Ways Flight Schools Cheat Their Students

Tantalum said:
While I agree that the OP spent way too much money on his license, the scenario described seems a little optimistic.. I've never seen a nice turnkey airplane for $25K.. most instructors around charge around $80/hr
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Never seen a nice turnkey plane for $25,000???? There are tons of very nice airplanes for $25,000.... Cessna 150's, Cessna 140's, Tripacers etc..
I am not talking about a Cessna 182 or Cirrus.
 
pilotrick said:
If you aren't ready to solo you probably aren't ready.
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I was always ready to solo. I believe the school deliberately delayed it. I was also told that I was not ready for my checkride 2 days before my actual exam. My examiner seem to have a different opinion :)
 
Steve Kanefsky said:
Some of the things mentioned in the video might not be ideal, but I wouldn't blame the club for deliberately trying to scam you in all those cases. If the weather forecast isn't looking that great, for example, I think it's reasonable to expect you to show up and only allow you to cancel without penalty if the weather actually is too bad to fly at the scheduled time. I've had cases where I thought the weather would be bad but it turned out to be at least MVFR when the actual time came. Another time my instructor and I did some ground school stuff and after an hour or so the weather cleared up enough to at least get in a few laps around the pattern. In other cases we couldn't do exactly what we had originally planned but we went somewhere else or practiced something else. A couple times my instructor even filed an IFR flight plan and we were able to take off IFR and fly somewhere we could operate VFR. It was really cool to get some "flight by reference to instruments" time in my logbook on those occasions :)

If you can't do exactly what you planned in a lesson it's far from a complete waste of time or money or a "joy ride." I think you just have to account for the fact that you won't be able to practice exactly what you want every single time. I think almost no matter what you're doing you're learning and gaining valuable experience that will make you a better pilot. You're not just building time for your instructor but for yourself as well. The reasons why the instructor benefits from building time apply to you as well, otherwise time wouldn't be one of the main qualifications for a job, for insurance purposes, checkout privileges, etc.

Sometimes you might be delayed because the previous student didn't get the airplane back in time or maybe there's a sudden maintenance issue that needs to be addressed. I don't think that's much different than being forced to wait past your scheduled time at a doctor's office or wherever. If they scheduled the annual maintenance in conflict with your lesson and then tried to charge you that would be ridiculous of course, but I doubt it was anything like that.

Regarding the time to solo, someone who solos at 15 hours might not kill themselves most of the time but I really wonder how many people can develop sufficient skill in the fundamentals, steep turns, slow flight, stalls, ground reference maneuvers, radio communications, takeoffs and landings, traffic pattern operations, engine failures and emergency operations, etc. in just 15 hours to really solo safely in case anything goes wrong.

The one thing I really disagreed with is that you should be able to get your PPL in the minimum number of hours and that you don't really begin learning until after that. IMHO you had better have learned a hell of a lot before you get the PPL or else someone is being very negligent. You may need more hours just because of bad luck with the weather or because you live somewhere that's not ideal for training. It may take you longer to learn everything to practical test standards than the average person (certainly the case for me, and generally for people who start later in life). You may also require more hours if you're working with CFIs that are more strict about making sure you really know your stuff and not just the bare minimum to pass the test.
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The flight I referred to as Joy rides, weather did not a play a factor. We simply went on joy rides lol. And regarding solo, I didn't solo until 60 hours. You don't need 60 hours to solo :)
Lastly I stand by what I said about having a PPL. As a pilot learning is for a lifetime, depending on what you use your license for. I look at it the same was as I have my college degree. The degree gets you in the door. Actual learning and real growth starts on the job.
 
im not buying any of your story.
if youre always ready to solo, but stay on and pay for a premium plane for 60 hours, that is on you.
now you have lots of things to complain about in your video blog.
congrats!
 
Uhh not a single complaint was made in the video. I simply gave tips on what other student pilots should look out for.
 
easik said:
The flight I referred to as Joy rides, weather did not a play a factor. We simply went on joy rides lol. And regarding solo, I didn't solo until 60 hours. You don't need 60 hours to solo :)
Lastly I stand by what I said about having a PPL. As a pilot learning is for a lifetime, depending on what you use your license for. I look at it the same was as I have my college degree. The degree gets you in the door. Actual learning and real growth starts on the job.
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As a CFI, I can tell you many students don’t solo to mid 30 hour mark. There are student that I have seen finally solo at 80 hours. Just because a student solos at 20 hours doesn’t mean all students solo at 20 hours. Maybe the school or your CFI felt you weren’t ready to solo earlier and they didn’t have the nuts to tell you.
 
