Originally Posted by
Okihara
Where are Soar students on PPRuNe? Why don't they provide some first hand comments and stories here?
HI Okihara,
We are right here, one of the students (or should I say ex students), we are just listening and watching. we have a lot of stuff going on right now.
Now to begin I am talking on behalf of myself and not the group. The following views are based on MY OPINION and thus my anonymity is to be respected as this is still an ongoing issue. (yes you can PM me and i will respond but ONLY if you are a current student/Ex Student)
First off I would like to clarify some of the things that has been said all over across most of the social media and including here, most people have got the conception that we are after the aviation industry and its too hard and we are the drop outs or something along those lines.
Well to respond to that, most of us are grownups. have full time or part time jobs and have steady income, some of us came out with master degrees, some have PhD's, amazing how we all human beings slander first then sympathize later... we are dedicated people that want to be in the aviation circle, we are doing everything we can to have a career change, it's a small tight nit family that challenges us, it enhances us, it challenged me. I want to give credit where credit is due...
Soar has taught me how to fly, some instructors were EXCELLENT and of course with every "community" there is always a few bad apples who practically will fail you for not having the optional clip on tie as a part of the uniform that's non compulsory in the eyes of the OPS manual, they did teach me how to fly but at what expense? I will tell you; I have a student loan that is close to $80k with an interest rate labelled as "index of inflation" at 1.8%-1.9% every new financial year on top...between $1440 - $1620 in fees on top of the loan you already have(depending who or which department you ask in the government), what do I have? practically a useless RPL and you know what, that licence doesn't even have CTA & CTR nor a flight review to activate it and be usable. what about the RA-AUS RPC then? well that's a whole different kettle of fish to boil, you guys wouldn't know what the hell is RA-AUS and what is it doing in a controlled aerodrome such as Moorabbin, well I will save you the troubles so you don't have to beat around the bush (casa EX69/18). so you might ask "HOW?" well its very simple. I got sucked in. I was one of those originals promised to fly the 172's and the Foxbat as the old mate who could sell ice to an Eskimo (those people know who I'm talking about, cant compromise anyone's identity), he was pitching the course at the time told me this would be temporary, so I believed as you would, they say ignorance is no excuse; well neither is deception.
But 80k and not even a licence I can use unless I pay out of my pocket to get a flight review and having to pay out of my pocket for CTA & CTR just to use the damn RPL is not right... I'm sure there is HEAP's of people who went to other flight schools and had an EASY pass. yes I said EASY pass. because we(the students that are in the group) developed a paranoia towards failure. we have to repeat whole flight again and again.
lets say one of the pre-solo Navs they have...Say NAV 8 - you know your route, you studied the weather, you know the risks, yet somehow you made an oopsie, when you were departing you remained on YMMB TWR freq and you forgot to change/monitor CTR freq until say you were maybe 2 CLEAROFFS (yes clearoffs, the S is Sartime lol) and roughly 30mins at your vixxen with a tas of 82kt , the instructors would let you fly all the way to your destination and then all the way back (120nm). you do absolutely brilliant, but then they mark you as failed and you have to repeat the whole flight, YES the whole flight. that's how I was taught, that's the going norm that they have developed. that's the corporate culture. you aren't to repeat C3.1 judging by the MOS PT 61, you are to repeat the whole flight, again, and again, and again until you are absolutely perfect. Let's be the devil's advocate for a second. you get good, you get perfect at repetition, but again AT WHAT COST?! I was NEVER stopped, NEVER intercepted and in fact I was encouraged to fly more by both BOX HILL AND SOAR, Yes they said repeating the whole flight is necessary despite that you just need to repeat only 1 component demonstrated on your next flight, it is necessary for you to burn a good 3 hours again just to prove competency in the example C3.1 - Operate radio equipment. (yup that's how they operate, that's how they milk you dry), next time you repeat...you get distracted and you dont make a 10nm inbound call, you make it at 8nm and you again have to repeat whole flight, the flight after that you forget to switch the tanks, forget carb heat, forget to have nav lights on, forget whatever. pick something small thats easily fixable but because you haven't performed it then and there...you F'd it.
(bonus points for anyone who can tell me a casa recommended part 141 non integrated syllabus number of navs vs SOAR's Business model) - 8 flights vs 11 flights inc final flight test
Not even going to go into full detail of the whole boxhill-soar marriage that's undivorceable, not going into the 141 non integrated useless RA-AUS hours that wouldn't be employable if fresh graduate with no extra spending involved (they deceived us and said hours are transferable), the whole flight records withholding, say you rage-quit and went elsewhere to study. ha good luck trying to get your flight records.
this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Note: We aren't going after the VSL system. VSL is great. Let's say FTA - they actually graduate pilots with jobs aligned. yet here at soar the closes thing to a job opportunity was the ******** And ********** (which turned out to be a hoax. something to fill the check boxes) so to summarize a course with graduation rate that's so low that you can pick a number on one hand. so we are going after the operator who stole almost 4 years of my life. the operator that basically tarnished my logbook forever. no one in Moorabbin (and I'm sure even in Bankstown) likes soar. Those that want to jump on board with defense of soar have the misconception of us; some kids who defaulted on the bank of mum and dad. yeah okay sure il agree, iv'e defaulted because i come from a place where there is no money and my life isn't about the money, its about the freedom of doing what you love rather than hating every single day of your life. Aviation to me isn't about some high paying job sitting in a cockpit flying at 32,000ft. No, to me its about discipline its about the view, the respect, the scenery that most kids wish to see. its about the freedom. being robbed off that dream makes me very upset.
So what happens now? We fight for right.
Whats our next move? Wait and see,
whats my current job? keep spreading awareness about this horrible operator. (remember, at the top i wrote IN MY OPINION)
Is this because we are sour and bitter?
Nope. Most of us actually somehow went to other flight training providers, paid out of our own pockets and actually passed with flying colors. some were praised as top performers.....but at what cost?
at the cost of being ripped off, going elsewhere and paying more? is that how aviation works? you get robbed twice and that's when you can see the blue sky up?
There are 2 types of instructors. the Vampires who dont teach you S*** which will suck your blood dry and the ones who are genuine disciplined people who truthfully deserve of that title. those that want to teach you that work at soar normally quit a few months after induction. meanwhile other operators that i flew with are career instructors that want to teach and want you to succeed.
If there are students reading this and are unsure how to join the group. You can PM me, if there are people who know how to help and want to join our cause. You can also PM me, if there are people who aren't sure which side of the fence they stand. as someone mentioned above. Our deputy PM of this country endorsed the school of broken dreams, just remember it could be your kid too that's soon to be suffocating from the forever loan that you cannot default on and the loan that prevents you leaving this country until paid out in full.
bonus points: say i do default on this loan, whos paying my bill? you? the tax payer? because this operator already has made the money...
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