National Pilot Academy RNO

[PUNISHER]

National Pilot Academy

Does anyone have any personal experiences good or bad with this school. I have a friend interested in starting his flight training at the Carson City campus. I would appreciate some info from any former/current students or instructors. Thanks,
T

 

[oops!]

nationalpilotacademy.com ? If that is the one I can give you plenty of info

 

[PUNISHER]

Ya thats it, give me the dirt.

 

[oops!]

well to start, I was a CFI there a few years ago(Cedar City) where they got started... I'm not a bitter ex employee just want to give the facts..

They were called professional flight instruction then... they changed their name after a couple of accidents in a couple of months for what i Believe was insurance reasons... they made some poor financial decisions which resulted in our two main 172's to be locked up by the owner for lack of payment...

when I was there they emphasized "accelerated training" which was way too accelerated..."Private in two weeks" and I'm not saying it can't be done but you can't advertise it being done until you have actually done it at least once...they also were advertising as if they were "connected" with Skywest but that soon ended after Skywest heard about it... the founders of NPA "pfi" have a relative that works at Skywest that is how they were trying to swing the "in"..

when students would enroll they would normally secure their loan through pilot career foundation and would charge their card for the full amount... big numbers when your talking about private to CFII.. this was a violation of PCF so they had that yanked also by them... can't remember who the started financing through after that... If a student tried to leave early they wouldn't have any money left on their loan sometimes and it wasn't because they flew to much...

lastly All this happened within a year that I was there and all though I have heard better stories about worse flight schools I don't trust the management... If your friend decides to go a few things for him to remember

keep track of his loan money..(do this through his financial service not NPA)
watch what he signs
promises often fall through
they don't have any ties to other airlines(their 100% job placement is of about 10 students the last I heard)

I still hear allot obout them since they are the main flight school in my home town.. mostly negative but it's hard to find a credible flight school any where so just careful with this one... things might have changed since I was there but that's only because law suits would come into play not because they wanted to better the school

 

[PUNISHER]

Thanks, I appreciate the intel.

 

[Metro752]

Dewey Cheatem Academy

 

[PUNISHER]

Anyone have any positive experiences?

 

[CX880]

Anyone have any positive experiences?

Dude did you hear what a former employee said??

 

[CX880]

I looked into the school about a year ago. They fly 172s and the price is outrageous, something like 40K for o to CFI, basically all single engine. I asked them what is the difference from the local school where I can do it half the price, they used the Skywest card(no proof) and one on one training. No housing, nothing extra. They seemed a little shady so I never called them back. They've been calling about once every 3 months ever since. Never trust a school that is desperate enough to search for students.

 

[PUNISHER]

Dude did you hear what a former employee said??

Yes, that's why Iam asking if anyone has had a good experience. I'm just trying to get all the information I can to help the guy out. My friend lives in South Lake Tahoe, he wants to get some decent training and still be able to commute to school. If anyone has any suggestions for that area I would love to hear from you.
Thanks

 

[oops!]

if you can find any experienced instructors in that area (on the field) I'm sure they can give you the inside scoop.. FBO's can get you some numbers... one thing to remember is the instructors are not very experienced most just started flying less than a year ago so they probably havn't even flown in all the seasons yet... a lot of money for so little experience... the owners(founders) don't have any experience either.. they claim it through daddy who does work for a regional but neither of them have even a commercial lic. they were advertising multi training for a long time but they did that just to find business, they never actually had one... most students went to ATP to get the multi done...
one of the reasons you are not going to see a lot of people giving you info on them in this site is they are not as big as they advertise... when I was with them they started a new training facility in St. George but they didn't actually do anything there... thay had no classroom, or anything on the airport.. they just moved a plane there when they would find enough business and when they didn't think it was worth it anymore they would move the plane back to CDC and make the students drive... If your friend does decide to go to NPA make sure they actually have some sort of infastructure there so they can't just bail when they lose a little business.. they will xpect him to drive and believe me they will expect him to use his money with them if a loan is the primary funding

 

[CX880]

Yes, that's why Iam asking if anyone has had a good experience. I'm just trying to get all the information I can to help the guy out. My friend lives in South Lake Tahoe, he wants to get some decent training and still be able to commute to school. If anyone has any suggestions for that area I would love to hear from you.
Thanks

If your friend doesn't want to do it the FBO way then I suggest he drive down the mountain and go through ATP in Sacramento, housing included and the price was almost the same as NPA who's only single engine.

 

[FlyingToIST]

What makes you think that an 'FBO training' is not going to be decent. ATP is nothing but a certificate factory.
The place you mentioned in the original post is even worse. I called them up and asked them ' how do you guarantee?' some bimbo told me 'all of our grads got hired' .. but that's not guarantee.. So, she decided to transfer me to their 'director' and when i asked the question, he used the f* word and hung up on me.

Places like national academy is the reason why you have bad apples in this industry.

 

[PUNISHER]

What makes you think that an 'FBO training' is not going to be decent. ATP is nothing but a certificate factory.
The place you mentioned in the original post is even worse. I called them up and asked them ' how do you guarantee?' some bimbo told me 'all of our grads got hired' .. but that's not guarantee.. So, she decided to transfer me to their 'director' and when i asked the question, he used the f* word and hung up on me.

Places like national academy is the reason why you have bad apples in this industry.

Well then, you sound like you know the local flight schools/FBOs prety well. Where would you recomend.

 

[VW Pilot]

Oh Man...too bad most loan sharks won't give you loans for flying at
local FBOs...Bastards....