ATP instructors last month. most with around 1000TT. don't be caught up in the flashy ads.
 
They say they are the only school authorized to serve the 'entire' system. This means they have agreements in place with all of the carriers and are the only ones who can claim so. None of it probably matters. You can get on with any of the DCI carriers from other schools/backgrounds. It's just marketing.
 
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Also, could I ask the flight school for a safety record or something? And how do I know how often they run maintenance and such?

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Well, to be quite frank, unless you know what you're looking at, the information you see is going to be tremendously hard to disseminate. The blanket answer everyone is going to give you is that "our maintenance is excellent, we go above and beyond the FAA requirements" which means absolutely nothing.

Best thing you can do is have someone experienced go with you. Certainly, if you walked into a flight school as a wide eyed 16 year old, compared to walking in with a 757 captain, your answers are going to be completely different.

Me? They'd probably just throw me out!
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I think it would be fun to go to one of their road shows and heckle the speaker and get thrown out.

I went to a recruiting meeting at a high school put on by the local four year aviation college. The guy tip toed around a lot of things that I didn't feel right about calling him out on. Then he said how they had a "hiring agreement with Horizon Air". At the time, Horizon wasn't hiring and before that had guys furloughed. I asked him how many were placed at Horizon and how long ago it was. Turns out it was a very small number and had been some time ago....but it was still a good marketing ploy. At least the guy was honest but I could tell he didn't like the fact that I knew enough about the industry to ask a question like that.
 
DCI marketing people figure if they throw the Delta name out there and potential students will think they are going to fly for Delta. Must admit they have some pretty ads. Marketing can be a great tool for lying and never have to suffer for it. Kinda like being a weather man you can be wrong all the time and probably never get fired.
 
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DCI marketing people figure if they throw the Delta name out there and potential students will think they are going to fly for Delta. Must admit they have some pretty ads. Marketing can be a great tool for lying and never have to suffer for it. Kinda like being a weather man you can be wrong all the time and probably never get fired.

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Man....the Air Force told me I'd be flying for Delta in no time. And look what kind of crap I have to do now!
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It's all marketing. They use Delta because it's a houshold name. Ask some joe schmoe who just wants to get started flying, who Comair is and they would probably scratch their heads and say they don't know. They know Delta Airlines though. It's the hook to reel in a prospective student. It works and they'll continue to use it. As for the rest of the add, I really don't agree with it. The school is great, a little pricey, but I'm enjoying my training.
 
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I think it would be fun to go to one of their road shows and heckle the speaker and get thrown out.

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Hey de727, we ought to hook up and go heckle sometime. Now that'd be good family fun!

I snuck into Pan Am once in shorts and a holey t-shirt asking crazy questions and no one knew who I was until I went to the admin building.

It's actually quite fun! The CFI did a good job and didn't do the salesman thing.
 
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Me? They'd probably just throw me out!
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Right... and that's why we've invited you on several occasions to come tour here and not once even received a response.
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Mike the A-10 to the 117 must really suck for you. Like going from a caddy to a yugo huh?
 
H46 I am not saying anything about there training because every school has some great instructors and some that really suck. I visited there back in 99 and I was not impressed at all and felt very unwelcomed so I went to ATA, big mistake there.
 
Well with all the laws here that would probably never happen. Only in south america i guess
 
Doug I would like to be sitting in on that meeting if you ever did that and video it. I am sure it would be some good comedy watching the guy sweat
 
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