Pilot Assist Dead!!!!
 

Sorry to keep you all in suspense, going to pub to get ****erz, just lost £6500 career development loan!!


Only student flying at Nottingham today (who am I!!??), Pilot Assist have ceased trading (or in process of) due to non-payment of bills. Aerodrome refusing to refuel aircraft and owner of aircraft demanded them back. Hence my ferry flight today, to return one of the aircraft with my instructor.

As I said, going to pub, will write full report later.

Moderators: Happy for u to give out my e-mail address to anyone interested, will need to get together with other 90 students to work out a way forward.

Bottom line: loss of confidence by financier, not bankruptcy....

Oh sh1t - sorry folks
 

If this is true (sounds pretty authentic) this is another disaster (PPSC/4 Forces/SFT...). A few weeks ago I was amongst a few wannabes talking to someone very well connected in the training industry who emphasised that we should never pay in advance for training and predicted at least one more school failure before long.

In fact he was advocating that we should never pay for training at all, but that's another topic.

For those of you who have lost money (or jobs), we all sympathise.

:(

Funnily enough, not paying up front was one of Pilot Assists mantras too!

When you say you lost the CDL, do you mean because it is tied to funding your course with PA or that PA cashed it in (dunno how it works) and now it has dissappeared into the void of what was PA?

Some people out there have been through all of this before (PPSC, etc, ...). Anybody has any experience/tips to try to get some of the money back (CDL). Please not the obvious comment of "Don't pay in advance" or "Pay using a credit card". Thanks.

Also "90 students" and loss of confidence by the VC guys. Very odd! 90 sounds like quite lot to me??!?

To be honest this news dosnt surprise me! I just hope the students Ive met, have at least managed to finish their ATPL exams. As for the non payment of bills I know of at least 2 students who got through their PPL+ and started IMC training without paying a penny that INCLUDES the joining fee!!!

Bubble
You could set up an ESCROW account before you start training, im not 100% sure how they work but I belive it should keep your money safe. Try asking the FTO you plan on using or ask your lender.

:ok:

I very nearly began training with pilotassist, when you say Non payment by the students on the course or by pilotassist themselves?

I remember the "How to become a Pilot" day at Alconbry near Norwich, £15, well at least they provided sandwichs and drinks!

BMW Man- Send me a private message or something, as I was very serious about pilotassist before and would like to know more.

Stapleford in Essex has a similar CDL scheme, hmmmmm, anyone been thru them?

This has gotta be the toughest industry to get into:*

I had paid for the seminar at Pilot Assist this weekend, however got an email today saying it had been cancelled due to the guest speakers having their schedules changed at short notice by the airlines. I have been told I will be credited with the money I paid shortly.

Seems like a bit of a coincidence....

As far as I am aware the concept of Escrow accounts does not exist in the UK..in theory one could set up an 'in trust' account with a solicitor but I cant see a UK training provider going for this and the admin. charges would be quite large...

I am not even sure that Escrow can be used for training in the USA...transactions of 'estate' yes...i.e. ships, aircraft and property.

BMW Man - genuinely feel for you and any others - it shouldnt be like this...I went through self sponsorship and the Gulf War crash myself.

No it does not sound like a coincidence, they have a regular 'guest' speaker who is a triple seven captain. Her schedule is changable as you can imagine.

ESCROW is available in the UK. We have used it to hold computer source code in trust as well as money. A training organisation does need to agree, as they will not see a penny until the deal is done. There are obvious problems regarding the agreement of T&Cs rendering it potentially inconvenient for both parties. Also it will cost a few grand extra to use the service for the sums involved in training. Use a credit card.

Is this Pilot Assist thing for real or is this thread presumptuous?

Talk of this such if not true at the beginning can certainly hurt a school.

I hope that all who posted this information had good solid evidence and not snippets of conversations.

I would encourage anyone to contact the school before believing any of this.

:confused:

Well, I'm one of apparantly over 100 signed up with PAC.
I received a mail to say that, yes there are cash flow problems but, no the school is not dead.
The operation has been deemed viable by the accountants, and the focus is on addressing the cash flow situation.
All we can do is wait and see what that outcome is, but speculation and possible panic will do nobody any favours at this stage.
Let's hope for a happy landing on this one!

Boss Raptor

I know for a fact that CABAIR accept ESCROW accounts.

:ok:

Hmmm, wonder why the regulars here recommend certain schools consistently and others not at all..?

You have to learn to read between the lines sometimes.

My comiserations to all caught out by this IF its true.

WWW

WWW

I dont see that anyone is recommending any schools:confused:
and im not, and never have recommended CABAIR:confused: :confused: :confused:

:ok:

Oh over the years here certain schools have been given thumbs up consistently. Others have never ever had a good word said about them.

WWW

I see. Well from what I know, Pilot Assist students were very happy with them (even the ones who payed their way!). IMHO I think somebody has mis-managed the cash. Students were/are being trained without paying their registration upfront or even having their CDL's approved!

Im not sure if this rumours even true but IF it is, then im not surprised because of the reasons ive just mentioned.

regards
2Wings

:ok:

WWW
 

And.................

You seem to be suggesting something and never getting there......

Who is recommending schools........or have you had a few too many;)

I was introduced today, to this website, by an email sent to all Pilot Assist students as an initial response to this thread. Obviously my first re-action was that of horror thinking that the remainder of my CDL held by them was going to be lost into the depths of the unknown.

I have since taken the time to read through what everyone has said in this forum and what Pilot Assist (PAC) have said in response, and I do not see any point in giving up just because of a problem that people are willing to fight against! If everyone here gave up at the first sight of a problem where would we all be now?

Everyone here can see that there are difficulties in this industry - airlines aren't recruiting as much as we'd like - sponsorship is hard to come by - yet we all continue to plough money into our training knowing that after attaining a CPL/IR ATPL(Frozen) we might not even get a job. If you are prepared to walk away from PAC then why continue with your training?

It is my intention to fight this battle alongside PAC, get my CPL/IR ATPL(Frozen) and then fight the next battle of getting a job. If everyone else did this, instead of pulling out of training and getting refunds from their CDLs, PAC would win this battle and everyone would be happy.

All the dealings that I have had (and the main reason why I choose them in the first place) with PAC have been of sincere professionalism and committment to its students. Recruiting over 100 students in such a short time prooves to me that I was not the only one who saw this.

Rather than complaining about this, I ask all PAC students to get in touch with me and help PAC, if not only by morale support! I want to get into this industry as much as the rest of you, and I'm not going to just sit here and complain when I could be doing something to attain that "Win Win" situation that everyone wants.

For the record the response that Pilot Assist have given is:
Are you going to fight for your future? PAC are willing to fight... why don't we join them?

If you're a PAC student, please email me: [email protected]

Spencer Collins (Kent)

Hi Spencer,
I'm also with PAC, undoubtedly they have problems but life is full of problems and if we turn and run at the first fence do we deserve to be airline pilots (I think not), not to say I would not be just as devastated to see students lose money, (I've been there before with Four Forces), but it's not over yet, lets give them a chance to sort it out.What has gone has gone we have nothing more to lose but everything to gain by sticking together.
Just remember what happened to SFT when the students, got disheartened to quickly, dispersed and left nothing to rescue.
Guys keep it together and contact Spencer at above email address