Avion Air Academy...

[Sandhu]

HELLO FRIENDS:beer:
Please advice me if anyone has idea about the reputation and the overall learning atmosphere of Avion Air Academy.
I found its courses reasonably cheaper.
Please share your experiences
Thanks!

 

[Sandhu]

Thanks a lot buffettck!
'Am fortunate to get the rply from the right source.

I was in touch with DCA regarding my training.I filled enrollment form and paid fee $1,200(international student fee).
But then they refused any financial assistance to me,which they agreed before I applied.Which really forced me to search for other schools as I developed doubts over DCA credibility in keeping the word...
So I found some schools quite cheaper.

Thats why I consider myself fortunate coz, 'buffettck' told me about DCA too.

 

[Sandhu]

Delta Connection is Avoidable!

Hello buffettck!
I think they are better avoided.
I was actually attracted to their "Guaranteed Job Interview" thing.
Secondly, its lcation is quite near to a place where my sister stays and DCA bus picks up the students from the areas around.So it was natural for me to decide.
But discussion forums like this 've really helped me in knowing the truth, where we get some first hand honest and helpfull replies.
Thanks.

 

[cobraman]

OH MY GOD....... Spare the physco babble BS:uzi: I've checked out Avions fleet and they aren't anything special to write home about. You heard WHAT during unusual attitudes? Give me a fricken break. The only thing you heard was your instructor saying you were screwing them up. Besides, How much could you have heard only instructing about 30hours at DCA? And this makes you some sort of authority figure to the kid wet behind the ears? I've logged 10x the time you ever did at DCA and still haven't heard them creek. Don't forget to tell the new kid you were asked to quit or you would have gotten fired. TELL THE WHOLE STORY MAN.

Hey FNG, If you can't swing the loan money for DCA, then check out Falcons fleet. G1000's and new sp's. The rates over there actually aren't THAT much cheaper than DCA and are the same as Avion. Falcons fleet is newer and nicer than avions. Vic and Matt are good people, just don't hand anyone 30k for a couple hundred hours in a king air

 

[mnixon]

Ok so here is what you wrote.

I can't comment on Avion's training, but I did CFI/II at DCA, which is right next door at SFB.

I frequented their pilot shop a lot as the DCA one was overpriced (like everything else). Plus, it always seemed DCA was out of any periodic publications. Somehow, Avion always managed to have what I needed in stock despite the run on their inventory from all the invading DCA people... Did I mention a lot cheaper, too?

I also rented aircraft from Avion (again, cheaper/nicer planes) because DCA will NOT let any non-DCA personnel (i.e. friends/family) in their aircraft because they are afraid of lawsuits. DCA lost a Cessna when an instructor took his wife and a couple of other people due to airframe failure. Witnesses observed the plane coming down in several pieces. There was no mid-air collision. After that, DCA decided to only allow students/instructors the ability to kill themselves in their aircraft. Of course, no one knows what the pilot at the time was doing, but many of DCA's planes are creaky old birds. I heard all kinds of strange noises out of those antiques both as a student and as an instructor, especially during unusual attitude recoveries and spin recovery.

As for Avion, they are a very modern facility with very nice (and attractive) personnel on the FBO side. In fact, they just moved from where the Southern Jet facility now is within the last 1.5 years.

Don't know about the training side, but every student/instructor I talked to was very positive. That's compared to all the sour pusses in management/dispatch at DCA and the overall apathy of the instructor pool (at the time I was there).

If it were me, I'd go to Avion. Plus, they have a kick-arse catering business and they sometimes cater the FAA seminars in the Vigilante Room over on the commercial terminal side of SFB. Seem to be good people all around...

Hope that helped some...

Here is what you wrote that actually pertains to what the prospective student asked.

As for Avion, they are a very modern facility with very nice (and attractive) personnel on the FBO side. In fact, they just moved from where the Southern Jet facility now is within the last 1.5 years.Don't know about the training side, but every student/instructor I talked to was very positive.If it were me, I'd go to Avion. Plus, they have a kick-arse catering business and they sometimes cater the FAA seminars in the Vigilante Room over on the commercial terminal side of SFB. Seem to be good people all around...Hope that helped some...

