Dear colleagues !
May this serve as a warning to everyone who is looking to get type-rated on Airbus A320 (as well as A318, A319, A321)
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES GO TO THIS TRAINING ESTABLISHMENT !
Reasons:
1. Very high Failure rate comparing to other training centers (after many inquiries following my recent type-rating attempt, I was advised by many that this facility has one of the highest failure rates in the country!)
2. Extremely high price in terms of "total rate to flight hours ratio". (get 12 hours PF time and 5 days of ground school for $12,000. Thats when other training providers, like "SimCenter" offer you 18 PF hours and 10 days of ground school for 13,500 in the same simulator at Alteon, Miami)
3. Very low quality training equipment (A320 Simulator is used in Boeing Alteon center in Miami. There is only ONE sim there, half dead, breaking down every 20 minutes and there are no spare parts, according to maintenance technicians!)
4. Poor reputation (This company was exiled from "JetBlue" training center in Orlando for poor instruction and not paying their bills!)
5. Outrageous customer service. (They will not reply to any of your complain emails. Only SALES emails will be answered!)
6. Terrible planning and organization. (After numerous emails regarding my type-rating booking, when I arrived at the training location, I was told that they lost my reservation information and perhaps I could not traind since they may have no one to pair me with !)
7. Ridiculous standard of instruction (They will offer you some poorly-constructed PowerPoint presentation to watch for 5 days prior to starting the sim. A320 Instructor, Steve McDonell, will continuously fall asleep during the presentation and if you do have a question he may wake up and answer "Sure!" to anything you say, regardless if this makes sense or not).
8. Poor sim operation and knowledge (same instructor had serious problems instructing and actually operating the sim! Out of booked 10 hours of training, expect half of them to be waisted in maintenance and instructor incompetence issues! Do not be fooled by their promises that everything is going to be fine and that they will get you through this training - they will simply ask for more money once you get closer to check-ride or you will not be signed off to take the test!!!)
9. Company has poor relations with the Alteon A320 examiner and does not have it's own in-house examiner. (My partner failed the check-ride due to a very minor mistake. He was an ATR captain with thousands of hours of experience in an Airbus-built aircraft! I failed as was requested to do an action which I was not previously instructed to do. According to instructor's words, this happens very often and many people fail! Do you expect to pass !?! )
10. When asked for partial compensation for time waisted in a broken sim, Bond Aviation and their chairman Larry Bond have not even had a decency to reply !!!
I HOPE THIS WILL SERVE AS A PROPER DETERRENT TO ANYONE PLANNING TO DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY.
Thanks for your attention !
MP