r/FlightTraining

My first post, Reddit thought I was a bot so they removed it, but here is is again because it is really important!

I just got out of a VA 101 GI Bill education training session and they put out so much incorrect information about VA benefits and Flight Training. They were telling people that they would have to pay out of pocket for their Private Pilot!!! This is crazy and not actually true if you know more to the story. There are 2 ways to use VA benefits for flight training.

The first is the improper way and that is Vocational Flight. This is where, YES, you pay out of pocket for Private Pilot and then each 17K you use takes away 12 months of benefits (you only get 36 months). This is NOT the way for you to use your benefits as they will be gone before you even complete your Commercial rating. This route is really only good if you are a professional pilot and you just want to do an Add-On Rating.

Below is the second (BEST) way for a Veteran to get the VA to pay for their dreams of flight training!

If you are starting from the beginning, simply go through an approved Institute of Higher Learning (College route) that is both accredited as well as VA approved. This route, if done through a Community College, will take you about the same amount of time as it would have if you had cash to pay for it all. The VA will cover the program costs and ALL ratings (including Private Pilot)! VA will provide you with a housing allowance and a book stipend! You literally get paid to learn to fly this way. I am just so frustrated with the VA not telling people about this option and really explaining it. Don't let the VA burn through your benefits for no good reason. Getting your Associates degree and all of your ratings in 2 years or less also only uses up about 18 months of your total 36 months of eligibility!

I know that Klamath Community College has a partnership with Pureflight Aviation Training in Oregon and they have both Airplane and Helicopter VA approved programs. Many of their Veterans complete all Helicopter ratings AND Airplane ratings and the VA pays for it all.

Hi all, looking for a flight school somewhere in the DFW metroplex that does in house financing! Currently at Spartan in Tulsa, but would prefer to stay close to home. Sallie Mae and stratus are a big no for me.

So I've come into a situation that I'm going to air here and see what people think. I (regrettably) attended Blue Line Aviation some bit ago and have been in a billing dispute with them for ages. They were not able to maintain their end of the training agreement (no instructors available, no DPE's available, no aircraft available, etc) and my zero to hero training fell into the crapper pretty fast and I found myself way behind simply because I spent weeks (not joking) waiting to be able to progress. Regardless, I left the program and had to return home to earn money and they of course refused to refund anything to me. So, this is where things get interesting.

I stopped paying my flight school loan to push for a settlement which was going to be finalized but then the loaning institution suddenly just sold the loan to another creditor and I went years hearing nothing. On my credit report the loan is listed as "Paid as Agreed" and my emails ceased to be responded to so I just left it at that. A couple weeks ago, I received a notification via certified mail that I'm being sued for the full loan amount, plus about $50,000 in unpaid interest. The court notice also lists the names of about 25 other people who are being sued (individually) and the name of the officer testifying to the legitimacy of the lawsuit is none other than the owner of Blue Line Aviation himself - Charles Ray Walters III (Trey Walters for those who know him). The suing creditor is a company known as Aviation Finance Group. I start to do my due diligence and find that Aviation Finance Group is owned by Trey Walters.

So stop me if I'm off base here but it's looking to me like Blue Line Aviation was paid in full for students flight training by their creditor (as well as others) and then Trey Walters, owner of Aviation Finance Group went and bought unpaid or disputed flight school debts and is now suing those people to essentially increase their profits. I'm not sure as to the legality of this and I know that North Carolina (where the suit is filed) has a three year statute of limitations which I am far past so I'm hoping to get this dismissed (as least for my name) due to this and a number of other errors in the suit. It seems to me this suit was simply filed as a cash grab against former students and is meant to scare people into just paying or never even responding to the suit resulting in a default judgement against them.

My question here to you all is simple - what say you? Is this legal and if so, moral? Thanks.

I’m new at vocab here so be patient. He does tail wheel, acrobatics, spin recoveries, wake turbulence inversion recoveries, etc.

I’m only like 8 hours in and training on a Rans S21 trike. I’m not planning on doing this for a career.

Would it make sense to travel out to him and do a weekend of flying where he teaches me all this stuff, even if most of it won’t be on my eventual check ride? I’d like to see him and fly with him, but going for a quick flight is a lot different than spending a whole weekend getting my butt handed to me learning all this.

Hey guys

Currently stuck in Prescott (KPRC) and looking to knock out my CFI initial before moving on to Multi.

Frankly, the schools in Prescott are charging "Riddle prices" and my wallet can't handle it anymore. I'm looking for a place that actually moves at a decent pace without the 141 corporate BS.

The Situation:

• Location: Based in PRC, but willing to grind in PHX area.
• Torrance (KTOA) Option: My aunt lives in Torrance, so I can relocate there if the schools/DPE availability are actually better (Sling? Pacific Skies? Tell me the tea).
• Background: 300ish hours, mostly C172 G1000 time. Some 6-pack and DA40 experience.
• Status: ALL 3 WRITTENS DONE (FIA, FOI, AGI). I'm ready to start flying rn.

What I need:

1. SPEED: I want to get this done ASAP. Not looking to be "just another student" in a backlog for 3 months.
2. COST: Looking for fair rates. Dry or Wet doesn't matter as long as it's transparent.
3. DPE Availability: Who’s got the hookup? I don't want to wait 6 weeks for a checkride after I'm endorsed.

Give me any ideas.

One thing I’ve started noticing as a newer CFI is that a lot of students really aren’t struggling because they’re “bad” at flying.

Most of the time they’re just overwhelmed and trying so hard to do everything perfectly that they end up overthinking every little thing.

I had a student the other day getting pretty frustrated with landings. Every time we turned final you could kinda feel the stress level go up in the airplane. Chasing airspeed, forcing the flare, trying to make every landing smooth instead of just flying the airplane.

After a few laps we stopped for a minute and just talked through what the airplane was actually doing and what they should be looking for instead of trying to force every little control input.

Within a couple landings things honestly started looking way better.

Not because they magically became an amazing pilot in 10 minutes, but because they relaxed a little and finally understood what was actually happening instead of fighting the airplane the whole way down.

Those are honestly the moments that make teaching really fun.

Anybody else have something in training that randomly clicked way later than it should’ve?