My experience at Ben Aviator College in Ft. Pierce, FL

no pun intended? haha. anyway, went to aviator in '08. place was bad news, wasted a lot of my hard earned money, and time. mx is questionable and the only person there worth a damn is their chief instructor pierre. the man is incredible, does what he can with what he is given. i wish for his own sake he would have gone somewhere else. good to see the fake marketing again, and people trying to defend that place. good luck to all who go there.

To my understanding, lots of 141 ticket mills skip the SE Commercial. No point if the students are immediately going to type in a jet.

The only students who use the Arrow are the European JAA students. It was in maintenance for a four month period while I was there and a lot of those students left.

I'm sorry... WHAT?

Sweeps, I'm puzzled why you choose to fly unairworthy airplanes, violate FARs, put your safety at risk and waste your hard-earned money doing so. Or did you squawk all the planes so they could get fixed? Perhaps you missed Pierre's ground school lesson on preflight procedure, airworthiness and PIC responsibilities.

Pierre was my MEI ground school Instructor and has been with Aviator for over ten years. He is a rare man who is an excellent pilot, highly knowledgeable about aerodynamics and FARs and he is also an incredible teacher.

If the maintenance was "questionable" then why are FAA examiners flying multiple check-rides daily at Aviator? Why has Aviator been continuously certified Pt. 141 for years--an FAA accreditation that requires regular inspections and rigorous compliance?

Recently I did a preflight with an instructor who squawked two planes in succession for a burned-out landing light (day VFR flight) and a slightly loose strobe light cover. We didn't fly that morning but we were legal and both repairs were made later that day. I have been impressed with the high level of safety and professionalism that I've seen from instructors here.

Sweeps, I mentioned your "questionable maintenance" quip to Gary, a 40-year pilot and Director of Maintenance in 2008. Gary would like you to know that the FAA conducts regular spot inspections and that Maintenance regularly invites the FAA here to consult on procedures. Aviator is home to the largest BE-76 fleet in the United States and Beechcraft regularly refers customers to Gary for his expert knowledge of this aircraft. Gary invites you to contact him directly at gary@flyaviator.com.

Sweeps, I invite you to substantiate your "fake marketing" comment. I stand behind every comment in my posts. I'm an MEI student here who started in January, transferring from a small flight school that went bankrupt. I also work here, like many students, part-time. I don't get any special compensation for posting--just the satisfaction of disseminating accurate information in the hopes that it will help someone to find a good flight school. Feel free to contact me directly on my cell: 607-351-2191 or email: dwe213@yahoo.com.

Aviator is growing rapidly: 190+ students now, 26 planes, 45 instructors and has an accredited College located on campus. The on-campus housing is in good shape and you get your own bedroom and a shuttle service for shopping, pre/post flight briefings are free, and new instructors start teaching in twins after about two months of teaching Private singles--sooner than any other flight school I could find.

But don't take my word for it! Come visit Aviator http://www.aviator.edu/ They'll put you up overnight and you can back-seat flights, talk with instructors, students, maintenance and of course meet the famous Pierre, too.

Come'on dwe213... I believe companies are suppose to pay to advertise on this site. You obviously have some alternative motive to post here. Your post just reeks of marketing and not of an honest customer review.

The best advertising doesn't seem like advertising. This is strictly Bush League.

Subpilot, There's no conspiracy, no stealth advertising campaign, not even a sneaky "obvious motive"--unless you want to invent one. opcorn:

Please feel free to give me a call. And if you ask about what really pisses me off I'll tell you that I hate it when guys don't clean the plane after a flight and leave empty oil cans in the back, or when they don't do a VOR check while time-building. I can complain about small crap like that but does JC really need more whiny posts? :deadhorse:

Okay, I'll tell you....Here's my secret, alternative motive: I had a bad experience at my previous school that went under; I lost lots of money, time, and motivation. If posting information about my experiences at a flight school that I attend and like can help other pilots avoid some of the mistakes I made, then that makes me happy.

To be fair, they did a lot of work, including completely rebuilding the gear. It also wasn't the highest priority with a line of Duchesses always waiting for work, but it did cause a lot of problems for the EFT students.

Amazing, things never change do they.

I spent roughly a year at Aviator and fought these same battles on JC over and over. It seems some just can't move on. Funny thing is all those former students that slam Aviator on here still got all those ratings that they're using today to make a living, at aviator. They got them at a decent price for the time and effort they put into it.

