Calgary Flight Training
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Re: Calgary Flight Training
OP here. I did end up attending Kanata just because of the owner's attitude and how it was more out of the way of the heart of a large city. As I did in uni, I have always preferred smaller places not only because of wait time, but also because there's more of a level of personalization that you get with the instructors.
I have nothing much to add to what hereweare said. Pretty much sums it all up. A couple of things I would like to address are just the minor issues that helpful users have given me in the beginning concerning potential red flags. One was about not breaking down the cost on their website more in-depth. Overall I think their website isn't the most "up to date" aesthetically, and is missing what I think would be a more put together professional look (there are some empty links here and there). However, that might be why there is no such detailed breakdown that I can see compared to some other flight schools I've been browsing. I feel that there wasn't as much invested into the website, and that in this scenario, it didn't turn out to be a red flag but more a design issue or something that may have been accidentally overlooked.
The second red flag was about them asking for payment beforehand. Wary as I was, I decided to drop $1500 first. It turned out to be a non-issue as they email you receipts for the money transfer, as well as invoices that break down exactly what was paid each section. These included the plane rental price, fuel charge, and CFI pay. That way, if you really wanted to be meticulous, you could just comb through all the numbers and see if they added up. There are also no mentions of the plane rental prices on the website (yet another thing that may have just been accidentally overlooked/omitted), but I'm certain you can just ask them straight out.
Overall, my experience has been good. I used to fly 6-7 flights a week because I wanted to bum rush through my PPL in order to minimize my costs, but ended up lowering that to about 5 or so a week (sometimes 4 with weather) to avoid burning out. I schedule a week in advance and they can generally accommodate me.
Hope this helps!
I have nothing much to add to what hereweare said. Pretty much sums it all up. A couple of things I would like to address are just the minor issues that helpful users have given me in the beginning concerning potential red flags. One was about not breaking down the cost on their website more in-depth. Overall I think their website isn't the most "up to date" aesthetically, and is missing what I think would be a more put together professional look (there are some empty links here and there). However, that might be why there is no such detailed breakdown that I can see compared to some other flight schools I've been browsing. I feel that there wasn't as much invested into the website, and that in this scenario, it didn't turn out to be a red flag but more a design issue or something that may have been accidentally overlooked.
The second red flag was about them asking for payment beforehand. Wary as I was, I decided to drop $1500 first. It turned out to be a non-issue as they email you receipts for the money transfer, as well as invoices that break down exactly what was paid each section. These included the plane rental price, fuel charge, and CFI pay. That way, if you really wanted to be meticulous, you could just comb through all the numbers and see if they added up. There are also no mentions of the plane rental prices on the website (yet another thing that may have just been accidentally overlooked/omitted), but I'm certain you can just ask them straight out.
Overall, my experience has been good. I used to fly 6-7 flights a week because I wanted to bum rush through my PPL in order to minimize my costs, but ended up lowering that to about 5 or so a week (sometimes 4 with weather) to avoid burning out. I schedule a week in advance and they can generally accommodate me.
They might have in the past, but they currently do not. There's part of the building that's under construction where I assume the office/classroom(s) will be once completed. Right now, they are just based out of a hangar, so there's no official front desk or anything. Maybe they will offer ground school when that's all done, so I'd just ask. When I first enrolled, they told me to just do online ground school (I was recommended pilottraining) before I started my PPL. I have done that and am currently focused on just the flying portion goddamn circuits.
Hope this helps!
Re: Calgary Flight Training
For anyone that has attended Kanata:
I’ve been told to expect $75-76,000 to receive up to and including CPL. would you say this is accurate and average? Any advice on potential student loans down the road? I realize they are not available until after PPL is complete.
Thanks for any info.
I’ve been told to expect $75-76,000 to receive up to and including CPL. would you say this is accurate and average? Any advice on potential student loans down the road? I realize they are not available until after PPL is complete.
Thanks for any info.
Re: Calgary Flight Training
\rse1 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 11:06 pm Hello, all. I'm based in Calgary, and have narrowed down my choices for my PPL and eventual CPL to either CFC or Kanata for reasons of proximity and, from what I could tell, lack of scandal. I'm searched the forums on CFC, and opinions ranged from the school not having enough instructors to others singing it praises. These comments were also in 2022, so I was wondering if anyone had recently had any experience at CFC?
Kanata is also an option for me, in that since it's smaller, I don't think I'll have too much trouble booking airtime. If anyone has any opinions on them as well, I'd love to hear them.
Thank you!
I'm not surprised why pursing such a study is hard, either the weather or lack of good instructors, I myself has changed to 5 schools to get one good instructor after 15 hours with him he left for JAZZ, i cried from inside, i don't want to be miserable with young instructor that their parents paid their tuitions fees I just hope it was better then this. Wish you good luck
