I have just posted this to the Flyer List:
Well – you all warned me; but the lure of a Warrior III was just too much to resist and I had my run-in with Orlando Flight Training. Here’s how the story went:
Tuesday 6th November I decided that it would be a nice idea to take Siubhan’s parents for a flight and as we were staying near Kissimmee I decided to have a chat with OFT and see what they had available. (The saga begins here)
I turned up just before noon and asked if they had a PA-28 available that I could rent for the afternoon for a short trip to the coast. Their answer was a perfectly reasonable “No; but we do have one at our other FBA at Orlando Exec, which is sitting on the ground doing nothing and it’s only 40 mins away”.
40 mins wasn’t a problem and it only took me 50 mins to get there (not bad considering I didn’t really know the area). So now it’s circa 12.45 when I walk through the doors into the reception area – I should have been warned and turned away then when I was told that the aircraft was in the air doing a skills test. However, I filled out the necessary paperwork and met the instructor who would do my 40 minute checkride.
As I was planning to take an aircraft the following week for some extended touring I agreed to join the OFT Gold Membership Program (sic) . This meant that I was required to put down $100 and leave $100 on the account until I wanted to terminate my membership and the $100 would be refunded. This entitled me to reduced hourly rates and my first hour with an instructor free – it was a good deal as I was about to have a checkride with an instructor.
However, when the aircraft still hadn’t landed an hour later I was starting to get a little pee-d off. 14.15 I was doing my mag checks and airborne a few minutes later. The first part of the checkride was pretty much as you would expect with basic handling, stalls, a most beautifully executed PFL (thanks all for the help with side-slipping, a most useful skill to have), however, it started to go wrong when we went to Orlando County for some T&G’s.
On finals the instructor saw another OFT aircraft, with which they had recently lost radio contact, sitting parked on the apron, the instructor asked me to make it a full-stop landing so that he could check and see that everything was OK. A perfectly reasonable request. This I did. It took 20 mins to ascertain that all was OK and that it was a radio failure. So back to my kite and a quick (but unhurried) start-up and guess what – transponder failure in Class B airspace. Another 20 mins, with the engine on, of tapping and resetting; but no joy. Finally we go clearance to return direct to Orlando Exec under Class B; but within the 30nm Mode C veil without a transponder.
OK now it’s well after 4pm – too late to go flying anywhere and the aircraft was U/S. OK, !!!!! happens; reasonable that we should have come to a full stop to check another pilot is OK, not a tragedy that the transponder failed; but completely unreasonable that they didn’t want to discuss the difference between the, now substantial, Hobbs time and what I thought was a reasonable cost in these circumstances. The comment from the chap on the desk was that it was all time PIC and I could log it, therefore I should pay it. Balls! was my succinct response.
The bill, after discount came to $106 and I stated that I wasn’t prepared to hand over any more money until I had reached some sort of agreement either on the cost of the checkride or on the daily minimum flying hours for some touring the following week. The manager introduced himself to me and said that he was sorry that he couldn’t talk right now; but could I phone him tomorrow. Therefore, I left.
The following day he was unavailable and I got to speak to him again on Thursday at 8am.
I went incandescent when his opening salvo was that I had left the premises without paying my bill and on that basis he would neither be flexible on the minimum hours or the charges incurred. Additionally, he pointed out that I had violated that OFT Gold Member Program by not leaving $100 on account and my bill was therefore $150. The conversation became somewhat animated ending with him threatening to get the police involved and have me arrested for non-payment and me responding with 2 words that contained 3 F’s.
So the outcome was that I got a checkride that I couldn’t use and $100 down. Won’t be going back there.
Mark
PS However, I will admit that I got some useful practice.