Canadian Aviation Academy

[bsal]

I just seen a tv ad for this place and checked out their website Pilot Flight Training- Becoming a Pilot-Airplane and Helicopter Pilot Training, does anyone have first hand experience with them? Any other info on the place?

[winto22]

CAA

Hey ,

Im currently a student doing the airplane / fixed wing course with CAA ( canadian aviation academy) ,

They are located in North Bay , Ontario Canada ,

Ive been here since Jan 08 and my training is going really well , im currently working on my commercial , then onto multi and multi ifr, Then onto my Flight Instructor Rating , which ive been offered a job already by the school for when i complete my course

The they have c152 , c172 single engine aircraft and a multi engine aircraft ,
Honestly its a good setup here , The town is decent to live in and its very affordable place to live compared to ireland ,

The flight training programme is based on the Canadian Forces Pilot training Programme developed by Ron MacDonald ,

The Course is very straight forward but requires a good level of determination to complete ,

CAA will take care of really well regarding food , accomadation , transportation, etc,

Personally im glad i made the decision the come here and train and i know i will achieve my goal of making it to the airlines very soon,

Also all your ground school studies and equipment is included in the cost aswell which makes life alot easier for you ,

The great advantage of training here is that you will get to experience summer aswell as winter flying which is alot of fun ,

Along with the other students who you will in the course with you there are fun outing together eg, paintballing , skydiving , trip to niagra falls , and so on ,

The head of the flight school Stefan is a CRJ pilot for Air Jazz / Air Canada aswell he is very much of an advantage to you if you plans are to aim for the airlines , Stefan is a great person to talk to regarding advise in the airline industry ,

I hope some of this info has helped you if you would like to know anymore specifics feel free to respond and ill give you an honest opinion / answer,

Talk to u soon ,
chris

[dannye92]

you dont need a Leaving Cert do you?


and how much is it?

[winto22]

CAA

Here in canada ,

I only plan to instruct for around 12 months ,

i should have been more accurate in my statement , after 12 months if an airline will take me then great but if not , then ill be looking for regional / charter / or cargo work to continue hour building + increase salary ,

I know the airline market in europe is not bad at the moment but i have no intentions to convert to JAA or / write my ATPLs anytime soon ,

[winto22]

CAA

hey

i would recommend that you have your leaving cert before starting pilot training , also but possibly some college , but not essential for the college part,

regarding the cost you will need to go to this address www.caacademy.ca and read into it from there depending what approach you want to take,

believe me its well worth it your very well taken care of overhere by canadian aviation academy ,

,keep the posts coming if any more Qs

[davey147]

Is the Canadian Aviation Academy a real flight school, or is it Algonquin Flight Centre?

If so why not go direct to Algonquin and get your licences at a tiny fraction of the cost.

[winto22]

caa

By coming through CAA your transition into the programme along with sorting out your accomadation , all your meals, transport , your ground and flight materials is stress free as they take care of all that for you ,

I did all the research myself before i moved here from ireland in Jan 08 and after weighing up both options i realised its so much more beneficial to come through CAA and try and do this on your own ,

thats about as straight to the point as i can be

[dannye92]

ah ok

because i am heading into 5th year no just dont Transition and i'm thinking of doing a bit in the army instead of the leaving cert


the air corps would be great but hard to get in to

[The inside scoop]

Contact the flight schools directly!!!!

WANT TO SAVE YOURSELF 46,000 EUROS? KEEP READING HERE THEN!!!!

So these guys are now calling themselves the Canadian Aviation Academy.
-Last year they were operating as Pilot Recruitment International.
-The year before that they were called Pilot Recruitment Ireland.
Now why would a company keep changing its name like that? What are they trying to hide? I'll tell you!

The truth is this company was set up in 2005. To date they've had ONE pilot finish their course!!! ONE PILOT IN 3 YEARS!!!
THEY CLAIM ON THEIR WEBSITE THEY'VE HAD HUNDREDS OF STUDENTS-WRONG!! They've had approximately 20 students from Ireland, the rest were former students of the flight school directly, NOT PRI/CAA!! Don't be fooled!

These guys are taking a HUGE cut to place you in a flight school, they're actually making more of a profit than the course cost!! Don't believe me? Check here and convert to euros!!
http://www.algonquinflightcentre.com...20estimate.pdf
And remember, that price is in Canadian dollars, not Euros!! Unbelievable!!

THE TRUTH IS TO DATE PRI/CAA HAVE NEVER SECURED WORK FOR ANY OF THEIR STUDENTS!! EVER!

