Moncton Flight College
Flyingbagel,
It's probably not a good idea to discuss whether "school A is better than school B". The reason is that most students/cadets have only ever seen one or two FTOs, and have rarely seen the two being compared. Hence the frequent posts along the lines of "my instructor was the best"... "my school was the best"... With this mind, I'm not inclined to say much about Harv's Air, since I have only heard anecdotal stories about the training there, which may or may not be true.
However, I can speak with some authority about the training at MFC, having been an instructor, an instructor course instructor, examiner, and finally chief flying instructor there. I am currently an airline pilot with a national flag carrier airline, and I work there with others who have trained at MFC. I have also worked in the same capacities at a number of reputable FTOs in several other countries (UK, USA).
I can tell you that MFC's reputation, training quality, safety, professionalism is excellent. If you are looking for a school where you will get your licence and become an airplane operator, there are many out there, and many which are less expensive than MFC. If, on the other hand, you're looking for an organization with considerable expertise in training both individual students and fulfilling large-scale airline training contracts (ab-initio programmes), then the air becomes considerably thinner, so to speak. Therefore, if your goal is to become a competent pilot and one day captain, it's important to make the right choice.
Make sure you go and visit both (or all) places you're interested in, get a feel for the training environment, talk to students and other instructors. Sit in on a training flight, and in the briefing and debriefing. It's time well spent because it will help you make the right decision.
In my considered view, there are certainly other, but not that many other FTOs worldwide which offer a comparable training product in terms of quality and professionalism. Certainly not many in Canada.
KK.