phoenixflyer
Well-Known Member
I'm not one to bad mouth anything, or anyone... but of the six people I knew well while at Westwind..... there are none left. I started in July 04 working on my instrument rating.. my first negative experience happened on the first day durring orientation. They had assembled a book pack for everyone that started in my class, it had every book "needed" (among the "needed" items were systems cd's for the skyhawk and seminole, they charged $139 each) to go through their right seat direct program. They told us to pull out all the books we already had so we wouldnt get charged for them.. but they wouldnt even give us 1 night to go home and see if we had them already.
Part of ir training at Westwind is going on dual crews to build time for commercial and required x-country for ir. I had been doing all my dual crews with my instructors other student.. it worked out well we did ground together, and rode along on eachothers flights with our instructor. One day after all our dual crews were done, the assistant chief flight instructor Wally Zinc told me I had to go on a dual crew with this guy who I wouldnt trust with a big wheel (he and I were in the same ir ground school class together, half the time he never showed up, when he was there he was asleep). I didnt think this was right... but I didnt say anything. The trip was set for 7am the next morning. I woke up at 6 and looked outside... it looked like low ceillings to me, so I went to the computer and looked at the metar for DVT, sure enough the ceillings were at 4000 and stayed that way all day. The next morning Wally Zinc took me into his office and tore me apart, telling me that the guy I was supposed to fly with waited for me for 2 hours. (I later found out he never showed up either) He told me I was on thin ice and that my time as a student was an interview for a future cfi job. We had some words with eachother... and I left for my flight with my instructor.
After working on my IR training for two months, I was up for my final stage check, which I had to repeat 3 times. Though the sylabus called for a 2 hour ground and 2 hour flight, I found the ground sessions lasting 4+ hours. On one of the stage checks I was failed for not knowing what was on the annunciator panel and what sets them off. After a total of 6 months and the 4th try at their stage check I left and went to AirSafety Flight Academy, after 2 flights with an instructor I went on my checkride. The DE said it was the best IR checkride he had been on in over a year. I felt good about that... but was pissed at Westwind for making me go through all that crap, keeping in mind that after everyone of my stagechecks I had to go back up with my instructor for recurrent training. Costing me about $8000 extra.
One of my good frineds at Westwind was having the same problem, he spent 7 months and 54,000 on his private and instrument. After his instrument checkride he left and joined me at AirSafety Flight Academy. My flight instrucor left shortly after I did, not to go to an airline but to teach at Sabena flight academy. My other 3 friends left after their commercial ratings. One is driving a truck, the other is flying the bush in Alaska.
My experience with Westwind was negative... overpriced (Im now flying brand new Cirrus for about $10 more/hour). The structure is a joke, its more like a monarchy. They consider the airlines their customers, not the students. The people in control dont have any stake in company, which is as bad a business model there is.
Part of ir training at Westwind is going on dual crews to build time for commercial and required x-country for ir. I had been doing all my dual crews with my instructors other student.. it worked out well we did ground together, and rode along on eachothers flights with our instructor. One day after all our dual crews were done, the assistant chief flight instructor Wally Zinc told me I had to go on a dual crew with this guy who I wouldnt trust with a big wheel (he and I were in the same ir ground school class together, half the time he never showed up, when he was there he was asleep). I didnt think this was right... but I didnt say anything. The trip was set for 7am the next morning. I woke up at 6 and looked outside... it looked like low ceillings to me, so I went to the computer and looked at the metar for DVT, sure enough the ceillings were at 4000 and stayed that way all day. The next morning Wally Zinc took me into his office and tore me apart, telling me that the guy I was supposed to fly with waited for me for 2 hours. (I later found out he never showed up either) He told me I was on thin ice and that my time as a student was an interview for a future cfi job. We had some words with eachother... and I left for my flight with my instructor.
After working on my IR training for two months, I was up for my final stage check, which I had to repeat 3 times. Though the sylabus called for a 2 hour ground and 2 hour flight, I found the ground sessions lasting 4+ hours. On one of the stage checks I was failed for not knowing what was on the annunciator panel and what sets them off. After a total of 6 months and the 4th try at their stage check I left and went to AirSafety Flight Academy, after 2 flights with an instructor I went on my checkride. The DE said it was the best IR checkride he had been on in over a year. I felt good about that... but was pissed at Westwind for making me go through all that crap, keeping in mind that after everyone of my stagechecks I had to go back up with my instructor for recurrent training. Costing me about $8000 extra.
One of my good frineds at Westwind was having the same problem, he spent 7 months and 54,000 on his private and instrument. After his instrument checkride he left and joined me at AirSafety Flight Academy. My flight instrucor left shortly after I did, not to go to an airline but to teach at Sabena flight academy. My other 3 friends left after their commercial ratings. One is driving a truck, the other is flying the bush in Alaska.
My experience with Westwind was negative... overpriced (Im now flying brand new Cirrus for about $10 more/hour). The structure is a joke, its more like a monarchy. They consider the airlines their customers, not the students. The people in control dont have any stake in company, which is as bad a business model there is.
:whatever: