r/FlightAcademy

Hello, I need some advice for my flight training. I am 29. I live in South Fort Worth, Texas. I work 40 hours a week. I have two very young kids and my wife is going back to school. Needless to say we are pretty busy at this stage in life. I have been wanting to become a helicopter pilot for several years now but financing has been an issue. I did, however, recently get some financing together and I would like to start ASAP. My issue is a helicopter school. There are very few in my area and the ones are here are pretty far away when you account for traffic and stuff. (Side note: my plan is to get my PPL out of the way via Part 61 and then to continue the rest of the ratings at Tarrant County College flight school. I would like to do the whole thing with TCC but their ground school is at a time of day I can’t make since I work.) I am between two schools for my PPL. TCC uses Veracity Aviation (who I did a discover flight with and loved) so this would make for an easy transition. Also the school has great reviews and I think they would be solid to work with. The problem is location. They are located at Alliance Airport which is a pretty far drive, especially with traffic in the afternoons when I’d be going. This would be difficult on my wife, as I would be gone all day at work, and then gone for several hours at least 3 days week for flying. This would also be a major fuel cost. The other school is Helicopter Academy. They have an affiliate at Spinks airport which is about 15 minutes from me. The problem is I’ve seen so much negative stuff about Tom McDermott and helicopter academy, however, most of it seems to be from a while back.

All of that to say, is it worth saving the time and gas to go with Helicopter Academy just to get my PLL, but risk poor training and a shady guy? I’ve spoken to him a few times and he really gives me bad vibes. It would just be so much more convenient to train at Spinks. Or should I go with Veracity, and put all of the extra time and money into my training when I have a family at home?