Timebuilder
Entrepreneur
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2001
- Posts
- 4,625
I had a flight today that allowed me a nice (company paid) lunch in Worcester, Mass., while we waited for our passengers to finish their business. My captain and I were discussing the closure of a flight school in ******* (no names, due to libel laws) and the history of the operators, particularly a man we’ll call Captain X. And so begins our story…
My friend had known of the Captain a few years back, as his reputation had preceded him. My friend had worked for a particular charter and cargo outfit, and this Captain X had approached his boss about partnering for a venture. My friend had warned his boss about the Captain, but his boss didn’t listen. Why, my friend asked, if the Captain had the money he said he had, would he be interested in a struggling outfit like his own? Not long after my friend’s boss had put up some money, my friend got a call while he was on a trip. Apparently, an investment using some of his boss’s money had “gone bad”. Exit stage right, Captain X.
I asked about the kind of school operation that Captain X had run. My friend explained that he lured foreign students to his school with promises of jobs, and charged outrageous prices for training in decrepit airplanes. He promised to place them with jobs, and some were actually placed in Metroliners. Sometimes pilots rose to the occasion and moved on to a good job. Sometimes, the job turned out to be a PFT scheme. Sometimes, the former student flew once a week, sometimes less. Sometimes, the Captain used threats and intimidation to keep his students from going to the authorities. After all, many had overstayed their visas, and might face deportation.
Eventually, he made his school into a marketable commodity, and sold it, including an agreement to not compete. This didn’t last long. Soon, he had put together a new school, and with some family members, started along the same path as before. For a while, he was placing students with a well-known, legit carrier. After a time, that stopped, and the carrier forged a new agreement elsewhere. I’m not sure what happened to the students at the time the agreement ended.
As I ate my lunch, I recalled a conversation I had with one of the principals of the Captain’s school, having called it myself back when I was looking for an “accelerated program”. This guy was related to the Captain, and he said that I didn’t need to “go through all that CFI Bull Sh**”, and I should write a check today to ensure my spot in the next class. Something about his attitude irritated me. Maybe it was his insistence that I’d be making a BIG mistake by not putting my fanny in his classroom right away, or that he had found the undeniable BEST way to get a right seat job with a regional in the least amount of time. I realized that a good number of young pilots had no doubt swallowed this bait, hook line and sinker. After all “airline training is all we do here”, he’d said.
The most distressing part of today’s conversation is that my friend said that Captain X had often crafted his deals so well that he would escape unscathed. To me, he sounded like a serial killer of hopes and dreams, who simply hadn’t been caught.
Yet.
I wonder where Captain X is tonight...
My friend had known of the Captain a few years back, as his reputation had preceded him. My friend had worked for a particular charter and cargo outfit, and this Captain X had approached his boss about partnering for a venture. My friend had warned his boss about the Captain, but his boss didn’t listen. Why, my friend asked, if the Captain had the money he said he had, would he be interested in a struggling outfit like his own? Not long after my friend’s boss had put up some money, my friend got a call while he was on a trip. Apparently, an investment using some of his boss’s money had “gone bad”. Exit stage right, Captain X.
I asked about the kind of school operation that Captain X had run. My friend explained that he lured foreign students to his school with promises of jobs, and charged outrageous prices for training in decrepit airplanes. He promised to place them with jobs, and some were actually placed in Metroliners. Sometimes pilots rose to the occasion and moved on to a good job. Sometimes, the job turned out to be a PFT scheme. Sometimes, the former student flew once a week, sometimes less. Sometimes, the Captain used threats and intimidation to keep his students from going to the authorities. After all, many had overstayed their visas, and might face deportation.
Eventually, he made his school into a marketable commodity, and sold it, including an agreement to not compete. This didn’t last long. Soon, he had put together a new school, and with some family members, started along the same path as before. For a while, he was placing students with a well-known, legit carrier. After a time, that stopped, and the carrier forged a new agreement elsewhere. I’m not sure what happened to the students at the time the agreement ended.
As I ate my lunch, I recalled a conversation I had with one of the principals of the Captain’s school, having called it myself back when I was looking for an “accelerated program”. This guy was related to the Captain, and he said that I didn’t need to “go through all that CFI Bull Sh**”, and I should write a check today to ensure my spot in the next class. Something about his attitude irritated me. Maybe it was his insistence that I’d be making a BIG mistake by not putting my fanny in his classroom right away, or that he had found the undeniable BEST way to get a right seat job with a regional in the least amount of time. I realized that a good number of young pilots had no doubt swallowed this bait, hook line and sinker. After all “airline training is all we do here”, he’d said.
The most distressing part of today’s conversation is that my friend said that Captain X had often crafted his deals so well that he would escape unscathed. To me, he sounded like a serial killer of hopes and dreams, who simply hadn’t been caught.
Yet.
I wonder where Captain X is tonight...
