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3.5 hours of cross country as my first flight

Grand Bay, Mauritius K. Sawan

I went to the school for my first flight. Just like any students, I was so excited thinking about the fact that my 15 years of dream going to come through made me so happy and proud.

I already met my instructor on the enrolment day. We had few minutes chat, mostly about my country Mauritius. Well, he didn’t even know there is a country called Mauritius. Don’t blame him because I came across many of them don’t know anything about my country. On the day of my first flight I came about an hour early than my flight time and patiently waited for my instructor to return from his previous flight.  Once he arrived we had a nice chat and he explained everything properly before we took off. I had the most amazing day of my life as I was fulfilling my childhood dream. This first flight was over 3.5 hour cross country as I was a new student I thought this was normal till I mention this to one of student from the same school he laughed and told me I must be the first ever student to have cross country flight as his first flight. I was shocked to hear that and told few others but the reaction was the same no wonder he took me 94 hour to complete my private license. I realized my instructor just flying many hours with me to get well paid.

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I choose my instructor by recommendation from one of my friends in the flight school. I soon realized he is such a great skilled instructor with lots of passion and dedication towards flying. I had great few flight lessons till I came across on one flight about an outraging personality when I made a mistake he shouted and screamed towards me. Every time he shouts in the plane I lose my focus and started to do many more mistakes. I started to get scared of flying with him as if I was flying with a snake that could bite me any second. Even though I stuck by this instructor throughout my private pilot lesson I hated every moment I was flying with him. I do regret now that I had bit of courage to face him and to tell him that if he is going to carry on this manner I will change the instructor.
My instructor has strict personality which makes it difficult to have friendly talk with him or even difficult to ask any question about aviation and my flying. Usually my instructor turns up to the flight just the minute before I start the engine and goes away as soon as I land and switch off the engine. Even though for a long time I get charged for preflight and post flight but I find difficult to question him. Thirty minutes ground I get charged for each flight. It doesn’t seem too much money for 30 minutes but it adds on when you fly over fifty flights. when I talk about this to other students it seems like many students goes through the same issue with their instructor which made me think this issue it just common in the flight schools.
My course fee had been quoted as $45,500. The school did mention this price is for 40 hours of private pilot license and they did inform me most of the students completed around 50 hours to 60 hours. So I expected couple of $1000 to increase it to a final price. But when I checked my school account on the day I got my instrument rating, I have spent around $49000 already. I still have multi engine commercial license pending and also 30hours of hours building. This is going to push the price more than $15000 than quotation quoted price. The school knows that once you start your training you just have to agree the price and pay for it without questioning them. That’s what many students did in the past. I can see that these extra charges will carry on in this flight training industry.
I started my job in USA after years of saving and clear research. I found this company in India and they guaranteed an airline pilot job as soon u complete your commercial license. It’s a dream come true for any student pilot to start a training and to know you will be flying for a airline as soon as you finish the training especially when you have spend over 40000$. The job confirmation they provided us didn’t look fake to me as the document had job details and an approved stamp from aviation authorities. Once I completed my training, I returned to India in such a joy that my parents are going to see their son as first officer in an airline. All my dreams just shattered when I went to the office in India to find out when I can start my job. It completely shocked me when they told that I am on a waiting list with other pilots and that they couldn’t tell me the exact time period for a job and I need to wait. Be careful of these fake agents and companies.
After a month of training I went for a flight as unusual, when I requested my flight log and the keys from dispatcher lady. She informed me that my account is negative. I was completely shocked because I have deposited fifteen thousand dollars a month ago. I asked her to print my account detail to check where my money went? She printed out my sheets of my flight detail of my account for the last month. In that account, I noticed that they charged me $3000 of administration fee which they never mentioned anywhere on the website or the document they had sent me with the acceptance letter before I started the training. When I complained about this to the school office I got a simple answer “every student get this fee charged”. I was very disappointed and argued a lot regarding this matter to finally realize that I have just have accepted this fee and carry on with my training. After this incident I make sure that I check my account regularly if there are anymore hidden charges applied from nowhere.
Some flight school use desperate measures and try to exploit the situation of the new instructors from abroad. Once they finish the training, the school owners knows that these new instructors wants to build hours and get experience rather than go back to their own country. I only know these details after several of my flights. My instructor never showed any enthusiasm towards the trainee but he wanted to fly many hours every week. When I asked others students they explained to me my instructors doesn’t get paid for his work. It came clearly to me that you can’t expect someone to give 100 % when they don’t get paid for the job they do. By the time I changed the instructor that I already flew 32 hours without even get my solo since then I changed my instructor I wish I had done this sooner.