The plot thickens....
I went to the school this morning after my heated telephone call with an instructor last night. The conversation ended along the lines of
QFI - Well, if we are going to do it your way then, when you come in for your lesson tomorrow we will do an hour ground school. You can then take photocopies of the aircraft manual to take home and study. Then come back and book some airtime in the PA28....
ME - I have took the day off work tomorrow, if the WX is okay then I want to get up and fly, I have already studied the rotate speeds/approach speeds....
I arrived for my 10:30 slot at about 10:10am and was gutted... no, that is an understatement, I was totally pi**ed off when the instructor told me that he had
cancelled my lesson because I mentioned the possibility of checking out other clubs. The conversation ended as above though, me insisting I wanted to fly if the wx was bad so there was NO mention of cancelling the lesson. If he thought I wanted to cancel the lesson, then he should have said "Are you wanting to cancel the lesson" in which case I would have said
no.
Just so you are aware, I had booked my lesson with a different instructor (Lets call him Instructor A) whereas I was called by Instructor B informing me that he would be doing my lesson because Instructor A was not going to be in the following morning.
Anyway, friday morning after I found out it was cancelled he told me he had called instructor A 30 mins ago telling him that his lesson was off with me (do you smell a rat!!!) The instructor I was originally booked in for was now schedulded to do an RT exam at 10am, but I was told he couldn't do my flight because he wasn't going to be in...!
I told him (Instructor B) that I didn't really want to fly with him and he told me (and I quote)
"This is a business we are running here, you cannot just 'call up' and choose who you fly with" he told me that the school make the decision who flies with who....., rubbish!!! I pay the money and like any student, I choose the instructor I feel comfortable with, failing that I go elsewhere.
Anyway, I wasted a day's holiday from work to have them cancel my lesson for
NO reason. In their pilots order book, it protects the school from cancellations by a 33% cancelation fee within 24 hours, it does not offer such protection to the students, especially in such incompetent circumstances.
I am going to write a letter of complaints to the school and WILL be invoicing them for wasting my time and money because of their incompetance. I doubt they will pay but that is what balifs are for
I have checked out another school next door (RavenAir, oops, hope that doesn't give any clues away
.....) and am likely to be joining their school after a quich checkout in their PA38's. Which seem far better maintained and cheaper.
I forgot to add, I am a PPL with about 85 hours, I am current, did 2.5 hours solo last week with 3 landings at different airfields so my currency has not lapsed.