Ottawa Area Flying School

[s20Merlin]

Hello everyone,

I am looking to pursue my dream of becoming a pilot. I am 23, I have a college and university degree and now I want to become a pilot.

I would like to follow the Commercial pilot and also the Instructor rating. I understand that the biggest challenge in a newly trained pilot is to rack up some hours before being considered for most other jobs.

Here are 3 that I found in Ottawa,

http://www.ottawaflightcollege.com
http://www.ottawaaviationservices.com/i ... ?q=join-us
http://www.rfc.ca/en/training

Do any of you have positive and/or negative feedback of these flying schools? I plan on visiting them on site, but I would like to know anything from anyone with hands on experience.

A very important factor for me would be to be hired as a flight instructor after my training. I know of course no one can guarantee that, but a general idea would be nice.

Also, 200 hours is required for the commercial license, do most students finish in 200 hours?

Thank you very much for your time,

Alex

[the_cr]

One thing to keep in mind with OFC and OAS is that because they are working with the program at Algonquin college, you could find it difficult booking aircraft consistently.

I'm not stating this as fact, just an assumption, as I don't have much experience with any of them.

[Blakey]

Call John.

http://www.chapmanaviation.com/pilottraining/

No problem booking aircraft, no long transit times to the training area, competative pricing and John is an experienced, professional instructor.

I don't believe that John can take you through to a Commercial license however. You can thank Mr McGinty for that!

[Kerlo]

I'm currently at RFC through the recommendation of a friend who is working for FirstAir. So far, everything has been great. When I talked to Simon and I told him about my interest in possibly pursuing Commercial, he didn't push his school to do it in.

They seem to care about your own growth and development as a pilot rather than money grabbing so it was a good fit for me.

[Oxi]

Well I can speak mostly of OAS. They recently had a Katana crash GAIC and it is getting replaced with a 172 as we speak. They are relatively busy but book your times accordingly in advance. They have also are now in the integrated ATPL program with their King Air 200 Sim and will soon become I believe the one of the only with ATO status soon.

[Gessle64]

0

[TeePeeCreeper]

[quote="Blakey"][/quote]

Blakey,

How have you been?

I guess you did not hear about A.V and I having had some serious issues with JC... For Pete's sake , AV almost called TC on the guy!!! Has AV or E. (Should AV been in contact with E.) not filled you in on what occured?

On another note... Shoot me a pm, be good to catch up with you... I should be back sometime in August.... Fancy a fish?
Regards,
TPC

[s20Merlin]

Thank you for your imput up to now everyone!

I had contacted RFC by phone, they seem pretty good and friendly people, and had a very competitive average price, also informing to me to plan for some more hours possibly.

I also want to go see in person the schools and then gotta work on financing. Any more experiences or recommendations from place in or around Ottawa (Cornwall too maybe??) is greatly appreciated!

Thanks again!

[ptc]

I did my PPL at OFC and then moved onto RFC for my instructor rating. One of the nice things about RFC is that all potential customers have a meeting with Simon and get to discuss plans, cost, etc. They then try to tailor the training to your needs, IE: full time student vs only flying on weekends.

The Rockcliffe airport is great to fly out of and with quick access to CYOW you can get practice flying at a busier airport with ATC. In fact one of the advantages of RFC is the location and not having to wait for clearances for taxi, and the like.

Regardless of you choice of schools go and talk with all of them and see which one seems right for you.

Best of luck with the training

[tonyhunt]

I did my PPL, CPL and Instructor rating at Rockcliffe FC. I did my Multi and IFR at Cornwall a few years ago, before RFC had the Redbird and an IFR examiner. Enjoyed the atmosphere in both Rockcliffe & Cornwall.

Once I had my Instructor rating, OFC called and asked me to instruct weekends, they were short of instructors with the Algonquin program starting up. There were no instructor openings available at RFC, the RFC instructors tend to stick around for awhile. As soon as Rockcliffe had a spot open up, I moved back to RFC and will stay there as long as they'll tolerate me.

Five Class One instructors, three examiners including Instructor and Instrument rating examiners. Good atmosphere for instructors with Simon & Mark. The RFC instructors tend to stick around for awhile. The club members get to actually rent the aeroplanes. A couple of C-150s, enough C-172s, a 2001 C-182 for IFR and longer trips, and a 2000 Super Decathlon for tailwheel and aeros, you don't need much more than that. Maybe a twin? Probably in the next year or so.

