Saint-Hubert Flying School in Montreal

[Louis]

And a smart instructor will use this to throw assorted bits of info, ask the student questions, start on instrument flying, prepare the upcoming exercise etc...

Since you're also looking at Laurentides Aviation, I guess you're not stuck on driving a bit or you're somewhere in the West Island. In either case, maybe St-Jean is an option, the name of the school there is Devenir Pilote. (I do some work there, but not flight instruction at the moment.)

[hairdo]

limit concerning cold ... are defined by the insurance to -18

This sounds fishy to me. I know that plastic airplanes which are
adored by many here, have cold temperature limits as part of
their certification which are never reached in say Europe, but
are frequently encountered here in Canada.

Blaming the insurance underwriters for an exact -18C cold
temp limit sounds awfully unlikely. Not -17C, not -19C.

Is said aircraft the DA20? If so, we fly 'em all the way down to -30. Gotta be honest though, they get really F***** cold inside below -20. But then, I don't know of any temp restrictions, so maybe not the DA20.

[mike123]

Since you're also looking at Laurentides Aviation, I guess you're not stuck on driving a bit or you're somewhere in the West Island. In either case, maybe St-Jean is an option, the name of the school there is Devenir Pilote.

Just checked their site, found something I haven't seen on any other school price lists:

Permis d’élève-pilote / Student pilot permit 45.00 $
Certificat restreint de radiotéléphoniste / Radiotelephone operator's restricted certificate 55.00 $
Examen de réglementation aérienne (PSTAR) / Air regulation exam (PSTAR) 35.00 $

Is this something that only this school requires, or hidden costs other schools don't mention until you join?

[deflux]

Woah, $55 for a radio license??? They are free from Industry Canada so the school is just charging to give you the test (which takes about 5 minutes...)

At the school I did my training at, nobody ever paid to write a PSTAR, radio exam or get a student pilot permit. These things together total maybe 30 minutes of administrative time, and the school is already taking thousands of your money. They should be doing this stuff for free, IMO.

[trampbike]

Nice to see St-Jean school mention that they charge. What I've been used to is to have to pay without beeing warned and informed!

[Zkarma]

I have personally finished all my PPL, night, multi, CPL and IFR at Saint Hubert Flying School for under 40,000.00 dollars. Hard to believe? I my self still wonder how I did it, but I did it.

But,

First of all: SAFETY RECORD. How many incidents does this school have? NONE......ZIP..........0. How about CARGAIR and their famous chinese students fleet? God knows......10's if not hundreds and if any of you flies at cyhu, you know what I'm talking about. Those guys cut you on TAXI even when they're instructed by ground not to move....and they have an instructor on board too! And lets not count all the near misses here and there and the skidding off the runway. Thanks God now it's much better after Transport Canada weighed in and the tower is less forgiving.
Air Richelieu? They just had an incident last year for God sake........with two fatalities.....both the instructor and his student are dead. I don't want to jump to conclusions, they're dead may their souls rest in peace, but what the hell was the plane doing at such low altitude over the Yamaska river to be caught in electric wires????......practicing ditching in the water maybe???????

What's wrong with enforcing a safety philosophy? Whether it's temperature based or not? You wanna push your self or your student? Go ahead if your safety is worth nothing to you. I know accidents could happen anywhere anytime and with the best and most famous schools and people. But I have tremendous respect for a school that cares for my safety and try it's best to ensure that no harm comes to me.

Their planes are IMMACULATE and they are very well maintained, try to compare that to the other schools and let's see.

COST, FEES, CHARGES etc. I'm very fussy and I argue a lot when it comes to charges. Yes they do suggest you to buy things, but hell you don't have to buy them! You have brains for God sake....c'mon ppl. There are things that, yes you have no choice but to buy like the checklist....but the headset (i bought it second hand off the internet) or the flash light (i bought it at the dollar store) and many other things.....plz No one ever forced me to buy stuff there and now will ever do. Even my Cessna POH I got it of the internet and I printed it. The school is a business just like any other business, they want to make money...yet they do not FORCE you. Name one school that does not sell aviation items?

