Dimitrios Dafnopulos, a citizen of both Greece and the Netherlands but currently living in Sicklerville, New Jersey, wanted desperately to start his professional piloting career last year. It was tough, though, with only 640 hours of total flight time and 140 hours of multiengine experience.
One day he heard about a start-up charter operation at Opa Locka Airport in Miami. If he would put up $5,000 for British Aerospace JetStream 31 training and agree to pay another $2,500 (at $250 a month), he could have a $1,000-per-month piloting job with the company. The charter company owner even claimed to be in partnership with British Aerospace, something British Aerospace has since denied. Dafnopulos signed a contract on March 1, 1996, as did two Americans and perhaps others, and handed over the money. The Americans paid the full $7,500 — it was Kevin Lane's life savings, while another had to borrow the money. Training was to start by April 30. Charter operations to destinations in Florida, Haiti, and the Bahamas were to start on May 15. However, a snafu developed in the operator's plans.
At this writing there is still a delay, and only $270 has been refunded to one of the three pilots, despite a clause in the contract providing for a full refund. Dafnopulos, who had quit his job as an aircraft mechanic in Texas, asked for all his money back. Instead, he received a reply from the charter company on July 5, asking him to reconsider, saying there had been "setbacks" in starting the business. A company official said that the firm has offered to make monthly payments to the two pilots and that the company is not able to refund the money all at once.
While the operation at Opa Locka is not a flight school, it operates in a manner similar to that of schools that keep deposits from foreign students and never deliver the training. AOPA receives several calls a month from foreign students who send huge deposits to flight schools but never receive training. Sometimes it is because the school goes bankrupt before training can begin. Fortunately, honest schools outnumber the dishonest ones. Here are a few tips on how to avoid the loss of thousands of dollars, even if you live outside the United States and can't visit and inspect your choice of flight schools personally.
Kevin Lane, 29 — who, by picking oranges and working as a line attendant at small airports, had earned the $7,500 he eventually lost — suggests that those investing money in a piloting career conduct a thorough investigation of the training company. "The company was starting on a shoestring and using our money to do it," Lane said. He did what most of us would do; he read the contract carefully, visited and looked over the actual premises of the company, and studied company literature. But even that wasn't enough. "Research everything," Lane advises. "Call the Better Business Bureau, check with the FAA, investigate for yourself. If you are overseas, locate someone in the States who can do it for you."
South Korean pilots — most of them planning to work for Asiana Airlines — found a problem of a different kind after training at Wings Over California in San Jose, an FAR Part 141 flight school. The FAA is demanding that they be retested. The FAA said that the school bribed an FAA official in Oklahoma City to speed processing of the students' paperwork, since the students' visas were expiring. The FAA official, a legal instruments examiner, has pleaded guilty to accepting $2,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to South Korea, and has left the FAA.
The FAA also alleged that the time involved in the aviators' flight examinations was not adequate for certification and that language barriers were never surmounted. Those who heard the students in the San Jose area agree with the FAA that few, if any, of the 31 students could speak English. Twenty-seven of the 31 were former South Korean air force pilots who knew how to fly but lacked civilian ratings. The 27 subsequently went to work for Asiana.
At press time, the FAA had demanded that the pilots return to the United States for testing, and the students were refusing to do so. The examiner who checked the airmen is well-respected in the San Jose area and is used by students of other flight schools.
Randy Stevenson, president of Tyler International School of Aviation in Tyler, Texas, trains thousands of foreign students and also has some advice. Most of his students, by the way, have jobs lined up in their home countries before coming to the United States for training. He suggests that you ask these questions:
Does the school keep your deposit in a separate account? The school should be willing to tell you. Your money should not be transferred into the school's operating budget before training begins.
Does the school have an insurance bond to protect student deposits?
More important, is the school accredited? It isn't required by the FARs, but it serves as additional assurance to the prospective flight student. Two accrediting organizations are listed at the end of this article. Most such organizations have catalogs listing flight schools that have bothered to complete the accreditation process. The accrediting process is new to aviation, and only 30 flight schools and 16 aviation maintenance schools have made the effort to attain it, but accreditation is a growing trend.
Be careful about schools that guarantee a job as a flight instructor upon completion of training. That sounds good as far as job security is concerned but may mean that you take your initial training from an inexperienced pilot who got his instructor job through such a guarantee. Accrediting organizations do not allow their approved schools to promise jobs.
"Students assume that an FAA-approved Part 141 school meets high standards," Stevenson warns. "That is true to a degree. But the FAA doesn't inspect the finances and management of the school." The FAA once closed down a school, however, for having toilets that did not work. That brings up another point; have someone in the States inspect the student living quarters, if any are promised by the school.
Stevenson also suggests that you get a signed contract in return for your deposit. Dafnopulos had such a contract; and while it couldn't protect his money, it gave him a legal recourse to pursue a refund. Too often, Stevenson said, students arrive in America with a wad of $100 bills and hand them over to a flight school in return for only a receipt.
"If the school wants all your money at once, I would run up a red flag," Stevenson said. The school should settle for a down payment of 25 or 30 percent.
Finally, if a school claims an affiliation with a well-known airline or aircraft manufacturer, verify the claim with a telephone call. That international call will be expensive, but at least it won't cost your life savings.
For a list of accredited flight schools, call the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology at 703/247-4212 or write to them at 2101 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 302, Arlington, Virginia 22201. The Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training accredits a few additional schools. Call 703/525-3000 or write to them at 1560 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 900, Arlington, Virginia 22209.
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