Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/29/2025

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  This is due to deceptive billing practices and attempts to prolong my training by showing no progression towards my *** goal. I received a student loan of $77,000, of which $26,000 was paid partially out of pocket and as my first disbursement. The lack of transparency and monitoring for my progress has caused significant financial distress, once questioned and created mistrust in the *** and school. The school had on its website the average cost of tuition for achieving the 40-hour required private pilot's license was $13,500, as an estimate. I have over 105 logged hours 1.1 of the 10 solo hours I'm supposed to have and 228 landings. I was not informed of any progression of my licensure but instead was flying naively trusting the *** used the checklist needed to accomplish to move to the next level. But he was not.I was finally cleared to fly solo cross-country only after I began questioning the billing tactics and maneuvering strategies, which suggested an effort to extend my training period and maximize the loan's financial impact. I attempted to handle matters privately, but I feel unsafe due to the school's lack of transparency. The school withheld ****** criminal speeding violation: the school's attorney, ****** ******, also shares criminal speeding charges on public file, which leads me to question his own tactics of safety for judgments that were chosen to be made, in my becoming a safe pilot. Yet, he and his client are putting full blame on me. ****** has resorted to bullying tactics to silence me about my experiences with **** during the last month of the year, labeling me a "slow learner." I will not be intimidated, as I am protected under consumer rights laws. I have screenshots and witnesses who can verify my claims, my learning capabilities and competency as a student and provide testimony if needed.I urge the BBB to intervene and investigate these practices, as this was to be settled and handled April 23rd, and I seek accountability and resolution.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/02/2025

  The additional info shows 1.) Their site advertising, which changes often and considering that I now have to resort to publicly reporting them, can be deemed as deceptive pricing and procedures which not only plays on the ignorance of the general public who may wish to or who have invested in private pilot licensure; but, will not only resort to shaming the student by using accusatory and defaming language by saying they are 'difficult" and  "just SLOW LEARNERS" quoted by their own attorney who has a public past record of making his own judgement call, as did the *** I was assigned to, in achieving a traffic speeding that is listed as 'criminal', yet in regards the CFI  - while being in a position where Trusting instruction of safety and judgement is detrimental to the well-being of the student pilot.

  2.) ********** did not inform me nor made any proactive attempts to rectify the situation in a timely manner; instead, along with the suspicion of psychological manipulation with the randomness of no tangible progress list to see flight accomplishments or lessons yet to master to fulfill the minimum PPL requirements, they continued with silence until I had to contact the school and withdraw before the second disbursement of $26,000 was dropped the following week.  This necessary decision, for my own safety, has made it so I am further in financial burden of repaying the loan, while not being able to apply for another, but continuing to pay out of pocket.

  3.) While conducting the investigation after my demand letter, the attorney alluded to defaming my character and learning capabilities to other **** making further continuation difficult in the Nashville aviation community. The mentioned **** in the attorney's letter who said i was not ready solo, was not teaching my solo, but because it was understood I was paying out of pocket at the time yet determine to continue my lessons, he crafted a plan of action to focusing primarily on landings. This was the beginning of building the trust and faith I had in FHS, and trusted their lessons were specifically organized to assist me in reaching my goals. The second ***, who actually endorsed my first solo, did the same. The relationship with the school was established on trust and confidence and one of which I considered close. This continued when I was assigned to the final CFI, where the interaction was amicable, jovial, yet respect for the student/teacher dynamic. It was not my goal to come forward to report this business, however, due to the financial burden that this has put me under, I will exercise my consumer right to report, without submitting to intimidation tactics whether by their legal counsel or any online commentary that can be taken as bullying, until this is resolved.

   

  Business Response

  Date: 05/16/2025

  We received a letter from Ms. ****** attorney back in April, which is attached for your reference. Our counsel has responded to her attorney, and those communications are also attached.

  Ms. ****** request for refunds is baseless. She did not perform her due diligence in studying, was inconsistent in her training, and did not prioritize her flight training. Additionally, Ms. **** has publicly admitted her lack of proficiency on her social media pages. Therefore, the basis of her claim is unfounded.

  The response letter clearly states that Ms. ****** allegations do not establish a legal claim against FHA. Educational malpractice is not recognized in law, and her lack of progress is attributed to her own challenges rather than FHA's instruction.

  We have not received any communication from Ms. **** or her attorney since our response.  Ms. **** has since turned to the BBB to defame our name instead of taking accountability for her lack of studying and proficiency to be a safe pilot. 

