Quote: “For example, FlightSafety's motto is "Train to Proficiency". By this, they mean that as long as a candidate is making progress, the candidate will be given as much training as they require in order to achieve proficiency. No additional charge is ever made for this. I think FlightSafety has learned a few things about pilot training in the 60 years that they have been in the business.”
That may have been the situation in the past but it is certainly not correct now. FlightSafety now includes for a restricted number of hours in its courses and anything extra is definitely charged for. A recent quote from FlightSafety states:
“ Any additional hourly simulator training needed for course completion will be separately billed at the hourly price listed below.” The additional hourly price quoted for the simulator for that particular course is US$1,145 per hour with an additional US$265 per hour Crew Partner Fee if required.
There is a conflict of interest here. If business is slow, as in a recession, then it would be in the training company’s financial interest to ensure that as many students as possible need extra training that can be billed for. Individual ab initio flight instructors who are paid on an hourly rate by flight schools also sometimes resort to ensuring that students require extra training. One day back in the last century in Ontario the WX was too bad for student flying so one instructor actually gave a student an extra lesson in taxiing to keep the funds flowing. Fortunately the people who resort to these tricks are few and far between. Most instructors are honest and do their best to get students through at a fair rate of progress. However, I was surprised to discover that a leading training organisation would put itself in a conflict of interest position where such suspicions could fall upon it.