Do they make you deposit money up front or do they have hourly rates and pay at the end of your lesson?
Calgary Flight Training
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yowflyer23
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Re: Calgary Flight Training
Re: Calgary Flight Training
No one can make you pay up front, that is the choice of you, the customer. Just pay as you go.
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Beefitarian
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uniformalpha
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Re: Calgary Flight Training
Did you ever check out Kanata? Any reviews on them?
Re: Calgary Flight Training
hello, I am a student at Kanata Aviation and I happen to come across this forum by accident. I just finished getting my PPL with them and will continue to get my IFR, multi ratings as well as CPL. My reasons for continuing is because it is a well run school and it's truly there for your learning, not for your pocket like those horror stories all across the world and the recent Okotoks story.
I can only comment on what I have observed, experienced during my time at Kanata (4 months now). How you use this information is always up to you.
- Uncontrolled airspace was a huge factor as I was able to pay for more flying rather than waiting on the ground. Later on in your training you will learn how to do radio calls in controlled airspace so it doesn't make a huge difference if you'd want to learn radio calls in a controlled airspace right off the bat.
- I am a huge fan of supporting local business ONLY if they are hardworking business owners involved in everyday operations. I've found a few in Calgary in different business sectors, and I must say Kanata is one of them.
- Owner Kevin and Pedro are the dynamic duo. One of them overseas everyday operations as well as manage the student's schedule. The other is a flight instructor and does the administrative and payment side of the business. What I like is that they always ask for feedback from their instructors to create the best outcome for the student and their progression. At least that is what happened to me, I was pretty bad at my circuits so they managed to get me some other hours I need for the PPL as well as polish off my circuits, instead of just stuck in the circuit until "I get it". They are also almost always available on site to answer any of your questions.
- Instructors, you might get them switch for a while. At first it might confuse you a bit. But after I had the mentality to keep an open mind, I was able to learn even more from different perspectives on the same flight exercise. Pretty much gives you an option to approach the same objective and it's up to you what you prefer and helps you the most. They are all patient, cover all the topics and necessary items during preparatory ground instruction and they make sure that all the questions you have are all answered before going up in the air. They are also available to answer any questions you have after the flight exercise at any time.
- Airplanes are Diamond 20 and well maintained. I've been there when the air time is up for maintenance and seen them pull the airplane right away for maintenance. They do rotate you on the 3 Diamonds they have, I must say I also got confused a bit at the beginning because each of their attitudes can differ a bit for cruise, climb, descend. This also taught me that no matter what airplane I am flying, always keep learning about the airplane.
- The big money topic. They suggest deposit but they also have different methods of payment. You don't have to do the 2000 right away, start with something like $300 or pay CC after each flight. You just have to talk to Pedro and come up with a solution that is best for you. I've observed other students pay with CC (I think there is a fee if you use CC). I am comfortable enough to start deposit the recommended $2000 after I know my money won't go away from me. There's a lot of times I owe them money, like my balance was -200 to -600. Pedro reminds me via text and I deposit when I'm near a PC. Keep in mind this is after Pedro and I established a silent agreement that we won't scam each other out by our actions on how we handle money to each other.
- Rates are comparable to other schools, and you get invoice and rates after you fly. The suggested cost listed on their website is largely based on the average individual and the learning curve. For example, for me I did have to spend a bit extra for my PPL because my learning curve is slower than average in a few areas. Do note that this also applies to other schools. They will post the cost but it is largely dependent on you and your learning progress.
- Students, they all range from young to older adults, different ethnicity, there's men and women. Pretty much very diverse. I don't see any discrimination or racism here. I've seen students right out of high school, students that have a part time job and learning when they can, students that are older adults with established jobs learning only during weekends.
- They suggest fly 3 - 4 times a week. The reasoning behind is because of how we learn generally. I have experienced that if I don't fly often, my body and visual cues of what I have learned will not be as accurate as if I kept flying. My brain is up to date with knowledge, but my body might not. This will also ensure that you are making progress towards your goal without wasting money "relearning" from not flying often. I've seen students booked every day and got their PPL in about 2 months. The one older adult with established job I had a chance to talk to, they got their PPL slowly because they only fly one day a week. Always student dependent. For me, my sweet spot is once every other day. Everyday was too much and fewer than 3 times a week made my progression slow.
- Biggest con would be the weather. Be prepared for your flight training to be cancelled because of the weather. Either it's snow, too much wind, too bumpy to learn. Depends on how far you have progressed, sometimes my flight instructor will take me on a bumpy day, which is not very effective at learning but I still learned how to deal with the wind while doing my lessons in that type of condition. For me I find it more fun and challenging.