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/18/2025

  I'm am more than happy to share in court and with the state legislation when file for petition transparency with flight schools As I petition and subpoena witnesses and other information, *** can publicly claim how I didn't meet the requirements which were not laid out. Based on their attorney's response, I can tell he did not see my attachments, including my saying there was no structure in lessons and my having to not only have to pay for outside ground schools for structure, but also the screenshot of the school's own claim of providing a PPL in 60 days. 

  As I go public of my experience as a consumer, I will collect the necessary funds to see this through for legal action so the public is made aware of how to beware of tactics from flight schools. 

  Thank you! 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/19/2025

  I'm making sure this went through so this may be a repeat of a response. 

  The forementioned "inconsistencies" and "lack of studying" can be proven and debunked in screenshots of my emails and text messages to the owner and the *** I questioned as weather issues, not having the two planes they had available due to overbooking, scheduling conflicts (on their part - in one screenshot, I told the *** I could not get on the books)  and maintenance. The *** and my Former spouse and others in my life, as well as other **** and mentors, and receipts of online purchases of ground school - since the school had no structured tangible progression list to use as a method to achieve the  minimum 40 hours the FAA  requires pilots to have, once this moves to courts and when subpoenaed, will share my studying habits that were balanced with being a working, single mother. The school did not know nor show any idea of where I was in progressing though throughout the years I attended (which by the way, the screenshot of their own site showed their claims of having the student pilot receive their PPL within 60 days - is no removed since my coming forth. It should be noted that until I shared the structure from another flight school whose online ground school I purchased and shared with **** ******* that it is free for **** to use, they had no structure, and as a student, I had to rely on the many changing ***s I had who not only went to school had instruction 5 days a week with books and material outside of ***'s handbooks, they taught verbally and expected the part-time school to grasp everything within that ****** to move forward.  My tenacity and confidence in my own learning - which I shared several times to *** **** ****** and owner **** ****, was visual and Kinesthetic. I shared that finances were on my mind during flight because due to weather and availability of the planes and *** when told I had to get in the plane often was stressful on top of the actual learning of the ******s.  After realizing that *** **** only permitted me to move forward in my solo cross country was when my demeanor changed in flight when I went silent (in flight) from noticing his unnecessary and spastic comments to create angst (to where he even shut himself up and said he was talking too much and said he would pass me to the next step. At this time neither he, the school, nor myself,  knew I had acquired 105 flight hours, 228 landings, and 1.1 solo hours - which the *** is recorded along with my competence in flights and landings are also found on my social media.  The "lack of proficiency" mentioned by the school was when I didn't realize the two days of Dutch Rolls **** added which was not recorded because he demonstrated it aggressively and insisted that if I didn't do it as aggressively, I showed him I didn't know the plane and could not move forward. This was after successfully demonstrating not competence in solo landings and learning my personal limitations in flight. Since I had no preparations of what a Dutch Roll was prior to the ******, I could not prepare. After googling it, not only did I see it was a rudder maneuver, but to do it as aggressively in the old plane I was flying with ****, could have been seen as dangerous to the airframe, as well as not clarifying the purpose of my needing that maneuver for me to pay for. **** could have focused more lost procedures (which is more helpful for cross country), engine fire, etc. Because I had no concept outside of cross-country flight to prepare for but had proven I could fly the plane, there were no checklist I could use to measure my own preparedness, especially since I was navigating without an ipad for foreflight. **** did spend time with me going over the *** bug, which had to be taught several times as managed multi-tasking, but my social media pages also showed where I got it and when I was cleared to move forward, I had proven this several times.  My ignorance to this way of their style of teaching should be noted as it was unconventional but achieved. Only after questioning the extra charges that were never communicated and then waiting for the school to take action did I halt everything until the matter was addressed because I only had $6700 left from the $23,000 first disbursement of the $77,000 commercial student loan and I still had no idea where this $6700 stood to reaching the license, since I still had not done any of the other things on the requirement list (night flight ). time and money was wasted and I could gotten so much further, if the ***s plan was to truly continue to move me forward.