I agree that everyone has a different learning curve but I can only speak on my own experience. My instructor thought I was ready to solo at around 25-30 but after a phase check with the head chief instructor, he said I wasn't ready. We practiced for another 10-15 hours. Again my Instructor was ready to endorse me except this time the fuel gauge was bad so legally I can't be allowed to solo. and it goes on and on.
Oh and the same chief instructor failed me 2 days before my checkride exam. He advised my instructor to cancel my checkride date and keep training. That's when I put my foot down. Their endorsement was useless to me at that point. Needless to say that I was getting a second opinion from a close friend who is an experienced CFI and commercial pilot. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!

I did pass my checkride without a glitch. Again I can't speak for everybody else.
 
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From what I understand it's almost worse for your instructors if you fail your checkride or if something bad happens when you solo than it is for you. So just because you happened to pass doesn't mean that they were cheating you by recommending a little more practice first. Better to err on the safe side.
 
easik said:
Uhh not a single complaint was made in the video. I simply gave tips on what other student pilots should look out for.
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I believe your comments are valid. Another ‘tell’ in the story is the fuel gauge. Either the gauge is airworthy or it isn’t - solo student flight doesn’t enter into the evaluation.

Anyway, hang in there with aviation. Lots of negative nannies here and in aviation in general. Someone always thinks they know better...
 
A lot of guys on here would never admit their mistakes or lessons learned, let alone take the time to film, edit, and post videos for others’ enjoyment and/or education. Love me some different perspectives and airplane vids. Keep it up OP.
 
Steve Kanefsky said:
From what I understand it's almost worse for your instructors if you fail your checkride or if something bad happens when you solo than it is for you. So just because you happened to pass doesn't mean that they were cheating you by recommending a little more practice first. Better to err on the safe side.
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Lol, just a little more practice, just a little more, just a little more. One of my primary instructors took 100 hours for his private mostly a result of miscommunication of standards, not skill. Another student hadn’t soloed at 40 hours because they were too short to see over the glare shield and the instructors failed to notice.

Maybe a little more practice is appropriate. If so the deficient areas should be clearly stated and a plan to correct them developed and executed. Training should be conducted in an objective manner, not an ‘I feel’ environment.
 
100 hours isn't unusual in my area. I certainly agree that you should be told which areas are deficient if they're telling you that you're not ready for your solo/checkride yet.
 
Steve Kanefsky said:
100 hours isn't unusual in my area. I certainly agree that you should be told which areas are deficient if they're telling you that you're not ready for your solo/checkride yet.
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Agreed, but frankly, you should know on your own where you're weak. The standards are pretty clearly written, and you know if you're buggering up radio calls or not holding altitude or overshooting a short-field landing or whatever. If you think you're within standards everywhere, then it's time to insist on specific and quantified feedback or look for another CFI.

Now, having said that, my CFI (and I suspect most) wanted me flying well inside standards, not just barely meeting them. On the checkride, most students are tense and might not be at their absolute best, so there needs to be some performance margin available.

When I was getting close to my checkride, my lesson debriefs started with my CFI asking me what I thought. My personal assessment was usually harsher than his. I knew on my own what wasn't good; I needed him to tell me how to correct it with his objective observations.
 
TommyG said:
As a CFI, I can tell you many students don’t solo to mid 30 hour mark. There are student that I have seen finally solo at 80 hours. Just because a student solos at 20 hours doesn’t mean all students solo at 20 hours. Maybe the school or your CFI felt you weren’t ready to solo earlier and they didn’t have the nuts to tell you.
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I’m curious what has changed since I was a full time instructor in the late 90’s. We had a few people take 30 plus hours to solo but it was rare. Most were within 10-20 hours. There were some at less than 10 and some more than 30 but frankly by the time someone was in the 25-30 hour range without solo we started working together as a staff to figure out why they were not progressing. It was definitely not a normal situation.

Steve Kanefsky said:
From what I understand it's almost worse for your instructors if you fail your checkride or if something bad happens when you solo than it is for you. So just because you happened to pass doesn't mean that they were cheating you by recommending a little more practice first. Better to err on the safe side.
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Not an excuse. If a cfi is more concerned about their pass rate than proper progression of a student they should stop teaching. Sounds like they are teaching for the wrong reason. Time builders should go haul jumpers or fly pipelines.
 
