bullmastiff
New Member
I had heard through the "grapevine" that Spartan has a bad reputation within the airlines/ regionals. Is this true? Can anybody enlighten me, as I am prospective student. thanks
Spartan
- Thread starter bullmastiff
- Start date
drumminpilot
Well-Known Member
I don't know so much about a bad reputation with the airlines, but they do have a bad reputation with local pilots, professional and personal, in the region. PM/E-mail me if you want specifics on why they have a bad reputation around here. My advice would be, if you want to spend $130 an hour for a 172, go to a different academy, like FSI. I also looked at Spartan, but on the recommendations of several professional pilots, decided to go elsewhere.
stuckingfk
Well-Known Member
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I went on a tour there, I can give you my take on it as well...PM me.
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I know PM's are a nice feature on this board, but how about you share your experiences with everyone to see. That is what JC was started for, to try and help everyone.
I went on a tour there, I can give you my take on it as well...PM me.
[/ QUOTE ]
I know PM's are a nice feature on this board, but how about you share your experiences with everyone to see. That is what JC was started for, to try and help everyone.
drumminpilot
Well-Known Member
[ QUOTE ]
I know PM's are a nice feature on this board, but how about you share your experiences with everyone to see. That is what JC was started for, to try and help everyone.
[/ QUOTE ] I guess I don't want to trash a flight school on a public forum. If nobody else cares, I guess I could post my experiences in this post.
I know PM's are a nice feature on this board, but how about you share your experiences with everyone to see. That is what JC was started for, to try and help everyone.
[/ QUOTE ] I guess I don't want to trash a flight school on a public forum. If nobody else cares, I guess I could post my experiences in this post.
sopdan
Well-Known Member
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I know PM's are a nice feature on this board, but how about you share your experiences with everyone to see. That is what JC was started for, to try and help everyone.
[/ QUOTE ] I guess I don't want to trash a flight school on a public forum. If nobody else cares, I guess I could post my experiences in this post.
[/ QUOTE ]
As long as your honest and don't embellish, I don't think there should be a problem.
[ QUOTE ]
I know PM's are a nice feature on this board, but how about you share your experiences with everyone to see. That is what JC was started for, to try and help everyone.
[/ QUOTE ] I guess I don't want to trash a flight school on a public forum. If nobody else cares, I guess I could post my experiences in this post.
[/ QUOTE ]
As long as your honest and don't embellish, I don't think there should be a problem.
I just got hired as an instructor at Spartan. I worked all over the aviation community in this area while I went to school, and had recieved my PPL before moving down here to attend school....so I have much experience with the aviation community in this area.
The school is a great school for flight training. You learn the ins-and-outs during the very thorough ground classes, but Spartan does not really stake their name on ground classes (i.e. we do not have Ph.D's instructing them). Spartan's "bread and butter" is the flight training. You begin flying immediately after you enroll in school, and the quality of training is among the best in the country. I do not believe I could not have recieved better instrument training anywhere. So I guess I am saying that I highly recommend Spartan as a flight school.
As for the bad reputation among employers...I haven't seen any evidence of it yet. Spartan has very good relationships with many airlines and flight operations. In the last 4 months we have had about 11 instructors leave for bigger and better things, and graduates are all over the place. Skywest is a big employer of our graduates, I know of 5 of my friends that have gotten hired (or called, if they were already in the pool) by them in the last 3 months, two more also went to American Eagle. Another friend of mine just got hired to fly a Global Express in Tucson, and the company that I have been working for for the last 6 months has Spartan guys in our Lears. (All of these above mentioned guys trained here and then instructed here.)
As for the bad reputation among local pilots...maybe. But I worked at a local FBO for about a year while I trained at Spartan, and our customers didn't have many bad things to say about Spartan.
The reason some would say Spartan has a bad rep is probably because of the frequency of training. Spartan flies out of RVS airport in Tulsa, OK...and we fly a lot! When the weather is good and more than just the instrument students can get in the air we pretty much saturate the airspace around Tulsa (ranking RVS in the top 10 busiest gen aviation arpts in the U.S. consistently). The number of airplanes running in and out of RVS and taking up the patterns at the two closest airports probably make for a few headaches for the weekend warriors. I have flown a lot with the local guys when I fueled their airplanes and nobody really complained. When you have 400 student pilots flying our 53 aircraft about 8 hours each day...there is always a line of Spartan aircraft about 5 miles out on final approach.
Another headache:
Spartan has contracts with 5 Chinese airlines (I can't spell which ones they are...Air China is the one I can spell) to train some of their pilots. Needless to say the Chinese students are a little slower on radio and it may take two or three times to get a lengthy clearance across to them, so that is where a majority of the local pilots may complain.
Spartan is a busy place....600 students, and a constant rotation of about 100-150 "contract" (Chinese) students makes for a lot of flying.
I would highly recommend Spartan as a flight school, but like anywhere it has its good points and bad points. I welcome any questions you may have bullmastiff. I will give you as real of an answer as I can, and try to cut through all the glitter that your recruiter may be feeding you.
The school is a great school for flight training. You learn the ins-and-outs during the very thorough ground classes, but Spartan does not really stake their name on ground classes (i.e. we do not have Ph.D's instructing them). Spartan's "bread and butter" is the flight training. You begin flying immediately after you enroll in school, and the quality of training is among the best in the country. I do not believe I could not have recieved better instrument training anywhere. So I guess I am saying that I highly recommend Spartan as a flight school.