Landing fees.......fuel surcharge? every school has them and if you don't see them on your bill it's because they're either already incorporated in your bill or the school will slam you with them sometimes later. Landing fees are for the airport manager DASH'l. The same goes for Radio licence fees, student permit etc. they're processing fees and I'm sure every school has them, at least SHFS has the decency of mentioning them instead of passing them as hidden fees. You wanna save on those........fine, go process them by yourself. Hell they were doing it for me, what you want more than that?

Cash advance? ONLY FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS and there's a good reason for that, I know it because i've seen these young pilots come from all over the world. As soon as they set foot in Canada they do couple of flights here and there or maybe finish their PPL written and then they disappear (probably visiting every strip bar downtown during the day and every club at night) and then the parents call......where's my son??? The cash advance is a way of forcing the student to work hard and not fool around and to force the parents to keep a good watch on their child. I don't think you're going to miss lots of school when your daddy or mommy has to put some cash in advance?

SIM HOURS. How many of you pilots in the making went to school and the weather was lousy? Instead of not doing anything why not advance with the sim? No one forces you at SHFS to do sim......think about it with LOGIC plz, what's better for them (financially) renting a plane or a sim??????? Also, we all know how expensive multi-ifr is, so what's wrong with practicing your ifr in the sim instead of chocking your self with the cost of the twin plane? I personally made sure to fully prepared on the sim before setting foot in the twin for my IFR and boy did it help me. Imagine you're learning the GPS holds with those engines running? If you're a millionaire fine!

There's no perfect school, and SHFS is certainly not the perfect school, I had my fare share of differences with the chief pilot, but we always found a way to solve our differences and I can say that I was proud to be their student. SHFS is a family business and they are there to support you and they TAKE CARE OF YOU. A guy once left SHFS for cargair, I saw him few month later and the first thing he told me was: No one takes care of me, priority is to the Chinese students!

[cessna 150]

Well I don't know much about that school but my Instructor got his training from there and he has had a pretty successful career working for cargo companies and regional airlines and he always tells us about the great training provided there.

[CaptainF]

Hey guys, I currently hold my private and I'm looking at getting doing an integrated ATPL. I heard that Saint-Hubert offers a new integrated ATPL program. However, I have already been accepted into the Moncton Flight College ATPL program. I guess the question is would it be worth my while (I currently live in Montreal) to put up the extra 10k in living expenses to get my training done out in Moncton or would it be very similar over at Saint-Hubert. I'm also looking for a school that has a good track record and will look good on paper. BTW: I flew out to MFC last month and had the privilege of chatting with a 76 Cpt for AC...very few schools will have seasoned captains just hanging around on they're spare time ready to give out advice.

[lionheart27]

Most schools that run the hanger/airport (small airports) have shacks to rent with other pilots.
MFC is one but there prices scare me. If your living at home more moola to put into flying.
Check out other provinces too. Don't just say close to home and pull on mommy's skirt.
Unless she's flippin the bill. A training school allowing students to break Air Regs, traffic laws without discipline is scary. Stay away from that school.
Alberta, Manitoba and Sask have great schools and reps. I live in Ontario but personally for flying its expensive. Isn't there a great school up near Mascouche or Mirabel? ACADÉMIE DE L'AVIATION
They have a 152 I flew before..weird!
Exact Air is a business and a flying school. Kill two birds with one stone. Not birds ummm terds?
Harv's has a great rep in Manitoba.

R.

[CSk3RampBOY]

Landing fees.......fuel surcharge? every school has them and if you don't see them on your bill it's because they're either already incorporated in your bill or the school will slam you with them sometimes later

That's incorrect! St Hubert flying school has to buy their Avgas from the Esso FBO next door. If they get a prefered rate, it's still pretty expensive, hence the reason why for a fuel surcharge. Larger flight schools with their own FBOs will purchase Avgas in larger quantities and save lots of $$$, on a large volume basis.

