Confederation or Sault College?

[. ._]

Man, I think you're taking this all wrong. This may a require drinking session to clear the air. Next time you're in Sudbury, beers are on me.

-istp

[CLguy]

Well I'm all for the drinking session but then again I should maybe start practicing so I can drink as good as a Soo grad. Afterall I'm a Confed grad and you made it very clear that we are inferior to you Soo grads!

I also know how to tie a tie, should I wear it!!!!!

[BigQ]

SOP's are presented by the faculty, but enforced by students by the way of a monetary "rumble" system

I'm in first year and we just got our SOP's.. don't be too harsh with the rumbling, I need my laundry money!

PFFFT, laundry money, who needs it?

If i was you, i'd be more concerned about that beer money. Now THAT's important lol...

And yes, CLguy, it's not about who drives the biggest planes, its who drinks the most. And from what i've heard of Confed right now, we win by lots

[BTD]

Wow, this is ridiculous.

I completed the Soo program and went back and instructed. I also now fly at a company where a lot of my captains and fellow F/Os are Confed grads.

You will do fine going to either. I really enjoyed my time at Soo as a student and an Instructor, it is what you make of it. But from what I can see flying on a daily basis with Confed grads. If you graduate either you will be a competent pilot.

BTD

[mellow_pilot]

Both suck, it's the port hardy airport and tire center or nuthin'!!!!

You guys ever sit back and watch people take things the wrong way and laugh yourselves silly? I've missed you avcanada....

[Viking_01]

Something for the original two of you to consider:

You could do what me and three others did during our spring break at Confederation...
Go to Cornwall aviation and crank out your mifr in 2wks. We just skipped a week of school. We all managed well doing it that way, and all four of us ended up with jobs where we can get a ton of experience on a lot of different aircraft...ifr stuff to bush, within the companies we are currently with.

good luck

[CYQT]

That sounds like a good idea. Even after grad too if I couldnt pull it off over spring break. How much did cornwall charge? .

[fingersmac]

I'm one of those guys that Viking mentioned. I spent the summer working the ramp and I'm now flying the Caravan, albeit as an FO. If I went to Sioux College I would still be in school right now.

Cost ranged from $6-$8K for an initial MIFR at Cornwall. Like Viking said, four of us finished our MIFR in two weeks. So $8K for tuition at Confederation plus $6-$8K for MIFR. You're basically spending the same as you would at Sioux College and you're done a year earlier (not to mention a float rating too).

[. .]

The only downside to the cornwall stuff is that it's very wather dependent. If you get 2 weeks of really bad weather, icing etc you'll have traveled to cornwall only to partially finish ratings.

CLguy: Everyone knows that confed is more geared towards bush flying. I'm not saying that the college isn't professional, or they can't understand SOPs or be good pilots, or ever make it to airlines. We're talking about the focus here. Confed does float and ski flying rather than doing the multi ifr. Seems like the bush prep you got from confed worked out great for you and your career flying water bombers.

As long as you understand going in what each school specializes in and make your decision based on the big picture you'll be happy at either spot.

Obviously everyone here is going to believe that the college they went to is better than anything else out there, otherwise they wouldn't have chosen it. If you're sitting back looking at the chaos here try and look at the history of the posters. Someone who failed out of Sault and then went to confed and made it through, perhaps isn't the best source of info.

[Morav]

What I really liked about the Sault is that they have some very nice sims on hand. It was great in third year to be able to have unlimited access to the FTDs when learning IFR. Keep in mind that most flying school charge per hour to use their simulators.

[. ._]

I've heard the sims at Confed are a lot better, but yeah, compared to paying for sim time in the private sector freebie sim time is a bonus.


This debate goes around and around. Advantages and disadvantages to both. Depends on the student. 2 years vs. 3 years. etc. etc.

I think it's played out and both schools are good for what they do. AND, I think there's enough info here to help out someone who's thinking about going to one or the other.

OK, I'm officially done with this thread. I'm off to buy a PPC for a King Air.

-istp

[Mclovin]

well I attended both colleges, and I can say without a doubt that I had a much better experience at con college. The instructors, the program everything was more laid back.

For me personally i found that the Sault program was much more uptight and the people there kinda had the attitude that they were the shit cause they were pilots and flying zlins. Confed I found most people to me much more humbled and had way more fun.

However I will say this the program is not what it used to be back in the day, I am a former student and employee of Con college and still know people working there and things have changed quite a bit, and not necessarily for the better

[fingersmac]

Yeah we definitely got lucky when we went to Cornwall... only 2.5 bad weather days.

[AV8OR]

Quote:

"The instructors, the program everything was more laid back... For me personally i found that the Sault program was much more uptight."

I suppose it depends on what you would prefer. The Sault college program was started by ex-military personnel, I believe. I would imagine that some students would prefer this strict way of training. I'm sure that students would still have fun training there.