The whole "ready for solo thing" is a bit tough. Could be a scam on the flight school. Could be the OP wasn't ready. Not for your friendly neighborhood Steingar to judge. The excuse of faulty fuel gauges does seem quite specious.

Blowing that big a wad of cash has gotta sting. That said, in the long view its just a small bump in the road. Costs a boatload to become a pro pilot. Good on the OP for sharing gained wisdom, though.
 
Half Fast said:
Agreed, but frankly, you should know on your own where you're weak. The standards are pretty clearly written, and you know if you're buggering up radio calls or not holding altitude or overshooting a short-field landing or whatever.
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Not everything is that clear to me, especially when it comes to landings. For example, how perfectly do you have to be aligned with and over the runway centerline on touchdown to be considered ready for solo or a checkride? The standards just say "aligned with" and "over." What if you touch down 5 feet left or right of the centerline 20% of the time in practice?
 
Steve Kanefsky said:
Not everything is that clear to me, especially when it comes to landings. For example, how perfectly do you have to be aligned with and over the runway centerline on touchdown to be considered ready for solo or a checkride? The standards just say "aligned with" and "over." What if you touch down 5 feet left or right of the centerline 20% of the time in practice?
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I'm just a brand new pilot, so I'm not really qualified to answer, but it seems to me that if the center line isn't at least between your two main wheels at touchdown you have a little more work to do, especially if the wind is benign.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
I’m curious what has changed since I was a full time instructor in the late 90’s. We had a few people take 30 plus hours to solo but it was rare. Most were within 10-20 hours. There were some at less than 10 and some more than 30 but frankly by the time someone was in the 25-30 hour range without solo we started working together as a staff to figure out why they were not progressing. It was definitely not a normal situation.



Not an excuse. If a cfi is more concerned about their pass rate than proper progression of a student they should stop teaching. Sounds like they are teaching for the wrong reason. Time builders should go haul jumpers or fly pipelines.
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18 years ago, I soloed in just under 10 hours (and that was delayed a couple hours because of winter weather in western NY), I was in my early 40's, and I'm no gift to aviation IMHO. This was at a Charlie airport, and I had one instructor in a beater Cherokee with vacuum gauges and no GPS. I moved to a different state post-solo and a handful of hours in addition, and PPL was mid 50's.

I don't know what has increased the training times into triple digits but I have a few guesses that may contribute (and I'd sure like to see the raw data that goes into the "average" times):

1) Insurance requirements have gone up; newer, more expensive trainers- but anecdotally, as we've seen here, a lot of old junk is being used.
2) Fewer students, so the schools milk them when they get a live one
3) A hot airline pilot market, so the fresh faced CFIs coming from the puppy mills want to build time as quickly as possible, coupled with their lack of experience and career goals that makes them nervous about signing off a student
3) TAA; again, I don't have the raw data, but I guarantee there's a correlation between "learning" the video game panels and the distraction they provide to a primary student
4) I'd like to see the proportion of "native" pilots in training vs E$L types that are hitting the high numbers
 
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paflyer said:
18 years ago, I soloed in just under 10 hours (and that was delayed a couple hours because of winter weather in western NY), I was in my early 40's, and I'm no gift to aviation IMHO. This was at a Charlie airport, and I had one instructor in a beater Cherokee. I moved to a different state post-solo and a handful of hours in addition, and PPL was mid 50's.

I don't know what has increased the training times into triple digits but I have a few guesses that may contribute (and I'd sure like to see the raw data that goes into the "average" times):

