Jet University Sucks | Aussie Air | Flight Schools Information | FXE Flight Center

The Flight Training Industry in the United States is broken.  Literally ANYONE can set up a flight school in short order by renting a plane, hiring an instructor and running advertisements.

No experience is necessary to open a flight school.  You don't have to be a pilot or even have a pilot's license to open a flight school.

You don't even need money to open a flight school because there is absolutely NO REGULATION of flight schools in most states including Florida, Arizona and Texas where most flight schools are located.

California has now included flight schools under regulation of the Bureau of Private Secondary Schools in Sacramento effective May 17, 2010

You don't need insurance to open a flight school.  You don't need to be bonded to open a flight school.

You can get out of jail one day and open a flight school the next day and there is nothing that anyone can do to stop it. 

You can then start charging students, $50,000, $75,000 or $100,000 or more up front for flight training the very same day.  You can collect the money from the student one day and spend all of the money on a trip to Vegas, a new car, new house, new furniture or for any other reason.  Nobody will stop you.  It doesn't matter because there is no regulation requiring you to safeguard the money that the student has paid you for flight training.

When the student actually wants and expects his flight training you can refuse to give it to him and the student is now stuck with hiring an attorney that will not be able to get his money back since the school has no assets.

A bad flight school can lease a plane, string the owner of the plane along and not pay for the plane.  The owner will eventually repossess the plane after the flight school has not paid for the plane.  This usually takes several months. Meanwhile the flight school has had use of the plane and not paid for it.  The flight school will simply get more planes from other owners that are too lazy to check the flight school out and not pay those owners and keep the process going. 

It's one of the easiest businesses to get into because MOST STATES have exempted Flight Schools from any sort of licensing or regulation.

The bad flight schools are bad for Aviation.  They are bad for the industry. They are bad for the good legitimate flight schools that have to compete with these bad schools.  Until the industry really gets their act together and demands proper regulation of this industry, we are doomed to continue with the same results.

Even the good flight schools have a conflict here.  In order to compete with the scam flight schools that advertise an unrealistic price for training that they can not possibly provide, the legitimate school is forced to advertise a price based on FAA minimum hours.  Most pilots can not finish their ratings in the minimum hours.  It actually takes about twice the FAA minimum hours for most Private Pilots to obtain their license.  Who pay for this extra time?  The student does of course.

There is no incentive for a flight school to finish up a student quickly.  This is because the faster they finish up the student---THE LESS MONEY they flight school makes.  What is the incentive for finishing up the student fast?   Less money? 

OVER 62% OF THE STUDENT PILOTS NEVER RECEIVE THEIR PILOTS LICENSE!

That is what we call a "wash out rate". 

In 2008 the FAA issued 61,194 Student Pilot Certificates.  Yet only 19,052 Private Pilot Licenses were granted.   The wash out rate in 2008 was 63%.  Only 37% of the students actually received their Private Pilot License.

In 2007 the FAA issued 66,953 Student Pilot Certificates.  Yet only 20,299 Private Pilot Licenses were granted.  The wash out rate in 2007 was  64%.  Only 36% of the students actually received their Private Pilots License.

To put this another way, the odds are stacked against the student pilot.  

Do you think that the flight schools that collect the money upfront know the DIRTY BIG SECRET?  Of course they do. 

Has anyone ever told you this information before?  Of course not.  They want to keep you in the dark.  Knowledge is power.  When you don't have the knowledge you will pay more. 

Once you pay your money you have a very slim chance of getting the money back even if you can't finish the course or obtain your license. 

Massive CANCELLATION FEES and NON REFUNDABLE DEPOSITS insure the deck is stacked against the student pilot.

We know of an early Jet University-Sim Center student that paid $30,000 up front for his training.  He entered the flight school ground class.  He was in the class room for only 4 weeks.  He never flew a plane.  He was kicked out of class for failing a stage test.  The school kept $19,000 for the four weeks of classroom training.

There are a number of reasons that a student pilot will wash out of the system:

1.  The course is too difficult for them.  Not everyone can be a pilot.  A pilot must be able to multi-task.

2.  Time Constraints.  Flight training, like most things takes longer than you expect.

3.  Money.  Students run out of money.  Flight training can cost 2-3 times the amount quoted by a flight school.

4.  Flight training is not what they expected.  Flight training is not a video or simulator game.  It's serious business.  Although it can be a lot of fun, it can also be quite uncomfortable at times.

5.  Family issues. Wives, girlfriends, husbands, boyfriends, kids and parents often find it difficult for a student pilot to be away.  This can put additional pressure on the student pilot. 

6.  Job Issues. It's often difficult to find time to pursue aviation when you are holding down a job.

7.  Weather Issues.  A student pilot can't fly when the weather is bad.

8.  The training may be inadequate.  Since there is no standard training program within the aviation industry, instruction, course content and presentation does vary.

