Wings Aloft Inc

this school is a rip off. They nickle and dime you and it is not worth the price.The chief instructor is more interested in his sex life than he is with running a quality operation. He screams at his coworkers infront of the customers.
The chief pilot is only the chief pilot on paper. He has no say in day to day operations.
The school has a foreign pilot program. The students don't know how to clean up after themselves or shower.
In my experience the CFIs have difficulty being honest, especially the chief and assistant chiefs. They know the company is ripping off the clients but don't care or simply look the other way.

Haha! I agree about the sex life thing. You can see that in the students Terry picks for himself, which is mostly the Indian female students. He does yell at his CFI's and most of them are interested in just getting their hours and getting the hell out of that place. I've seen some CFI's buddy up to him and get preferential treatment while those that don't hang with him don't get squat. The student pool looks like it has been getting better recently. The ones from last year are gone and they were the ones that stank up the place. The assistant chief on the PPP side is a good guy, but I'm not too sure about the one on the club side.

some of their people have gone on to the FAA.
These are the same people who "looked the other way" when the clients/CFIs at Wings were being abused and taken advantage of.

I cannot help but wonder if they have taken their Wings Aloft "moral compass" (or lack of it) with them?

That is pretty scary to read about. The thing is, these foreign students are alone in the US and the guy preys on them. Some of them are promised already to marry back in India, but he being of loose morals, takes advantage of them anyway. He doesn't care.

The owner of the place will burn. He demands money of the students, when they have already paid. he doesn't let them leave if they need to go back home - even for a family emergency.

One of the student's had his mom pay her entire life savings to this school and they never finished his training. Maybe he wasn't the best pilot, but at least send him back early if they cannot train him. Now they are poor and he has nothing to show for it.

I'm not sure what rock some of these guys are hiding under but my experience has been completely different. The foreign student program is annoying at times but it seems like they are going away.

The Chief Flight Instructor has been very helpful to me and knows his stuff. I had to do a stage check with him and he was great. I learned more on that flight than any other flight I have been on. The assistants are just as helpful as well and seem sincere. I've been to quite a few places in the area and no other place has better flight instructors and senior staff.

I dont think I can vouch for the other areas as I have had problems with my statement as well. Sounds like some of these guys are disgruntled ex-employees.

Definitely avoid this place. I don't know about the guy there for his sex life but I worked on my private with them for a while and agree that it's a ripoff. I felt like they weren't interested in my success or anything, just my money.

My instructor was really good and nice, but it was hard to get past their complicated billing system. And it took a lot of prodding to get them to finally explain it to me! Add in the old, crappy fleet (that is NOT worth what they charge), and the cheap high-pressure sales tactics, and they have a used-car-lot feel.. This is definitely NOT a place I want to train at.

Maybe the fact that there are so many disgruntled ex-employees should be a sign...

I was an instructor at Wings for the part 141 school. No, I am not a disgruntled former employee. I am perfectly "gruntled", lol. I can't speak as a student, but I can and will say that their prices are a bit on the high side. Their current instructors don't seem to be time-builders and have a lot of knowledge, so that is a plus, and thier maintenance is top notch. However, if I were to walk in off the street, I couldn't justify paying yearly dues on top of an overpriced aircraft and instructor, when there are so many other places that don't charge fees and have resaonable rates, plus good instruction. I won't get into details about treatment of students, but let's just say that some are treated differently than others by the billing and office staff.

Oh, and yes. If you are an attractive young lady, expect to get hit on and leered at. I hate to even bring it up, but unfortunately it's true. Some guys here don't understand the concept of separating work from personal life.