Airman closed until further notice..

[phantomdriver]

It looks like airman does have some assets.

 

[Hipster Loser]

what a messy situation.
Thoses guys deserve to be sued. But im not surpirsed they shut todwn. Lots of flight schools are fly by night operations. I know they were around for a while but still, these places can shut down on a moments notice. It sounds like they knew they were being evicted and took ppls money. real foul.

 

[AV80R]

Déjà vu!

Wow, this situation sounds eerie familiar to me.

Years ago (~93 or so?), I was planning on attending Bolivar Aviation flight school in west Tennessee and only 5 days before my check was deposited - the flight school went out of business!!! (The check was actually already in the mail, I managed to get it cancelled )

There were tons of stranded students; most of them lost thousands and thousands of dollars. If I remember it correctly, after several lawsuits, all American student got 11¢ for each $ they had on their flight accounts; the foreign students got nothing (no protection for them at the time).

Several years later, another flight school in Tennessee (IFC – International Flight Center - Murfreesboro, TN) was behind payments to the city so they decided to move their operations to, SURPRISE!, Norman, OK. I believe they ended up merging with Airman, not sure on this one but I think that’s what happened.

Well, one of the reasons the owner of the flight school wanted to relocate to Oklahoma was a law enacted in TN due to the Bolivar Aviation fiasco. In a nutshell: a flight school in Tennessee is nowadays allowed to make a student pay for their training in advance, however the money must be locked in a special account that is only available to that particular student. In other words, they cannot use money from “new” students to pay the bills of “old” students. From what I understand, Oklahoma does (or did) not have similar laws.

Those regulations “stifled the growth” of IFC according to the owner (remember reading this in a local paper years ago), so they moved their entire operation. It looks to me like those regulations were the only protection students, both American AND foreign, had from crooked flight school owners.

I truly hope everything works out for you guys, God Bless!

Sincerely,
av80r

 

[MFRskyknight]

In a nutshell: a flight school in Tennessee is nowadays allowed to make a student pay for their training in advance, however the money must be locked in a special account that is only available to that particular student. In other words, they cannot use money from “new” students to pay the bills of “old” students. From what I understand, Oklahoma does (or did) not have similar laws.

Yeah, I can understand how running a flight school is a quick way to go broke. But the info about that TN law is good to know. I hope Oklahoma gets something like that going in the wake of this.

If they haven't already, Florida would also do well to take note here.

MFR

 

[phantomdriver]

I heard that the airport management is going to close the tower at KOUN in the near future because of the air traffic drop off a lot. From what i heard it will be by the end of the year or just at the beginning of 2006.

 

[MFRskyknight]

I heard that the airport management is going to close the tower at KOUN in the near future because of the air traffic drop off a lot. From what i heard it will be by the end of the year or just at the beginning of 2006.

I'm sure there's a nice tie-in to the Airman story for the press once they get wind of this.

MFR

 

[phantomdriver]

Is there any new word about the law suit about airman?

 

[MFRskyknight]

Is there any new word about the law suit about airman?

Nope. Give it a few months.

MFR

 

[JonJohn82]

I heard that the airport management is going to close the tower at KOUN in the near future because of the air traffic drop off a lot. From what i heard it will be by the end of the year or just at the beginning of 2006.

Where'd you hear that? OU still operates in there and there is plenty of transient traffic.

 

[phantomdriver]

I heard it when i was at ozzies.

 

[JonJohn82]

I don't know for sure, but I strongly doubt that. The tower was just recently redone. OU has plenty of sorties each day. Also, there is quite a bit of transient traffic. If Stillwater's tower is going to stay open. Westhiemer's tower will definitely stay open.

 

[minitour]

Didn't westheimer tower just get a new radar too? When I was finishing up out there, we kept getting squawk codes for pattern work...asked why and they said it was cuz of the "new radar".

I can't imagine they're closing any time soon. Too much transient traffic especially combined with OU. It's a pretty busy Class D...and it's only a part time tower anyway.

-mini

 

[phantomdriver]

Didn't westheimer tower just get a new radar too? When I was finishing up out there, we kept getting squawk codes for pattern work...asked why and they said it was cuz of the "new radar".

I can't imagine they're closing any time soon. Too much transient traffic especially combined with OU. It's a pretty busy Class D...and it's only a part time tower anyway.

-mini

I am just wanted to if it is true. I just heard about it the other day. I have been at other airports that had new upgrade then to close the tower.

 

[User546]

Didn't westheimer tower just get a new radar too? When I was finishing up out there, we kept getting squawk codes for pattern work...asked why and they said it was cuz of the "new radar".

Yeap, went up and saw the tower guys a month or two ago and they were proudly showing it off.

From the way I understood it, they're tying off of Tinker or OKC's radar. Pretty cool little gadget they had.

 

[minitour]

Yeap, went up and saw the tower guys a month or two ago and they were proudly showing it off.

From the way I understood it, they're tying off of Tinker or OKC's radar. Pretty cool little gadget they had.

Yep, that's what she told me. I think it was OKC's. I was inbound for some pattern work in the RG and reported crossing the river...she said "you are just getting to the river..." I said "close enough" and she started b!tching about how "at least the radar doesn't lie, but enter the downwind....."

Is "Mr. Grumpy-gills" still there?

-mini