Multi renewal at Air Academy

[Skyhunter]

Anyone done a renewal with the simulator with these guys in Calgary. If so how were, how was the sim. Any gouge appreciated.

[Lurch]

Had a friend try and renew with them a few weeks ago and got the royal run around. They are a poster on here so they might weigh in themselves but the short of it was they stood him up and he left very dis-satisfied. Not sure if he still plans to re-new with them.

Lurch

[RATO]

Just renewed IFR with Air Academy. LOTS of rust; 7 days from initial trip to signed off. I thought these guys, Steve in particular, run an excellent show. Alsim is an incredible piece of equipment.

[JAHinYYC]

Had a friend try and renew with them a few weeks ago and got the royal run around. They are a poster on here so they might weigh in themselves but the short of it was they stood him up and he left very dis-satisfied. Not sure if he still plans to re-new with them.

Lurch

That was me!

Long story short:
- My Group One was expiring Jan 1 and I had a week off my day job between Christmas and New Years to renew.
- Called a month in advance to book three refresher sessions and the renewal flight test.
- Little bit of to-ing and frowing with the instructor to set up what would work for both of us.

What made me grumbly:
- Got the study materials Christmas eve at 5pm (after two calls to my instructor requesting them) which was a little problematic since I was out of town visiting my wife's 80yr old parents without a computer printer in sight. Busted my hump getting to Staples on Boxing Day to get the prestudy materials printed so I could be prepped and ready for the training.
- Was at a wedding out of town the night before, didn't get home till well after 1am and busted my hump to be at the school for my session early the next morning.
- Arrived, waited and hour and discovered that the Instructor had stood me up thus destroying my plans to renew before the end of the month.

Things got back on track...
- Rescheduled for the second week of January (new instructor). Three 90min bookings M, T and W morning with the flight test Th PM.
- To compensate me for the SNAFU they comped me the first session for the sim and instructor.
- All up I burned about $1000 for four hours of sim time and three hours of recurrent instruction.

In retrospect I am a happy camper.

They were able to accomodate my request for 7am starts the week so I was able to do the training before work. The day of the ride it was solid IFR (1/4mile and 200') and I could not have done the ride other than in a sim.

It was a cost effective way to do the renewal and had the added bonus of being non weather dependant which was nice.

That's me.