1) Insurance requirements have gone up; newer, more expensive trainers- but anecdotally, as we've seen here, a lot of old junk is being used.
2) Fewer students, so the schools milk them when they get a live one
3) A hot airline pilot market, so the fresh faced CFIs coming from the puppy mills want to build time as quickly as possible, coupled with their lack of experience and career goals that makes them nervous about signing off a student
3) TAA; again, I don't have the raw data, but I guarantee there's a correlation between "learning" the video game panels and the distraction they provide to a primary student
4) I'd like to see the proportion of "native" pilots in training vs E$L types that are hitting the high numbers
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I don’t think the insurance would be an issue. Could be wrong though just a hunch. I think the TAA cockpit combined with puppy mill instructors is a really bad combination.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
I’m curious what has changed since I was a full time instructor in the late 90’s. We had a few people take 30 plus hours to solo but it was rare. Most were within 10-20 hours. There were some at less than 10 and some more than 30 but frankly by the time someone was in the 25-30 hour range without solo we started working together as a staff to figure out why they were not progressing. It was definitely not a normal situation.
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I don't think anything has changed. It's not hard to get a student to solo in the 10-20 hour mark even in today's environment. My suspicions are that either the instructors are paranoid and want a student making perfect landings prior to solo or they realize that after they solo the student the hours they get to fly will dwindle.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
I’m curious what has changed since I was a full time instructor in the late 90’s. We had a few people take 30 plus hours to solo but it was rare. Most were within 10-20 hours. There were some at less than 10 and some more than 30 but frankly by the time someone was in the 25-30 hour range without solo we started working together as a staff to figure out why they were not progressing. It was definitely not a normal situation.
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The Jeppesen syllabus had solo at 20+ hours I believe. After solo the cross country and night work followed quickly and the student was checkride ready pretty quickly.

Another note: it sounds like you taught in a good school. I’ve seen other places where egos and perceived competition dominated the CFI cadre.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
I don’t think the insurance would be an issue. Could be wrong though just a hunch. I think the TAA cockpit combined with puppy mill instructors is a really bad combination.
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Perhaps, but if you've been in the aviation game for a while you've learned it's not the FAA that regulates, it's the insurance companies.
 
Clark1961 said:
The Jeppesen syllabus had solo at 20+ hours I believe. After solo the cross country and night work followed quickly and the student was checkride ready pretty quickly.

Another note: it sounds like you taught in a good school. I’ve seen other places where egos and perceived competition dominated the CFI cadre.
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You mean P-141 syllabus?
 
After experiencing situations very similar to the OP's, I finally abandoned the chase. I still enjoy flying and aviation in general, maintaining memberships in AOPA and EAA as well as The Museum of Flight in Seattle, but have settled for the occasional "discovery" flight. Each time, I am asked, "What happened? Why didn't you finish?" Go figure. But I wonder how many more like me are out there, the ones (perhaps many) that we never hear from? Why are the airlines, and the military, desperate for new pilots? Again, I applaud the OP for finding a way. But should earning a PPL require such extraordinary effort and expense?
 
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paflyer said:
I don't know what has increased the training times into triple digits but I have a few guesses that may contribute (and I'd sure like to see the raw data that goes into the "average" times):
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I guess one thing you have to correct for is how much actual practice time you get out of a given number of Hobbs hours. In my case, for example, we fly an average of 15-20 minutes each way to practice landings, and almost that far just to practice maneuvers. I assume it's because my airport is pretty busy (around 500 ops a day on a single runway), the runway is relatively short and narrow (2400' x 70'), and I'm practicing in a plane that has relatively long takeoff and landing distances (SR20). The airspace is also pretty complex (right underneath class B and next to Class C). Is it more typical for students to practice right around their own airport working up to solo?
 
Not saying I haven't occasionally been taken advantage of but I've been cautious in all transactions since I was a kid and discovered an ice cream cone did not contain ice cream all the way to the bottom. Caveat Emptor.
 
I am not an instructor, but some of the numbers in this thread are ridiculous. Time to solo is the biggest factor in determining how much time it will take you to complete training. At one time I asked forum members, possibly on another site, how long it took them to earn their cert and how long it took to solo and age they did it at. I think time to solo was around 15 and time to completion was around 58 hours. In this group a third of them were able to complete the check ride in 40 to 45 hours. Those above that number where flying once a week or less, flying out of Class B airspace, already had other ratings that they log flight time on, where too young to solo when they started flying, or were air force pilots counting all of that logged time. To complete your training in 40 to 45 hours, you need to solo in 10 to 12 hours and if you don't see an area that you are deficient in, ask your instructor to tell you. If you don't agree, try seeing someone else and get a second opinion. PAFlyer list of what is happening seems pretty accurate, especially number 3. Between the training time listed on this thread, the time estimations that schools feed prospective students, and the prices seen in the cost thread it is no wonder why people aren't taking the time to learn how to fly.

