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Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 2:08 pm
by evand.13
I am interested in going to either Confederation or Sault College for Aviation - Flight Management. For any current or former students of these programs:

What is the schedule like? How often did/do you fly?

How did/do you get to the airport? Would I need a car for Confederation? (I know Sault for sure as there's no public transportation.)

What was your experience like with the professors/flight instructors?

All information to any of these question or anything else you think I should know would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Re: Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 2:31 pm
by pigboat
If you wish to get into the A.C. Regional carriers quickly, make it the Sue. Three year course. Jazz is currently taking some pilots directly out of the 3 and 4 year aviation programs.

Flying happens after the first 2 terms. The workload is heavy and those that do not work hard get cut. This course often leads to an Airline career.

Confed is good but it will take a pile additional flying after college to get to any Regional jobs. You only get a single IFR endorsement at the College.

Re: Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 8:12 am
by Bede
I have never attended either, but keep in mind that Con is only 2 years, whereas Sault is 3. By the time the Sault guy is done, you'll already have 1000 hours and possibly get a regional job at that point.

Re: Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:49 am
by bbingham
I graduated from Sault College back in 2008. When I was there, it was a 3 year, 7 semester course (you flew through your first summer until you had the PPL done). Flying was half of the week starting in semester 2, with regular classes the other half of the week. By the end of the course, you graduated with a CPL and MIFR.

Classes weren't too bad, to be honest. As long as you passed the class, you continued in the program. Aviation classes (ie Nav, Met, Air Law) required a 70% pass whereas the other classes (English, Math, etc) only required the min 50%.

There were two shuttle departures out to the airport, one that departed first thing in the morning and returned early afternoon, and one that departed around midday and returned at the end of the flying day.

In my opinion, the training was pretty quality, however that was about 10 years ago and may now have changed. Any other question, feel free to give me a shout.

Re: Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:24 pm
by C-GOYR
I'm a confed grad and pigboat makes some good points. Yes Sault is a 3 year program but you get a multi ifr which if you go to Confed will cost you some more cash after you graduate. Now with the single ifr you can apply to wasaya, air bravo or ornge but do check the requirements. You'll finish a year sooner at confed but you have to factor in time and financial situation to get your multi and instructor rating if you need to build time.

I enjoyed my time at confed and learned a lot. Professors were awesome and always very helpful and tutoring is available from fellow aviation students. If I had to choose now I'd go to Sault just because of the multi rating. Whichever you choose, be prepared to work hard as I'm sure Sault is just as demanding as Confed.

Good luck and enjoy the time because it goes by pretty fast.

Re: Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 1:03 pm
by evand.13
bbingham wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:49 am I graduated from Sault College back in 2008. When I was there, it was a 3 year, 7 semester course (you flew through your first summer until you had the PPL done). Flying was half of the week starting in semester 2, with regular classes the other half of the week. By the end of the course, you graduated with a CPL and MIFR.

Classes weren't too bad, to be honest. As long as you passed the class, you continued in the program. Aviation classes (ie Nav, Met, Air Law) required a 70% pass whereas the other classes (English, Math, etc) only required the min 50%.

There were two shuttle departures out to the airport, one that departed first thing in the morning and returned early afternoon, and one that departed around midday and returned at the end of the flying day.

In my opinion, the training was pretty quality, however that was about 10 years ago and may now have changed. Any other question, feel free to give me a shout.
Oh they have a shuttle at Sault. That's convenient. Did you have to pay? How much did it cost?

Re: Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 1:12 pm
by AOW
There is public transit to the Confed hangar, and you automatically get a transit pass as a college student.

I have argued that while getting your multi is going to cost out of pocket, it is still cheaper than a whole extra year of tuition and living expenses and a year delay before you can be earning money. But there are many factors at play; I have known many graduates from both schools.... most have good things to say, there will always be a few complaints.

Re: Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 1:49 pm
by bbingham
evand.13 wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 1:03 pm
Oh they have a shuttle at Sault. That's convenient. Did you have to pay? How much did it cost?
Shuttle was included. It was driven out by the morning and afternoon duty instructors, as long as flying was on (sometimes flying was cancelled due to weather and the sim schedule would go into effect instead).

Re: Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 2:01 pm
by evand.13
bbingham wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 1:49 pm
evand.13 wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 1:03 pm
Oh they have a shuttle at Sault. That's convenient. Did you have to pay? How much did it cost?
Shuttle was included. It was driven out by the morning and afternoon duty instructors, as long as flying was on (sometimes flying was cancelled due to weather and the sim schedule would go into effect instead).
Ok, thanks for the info. Just out of curiosity are you still flying today? If so, where are you flying?

Re: Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 7:45 am
by rudder
Seems most of the Ontario based college programs are struggling to meet timelines for flying due to staff instructor shortfalls. Some are subcontracting out portions of flight training syllabus to third party flight training institutions.

Not sure if this will affect program intake numbers for fall of 2018.

Re: Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 8:51 am
by evand.13
rudder wrote: Thu May 17, 2018 7:45 am Seems most of the Ontario based college programs are struggling to meet timelines for flying due to staff instructor shortfalls. Some are subcontracting out portions of flight training syllabus to third party flight training institutions.

Not sure if this will affect program intake numbers for fall of 2018.
Well hopefully something changes in the years to come. I will be applying for the fall of 2020, when I graduate high school.

Re: Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 9:22 am
by rudder
evand.13 wrote: Thu May 17, 2018 8:51 am

Well hopefully something changes in the years to come.
Well, do your homework on evaluating each program before you make a final selection. Several programs are underperforming and this is an ongoing problem. Appearances are that too many entry students are being accepted and bottlenecks are occurring in flight training due to lack of flight training resources, specifically staff flight instructors.

Change is coming but it may not be for the better as it pertains to new applicants.

Re: Confederation or Sault College Graduates and Current Students

Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 12:30 pm
by rudder
Can anyone with specific fact based information (not rumour) regarding entry class size for Confederation and Sault College for fall 2018 please post it here?

Thx.