They tell you they can get you a job as an instructor at Algonquin Flight Centre. The truth is most students, not all, but most are offered the chance to become flight instructors by the school. PRI/CAA are taking a huge chunk to get you work as an instructor that you would probably end up with anyway. Why pay all the extra money??

AND DON"T BE FOOLED BY CERTAIN PRI/CAA PEOPLE COMING ON THIS FORUM TELLING YOU HOW GREAT IT IS!! FUNNY HOW THEY DON'T MENTION ALL THE FORMER DISGRUNTLED STUDENTS WHO HATE THIS COMPANY!!!!!

Also, if you do go instructing, you have to pay for that yourself, which they don't really mention! AND you'll have to pay for your own food and accomodation after your 1 year contract ends!

So if you still insist on becoming a pilot, contact the flight schools directly! I must add theres no problems with the flight schools themselves, its just these guys taking a huge cut and not really doing much extra for you.

So if you still insist on going with these guys, DON'T SIGN A CONTRACT UNTIL YOU'VE SHOWN IT TO A LAWYER!!! Examine the small print where it says they can't garantee you work. Thats not there by accident!!!

AND FOR GOD SAKE IF YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO'S THINKING OF GOING WITH THEM SHOW THEM THIS, IT COULD SAVE YOUR FRIEND FROM FORKING OUT TENS OF THOUSANDS!!!!!!

Try searching for pri academy/pilot recruitment international on pprune.com to see what others think of these guy!!

Now thats the information this company has been trying to hide!
And believe me theres a lot more I can't go into for legal reason.
You have been warned!!

[winto22]

caa

hopefully i was some help for u guys and ur Qs , anymore keep them coming ,

high school / leaving cert you should at least have that before going for the air corps aswell or even the army ,

i tried for the air corps and made it to the last 20 out of 650 people , was just unlucky

thats for the Qs and tlk to u soon

chris

[winto22]

TO be as stupid as to touch on a point like why does a company change there name , this is irrelevent , .....

Its obvious that if you decide to go through a recruitment company that they are bound to make some amount of money off you,

in this case though , you pay CAA the price offered for the course and YOU ARE RECIEVING ALOT MORE IN RETURN THAN JUST PILOT TRAINING ,

You make a statment like one student has only graduated from the course !

Graduating from the Pilot Programme depends on your personal motivaion and dedication levels , if you can find it in you to be personally motivated and dedicated to complete the course i would advise you not to enter it ,

The instructor job positions are offered to students who show a good level of commitment to the programme and who show the certain qualities that an instrctor must posess , All it takes is hard work , good results , good personal level of motivation and honest dedication to the programme,

THE PREVOUS STATMENT MADE BY USER : THE INSIDE SCOOP , THIS IS INFORMATION IF BASED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS NOT RELEVENT TO NEW COMERS AS THIS PERSON MADE PERSONAL MISTAKES WHICH RESULTED IN ACTIONS THAT DID NOT FAVOUR HIM / HER....

Canadian Aviation Academy / Algonquin Flight Centre is a top quality flight school and im glad i chose them to do my training with ,

I would also like to state that i have full faith in CAA regarding job placements and any other help i might need to achieve my goal of becoming an airline pilot

[Zyox]

Gonna have to side with KeithTo on this one. I went through the course with CAA (who at the time were Pilot Recruitment Ireland, before becoming Pilot Recruitment International, before becoming PRI Academy, and now CAA) and it was 45,000eur for us to do it. We were told they made a loss on us at this price. I'm not surprised, it was quite cheap. (Edit: to clarify and "name and shame", I'm the one that finished)

This seems to have been done to attract the first crowd in and get the company going, fair enough. And I'm not going to start dragging up all the annoyances that happened over there in dealing with them at times, they were a start up company, a fair bit of "cowboy-itis" going on, and it's all in the past now thank ****.

But the price increase to nearly double of what it was initially, when you look at how much it costs to train in JAA-land, is quite surprising.

If you do intend on training in Canada, which I _highly_ recommend because of the amazing country that it is and how beautiful the flying is there, then look around. Check out the Moncton place which actually gives you a JAA qualification. That way you can work in both places. None of this working for a pittance as an instructor flying only 7-8 months of the year and waiting years to get into a right hand seat. Especially when you could, as KeithTo says, pay a hell of a lot less going to a good flight school that isn't tied in with a recruitment company and sort out your own accommodation very very easily Should also add that there is quite a large demand for instructors in Ireland (and England too I think) where the pay is a hell of a lot better than the pay in Canada, in much much better conditions. Yes you need to do a little more work to get there in the end, including sitting your ATPLs, but you need to do that anyway if you want to go commercial/airline no?