I watched the video and have seen a couple others, yes he is trying to up his viewers but I don't blame them. YouTube just switched to requiring a 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of viewing on a channel to maintain making money from the ads. However, there are some valid points in the video. Broken fuel gauge, you are required to have some in flight indication of fuel during the flight. The plane was down and should not have been flown with or without an instructor. Allowing it to be flown with an instructor, but not soloed just points to crookedness of this flight school. Showing up to a lesson and the plane is in maintenance, maybe it was unplanned last minute, in the day of cell phones, they should have offered the chance to cancel or move to a different aircraft. Not allowing cancel due to weather, usually my school would let me call 1.5 hour before the flight and discuss it with my instructor to cancel. This would give us a chance to determine if weather was truly too bad to go flying and I could avoid driving all the way to the field for a cancelled lesson. In none of these examples for maintenance or weather would I need to sit there for my entire lesson time waiting to see what would happen and I sure wouldn't be getting charged for an aircraft that I wasn't flying. Only time a student should get charged for cancellation is if it is not weather or sickness related (maybe provide a doctor note) and it isn't 24 or 48 hours in advance. Being told that you are not ready, I can understand that and I don't know the exact circumstances in this case. As I said before go to a different school and get a second opinion. I have unfortunately heard too many stories of people being told they are not ready to solo or check ride, switched to someone else, flew a couple hours so that instructor could verify where they were in their training and then signed off.
 
mryan75 said:
Maintaining their aircraft, paying hangar, office overhead, insurance, engines crap the bed, inspections, avionics, etc., etc., etc. Where do you get the notion that the $100 is "straight profit"?
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Agreed. There are costs to running a business. Rule of thumb for many service industries is that the cost is about three times what employees get paid. Figure overhead (office, phones, computers, utilities, benefits, admin) is about 1.85 times labor, and then about 10-15% profit. Most businesses will audit these costs periodically to gauge their pricing.
 
Ken Ibold said:
Agreed. There are costs to running a business. Rule of thumb for many service industries is that the cost is about three times what employees get paid. Figure overhead (office, phones, computers, utilities, benefits, admin) is about 1.85 times labor, and then about 10-15% profit. Most businesses will audit these costs periodically to gauge their pricing.
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Are the schools charging $100 for primary instruction (outrageous) paying their CFIs $33/hr?
 
paflyer said:
18 years ago, I soloed in just under 10 hours (and that was delayed a couple hours because of winter weather in western NY), I was in my early 40's, and I'm no gift to aviation IMHO. This was at a Charlie airport, and I had one instructor in a beater Cherokee with vacuum gauges and no GPS. I moved to a different state post-solo and a handful of hours in addition, and PPL was mid 50's.

I don't know what has increased the training times into triple digits but I have a few guesses that may contribute (and I'd sure like to see the raw data that goes into the "average" times):

1) Insurance requirements have gone up; newer, more expensive trainers- but anecdotally, as we've seen here, a lot of old junk is being used.
2) Fewer students, so the schools milk them when they get a live one
3) A hot airline pilot market, so the fresh faced CFIs coming from the puppy mills want to build time as quickly as possible, coupled with their lack of experience and career goals that makes them nervous about signing off a student
3) TAA; again, I don't have the raw data, but I guarantee there's a correlation between "learning" the video game panels and the distraction they provide to a primary student
4) I'd like to see the proportion of "native" pilots in training vs E$L types that are hitting the high numbers
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I wonder if statistically speaking that the time to get your pilots license has actually increased, or not? The school I went to turned out pilots at 40 to 90 hours, mostly in the 40 to 50 range (I was somewhere around 70). That was 2015/16.
 
Steve Kanefsky said:
I guess one thing you have to correct for is how much actual practice time you get out of a given number of Hobbs hours. In my case, for example, we fly an average of 15-20 minutes each way to practice landings, and almost that far just to practice maneuvers. I assume it's because my airport is pretty busy (around 500 ops a day on a single runway), the runway is relatively short and narrow (2400' x 70'), and I'm practicing in a plane that has relatively long takeoff and landing distances (SR20). The airspace is also pretty complex (right underneath class B and next to Class C). Is it more typical for students to practice right around their own airport working up to solo?
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my situation was close. BUSY class D, under the Bravo, hemmed in by another Delta immediately west and crowding our airspace. however, our runway is 5,000 long so we did 90% of our pattern work there and the practice areas are only 15 minutes out.

