Flight-school turbulence

That has led to complaints, concerns about air safety and an angry threat of a defamation lawsuit by the school, the National Pilot Academy, against an ex-student who complained.

"He's messing with the bull; he's going to get the horns," attorney William Frazier said of the former student, Scott Fouts.

The conflict reflects growing tensions as schools confront an economic downturn that in some cases threatens their very existence: Two local flight schools have filed for bankruptcy in recent months.

The National Pilot Academy trains pilots for careers at SkyWest Airlines, a carrier that serves Delta Connection, United Express and Midwest Connect, all of which ferry tens of thousands of passengers each year. NPA, as it's called, is based in Cedar City, Utah, and has seven locations in four states, including the school at Ryan Airfield west of Tucson.

It is one of about a dozen Tucson-area flight schools, which locate here in part because of the good weather, open spaces and a local aviation tradition.

National Pilot Academy attracts students by offering an "accelerated training program." When a reporter called NPA last month to ask about programs, an employee said one could become a flight instructor and get a private pilot's license, with no previous flight training at all, within six months if the student worked full time.

But "nothing ever ended up coming out the way it was supposed to," said Todd Hallam, another former student.

"One instructor, one student," he said of the promised flight instruction. "It turned out being neither accelerated nor one student."

Training time was appealing

Fouts, the former student who is the subject of the school's legal threats, said he enrolled in April 2007 to become a certified flight instructor and was attracted by the four-to-six-month time frame.

"I went there specifically because of the advertisements of their program," he said.

But months would pass, Fouts and others said, without reaching milestones, which he attributed to a lack of aircraft for use in training.

A year later, Fouts left NPA and is now pursuing training at another school.

"I would burn through all of the time-building," or passing segments of required flight training, he said, and then he "sat there for months."

Another former student said he had a similar experience.

"Some days we wouldn't have a plane to fly," said Reid Rolon, who left the school in June and now lives in Austin, Texas. "I'd be stuck in the classroom doing ground work."

The three were among a half-dozen students who came to the Arizona Daily Star with similar complaints — that promises of quick training were followed by frustrating months of inadequate flight time or instruction.

Instruction, that is, with a price tag exceeding $50,000 for becoming a pilot and instructor.

The Better Business Bureau lists four complaints against NPA's main office in Utah, but those complaints were resolved. NPA is not accredited with the BBB, which requires that a business follow certain standards and pay dues.

But Troy Wadsworth, the school's vice president for flight operations, disputes the lack of aircraft and time for flight. The problem, Wadsworth said, is a lack of full-time commitment from students.

"We have had a lot of people who have gone through the program who have done well," he said.

Question of safety

The students' problems aren't only of perceived broken promises. There is also a question of how realistic, or safe, it is to suggest a person with no flight training could be teaching other students how to fly after six months at the National Pilot Academy.

Fouts said he raised objections to the Federal Aviation Administration that flight instructors were training new flight instructors when the teachers themselves hadn't had enough training.

Fouts points to one part of the Federal Aviation Regulations that prohibit instructors from teaching future instructors unless they've had 40 hours of classroom training and two years of experience. The FAA, as an alternative, requires 100 hours in an "FAA-approved course" instead of the 40 hours and two years, but Fouts maintains that means training at a Part 141-regulated school, which NPA is not.

In an agency response to Fouts on March 3, the FAA's Flight Standards District Office in Scottsdale said "the rule is very clear in regard to the qualifications of the instructor," but that it does not "indicate the amount of ground or flight instruction required for the certificate."

The flight school, however, said there are distinctions between full-fledged and so-called "junior" flight instructors; the latter can teach others to be instructors of certain courses.

Whatever the details of the federal regulations, some flight-school operators say the whole concept of accelerating the training of pilots and instructors is risky.

"Piloting is more, I think, than a timeline," said Rand Goldstein, the president of Wright Flyers Aviation Inc. in San Antonio. The concept of flying an airplane "falls into many things, based on your initiative, your work ethic and your ability to become a pilot."

As for latching onto accelerated timelines, he said: "I wish people wouldn't do that."

Student contract ended

The National Pilot Academy says the only real problem is Fouts, whom they label the "ringleader" of a group of disgruntled students.

Two days after he complained to the FAA about the National Pilot Academy, the school terminated his contract. Fouts called it retaliation, but the school said it hadn't heard of his FAA complaint.

Instead, Frazier, the school's attorney, called Fouts a "hot-dog pilot" who would engage in "dangerous, illegal" activities in the sky.

Specifically, school officials accused Fouts of flying higher than an aircraft's maximum altitude, flying through clouds before he was approved to do so and damaging a propeller, among other allegations. Those violations, not Fouts' FAA complaint, were among the reasons the school kicked him out, they said. (For his part, Fouts strongly disputes the school's charges of recklessness and says they are overblown or simply not true.)

After he left the school, Fouts posted critiques of the school on aviation Web forums, Frazier said.

"I think what it demonstrates is a clear reason for bad-mouthing NPA," said Wadsworth, the school's vice president. "As to Scott's behavior prior to March" — when he made a complaint to the Federal Aviation Administration — "there's a pretty clear motive for Scott."

The school's attorney said that's why it plans to take legal action against Fouts.

"We're going to take every step we can to shut his trap," Frazier said.

But the head of Fouts' current school, Sonoran Wings Flight Training Centre, said he has been nothing but exceptional.

"He's excellent," said Jerry Williams, the school's owner. "He been an excellent instructor in the ground school and mentoring students."

And as for the feasibility of four-to-six-month accelerated training, Williams said: "Definitely not."

"The neurons can only accept so much at a time."

Anne Kenady / Arizona Daily Star illustration