Cessna5370M

Anyone who has been working for Norwegian for more than 1 year? Please PM me, as I have some questions! Thanks!!

aloha1985

Love the name, 70M

bfisk

Seconded! According to my logbook I flew 70M for 72,4 hours. Always was the favourite 152 at NAIA.

TowerDog

Didn't that place go tits up years ago?

Or came back as NAIA Nr.2 or 3...?

aloha1985

They closed their New Mexico (?) campus many years ago.. the South Carolina campus was bought by a Benjamin Creel some time around 2000 I think, and trained NEAR/NEIA students until sept. 2008... Don't know much about the pre-Creel era (apart from NAIA being founded in NJ and filled with SAS ab-initios in the early years), but the previous owner/director worked as international admissions officer under Creel. They were still using a derivative of the SAS-programme when I was there in 2007/2008 for the JAR students. Anyone know when the last SAS sponsored people left..? The school has had some special association with Widerøe too apparently.. there were plenty of Widerøe-effects around the school, and plenty of graduates who have ended up there.

TowerDog

Aha, the place has changed hands and location several times?

Those guys came to Norway in the 70s to recruit pilots for the location on the East Coast. (NJ or NC..?)

I paid a few bucks and did the testing in Oslo late 1977.
Passed the test and got a fancy diploma and an invitation to start training next spring. Around the same time Øyvind Berg vas in Oslo intervieing candidates for his brand new little flight school in Tennessee: McMinnville Aviataion.

Went with Mr. Berg as his price for FAA Comm, Inst, Multi and CFI was $9.500.00 including living, weekly food allowance and r/t airfare.

NAIA wanted $13,500.00 for a similar program.

Needless to say, I went with the cheaper package deal. Get the same tickets in the same amount of time. Quality of instruction was probably no different, som low time CFI is sitting there barking at you while sweatting under the hood anyways.

The exchange rate at the time was around 5 NOK for the $, so I came out fairly inexpensive. 50K NOK or so.

Horrifying seeing guys taking up 1 mill NOK loans these days.

aloha1985

My old man told me to avoid a loan, so as to not be a slave to debt... he also said to avoid miami, because of the crime rate.... i took the loan and went to SC.. NAIA went bust and my money lost, and i was forced to a school in miami..... oh the irony ..the story seems to be ending on a brighter note, but wise words they were - in hindsight btw - 1 mill loan - *guilty as charged*

TowerDog

And the school in Miami went bust recently?

The moral of the story is to not pay the whole sum in advance.
Pay-as-ya-go is the key.

If the school refuses such an arrangment, tell them to stick the program up their arses...

aloha1985

Actually, the school in Miami is still up and running, but NEAR/NEIA dumped my money in a Cayman bank account and decided to go on a long-term vacation to Thailand!

Pay-as-you-go is my crede now. I heard the advice before I decided on school, but credentials as the former Statens trafikkflygerskole cooperating with the former ab-initio school of Scandinavian Airlines, both tracing their roots back to the mid 70's... well, my risk assessment seemed sound (to me) at the time. But when even that goes bust overnight, no school is safe Sorry to say there's a lot of crooks in flight training (and many honest students and instructors suffering under them, I might add).

TowerDog

Hey, we have friends both in Cayman and Thailand.

Why don't you and your buddies put together a small fund, then you hire local goons in Thailand and set fire to the crooks house or break his legs...Or both.
Should be no problem.

Perhaps even collect your money and let the goons have a cut.

aloha1985

I think many of my colleages have thought in those paths - several people took up those 1 mill loans just to see it all vanish a week later, with nothing to show for, with the family property on the line. Makes you wonder how developed the Norwegian judicial system is when there's no consequences for the bad guys, and the same people are now considering starting a new flight school.

An otherwise very calm guy, upon hearing of NEIA's bankruptcy after the CEO had taken out huge bonuses, immediately resorted to building a pillory for that given CEO. That was his way of doing the stress management. I'm afraid most people are not that contained

TowerDog

Well, did anybody do anything...?

Surely there is a money trail and surely it canbe followed.

If the legal stuff does not work, then use violence..

If somebody fu... me out of $166K or 1 mill NOK, I would follow him to the end of the earth...

(Yeah, easy to talk tough on the internet using a key board, but I have a proven track record when somebody tried to fu.... me over..I got it un-fu...ed and my money back..Different situation than here thou)

So, what is the names of the crooks, and possible locations in Thailand.?

Tunfisk

OLE PEDERSEN skattelistene skattesøk skatt - Kjendis.no

TowerDog

So, this guy Ole Pedersen was behind NAIA's bankruptcy...?

Or was that Ben Creel?

Or was Ole involved in both NAIA and NEIA?

If indeed he embezzled the money, why on earth is he walking around like a free man?

Guttn

Because Norway is a socialist country without a judicial system that punishes criminals. That`s why we get a lot of criminals from eastern Europe. Only a few get caught, and do minimum time behind bars. Well behind bars isn`t a correct term. The correct term would be 4 star hotels with satellite TV, highspeed internet etc etc etc Oh yeah... once they are in this system they actually begin earning a pension from the dumb-butt socialst Norwegian (no, not the airline) government.

BTW TD, I might be going to MIA next month with the family and possibly another colleage and his family. Up for a cold one or twelve?

TowerDog

Yeah, always up for getting in trouble, but June is a busy month for the TD:

From the 4th to the 10th, sailing to Bahamas..From the 28th to July 1st, a short vacation in St. Maarten @ some resort that offered us a free 3 night/4 day suite. (Seems like a good deal, but have to listen to a sales pitch for a hour or so..That of course will cut into my beach/margarita time)

In between the above days there is mostly work with a few scattered OFF days..

That being said, yeah, lets hook up. What is the plan, ya staying at a hotel in South Beach or something? Got the dates yet..?

aloha1985

Well, Ben Creel closed NAIA without any real explanation. Rumour has it that he didn't want the US gov to look into NAIA's finances - aka his personal bank account - thereby losing the right to issue visas - consequently losing 90% of his revenue source. Later they declared bankruptcy. Ole P took out some hefty bonuses before they closed NEIA, leaving Mr. Tømmervåg with the blame (after naturally removing himself from the 'accountable manager' position at a very appropriate time). Did anyone confirm the rumours btw about Ole P smashing computers on the day of the bankruptcy? Someone mentioned Terry (MIA school CEO) showing up and catching him with his financial crook's pants down...

Guttn

TD, yeah just got the tickets confirmed by luftwaffle, som we`ll be heading over between your mentioned dates. Haven`t booked the hotel yet, but it will be at the beach for sure. Probably not SoBe, rather a couple of miles north along Millionaires row. A lot more laidback, and some newer hotels there - and better deals. The plan is 4-5 days there, then driving north to Orlando and hanging out there, getting Donald drunk and all that good stuff. Nice kiddie holiday me thinks. Homeward bound from MCO. But yeah, let`s hook up and throw back some brews! And maybe even throw up some brews