I soloed pretty late too. partly, i really struggled in the flare to get it consistently right, but secondarily, i found the G1000 to be incredibly distracting for a primary VFR student. I actually failed a stage check not due to airmanship or knowledge, but because i couldn't flip all the GD buttons in the air to make it do something I'd never do in the air anyway when the stage instructor demanded it.

i'm not gift to aviation either, but I found it much easier to fly the steam 172 we had and to just ignore the 430 and tune the KX155, it was way easier.

now that i'm an IFR student, I appreciate the GPS far more, but in primary training, I think it's a detriment, not a benefit. Note, i'm extremely computer literate, so not "uncomfortable" with technology. I just find the GNS and G1000 UX to be especially unintuitive.

I still feel that way, but recognize the utility they give for IFR flight.
 
paflyer said:
Are the schools charging $100 for primary instruction (outrageous) paying their CFIs $33/hr?
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I paid $60 for my CFI, he got about $22-25/hr. The plane was also $150/hr HOBBS.

I could have bought and trained in a Cherokee six for less money
 
It's not that I don't believe you. I just wonder why when you hit the 2x average cost for PPL you wouldn't start doing things differently?

When I hit $5k I left my 141 flight school and went 61, and finished under $10k. It wasn't just leaving the school. I also started taking things a little more seriously between lessons, and started flying 3-4 times per week vs. 3-4 times per month.

You don't mention changing anything you were doing. How frequently were you flying? Were you hitting the books at home and fully prepared for the lesson? Those two things are common pitfalls toward things costing more than they should. Not just the school.
 
easik said:
As a pilot learning is for a lifetime, depending on what you use your license for. I look at it the same was as I have my college degree. The degree gets you in the door. Actual learning and real growth starts on the job.
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Awesome..... excellent attitude..!!! :yes:
 
If you really want to finish your training buy an airplane. It is a truly magnificent motivator.
 
Usually if I can't solo someone in ~25 hours I start trying to find them a new instructor. It might be me, it might be them, but in either case, nothing is more aggravating than teaching someone something and having them not learn it.

steingar said:
If you really want to finish your training buy an airplane. It is a truly magnificent motivator.
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You would think so. Unfortunately I have an example to the contrary. Had been flying 2-3 times/month and now he's gone a full 5 weeks without flying. Also took him 4 months to even buy a copy of the book I told him to read, let alone read it.

These kinds of problems are more common than they should be. Deliberately milking a student who is otherwise ready is not common.
 
MIFlyer: Must be a Western Washington thing. The last CFI I flew with would not sign me off because I didn't know "everything" the Garmin 300 in the Skycatcher would do.??? I had 90 hours in the S/C and had flown all around the Olympic Peninsula and Wisconsin using the PFD and the GPS. But, not good enough, he says. "You must know and be able to apply all systems within the aircraft." Maybe I should try J3 Cub or A-Champ! Only 3 instruments that aren't very accurate anyway!
 
The flight school I went to was more interested in getting folks done and out.

Some of the instructors on the other hand, were more interested in money. (can't blame them, really)

In instrument training my main instructor left on a short leave. The instructor he left me with wanted to do touch and goes. Instrument training. I did two T&Gs and made the 3rd one a full stop. He asked me what's going on? I said this is not conducive to instrument training, it is just building your paycheck. No more flights with him.

In multi engine ground school, we did the school written test. Getting back the graded test we noticed several correct answers were marked as wrong. A little inquiring showed us that the answer sheet was wrong. The instructor got very irritated when we brought this up with him and said he was only here to get hours to move on and he did not care if the answer sheet was right or wrong. (former military) Quick meeting with the president of the company changed his attitude and the answer sheet.

When I started the CFI training, the first thing the instructor said was your flying makes my paycheck so we will fly as much as possible. I am not here to build your paycheck, so I am out of here. New instructor much better.

I was much older than the average student at the school and had more life experience. When something was not right, I questioned it. The president of the school knew that when I walked in his office door, he would have a problem to solve. And to his credit he would get it solved.
 
Tantalum said:
While I agree that the OP spent way too much money on his license, the scenario described seems a little optimistic.. I've never seen a nice turnkey airplane for $25K.. most instructors around charge around $80/hr
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I’m training a brother and sister in a C150 their Dad bought for $15K. They pay $60/hr me. The brother did his checkride just before Christmas at 43 hours. His sister (still in high school) will likely finish soon after her hockey season ends in February.

The plane is no Beauty Queen, but more than adequate for the intended purpose.
 
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