Originally Posted by Winto22

i should have been more accurate in my statement , after 12 months if an airline will take me then great

Originally Posted by Winto22

i have no intentions to convert to JAA or / write my ATPLs anytime soon

Not to single you out or pick on you here Winto22, but if you don't write your ATPLs how will you get an airline job?

Choose wisely guys and girls. Don't be taken in by planted students impressing the management This is the 2nd/3rd time I've seen it tried here over the years, and it boils my blood each time

[The inside scoop]

You pay CAA the price offered for the course and YOU ARE RECIEVING ALOT MORE IN RETURN THAN JUST PILOT TRAINING

What exactly are you receiving a lot more of? You're not getting any extra flying hours, thats for sure. Please clarify this comment for me and the potential customers you're trying to rope in here and squeeze money out of. Maybe you get a space shuttle rating too?

How can you honestly sit there and tell people to cough up 76,000 euro for a course that costs 30,000 euro? Even if you have to pay your own food, accomodation and bus pass for the year that still only comes to approx 40,000 euro, and thats being generous. So why not use that extra 36,000 euros to pay for your instructor rating and accomodation once you get your commercial licence? Well?

You make a statment like one student has only graduated from the course !

Not a statement bud, an UNDENIABLE FACT. And I dare you to deny that.

THE PREVOUS STATMENT MADE BY USER : THE INSIDE SCOOP , THIS IS INFORMATION IF BASED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS NOT RELEVENT TO NEW COMERS AS THIS PERSON MADE PERSONAL MISTAKES WHICH RESULTED IN ACTIONS THAT DID NOT FAVOUR HIM / HER...

For you to say a former students opinion is not relevant says it all about you and the the cowboy outfit you're working for. You're trying to erase all the former students from history so that the true opinions won't come out.

And don't pretend you're giving an even, balanced opinion of this company to the public either, its quite obvious you're creating propanganda in favour of CAA/PRI.
Zyox had it right folks, watch out for planted students whos job it is to tell you all the good points and none of the many bad ones about this lot. And this isn't the first PRI/CAA brown noser to have done this either!

KeithTo seems to have a good head on his shoulders and he seems to be able to see past the massive overcharging thats going on here. Good for you bud, I'm not trying to tell you what to think of these guys, but just remember this-something must have happened for me to have this opinion. And the rest of the ex students will be on soon to give their two cents worth, and then the truth will come out.


I know I must have sounded like an angry begrudger in the last post but I am absolutely sick of Canadian Aviation Academy/PRI Academy overcharging young lads and then leaving them with huge bills to pay, and the sooner people find out what this company is really like the better.

Now as I've said before I've no problems with Algonquin Flight School and if people want to go there thats fine, just don't get taken in by CAA/PRI making a hard sales pitch, only to find yourself a year later trying to scrape even MORE money together to pay for your instructor rating, and trying to pay your food and accomodation.

Folks, that my opinion and the honest to god truth, and I'll answer any questions put to me. Good luck with whatever you choose, but choose carefully. Thats all I have to say.

[top jock]

If they only have one student who has passed then the guys they have training you are no good. A student will only learn what they are taught. Sounds like they are cheap and for a reason. In the long run i would stay away from them and by the way if a company changes their name all the time it is a big deal. It is harder to start from the begining everytime so they are running away from something.

[Zyox]

Originally Posted by top jock

f they only have one student who has passed then the guys they have training you are no good. A student will only learn what they are taught. Sounds like they are cheap and for a reason. In the long run i would stay away from them and by the way if a company changes their name all the time it is a big deal. It is harder to start from the begining everytime so they are running away from something.

Must strongly disagree here. At the time, and I must stress at the time because from what I've seen things have changed a lot in the flight school recently , when I went through you could not fault Algonquin Flight Centre one bit. If you were willing to work hard and were committed to it they got you on the schedule as much as possible, were dead set on keeping planes up in the air, and so long as you respected the instructors they went above and beyond their job requirements at times to help you get through exams and flight tests.

I got on really well there and loved dealing with them. Others however didn't get on so good. Some fell out with instructors, some didn't like how things were run, and others were just simply not as committed and more into enjoying the Canada experience. Which is all fine! Each to their own of course But I like to think I worked hard and was determined to get back to Europe and convert as soon as possible and my efforts paid off thanks to help from the flight school and them being so accommodating.

So the insinuation here made against AFC that they are sub-par, cheap, and/or teaching poorly is highly inaccurate and just plain wrong from my first hand experience.