[morerightrudder]

Hey everybody! Freshly new to the site. I wanted to figure out what college would best for me. I fall under the category of "I dont know what flying I want to do"

Your posts have given me an understanding of what both programs offer.

Im currently getting my PPL at DFC in London and everybody keeps telling me that without an MIFR, your gonna get nowhere. There opinions right away have me leaning towards the Sault because if your entering a subsidized program, you want to, for lack of a better expression, take advantage of it and get a MIFR rather than forking out loads of money and getting it privately.

[StudentPilot]

Im currently getting my PPL at DFC in London and everybody keeps telling me that without an MIFR, your gonna get nowhere. There opinions right away have me leaning towards the Sault because if your entering a subsidized program, you want to, for lack of a better expression, take advantage of it and get a MIFR rather than forking out loads of money and getting it privately.

Don't forget the extra year of housing, food, gas & insurance (if you have a car), tuition, books, lost year of wages, etc you'll spend at Sault. I suspect it would all add up to as much or more than a MIFR. Not all paths require the multi-engine rating or the instrument rating, or at least not right away. There's no point in getting a MIFR if you want nothing more than to bomb around in a 180 or Cub on floats for a couple summers before moving into a King Air or similar.

[Tim]

Not all paths require the multi-engine rating or the instrument rating, or at least not right away. There's no point in getting a MIFR if you want nothing more than to bomb around in a 180 or Cub on floats for a couple summers before moving into a King Air or similar.

the problem with that is that many king air and similar jobs is that they are of the 'can you start groundschool tomorrow' variety...not gonna help you much if youve got a month worth of training before you can accept the job. you WILL miss opportunities that you would have otherwise had available if you don't have a MIFR in your back pocket (remember, a PPC can be used to renew an expired IFR too.)

if you're confident that you aren't going to be looking for one of those opportunities while bombing around in your cub, then you dont have to worry. but if youre bombing around in that cub waiting for your chance to move on, what do yo do when the phone rings?

[StudentPilot]

Sure you could miss an opportunity if you don't have a MIFR, but I would suspect most people getting ready to move on from a single piston VFR job would realize they'll be needing MIFR training and they will get their MIFR then look for a job.

The extra year of schooling could also result in a missed opportunity. Such as the industry crashing and no one finding jobs. Or finding a job but having to work the ramp for a year or more instead of 6 months. Or it could have no impact, because the industry was in the dumps and it picked up as you graduated. It's life, sometimes it breaks your way, sometimes it doesn't.

My comment about not needing a MIFR right away was mostly in response to "everybody keeps telling me that without an MIFR, your gonna get nowhere." Without a MIFR of course you won't end up with an ATPL, flying an airliner or a King Air, etc. But it doesn't mean you couldn't get a good job flying multi-VFR, single-IFR, or single-VFR if that is what you wanted to do and never have a MIFR.

[bushhopper]

You guys sound ridiculous. Make up your mind and figure out what you want to do. If you are having trouble picking a program. Maybe you are to young?

M/IFR takes 10 days max. You can get it over Christmas/March if you want. Honestly, do you think you have a chance at any airline job that will pay more than 1$ a hour straight out of school? Dream on. Most jobs are Instructor/Ramp.dock hand in the bush and that is it. Anyway who in the right mind would want to fly for AC? LOL crap show. For me it's a huge warning sign that you are tooooooo young when you are talking about working for AC from YYZ. Reality will hit you hard and send you to Baffin Island to fly a King Air in the Arctic... if you are lucky.

[Bede]

Question re wx days at Cornwall: Aren't you doing a multi IFR? Don't you want bad weather days? There is nothing more useless than doing an IFR in VFR weather.

[CLguy]

When starting in Aviation which program you graduated from will not really have any bearing on where you end up in the future. Take the program that will get you to an aircraft and hours in your log book the fastest.

Confed is geared for bush and Soo is geared for IFR and yet both programs were originally run by ex-military pilots. The CP at Westjet is a Confed grad, the DFO at Jazz in a Confed grad, even last years Snowbirds Team, a third of the team were Confed grads. My boss on the waterbombers is a Soo grad so like I said, it really doesn't matter which program you graduate from, it is what you do after graduation that really counts.

[winds_in_flight_wtf]

Go to Confed. They cut the bullshit and get right to the flying. You take a basic math and physics course...oh no! (irrelevant). If you can't pass the "flying oriented" syllabus, then perhaps you are in the wrong industry. People make that final exam seem like the boogie man / cloak and dagger nightmare crap. It is the basics up to ones PPL. If you are dedicated, the odds are in your favor. Some in this forum do not like to admit that there is a sad reality these days when it comes to people and giving a shit / caring about school. I would say 98% of the time those who do not pass, fall into that category.