- Best part: any questions you ask is never stupid. Just ask away and they will answer as best as they can for you to understand. I did ask some very dumb questions and yet they kept straight face and walked me through what I don't understand until I understand.
That's all I have for you. Hope you find what you are looking for when you're getting your license in whatever school you decide!
I can only comment on what I have observed, experienced during my time at Kanata (4 months now). How you use this information is always up to you.
- Uncontrolled airspace was a huge factor as I was able to pay for more flying rather than waiting on the ground. Later on in your training you will learn how to do radio calls in controlled airspace so it doesn't make a huge difference if you'd want to learn radio calls in a controlled airspace right off the bat.
- I am a huge fan of supporting local business ONLY if they are hardworking business owners involved in everyday operations. I've found a few in Calgary in different business sectors, and I must say Kanata is one of them.
- Owner Kevin and Pedro are the dynamic duo. One of them overseas everyday operations as well as manage the student's schedule. The other is a flight instructor and does the administrative and payment side of the business. What I like is that they always ask for feedback from their instructors to create the best outcome for the student and their progression. At least that is what happened to me, I was pretty bad at my circuits so they managed to get me some other hours I need for the PPL as well as polish off my circuits, instead of just stuck in the circuit until "I get it". They are also almost always available on site to answer any of your questions.
- Instructors, you might get them switch for a while. At first it might confuse you a bit. But after I had the mentality to keep an open mind, I was able to learn even more from different perspectives on the same flight exercise. Pretty much gives you an option to approach the same objective and it's up to you what you prefer and helps you the most. They are all patient, cover all the topics and necessary items during preparatory ground instruction and they make sure that all the questions you have are all answered before going up in the air. They are also available to answer any questions you have after the flight exercise at any time.
- Airplanes are Diamond 20 and well maintained. I've been there when the air time is up for maintenance and seen them pull the airplane right away for maintenance. They do rotate you on the 3 Diamonds they have, I must say I also got confused a bit at the beginning because each of their attitudes can differ a bit for cruise, climb, descend. This also taught me that no matter what airplane I am flying, always keep learning about the airplane.
- The big money topic. They suggest deposit but they also have different methods of payment. You don't have to do the 2000 right away, start with something like $300 or pay CC after each flight. You just have to talk to Pedro and come up with a solution that is best for you. I've observed other students pay with CC (I think there is a fee if you use CC). I am comfortable enough to start deposit the recommended $2000 after I know my money won't go away from me. There's a lot of times I owe them money, like my balance was -200 to -600. Pedro reminds me via text and I deposit when I'm near a PC. Keep in mind this is after Pedro and I established a silent agreement that we won't scam each other out by our actions on how we handle money to each other.
- Rates are comparable to other schools, and you get invoice and rates after you fly. The suggested cost listed on their website is largely based on the average individual and the learning curve. For example, for me I did have to spend a bit extra for my PPL because my learning curve is slower than average in a few areas. Do note that this also applies to other schools. They will post the cost but it is largely dependent on you and your learning progress.
- Students, they all range from young to older adults, different ethnicity, there's men and women. Pretty much very diverse. I don't see any discrimination or racism here. I've seen students right out of high school, students that have a part time job and learning when they can, students that are older adults with established jobs learning only during weekends.
- They suggest fly 3 - 4 times a week. The reasoning behind is because of how we learn generally. I have experienced that if I don't fly often, my body and visual cues of what I have learned will not be as accurate as if I kept flying. My brain is up to date with knowledge, but my body might not. This will also ensure that you are making progress towards your goal without wasting money "relearning" from not flying often. I've seen students booked every day and got their PPL in about 2 months. The one older adult with established job I had a chance to talk to, they got their PPL slowly because they only fly one day a week. Always student dependent. For me, my sweet spot is once every other day. Everyday was too much and fewer than 3 times a week made my progression slow.
- Biggest con would be the weather. Be prepared for your flight training to be cancelled because of the weather. Either it's snow, too much wind, too bumpy to learn. Depends on how far you have progressed, sometimes my flight instructor will take me on a bumpy day, which is not very effective at learning but I still learned how to deal with the wind while doing my lessons in that type of condition. For me I find it more fun and challenging.
- Best part: any questions you ask is never stupid. Just ask away and they will answer as best as they can for you to understand. I did ask some very dumb questions and yet they kept straight face and walked me through what I don't understand until I understand.
That's all I have for you. Hope you find what you are looking for when you're getting your license in whatever school you decide!
Last edited by hereweare on Fri May 12, 2023 10:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Beefitarian
- Top Poster
- Posts: 6605
- Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:53 am
- Location: A couple of meters away from others.
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