However lots of instructors that I knew have since left and there's been a reshuffle in management over the last year, so getting some perspective from current students would be a good idea if you are to consider AFC...

[top jock]

Well i have to say that if i was starting out from what is posted here i would go no where near the place. I dont buy that everybody who goes there and parties never passes as where i went we studied hard and played hard yet there was a very high rate of passes. You can only learn what is taught to you in the correct way. The way the examiner wants you to fly to pass. It seems to me that does not happen here. I maybe wrong but the figure speaks for itself

[CharlieNicholas]

I 100% agree with Zyox and The Inside Scoop. A very accurate description of what goes on over there.

I left very early after arriving and have since completed my training in Europe and am just waiting for some nice people to offer me a job.

Anyway as TIS said in previous posts, there is a lot f stories from my time there that could not be posted here. In saying that, Algonquin flight school were ok to be honest. Not great but ok. Instructors were good.

But take note, do lots of research before handing any money over. When people are praising this company, be wary. So far it looks like 2 people are doing this (Ricky1 & Winto22), 1 of these people works for the company (I know this for a fact). The other one has obviously been recruited since I left, but just compare their posts and see how similar they are. Maybe they are both on 'commission only' contracts.

Anyway bottom line is, be careful who you are going to trust with your hard earned money.

[The inside scoop]

Algonquin Flight School

Just to clarify here guys, theres no problem with the flight school itself. If you go DIRECTLY to them you should have no problems and you'll get everything you pay for!

My problem is with the Canadian Aviation Academy/Pilot Recruitment International, which is basically a recruitment agency or middleman that takes a huge fee to put you in the flight school, something you could easily do yourself.

Also, when I said theres only been one student qualify, what I meant by that was the students who had paid CAA/PRI to put them into Algonquin Flight School.

Algonquin Flight School itself has had hundreds of students qualify ever before these guys CAA/PRI teamed up with them, and they'll still have students qualifying long after CAA/PRI has run itself into the ground.

So my advice is contact the flight schools directly and save yourself tens of thousands of euros. Cut out the middleman i.e. Canadian Aviation Academy/Pilot Recruitment International/PRI Academy
I hope this clears things up...

[The Rebel]

Hi Guys,

Yes, i'm another person that didn't finish training with pri/cca, but completed my training elsewhere. My advice to anyone is don't believe one thing that you are told by cca/ppi.

I saw what they were like and got out, THANK GOD and don't want anything to do with them. The only reason i'm making this posting is to tell everyone what they are really like.

I really don't know how winto22 can tell people to join with this crowd, it just makes me mad, don't be fooled by them.

The reason that i left was that they made promises that i could see that they were unable to keep.

I ask you can we all be wrong?

[Murt Kennedy]

Im currently in north bay, canada going through the pri/caa program. Now as im doing a helicopter commerical lience i cant comment on the fixed wing course.

The training is in conjunction with gateway helicopters.
I researched the cost and program involved of many flight schools around the world including Oz, Waterford, Dublin, England, South Africa and here in Canada for YEARS before i came to a discision,rightly enough the price tag on all the courses rised greatly over the years. I knew exactly what i was paying for before i came here and of course caa are making money off,ITS A BUSINESS. Any business that doesnt make money is a bad business. I felt the pri/caa program was without a doubt the best value considering it would have been more expensive to stay at my own home in waterford than it was to come over here and the training itself was far better than offered in oz or south Africa (ie no turbine time)

Since iv been here i can only say that iv been treated greatly by pri/caa, there was alot of bitteriness shown towards the company to me by other irish students where as yet im still waiting to see with my own 2 eyes. Its just the usual irish begrugery in my opinion. Im not telling anyone to part with their money and join caa but im sure i made the right decission. They sorted the visa,flights to and from canada,accomadation (which is better than most houses in Ireland),weekly allowance for food,all course matierals and books and a car with a full tank of gas every 2nd week which i was NOT expecting.

I started the 10 month course in may '08 and passed my cpl written exam 3 weeks ago,im due to finish totally in the next 5-6weeks(4.5 months ahead of scedule). Iv been offered a position with gateway helicopters as have my fellow irish students who started the course with me. and because we've done so well they threw in a extra course (turbine engine course) payed for by the caa. Its a FACT to say you will only get as much from this course as your willing to put into it, i put everything into it and im getting loads in return.

Somebody tell me what iv got to complain about???????

I dont work or instruct for pri/caa and have nothing to gain by filling anyone with lies,its just not my style either.

Any questions? Fire away.