Flight Schools

[chileno 777]

Planning to start a PPL+CPL/ME course. Would like to hear your impressions regarding the following FTOs:

Dean International
Silver Express
ADF Airways.

Those 3 are located in Miami (Kendall Tamiami Executive Airport).

Thanks.

[thornycactus]

Facts

1. Fees are expensive!
2. Extremely crowded airspace!
3. Spending more time on taxi way and then queuing for taking-off!

[George Semel]

Stay far away from Dean International. I when down there to Flight Instruct and well Nobody could answer a simple question of were to go for my check ride that morning or if I was even going to take one. At that point and having read the contract I had to sign, I could not work there. Its run by Indians, that in and of itself is a red flag. Look some more. I would look North a bit. Another word of advise, slick web sights don't make a flight school. Also stay away from any school that have a lot of airplanes on the line , like 50 to 60 or better , you can bet that for the most part it will be substandard junk. And a pilot mill. I would suggest a flight school that is not overly large and has been in business before 9/11. The reason is the schools that manage to stay in business are doing things right. Things have changed since 9/11 and there are some real thieves out there. In the end you want to become a properly trained pilot at a reasonable cost and in a reasonable time frame. You are not going get it at Dean or ASA out in California. Florida is just one state and the US has lots of GA. I would look in Texas and Arizona, and Maybe North and South Carolina. There is a real good School in Myirtle Beach, SC. And they been turning out good pilots for dam near 50 years. Sowell's in Panama City Florida is another.

[chileno 777]

Thanks for the feedback. It seems that will have to stick to my first plan: South Africa.

[ulisesarcia]

Stay away from ADF Airways. I got my PPL there. They'll push you to do many many hours before you go on your checkride. They had to many students back then (2004). Some of the aircraft were good but some of the others were crappy. They usually bumped you out of certain airplanes to give it to other customers. Bad practices.

Dean International, they have a good Arrow and Skylane. Don't know for the rest of airplanes which I know is a lot of them. However, the Administration is not good. Instructors will have you waiting, to pay for the rent you will stand in a small room and wait and wait to be attended. Person running the payments has no clue of what an airplane is.

Don't know about Silver Express. Seen their airplanes and didn't like them.

As said before, find a good school with good and well maintained aircraft. Find an experienced, knowledgeable and helpful instructor. Take your time to shop around. This is important!

Good Luck!

[MidgetBoy]

I hear a lot of countries don't recognize the hours you get in South Africa. I don't know if Canada changed, but not long ago a student came from there and had to redo all his hours for a PPL license.

[macsharon]

Don't know about flight training (I did my PPL in Ormond Beach), but last October my friend and I went to South Florida on holiday, where I had arranged to hire a C172 + instructor at Dean International, for a day. They couldn't have been more helpful, sure, a little bit of hanging about at the start of the day, but we had the a/c booked from 1000-1300 and didn't actually bring it back until 1715!! There was no problem at all - total cost was £300 for the day, 4.5hrs flying and a full day with one of the CFIs (Robert). We also met the owner, who was very nice too.
They get most of their business from Pan Am flight academy, so nearly all Indian students, but so what?

[hollingworthp]

Its run by Indians, that in and of itself is a red flag.

Care to explain what appears to be a rather sweeping statement?

[chileno 777]

Thanks to everybody for the replies.