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Dublin pilot

I have not entered all dates in my diary as to when I was up but to give you an idea,

I was up for 1hour in January (on my solo check ride then the door broke while I was checking "hatches and harnesses secure" and then up in May.

I have booked around 15 different lessons so have had about 13 cancellations all due to weather, double booked, plane maintenance or instructor off.

All aircraft from the club are leased so he has virtually no fixed assets ..... am i flogging a dead horse?:confused:

Weather cancellations are something you just have to put up with. It's a pain for all concerned.

Cancelling lessons is as big a problem for a club/school as it is for a student, unless they've paid upfront of course, but even then, it's better to get people flying than have them waiting on the ground.

If an instructor was off, then unless it's an unexpected thing (e.g. Myself next week. I have a number of funerals to go to and so have had to cancel all my flying next week, it's not easy to get cover at the last moment.) then a booking shouldn't be taken unless someone is available to fly with you.

A/C do also break and sometimes it is just bad luck. Have a chat with the school and tell them of your concerns. If they don't bend over backwards or it continues like this, then demand your money back. You've paid for a service which you haven't recieved.

I wouldn't be to bothered about the aircraft ownership just yet, try the other suggestions first. It is quite usual for the FTO's to have the aircraft in a separate company and a lease between them and the training company. Been many a school that has gone down the pan over the years only to miraculously arise like a phoenix from the ashes with the same airframes.

It should be a little harder these days (to do a midnight flight) than say 20 years ago.

These days, you can get disqualified from being a company director. This means you get your brother / wife / mate to front the "next company" :)

However, and this is a nice one which very few know about, a Director can be personally liable for debts incurred by a limited company in the few months preceeding it's failure. The idea is that if you can see trouble looming, then you should not enter into contracts etc for expenditure. I have seen this enforced. It's not cheap to do but it's damn effective in getting a "private settlement".

However, the trick in sinking a business and getting away with it is the same as it has always been: don't owe money to Customs or Revenue, and don't owe enough to any single party to make them angry enough to go after you. Stick to those simple rules and you can rip off as many people as you want, as many times as you want, and you will always get away with it.

Regardless of the fact that you may be right, it is very unlikely that you will suceed in obtaining any money back even if you go to court.

You are not even sure yourself about when you booked and the exact reasons why you did not fly each time. Very few people make regular bookings such as this and make no record. Many clubs even provide a diary for the purpose.

Based on what you say, you have made very few bookings for 8.5 months of possible flying. Break that down into days and hours and you booked a very small percentage of the training time available to you.

Unless you can show something like they told you the aircraft was U/S but it was used to fly with another student or private pilot in the time you had booked. Or you were booked with an employee of theirs and they used that employee to do other tasks while telling you that they were not available.

Does this club employ your instructor or is the instructor self employed?

Thus, if you show that you were not receiving good service from the instructor, you may have to claim from the instructor.

If you show that the aircraft gave poor service, you (along with the club owner) may chace up the owners and/ or maintenance company.

If you show that the weather let you down then........

In summary, unless you have very good evidence that this business let you down by design or through negligence you have no chance of getting your money back...........unless.....................the business simply wants to get rid of a customer who has unrealistic expectations.

As has been said before, you have a lot of responsibility for ensuring that the posibility existed for the flying to have taken place. Making infrequent bookings does not help that to happen and probably guarantees an over-run in the hours required to complete the training to the minimum standard.

Don't forget that the Head of Training at this location will be in contact with the Head of Training at the next location you choose. Be sure of your position before making any serious decisions.

Regards,

DFC

Thank you
 

Thanks for all your advice

Happy flying

J:D