Which school to choose in Vancouver

[Mike23]

Hi Guys!! This is Mike. I am starting my flight training soon this year. But I can't decide which school to choose. I have two schools in my mind; Langely Flying School and Douglas College, they partner with Professional Flight Centre. Langely flying school provides all the licenses and Douglas provides Associate of Arts degree and the license. Which school should I choose? What are your opinions? I am so confused right now. Please give me as much advice as you can...Thankyou very much!!

[Saxub]

Do you want a certificate or diploma? Or do you even really want either? How fast do you want to be done? Do you even care about having a certificate (not talking Douglas degree here, that's on another level). If you don't care and want to get done quickly so you can start working then choose whichever school can get you finished faster. How many instructors do they have? How many planes? Do they put their program students before private students? Schools that come to mind with big fleets are Pro IFR and PFC. Plus they are both out of ZBB which will give you a lot more experience working out of a busy airport. The only downside is the distance to the practice area. Langley doesn't have a lot of planes and the other one at Langley is a mediocre school. There's also Pitt Meadows, and schools there are right on top of the practice area.

[lhalliday]

I learned to fly at Langley Flying School. Being adjacent to Glen Valley was handy. The tiny runways at Langley teach precise, stable approaches very early on, though it may take a while before your first solo as a result. Yes, there was sometimes some give-and-take over aircraft availability, but we always seemed to be able to sort things out. On one occasion it meant flying their 152 for a while while three of the four Cherokees were in the shop. They now have five Cherokees, a 152, a 172 and a Seneca.

Once I had my PPL and had been renting Cherokees for a bit I did a 172 checkout with PFC. Aircraft availability wasn't an issue. Instructor availability was very much an issue: after a year of waiting for their checkrides (mountain, U.S.) to fly outside of the Lower Mainland I gave up and bought my own plane. Boundary Bay has nice long runways but is sometimes too busy for its own good. And the clock is running while you're en route to Glen Valley.

...laura

[Spokes]

...The only downside is the distance to the practice area. Langley doesn't have a lot of planes and the other one at Langley is a mediocre school. There's also Pitt Meadows, and schools there are right on top of the practice area.

There is lots of training that can be done en-route to the practice areas. Its not as big a downside as you might think.

[mmmike]

Has anyone been through the Douglas College program, does the degree that they have help at all or is it not very useful. Can you also give me a walk through of the program how it runs and how was the process of applying. Thanks all