Quick reply from one that actually went to Aviator
Do not listen to most people on here, many have not actually studied at Aviator.
There are many pros and many cons as with any flight school anywhere in the world.
The fleet is old and many planes go down for maintenance every day, but it is ok because they have many airplanes and the maintenance guys are doing a good job to bring them back up. On the other hand the price is cheap, you would not get the same price if you went to a school that had brand new DA42...
You need to be serious on your studies, the school and their instructors will not hold your hand and spoon feed you through you flight training, nor should they.
You need to be responsible and study and make sure you fly a lot. Don't be one of these guy that chases the girls on the beach and you will be fine.
If you have problems with your instructor talk to him or her about it and if that does not work then ask for another instructor. It works great.
A little about me then, i was at aviator as of 2009 and i left in 2011. I did the college program, i chose not to stay and do my OPT because we expected a baby so i wanted to go back home instead.
I went with 0 hours and i left with 750 hours, i got all my rating on minimum hours and i had my CPL in 6 months. I got my CFI, II and MEI at 280 hours and started teaching in june of 2011 and i left with 750 hours in december, that is just under 80 hours a month of instructing @ 20USD an hour that 1600USD in salary every month and my rent for a 2 bedroom apartment was 625 that we used and my girlfriends brother was renting one room for a 250 a month. I have 11 sign offs for check rides and all except one was first time passes that is another 1000 USD in bonus i received from the school. I also worked with the school doing shuttle service and some of the IT related systems earning me even more money. So this talk about you being poor there is all BS.
I left prior to finishing my degree, if i have finished the last semester and then adding another year of OPT i would have had given me another 16 months of instructing and @ 8 hours a month i would earn another 1280 hours, which would total me over 2000 hours. Well above the 1500 hour minima for ATP... Actually all i needed to get an ATP was 47 hours a month and you do that easily.
Last edited by Johnny Bekkestad; 29th Dec 2012 at 20:22.