Activeaerospace

[BusTie]

To all;

I just finished my Airbus 320 type rating with Active Aerospace.

I really enjoyed dealing with Walt. He is an extremely honest and professional person who delivered on all of his promises and more.

There are lots of negative rumors out here and that’s all they are….rumors.

If you are looking for the most efficient and cost effective program then this is for you, but then again you can go to other organizations and pay two or three times more for the same program which may end up being less in the end.


My only advice to people out there is;



>>>> Don’t let someone’s opinion be your reality <<<<




Someone just e-mailed me and asked the following question. I am posting them here for you with my answers so you have better understanding of Activeaerospace.

Remember your CRM course? Get all the information and sources that are available to you, good, bad, rumors…etc and then at the end make your final decision.

Here you go:



(1) What type rating did you complete and what was your prior flying experience?



A320 – ATPL - 7500 hours B732- B737NGl with light business jet and medium transport turboprop.


(2) How did you find the home study? Hard/Easy? How much time would you recommend spending on home study before heading to Canada?


Home study is a great head start but not absolutely essential. It’s easy. You can finish the home study in the matter of a week, but don’t base your course commencement on that. Of course the more knowledge and familiarity you have with the airplane the more you will benefit from the course and instructor. (I will explain what I mean from “instructor” more in details in your question about the instructor)



(3) Did you complete the training at the advertised price that Walt quoted you? Where there any hidden extra\'s? How long did you spend in Canada?



The price was exactly to the cent that was quoted. I personally didn’t spend anything more than the quoted $15,800. I truly believe when it comes to Walt nothing is hidden, the first day he sat down with all three of us and read and explained in real English the whole contract, clarified and answered any of our questions along the way. He is a loyal and honest person. You may find some negative comments about him and his organization on pprune but I suggest you don’t allow these rubbish cloud your vision and affect your judgment about him until you experience him yourself first hand like I did.



Remember that there are extra costs if you “DO” need extra help in the sim or briefing,..etc but they are not hidden and this issue is well explained in that first day talk and review of the contract with walt.



The course can be done from in few weeks to few months, is all depend on your progress. If you walk they will have to slow down and walk with you but if you run they will run with you. Having said that, the course has its levels and steps that has to be down in sequence and each step is prerequisite to the next level, you have to understand that CBT, SIM cost lots of money and neither you nor they can afford to push you into the next level of the course while knowing that you are not ready. I started the course on the 3rd of May and told Walt that I would like to finish the course by the end of the month, well how can I say this..? Lets say the ink on my license with the new type rating was drying up on the 25th of May. Exactly 6 days earlier then promised.



(4) How did you find the staff? Instructors?



They don’t have “so called office staff” Walt runs the whole thing by himself, which is nice, he is always around when you need something or question.



Instructor: We had Len for our course, he is a 767 Captain with Air Canada with almost every boieng product in his logbook, he also flew A320 as a Captain with Air Canada for few years. His level of knowledge and experience is not even an issue to be questioned. He is calm, thorough, clear, friendly and patient. To my opinion he gives a true meaning to the word professionalis m. He thought us how to walk before running, he started his lesson plan with the number rule of teaching, known to unknown, familiar to unfamiliar, easy to difficult.



More from your Q2; Len (instructor) started teaching us way beyond the standard of the course and as our performance allowed we covered multiple emergencies, wired scenarios, challenging weather environments. We were so used to having lots of emergencies on our hand that on the actual flight test we were all yawning from boredom even with one engine failed and fire on go around. My point is, the more you get yourself ready for the course and the more input is from you the more result you will get from the instructor and the course in general.



(5) Quality of simulator?



Not even an issue, great CBT, and level D approved by Transport Canada. He uses the Air Canada’s simulators. A320,330,340,757,767,737-200 are available in Vancouver. We only cancelled one session and that was due to heavy thunderstorm activities outside that introduced power surges to the system.



(6) Free Play Trainer... Walt tries to sell this pretty hard, is it that helpful? Is it simply just a desktop simulator like microsoft for example?



Free play trainer is a great learning tool. It is a desktop simulator but is no way near a game like Microsoft simulator. You need to be master in programming the MCDU and doing it fast as you will do that every single time you get reset back at the threshold of the runway for another take off in the sim. Which again comes back down to the money, as every min of your sim time is valuable and trust me you don’t want to spend more than a min of your time figuring out how to reprogram the MCDU. I don’t know what type you are considering to get but A320 is a fully managed airplane that you need to fly via the computers. And the cheapest way to learn it is using the Free Play Trainer. It’s well programmed software and allows you to program a whole flight and then fly it. I don’t think Walt tries or needs to sell this as it sells itself once you use it.



(7) Any other information that you feel benificial, please pass on.

Having a laptop with you would help as you can review the systems back in the comfort of your hotel room.

If there are three guys in your course you will get more time in the sim. This is not cheating the system. Walt is the first one to offer this to you.

Good Luck

Kindly give my warmest regards to Walt and Len