9.  The flight school may try to wash you out on purpose.  If you have paid a large amount up front and your contract calls for cancellation fees; a flight school may try to wash you out on purpose so they can keep your money!  They do this by convincing you that you don't study hard enough, you don't take this serious, you don't speak english well enough, you are a bad pilot and will never make it at an airline as well as any number of "trumped up" reasons. The end result is that students leave, do not receive their training and the flight school keeps the money. 

There are some flight schools that will do everything possible to "reel you in" and get you to sign an expensive flight school contract.  These types of schools have sales departments that will stay in constant contact with you until you sign the contract and pay your money.  They will make everything sound great.  They may show you pictures of luxury apartments that you will be staying in.  They may represent a lot of things to get you to fork over your money.

Things will change once you arrive at the flight school for your training.  The flight school will now do everything possible to keep you from flying. 

The most common delay tactic is to put you in a ground school class.  Ground school classes are cheap and they don't cost the flight school much at all.  A flight school will have every excuse in the world why you need to stay in ground school before you fly.   And that is where you will stay for a while.

When you finally figure out what is going on, they will start to put you in an aircraft.  Months could have passed.  They have broken you down much like a high pressure car dealership does when you are buying a car. 

At this point you are so happy to actually be able to fly that you won't realize that you are not flying much at all.  The "fight school trick" seems to be to allow you to fly 4-5 hours during the first flying month just to keep you strung along.

The flight school will then claim you are not making progress.  They will claim you are a slow student. They will say you should study harder.  They will tell you that need to be more serious about your career. 

Of course, this is all not true.  The fact is that the flight school slowed you down.  It's all part of the process.  It's designed to break you down and finally for you to give up.  It's designed to get you to leave the flight school.  

These types of flight schools are designed to get you to quit, flunk out or just leave.  When you leave the flight school will keep your money and you will not get it back.

Here is an example of a flight school that used these deceptive methods and then went out of business leaving over 2000 students without their flight training:

 LINK TO LARGE FLIGHT SCHOOL FAILURE

You must understand that once you pay the flight school a large sum of money in advance then they usually spend it very quickly.  The money is not held in a trust account.  It's simply gone.  You have now put the flight school in a position of COSTING THEM MONEY for every service you use.  It doesn't matter that you paid for all of these services in advance.  So the flight school has an incentive to get rid of you.  If they can get rid of you then you will not cost them any more money.

Want to avoid this?  DO NOT PAY ANY FLIGHT SCHOOL ANY MORE THAN $2500 IN ADVANCE FOR ANY REASON.  DO NOT LET A FLIGHT SCHOOL GET AHEAD OF YOU BY MORE THAN $2500 EVER!  

If everyone would follow this advice then students will not lose money.  Flight schools will have to be properly capitalized and the whole industry will benefit. 

The very first thing you should do if you have been ripped off by a flight school is to file a report with the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU. 

LINK TO BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU

Although filing a report with the BBB may not get your money back, it does create a permanent record of a complaint for the flight school.  When potential students look at the BBB website then it will show any record of past problems.  It will also indicate how the flight school solved the problem.  Maybe the school will be persuaded to make things right to avoid future problems.

Also, if students actually do start filing BBB complaints, it may cause that school to 'shape up" its business practices.

A flight school will not be able to stay in business with a whole stack of unresolved BBB complaints.

Our student volunteers will look at your case and help guide you through the process. 

We will contact your school and attempt to persuade them to work out a fair solution for you and for them.

To file a case with us, please write to:  jetustudent@gmail.com and include your contact information as well as information about your case.  We will need to speak with you by telephone.    

If you have followed our advice and not let the flight school get more than $2500 ahead of you, and you have not received your training then you can file an action in small claims court.  Small claims has a limit on the amount you can sue for.  Each state sets it's own limit.  That's why it's called small claims court! Most areas are $5000 or less.  You will need to check with your local clerk of court to determine the limit in the county where your flight school is located. 

If you watch Judge Judy or The Peoples Court you get a great insight into how small claims court works.  There are not attorneys.  You represent yourself and present your evidence. 

If you have your facts and paperwork together then you will probably win.  If you are disorganized and don't have your facts and case in order then you will lose even if you should have won.  Make sure you have your paperwork, e-mails, evidence, witnesses, etc all in court on the date of your small claims trial. 

A judge will decide if you are owed the money and issue a judgment against the flight school if you are successful.  If the school wants to stay in business then they will have to pay you.  

The cost to file a small claims case is usually less than $200 and you obtain the forms from your local clerk of courts office.  If you win the case, then the costs are added to the judgment and the flight school will have to pay those costs as well.