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Pilots in Northern Virginia?


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If there are any pilots or future pilots in the Northern Virginia area, I have 107 hours of R22 dual instruction prepaid at American Helicopters in Manassas, VA. My wife's job moved us to CA last year and I've continued my training out here. I'm trying to sell the hours at a discounted rate of $220/hr. That's dual instruction only. Normal rates are $265/hr. I hope this is the right forum to be posting this in. If not, please let me know. Otherwise, if you are training or have thought about starting to fly, let me know if you want some cheap hours. Thanks!

 

 

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Well there aren't a whole lot of helicopter schools in the Northern VA area that I could find and being new to the industry and everything, I bought a career package that included 200hrs R22 time, all the ground training, exam fees and 5 R44 hours after completing my CFI for $54,900. So it was a good deal financially over time and I knew I was going to be in it for the long haul. I had already been training for three years by the time we ended up moving to a different state (so many unforeseeable delays... :( )

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Wow, you made one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Did you do any research on here or just dive right in?? Don't see why they can't give you you're money back.

 

You had already been training for three years? Hmmm

Edited by Trans Lift
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Am I missing something here? Go to the manager and tell them you want the balance of your money back. You didn't buy a product, you prepaid for services they haven't yet provided. So theoretically...... They should still have your money.

 

Did the school tell you that your money is gone?

Edited by Flying Pig
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I did my intro flight at American Helicopters. The experience was great, but I did see some potential for shady practices. I was charged double what the website said for my flight. They told me that it was because the website listed price didn't include the flight instructor fee. Live and learn though, right?

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Wow, you made one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Did you do any research on here or just dive right in?? Don't see why they can't give you you're money back.

 

You had already been training for three years? Hmmm

 

I didn't know about any of these sites at the time. After doing the math the package I bought would cost me over 10k less then if I had gone hour by hour. I was not anticipating moving three years later. I started training in March of '09, was ready to solo by June, had to wait four months for my medical, during which time I continued some ground training and flying maybe twice a month. Then that fall I was working full time, went back to training in mid Jan doing more ground work to prep for my solo sign off, had a baby in May, was a stay at home dad for 3 months after that and then it was just one thing after another. Had to wait for an instructor small enough to fly with (I'm 6'2" and was 215lb at the time), had one instructor leave after getting t-boned in a car accident, more waiting. Next thing I knew it was almost three years and 90 flight hours later before I got my private. I asked about a refund of what I hadn't used and was told that they didn't give refunds but I could sell my hours and that my hours would stay on account and I could use them whenever I wanted.

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You might want to call a Virginia lawyer.

 

They might not be able to do anything, but the phone call is free! Plus, it would be nice to see some of these a-hole flight school owners squirm for being dicks to students.

 

Edit: Imo, you don't have "hours" on account, you have $20k balance on account, and the guy is refusing to give you your money back. You aren't asking for a refund of flight hours, just closing the balance on your account.

Edited by Pohi
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How can you be charged for hours you havnt flown? So they took your money and used it to pay for something else.... Not your hours. You didn't buy anything, you put $50k on an account.

 

I wouldn't roll over quite so quick. Like Pohi said, maybe you are out of luck or maybe they'll be writing you a check. Either way I couldn't walk away from that kind of money. Tell an attorney you give him a percentage of what you get back if you don't have the cash on hand up front.

Edited by Flying Pig
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Get your money back, trying to sell hours is ridiculous. I would threaten them that you are going to smear bad publicity about them all over these forums if they don't give you back what's yours (if the lawyer thing doesn't work). Please don't back down about this. I wouldn't be worried about burning this bridge at all.

The whole thing just sounds ridiculous!!!!

 

P.S. I posed the question of refunds to them on their facebook page!

Edited by Trans Lift
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... had to wait four months for my medical, during which time I continued some ground training and flying maybe twice a month.

 

Had to wait for an instructor small enough to fly with (I'm 6'2" and was 215lb at the time),

 

They took your money before you even had a medical? They didn't have a cfi who could fly with you?

 

Both of these are valid reasons to get your money back! I would bet a judge would agree.

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Hell, I'm only 195 and they wanted to cancel my into flight. First it was because of the wind. I can understand that. But then the bird (yes, I know. But that's a military holdover that I'm not sure I can completely get over) that I was supposed to fly in that day caught fire in flight, so they had to do my flight in the in the IR trainer R22. Just seemed to me like a ploy to get more Money.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hell, I'm only 195 and they wanted to cancel my into flight. First it was because of the wind. I can understand that. But then the bird (yes, I know. But that's a military holdover that I'm not sure I can completely get over) that I was supposed to fly in that day caught fire in flight, so they had to do my flight in the in the IR trainer R22. Just seemed to me like a ploy to get more Money.

It should not cost more to fly vfr in an ir trainer!

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