I wrote a letter of complaint to CASA, as is my right, to let them know how unhappy I was with the false promises that led to me enrolling at Beckers. CASA did not even do me the courtesy of replying. So I left it at that.
But CASA obviously sent a copy of my complaint to Becker and even though I was no longer anything to do with his school, he choose to vindictively pursue me with his speciality, a smear campaign of lies and falsehoods. Once all these lies started arriving at my new school I felt that I had no option but to write to CASA again to get this to cease and in attempt to refute all his lies and clear my name.
At least this time CASA replied. They acknowledged "a difficult working relationship" with Becker but other than that had no interest in it. They did however say that they would investigate my claims of inaccurate course materials.
I posted this thread about my treatment from Becker Helicopters solely because no one in CASA seemed remotely interested in what is going there and I think that people should get a fair view of things before committing themselves to spending $50,000 of their cash, life savings in my case, and then decide.
I never started out to denegrate the Australian Helicopter Industry but to show my side of things at a company that I was not happy with.
And my question is "Who regulates Becker's behaviour"?
I specifically asked if I could work in Australia on completion of my CPL(H). Otherwise I was going to go to the USA as they issue a 1 year work permit on successfully qualifying. So Becker wrote back saying that I could work in Australia, which is not true, and that swung my decision to go there. To me this is both unethical and immoral.
And now I see that the HAA wants this to go away as they are claiming it is no good for the industry in general and Becker Helicopters in particular.
Well I'm sorry. Perhaps the HAA should start thinking about what constitutes good, ethical management! Good pilots are not necessarily good managers. And perhaps this incident has been for the best to expose what is wrong in the industry and cause companies to think before "sexing up" their websites with inaccuracies.
It is interesting to note however, that most messages posted on this thread seem to reinforce the fact that there are problems with Becker's management style.
If false promises and inaccuracies are the "stock in trade" of aviation management and are used to further personal ambitions before benefitting the industry, then I am glad to have had a hand in exposing it.
I hope a lesson is learned by all concerned from this.