[doog]

I did my private at Belair in the 141 program. I knew nothing when I walked in there and the owner sold me on the program. For the most part, the program was as advertised and overall I thought it was a good program. Both my ground and flight instructors were excellent and very well prepared. My flight instructor had a bit of a drill sergeant style, but overall it worked for me and his other students (very high pass rate) and my DE commented that I was very well prepared.

That said, during my time there I also heard rumblings from the various instructors. It was clear that the owner was not well liked. I pre-paid for the program, and after flying instructors would say things like "you'd better save those receipts", implying that the owner would try to rip me off. That bothered me but I didn't think much of it and as far as I know I was never ripped off. After I finished my PPL I had planned to continue renting from Belair, at least in the short term. One thing that had always really annoyed me about the place was that they had no online scheduling system. One day I called the owner to ask if they could setup an online scheduling system so I could book a flight without having to call in or drive down to the office, and he very rudely told me that if I wanted that I should join a flying club then hung up the phone on me in mid sentence. I realized then that he didn't want my business so I took my business elsewhere. Had it not been for that incident and the various comments that put doubts in my mind about the owner, I might well have done my instrument and commercial there too... instead I went elsewhere.