[Jonathan]

I completed my private license at Cargair (CYHU) because I knew one instructor there.
It's only my opinion, but stay away from them if possible.

Now that they are a pilot factory and they have all these foreign students, they don't care about you anymore. It takes hours to get your flight approved, they show no interest towards you despite the fact that you are giving them a lot of big dollars. Dispatch will not recognize you, there is no ambiance or fun. My training was the minimums, I was 17 years old at that time and ignorant. Did not ask a lot of questions and did not ask to do more then the requirements. I think they should bring their students in the air when the weather is not 99SM CLR to show them what real life is and bring them to smaller airports. The preflights and flights should have more instruction then strictly the maneuvers for the flight test. Instructors seem to be only interested in building hours and you don't feel that passion of teaching. I once reported them a problem with the transponder and they did not take note of it when I was there. CYHU airport itself is very busy at times. On sunny days, expect delays on ground and in the air.

Good points: many aircraft, you can check what's available online, nice airport, nice runways, good if you want to get used to be controlled.

However, everyone should do a little of shopping. If you are not treated as a king when you visit them, it's probably not a good sign.

Now when I fly, it's at Lachute CSE4, it's smaller but I like it so far.

[pravi.05]

I'm planning to do my CPL training from Saint Hubert. In the end they also offered a job as a flight instructor after completing my CPL with flight instructor course. Do anyone have experience studying here and getting job as an instructor?or they offer job at the time of admission and says there is no job after completion?

Thank You

[canadian76]

One of the worst schools ever. Period. Owners (also the chief pilot) will be nice at the beginning when you still need to pay, but once all payments are done he will turn to the most rude and obnoxious person. People take ages to finish their licences. Prices are never what they seem to be. They advertise a price then when you go and pay, it will be a much bigger sum. When I asked questions on how come it's not the same price the answer from the lady at the desk (the wife of the owner) was: So what? you are not going to pay now?
ATPL students beware. They charge astonishing prices for the whole kit without giving details. When I asked for the bill with details, they would not give it to me trying to find 1000 excuses (from "the system doesn't work today" to "I don't have time now, come back tomorrow") . Then I "found" the invoice and I was furious. I payed 399$ for an ASA headset worth 130$, the uniforms were hundreds of $. I'm posting my bill I managed to "find" for my self since they will try to hide this from everyone.
Beware also of the so called "fuel surcharge". It's a tip for the school. There is no such thing as fuel surcharge. When the owners were confronted with it they had no explanation and just went on saying that's the price to pay. THIS IS WHY THE PRICES ARE SO LOW!!!!! THE FUEL SURCHARGE OF 30$ AN HOUR ARE NOT SHOWN!!!!! Their only point was: Other schools do it too. First of all only other 2 schools do it and second of all it's way cheaper. And it still remains a way for them to advertise a cheap price per hour of flight since this price WILL NOT INCLUDE THE SURCHARGE AND ALL OTHER FEES.
Maintenance apparently is horrible, there are CADORS on engine failure occurrences due to bad maintenance.
Instructors are slavered. I felt really bad for them. Some though were really good. Only good point of the school I guess.
Absolutely stay away from school. IS NOT AS CHEAP AS IT LOOKS, THEY WILL GET THE REST OF THE MONEY IN OTHER WAYS FROM YOUR POCKET. so might as well chose a better school, with apparently higher prices. You will end up paying the same.
Just a quick search on the internet and you can see that these people are thieves. Quick example:
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complain ... 93513.html

By the way, if they promise to hire you as an instructor once you pay for it, BEWARE, it's pure slavery under constant threat. Just speak in private with any of their instructors.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS SCHOOL. There are plenty of schools who will be transparent and way more professional.

[Diegomaradona]

Listen to canadian76. Agree 100%