[hackish]

May I suggest you book an intro to flying at each and go see for yourself. I'm in the process of doing that. Also don't forget there is decouvert air at Gatineau as well. I haven't gone up with them yet but that airport offers some positives and differences you might not get at rfc. So far RFC is at the top of my list.

[hot_shot]

Hello all,

I came across this post when I was looking for flight school reviews in Ottawa. Does anyone have any recommendations out of the three choices of OFC, OAS and RFC? I am going for the PPL with a possibility of CPL later on. I have visited these schools and spoke to their instructors but am finding it hard to choose one. OFC and OAS are in the Ottawa Airport, which is controlled airspace, therefore from a training point of view I think it would be more beneficial to get accustomed to controlled airspace earlier.

Ideally, I would like to know what is the "best" flight school in Ottawa, in terms of instructors, reputation, facilities and recognition. I understand that there might not be a simple answer to this but your thoughts and experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Colonel Sanders]

Sigh. I really don't know why people think talking on
the VHF comm is such a difficult task.

Anyways, flying out of a large airport requires that you
spend a lot of very expensive time taxiing and flying to
and from the distant practice area. When the wind is
out of the north, you're going to use runway 32. Look
at an airport diagram.

If cost is no object, disregard. All of OFC, OAS and RFC
are fine schools.

[cgzro]

+1 for cyro. Its a good location, more actual flying time per dollar and you have controlled and mf within 5 minutes flying . Also if you live in the east end its very quick to get to.

Should also mention that there is a new club at cynd called phoenix, they start in a few days. Dont know much about them yet except they are specializing in overseas students.

[FL-510]

Also, 200 hours is required for the commercial license, do most students finish in 200 hours?

Merlin,

I will answer this question for you, 200 hours is the minimum for the CPL license. There is also other minimum hours that you must include that you will learn about in your groundschools.... I would suggest including the multi engine rating and ifr rating in that 200 hours. Because you are racking up hours and this will save you money.

Exemple : you build up to 200 then get the multi-ifr , this will bring you up to like 225 with all kinds of sim time as well....

** If you want to become a instructor you must have a cpl to start the flight training portion of it. You must add 30 hours dual instruction for this rating.
If all goes well, you should be finished ar 230 hours. Multi-ifr in your pocket and can consider yourself a profesionnal pilot!

Hope this helps
FL-510

[hot_shot]

Thanks for your input! Your points are valid regarding how busy the flight schools at the Ottawa Airport will be. I am in the west end and the closest flight school to me is international pilot academy (http://www.intlpilotacademy.com/about.php) - looks new as there used to a carp flying school which shutdown. Not sure if I will go here though.

[Colonel Sanders]

I am in the west end

Carp airport used to be a thriving small airport. There
was Westair with the ski chalet, and on the other end
of the field there was Bradley's maintenance hangar
where you could buy lunch in the company canteen,
and the EAA, and the helicopter school, and for a while,
Gerry V had Kanata Flight Center. I learned to banner
tow at Carp. Fun.

But not any more. Carp is kind of a ghost town now.
Kind of sad. Recently there was threatening email that
flight training aircraft were not welcome there, followed
by furious backpedalling. Something strange in the water.

[jetboy1975]

The First 3 schools mentioned are reputable and have been around a long time, pick whichever one suits your needs and personality best. Be careful with some of the others. There are some shady operators out there. I believe if you dig deeper you will find Phoenix has ties to the banished Aero Academy from London. They were originally listed to operate out of Dunnville and were rumoured to also have ties with a school out of Carp. The trail goes on and on.

[SAA340-600]

if you want to get it done: Cornwall.
I dont think ofc or oas have twins anymore. So much potential but all the wrong ingredients in place...

[DanWEC]

I can only speak of RFC, since I have not been to the others, but in my opinion it is a fantastic spot. It's a small non-profit club filled with people who love to fly, and it shows. Great Class I's with plenty of experience.
There are lots of events and socials, and it tries to maintain a grassroots feel despite escalating TC bureaucracy surrounding FTU operations.
I just finished an instructor rating at RFC after being referred there by several other people- and it was a great experience. Having previously only trained out of controlled airports (YQG, YTZ, YKZ, and YXE) spending 30 hours flying at a busy uncontrolled airport was a very welcome change and challenge.
There is a lot of one-on-one emphasis, and the main objective is to make a good, safe instructor- not just to process someone through a rating. Their reputation is justified.
It's a 5 minute trip to the practice area, and they have a Redbird.

2 Caveats however- A) No Twin. and B) By virtue of their environment, there is very little turnover of instructors. If your intention is to work there, it could be a while.
I made my decision, but you'd have to decide what would be best for you and your path.