I mean really though. The guy has a question right? Answer it and shut the f*ck up already.


To the guy who asked the original question. Realize that "Buffettck" is a very bitter old instructor of DCA for what ever reason. Before you take what he told you to heart, realize how much fluff he threw into his response about Avion, which is a good school by the way with old crappy airplanes. You didn't ask about DCA, because I'm sure you already read his other pschyo babble elsewhere.

I have no preference where you go honestly. Avion will be cheaper for you. Probably the same training, maybe a little slower. Both have old airplanes. But let me tell you one thing. A new airplane in this industry is odd. There's my opinion, unbiased. Good luck in your training. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

 

[mnixon]

Yea because it wasn't where I wanted to be. I wanted to fly "in the real world". Wish I could go back now. Drinkin every night with my buddies, and doing whatever I wished, oh hell yea! Yea, I didn't like the place but just the same as you, they didn't do anything personally to me, essentially the same as you. You just choose to believe that they did!

 

[mnixon]

Some pretty lofty goals there, huh? Well, I guess you can dare to dream, right?

You do responsibly manage your bottle to throttle (or pre-flight planning) limitations, don't you?
.

God forbid I make the best of a situation and have fun with it. And dont play your 8 hr game with me. Do you control your bitching and psycho babble 8 hours before? And by the way i dont drink 24 hours b4 a flight there brightspark!

 

[Pattern-Master]

Forget those sh!!tty aircraft at Avion and checkout www.sunstateaviation.com over in KISM. Brand new fleet of G-1000 cessnas, great instructors, and awesome class D airport to train at. Prices are also very competitive considering the equipment you get to fly.

 

[cobraman]

Well, you were a self-admitted flight hog at DCA and there's nothing wrong with that if you stuck with the bottle to throttle rules. Seems like you didn't adhere to your self-imposed 24 hrs as much as you flew...you couldn't have. Also, if you are drinking with your buds every night, as you say you do, then you must not be flying very much...and I pity you if that's your main source of entertainment.

Atleast his source of entertainment isn't trying to SCARE or steer people from DCA on a daily basis. Looking at your posting history, you don't fly at all!

You better hope I never sit on the other side of the table at an interview.:laugh: I wouldn't hire a whiny ass. I will hire a beer drinker. I wouldn't hire a freak with airplanes on his socks. I would hire someone with balls and I wouldn't hire someone that doesn't know what balls are for.

 

[mnixon]

Dude, you didn't know me from Adam when I was there. Go friggin' ask Jennifer M. in HR who actually sat on my interview board. She was completely stunned and at a loss for words when I simply dropped my three line resignation letter on her desk. Ask the guy (can't remember his name) who was in charge of the old instrument group after Loren H. left... Ask Chris W. if he's still there... Ask Mr. Lee W. of the old CFI/II group... I ran into him out in town (before I left Sanford) and he was genuinely concerned that he hadn't seen me around as he enjoyed the conversations about military service long gone by. My CFI partner was a former Marine as well and the three of us went to lunch several times.

You proclaim your above statement as "matter of fact", when, in fact, you don't know jack squeeze...

Sure you've instructed more hours at DCA because you're STILL THERE. You'll never even approach the total number of instructional hours in my logbook...ever. I was never fired nor was I asked to quit from DCA...ever.

I only instructed for a few months because I read between the lines as a student. It was really more out of curiosity to see if I'd get hired and make it through Standz. I flew through it and it really was all a complete joke...

BTW, where the heck do you get me only having instructed 30 hours at DCA? Do you have access to my logbooks? Don't think so and stop guessing because it makes you look even more ignorant.[/quote] Ever heard of MISA? He can pull up my ID 2525, and see that I instructed for 500 hours, so I'm guessing he could do you too.