As for the bad reputation among employers...I haven't seen any evidence of it yet. Spartan has very good relationships with many airlines and flight operations. In the last 4 months we have had about 11 instructors leave for bigger and better things, and graduates are all over the place. Skywest is a big employer of our graduates, I know of 5 of my friends that have gotten hired (or called, if they were already in the pool) by them in the last 3 months, two more also went to American Eagle. Another friend of mine just got hired to fly a Global Express in Tucson, and the company that I have been working for for the last 6 months has Spartan guys in our Lears. (All of these above mentioned guys trained here and then instructed here.)
As for the bad reputation among local pilots...maybe. But I worked at a local FBO for about a year while I trained at Spartan, and our customers didn't have many bad things to say about Spartan.
The reason some would say Spartan has a bad rep is probably because of the frequency of training. Spartan flies out of RVS airport in Tulsa, OK...and we fly a lot! When the weather is good and more than just the instrument students can get in the air we pretty much saturate the airspace around Tulsa (ranking RVS in the top 10 busiest gen aviation arpts in the U.S. consistently). The number of airplanes running in and out of RVS and taking up the patterns at the two closest airports probably make for a few headaches for the weekend warriors. I have flown a lot with the local guys when I fueled their airplanes and nobody really complained. When you have 400 student pilots flying our 53 aircraft about 8 hours each day...there is always a line of Spartan aircraft about 5 miles out on final approach.
Another headache:
Spartan has contracts with 5 Chinese airlines (I can't spell which ones they are...Air China is the one I can spell) to train some of their pilots. Needless to say the Chinese students are a little slower on radio and it may take two or three times to get a lengthy clearance across to them, so that is where a majority of the local pilots may complain.
Spartan is a busy place....600 students, and a constant rotation of about 100-150 "contract" (Chinese) students makes for a lot of flying.
I would highly recommend Spartan as a flight school, but like anywhere it has its good points and bad points. I welcome any questions you may have bullmastiff. I will give you as real of an answer as I can, and try to cut through all the glitter that your recruiter may be feeding you.
jjm
Well-Known Member
good call, lruppert;
here's my take on my Spartan tour:
First of all; Oklahoma is a great place to learn-- great conditions, lots of different airspaces... lots of wind!
Spartan is pretty damn impressive, the tour was incredible, but there was something about it that I couldn't put my finger on-- my tour guy was pretty eager for me to "sign on the dotted line", on the tour and that's always a turn off, but I can't fault the school for that. I think that it came down to the fact that the way that the loan programs fund the school is in a series of small disbursements which only allowed flying once or twice a week... Granted-- that's a personal situation for a lot of people-- different financial backgrounds, etc. But I was going to have to take out a loan for most if not all of the training. Big price tag, unfortunately.
The school is great, though-- the maintenance and the activity there was really great to observe. It was a little overwhelming for me, coming from a small FBO up in NY. 600 students is a lot... I decided on a smaller school for that reason. I haven't heard anything bad about the school from the aviation community. Actually, nothing but good things.
That being said-- CAVOK is right on about good/bad things at schools-- that's going to come up everywhere. I guess to make it simple-- I went elsewhere due to the price and size. Although I saw a King Air, a T-6 AND a hot flight student up close! And Tulsa is one cool town
Take it easy, and good luck with your search!
J
p.s. I would go to Spartan's A&P school in a NY minute if I had any sort of technical ability...It was truly unbelievable... However, I can't even change a flat tire on my bike
here's my take on my Spartan tour:
First of all; Oklahoma is a great place to learn-- great conditions, lots of different airspaces... lots of wind!
Spartan is pretty damn impressive, the tour was incredible, but there was something about it that I couldn't put my finger on-- my tour guy was pretty eager for me to "sign on the dotted line", on the tour and that's always a turn off, but I can't fault the school for that. I think that it came down to the fact that the way that the loan programs fund the school is in a series of small disbursements which only allowed flying once or twice a week... Granted-- that's a personal situation for a lot of people-- different financial backgrounds, etc. But I was going to have to take out a loan for most if not all of the training. Big price tag, unfortunately.
The school is great, though-- the maintenance and the activity there was really great to observe. It was a little overwhelming for me, coming from a small FBO up in NY. 600 students is a lot... I decided on a smaller school for that reason. I haven't heard anything bad about the school from the aviation community. Actually, nothing but good things.
That being said-- CAVOK is right on about good/bad things at schools-- that's going to come up everywhere. I guess to make it simple-- I went elsewhere due to the price and size. Although I saw a King Air, a T-6 AND a hot flight student up close! And Tulsa is one cool town
Take it easy, and good luck with your search!
J
p.s. I would go to Spartan's A&P school in a NY minute if I had any sort of technical ability...It was truly unbelievable... However, I can't even change a flat tire on my bike
[ QUOTE ]
First of all; Oklahoma is a great place to learn-- great conditions, lots of different airspaces... lots of wind!
Spartan is pretty damn impressive, the tour was incredible, but there was something about it that I couldn't put my finger on-- my tour guy was pretty eager for me to "sign on the dotted line", on the tour and that is always a turn off ,
[/ QUOTE ]
Yep...I think our recruiter guys (don't know their official title) work on commission or something because that happens a lot.
First of all; Oklahoma is a great place to learn-- great conditions, lots of different airspaces... lots of wind!
Spartan is pretty damn impressive, the tour was incredible, but there was something about it that I couldn't put my finger on-- my tour guy was pretty eager for me to "sign on the dotted line", on the tour and that is always a turn off ,
[/ QUOTE ]
Yep...I think our recruiter guys (don't know their official title) work on commission or something because that happens a lot.