International Aero Academy, Lakeland FL

I don't usually write reviews but after my experience with this school I finally decided that people should know what they are getting into. I had a very similar experience as Russell did. I came all the way from out west and was promised everything. I put a big deposit down and was told my course would be highly discounted if i paid in advance. I was treated great until they got my money and then they just pushed me aside so they could bring the next sucker in. The accommodations stunk (literately, they smelled awful), the planes are falling apart (I can’t believe the FAA has not shut these guys down just for their planes), and, other than the instructors, the staff was rude and always seemed to have something better to do then help students (at least the ones that are paid up). As it turns out, all the positive feedback was for a school that does not exist anymore. A new owner came in and apparently wrecked what was once a great school. It was pretty obvious that he does not have any management skills and he talks nonstop about himself as though aviation was put here for him. I feel kind of bad for the instructors because most of them were great people and extremely friendly, but it did not seem like there was much support from the senior instructors or management. Anyway, I hope my comments here will save a few people before they get screwed over like I did (and apparently others as well). I feel like investing in a Ponzi Scheme would have been more lucrative. The sooner this school goes out of business the better the world of aviation will be.

Friendly flight instructors and staff. However they grossly over promise and under deliver. I went for the accelerated private pilot program - this is where one learns to fly in two weeks. The flight and ground school hours that I logged were grossly inadequate in order to complete training on time. At the rate we are progressing would have taken a approximately 4 weeks to complete training. There were insufficient aircraft in order to complete training on time and the flight instructors were unaware of the completion goals. I terminated my training early when it became clear that was highly unlikely that the school could deliver what they promised. I was assured that my training was an anomaly and that if I gave them more time they could get back on schedule. This would require flying an impossible number of hours per day. Additionally, they eagerly volunteered that they would forward contact information of other people who had completed their training on schedule. After waiting several weeks no contact information or further communication has arrived from this facility to verify their claims. While your mileage may vary, my flight hours cost roughly $900 per hour in a Cessna 172. These hours were so expensive because one has to prepay half of the school and there is no refund offered if they fail to meet their obligations. Of significant concern were times where we operated aircraft with questionable mechanical faults (while I may be a novice pilot I do have a doctorate in aerospace engineering.) due to time pressures from the school and lack of aircraft. As noted at the beginning, the flight instructors were friendly. However, one should also expect that most of the flight instructors are very low time pilots attempting to build hours in order to progress to the airlines. Their technical knowledge and teaching abilities are highly variable. My instructor was unsure if the aircraft were operating was carbureted or fuel injected and did not seem to know the location of the static port - yikes! Not surprisingly nearly all of their students are from overseas and are likely being milked. To put the older, and more positive reviews in context, the school was under different management at the time of those reviews.