I have just read the postings about WMU and I would like to point out one or two things that have been overlooked by some of the contributors.
Thundercat, I can readily accept your wanting to know about WMU these days, but your second posting on the subject was not entirely correct. First of all WMU lost many more than just five flying instructors. The original group just did not have their contracts renewed. This was to save the university the embarrassment of having to come clean with the trumped up charges that had been levied against them. Having done that, there were a further two culls during the course of which several more flying instructors were made redundant. To say that WMU will have got over that in the intervening two years is not exactly true. At the moment there are only three JAA licensed instructors there. One of them is the Head of Training whose only reason for still being there is that his wife wants to finish a nursing course/qualification. The second is the former Standards Instructor who has had his legs kicked out from under him by the current American management and is not therefore a very happy bunny.
At the last count there was a grand total of one, yes just one, JAA student. So, if WMU is so wonderful where are all the rest? My understanding is that the only reason WMU tolerates JAA training is because Battle Creek Unlimited, a large business consortium, invested so much money in the early days (we are talking several million dollars here), that it could be expensive for the university in terms of litigation to pull the plug entirely.
I note that there have been no responses from Presbycusis, the former defendant of the indefensible. Is this because he has also been made redundant as a groundschool instructor or has he finally realised the futility of trying to explain the deliberate demolition of what used to be one of the best flying training organisations going?
In case anyone accuses me of bias in the matter, let me just point out that my sources of information are not only some of the current staff members at WMU. Until a couple of years ago I was employed there and was one of the victims of the original inquisition. I don’t want to go into detail here, but if anyone would like to hear what really happened they are welcome to contact me direct. Perhaps one could argue with some justification that I am biased against WMU, but all I am trying to do is point out that the damage has not been repaired, and that no matter how good the exchange rate, WMU is probably not the place to go to at the moment.