The "New" Regional Airline Academy -- Steer Clear!!

Iav8FL350

New Member
As a public service, I am taking this from another post to start a new one.

From a friend who went to that school you all should steer very, very clear. They have recently been bought out by new owners, but don't be fooled!! The new owners are just as corrupt as the old ones. They still have the policy of keeping all your money!! READ YOUR CONTRACTS BEFORE SIGNING! Always be wary of any school that keeps any of your money if you withdraw.

The Mesa, AZ campus has changed drastically, also. They were kicked out of Williams Gateway due to not paying their lease. ATP now occupies their old space. If you toured the Gateway campus, you need to know that their new campus is a far cry from the old one. They now have the entire school in three small rooms at Falcon Field. That's right. The entire "Academy" occupies three rooms in an old hotel! They are breaking multiple 141 regulations as they don't have secure briefing areas and don't have internet or phone access for students for starters. Trust me....if the VA found out about this they would pull their approval status. Think of that if you are trying to use VA benefits!!

Many managers and chief flight instructors have recently left for other schools due to the shaky new management/owners. They just promoted an internal instructor to Chief and he FAILED his 141 check ride with the FAA!! Instructors are also fleeing to the first job they can get, e.g. Mesa. Their current instructor staff is very inexperienced and green and only have one or two MEI instructors on staff. One instructor leaving is the owner of the Diamond Twin Stars that RAA is claiming they have. Well, the owner quit RAA and took his planes with him to Sabena!!

Moral of the story is....be careful where you put your money for flight training. With the current rate of airline hiring, a local FBO will get you an airline job just as well as a fancy academy....let alone one that is falling apart as we speak!
 
I must say, completely asaid from your claims, that it appears that you have a personal agenda. You have a total of three posts on this website, and all three of them are blasting RAA.

Again, I'm not saying that their may not be validity to your claims. My concern is that you come here and blast away, all under the guise that "a friend" was burned there. I'm not buying that story. I'm thinking that you were the one that had a bad experience at RAA. If that is true, why don't you tell people the story behind your venom? I bet that would generate more belief from your readers, and may be more effective in generating the response that you want.
 
You know, it's just that I feel bad when people are out there trying to get to their ultimate career goal of flying for a living and instead get taken advantage of. Flying is a great career and it's too bad that many people can't get started because of the financial burden they incur at the start. So many of these Academies should be shut down.

I do have a friend who is being burned at RAA and can't get his money back....it pisses me off, so yeah it is a little personal with them in particular. He is having trouble finding new funds and can't continue to fly.

I feel obligated to warn other potential pilots about places like this in general. BE CAREFUL, READ YOUR CONTRACTS, etc. For example, this school lost its 141 certification in Mesa, AZ and they have VA students who can not continue to train there now as a result. We all know how important seniority is in this industry and they are losing theirs!! Doesn't that bother you as a former student/current pilot??

It does me. Sorry if it looks like I am out to get RAA, but this last post I made was when I heard they just got 5 more new students in Mesa, AZ. It doesn't make sense to me at all.
 
I can't vouch for the accuracy of any of this information, but I will merely add that I've only ever heard negative press regarding RAA, which may have gotten better or worse with new ownership.

As with anything else in life, make significant life decisions AFTER doing proper due diligence. Its your money to spend, so spend it wisely.
 
I can't vouch for the accuracy of any of this information, but I will merely add that I've only ever heard negative press regarding RAA, which may have gotten better or worse with new ownership.

As with anything else in life, make significant life decisions AFTER doing proper due diligence. Its your money to spend, so spend it wisely.
Patrick, given that RAA is a competitor of yours, any opinion or information you could offer regarding them is suspect, so you're better off not commenting on them or any other flight school. Your closing sentence, generic as it is, is fine.

Just a friendly suggestion.
 
RAA is not "my competitior", but I must say I've never heard a good work about the place. They used to sell 300 hour pilots a jet type rating. How dumb is that?

Much bad stuff about RAA in the last 10 years on the internet. Who knows, maybe they turned the place around in the last two weeks.....
 
Patrick, given that RAA is a competitor of yours, any opinion or information you could offer regarding them is suspect, so you're better off not commenting on them or any other flight school. Your closing sentence, generic as it is, is fine.

Just a friendly suggestion.

While RAA and Career Pilot School are both in the flight training business, I do not consider RAA to be a competitor at all to our operation. We are talking apples to oranges within the flight training industry (take note of DE727's last comment). However, take that for what you will, I will still stand by my generic advice to anyone making this kind of financial expenditure to do their homework and spend their money wisely. There are good guys and bad guys in this business.
 
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