I've said many of the same things that dwe has said, I don't work there anymore and when I did the only thing I did was drive the shuttle bus. I'd tell future students the same things I've said before, without hesitation. It isn't advertising, its telling others your opinion, nothing more, nothing less.

I graduated and left Aviator one year ago, almost to the day, I enjoyed my time there, made many new friends and learned a lot. The only reason I didn't stay there and instruct, was my wife wanted me home and that was that. I'm staying true to my plan, no airlines and I'm working on starting my own school, and I'd still recommend Aviator if I thought it would be the right thing for that student.


Just to let all ya'all know, I answered a lot of questions for dwe right here on JC before he chose Aviator, and personally, I'm glad he's doing well.

So what you're saying is, if you expect to go through in 6 months you'll be disappointed. If you are content to take a year or more, then all the delays aren't such a big deal.

It is what it is Nick. All totaled up, trips home and other commitments away from school taken out, it took me just under eight months, but then I'm an old guy and don't learn new stuff as fast as you young whippersnappers. I suspect that if most looked at it honestly, there is a lot of wasted time not attributed to maintenance or school issues. Your time was different than my time and neither of our times were the same as dwe's time at the school. You know as well as I do that its dedication to the task that gets you through, you get out of it what you put in, simple as that.

Except it's not. You can show up every day ready to go, but if there are no airplanes flying, or Mike's shut the school for the day, or the only two year instructor is Pierre and he's too busy to fly this week, then you're stuck. Then you start wasting time, because if you can only fly 20 hours a month, you have plenty of it.

Wow, Pierre is STILL there? I thought he was leaving 6 years ago.. lol.. does he still drive the old Bronco?
haha

I have no idea why he stays there..

There are exactly 6 current 2-year, 200-hour+ instructors here now, out of a total of 40-45 instructors employed by Aviator. Pierre flys multiple training flights most days, and still manages to teach amazing ground school classes, answer questions of individual students, and act as Chief Pilot.

Nick, frankly, I don't see how your experience at Aviator 6 years ago is relevant; it's a much larger, much different operation now, and includes a two-year college, 190 students, and a new campus. Perhaps you would like to come visit and see how it's grown.

Yeah Nick, how dare you judge the KKK by their actions in the last century, they're a much bigger operation now and have changed management


TL;DR Most things don't change

EDIT: Of course there are exceptions. But if somebody truly wanted change from 6 years ago, the staff would not be the same; management can make a vision for the company all they way but in a flight school it's the people you interact with that are the vision, and that rarely is the owner since 90% of your time is with instructors (be it chief pilot or just your personal instructor)

Why would you scrub a flight for something that is absolutely not required equipment? Last I checked, electric landing light is required part 91 at night when operating for hire only. Squawk it, sure - it can get fixed later...

The KKK..... Really? Talk about your apple and orange analogies.

Changing staff at flight schools is one of the only constants and with things starting to roll again most of the instructors when I was there have moved on. Those getting their instructor rating when I did are some of the more senior instructors now.

Management as a rule doesn't change much because they have a vested interest in staying. I really think Pierre loves what he does, he gets tired I'm sure but he's doing what he loves. In Mike's case he owns the show, he has to pay the staff and believe it or not I don't think he takes that responsibility lightly. When airplanes don't fly he don't make money, you really think he wants that?

Sometimes you have to shut things down to get peoples attention, in the military we called them safety stand downs, and we did it a couple times when I was at Aviator, because people were doing stupid things.

The difference between the line instructors and the rest of the staff and management is the vested interest. The instructors, or at least 98% of them, are looking for bigger and better things. At least what they perceive as better things They have no vested interest in the school or it's success other than the next pay check and hours in the logbook.

The fact is, things have changed. When Nick was there, they had issues with maintenance, now most of those issues have been solved. Six years ago they were hiring FOs at 200 to 300 hours, three or so years ago it all changed and no one was getting hired and pilot were hitting the street. Right now things are changing again.

And things will change again, you can't judge everything from the past. I had a good experience at aviator and I know a lot of folks that had the same experience as I did. Nick didn't, Florida Flyer didn't, but like I said.... it is what it is, I'm not going to change anybodies opinion on here. I'll just keep sharing my good experience just like dwe did.

I was there some 4.5 years ago, and aside from being in a different building, from the comments here it would appear very little has changed.

I'll continue to share my opinions as well.