  As I mentioned earlier, the school was used to seeing me there as often but did not do their due diligence to track my progress - to my knowledge because I was not aware after my solo, when the *** was not available, but I was there, that *** **** had conducted a stage flight - until after I questioned the charges. The Owner stated in our first meeting they didn't know where I was at in my flight journey and admitted that the ***s were young (younger than me) and may have a different way of training and hopefully they were encouraging, and the fact i had several at that,  and so I was scheduled to fly with **** *. on Christmas Eve (note that none of this is posted on my social media). This is an example of situational awareness that could possibly have been successful if I was able to go as I prepared. It started by the plane I choose and flew solo in originally had fuel coming through the Primer, but was told it was cleared to fly just the smell of fuel would be in the cockpit. I showed **** my completed navigation log to the airport **** chose for me to fly (one that had a quarry at the end of the runway and was a challenge for me in the past, but I successfully did it, in spite of his choosing this airport.). We made it clear prior that he would simply be there but not teach and i was agreement. While on the ramp after doing my run-up, **** asked if I used Flight Following to which I answered only twice the last time being two weeks prior and that **** had to deviate from 4 mid-air collisions so I did not feel comfortable to add it, but instead do what I showed on my nav. log and what I been taught repeatedly with the various **** and fly under the *** airspace and then climb once outside of the airspace. He insisted I use it and so I complied. Before continuing it's important to note that **** did help me overall - the issue was this was an example of going beyond my personal limitations as pilot in command and what I had prepared for, knowing that the stress and anxiety was already present on my part to prove myself and adding that on at the last minute was not working in my favor. If I was told to prepare to use Flight following, I would have had the radio frequencies and communications prepped, but I didn't, and once again, in-flight had to show my abilities. As expected, I was deviated from the intended route and had to ask ATC to assist in putting me back en route, to which they responded they didn't know where I was going, because I was continuing the deviation. **** assisted me back on course at that time, while ATC volleyed me back and forth on frequencies. Once getting close to the airport, I could not find the actual airport because I was off course but knew I had to radio the possible traffic. the radio k*** came off as I descended and so I struggled to put the k*** back on, neglected to check the weather report at the airport, and had to climb again (per ****** instruction) to contact ATC again until I found the airport and closed out Flight Following. When I came in on the downwind for the initial landing, (luckily, there was no air traffic) I did not feel I was properly set up to make the landing, and so I stated would go around. I successfully did a go around and did a touch and go. I believe raised the wings but I was going to do that anyway. After taking off, gave me mini reviews of maneuvers and once again, I was following the Gps to recall how to catch it.  In our debrief, **** gave notes and after finally asking him if he felt safe with me flying (if he had passed out, and i had to make an emergency landing), he said, "There's no question you know how to fly the plane. You just need to work on a few things with ****."  After reflecting on the time I spent with ****, I was able to see how much further i could have gone in my studies and progress if there was a definitive method provided. After discovering my loan funds had been siphoned by extra charges here and there and extra unnecessary flight ******s, while discovering my *** had an expensive ($400) speeding ticket, this was when I questioned everything as a consumer. I lost trust and put up boundaries after waiting on their plan for my situation, and after their silence, I contacted my student loan company to request a pause or break in repayment because I didn't know what was happening at the school and why I was charged for extra ******. They explained the second disbursement would drop the following week and so at that i stopped at payments, saying I didn't trust them. The *** had made me anxious for my ******s, and I didn't trust he had my well-being at hand and the school was not claiming responsibility in anything. This disregard is not in the name of safety, but my receipts and logbook can show it is for profit.

  Up until my reporting it to the BBB (and soon they will be contacted by Tennessee State Attorney General,) I have kept all matters private to try to resolve this with respect to the business, though they have not showed me that reciprocal respect, but instead insult my studying and learning capabilities, without regard to the limitations I mentioned that they provided, and attempted to use my social media postings against me when I unapologetically will admit my gratitude to learn aviation. However, every time one is in the airplane, it can be considered a learning moment. A safe pilot Never stops learning. The issue was, like my stage flight, my flight journey at *** was all over the place with no clear direction to my destination of receiving even the first license, mainly towards the end of last year with ***, ****. It should be noted that I am grateful for the time I did learn at ***. The disappointment is how this transpired.

  I have since been with another ***I at another school, and that ***I, after 15 flight hours can vouch for how I was when i came to him and how he's ready to move me forward - however, once again, I am paying out of pocket and so ******s have stalled.  I have already filed a letter to my state legislator to pass a bill for transparency in Part 61 flight schools to avoid scams (see an article here about how common it is  ************** Scams to Avoid for Safety - *********************** " ) and due to the financial burden of repayment for the next several years while paying for classes to become a commercial pilot, I intend on recovering my refund and all the court costs, and defamation of my character and integrity, and mental stress this had added when I trusted them. I will not stop until this is resolved and even after, i will make sure to publicly warn the Pilot enthusiasts are aware this is a matter to consider when choosing a flight school.

  The attachments show more than enough proof of my dedication to reaching my goal and thankfully, this reporting is not made from an incident or one where my family is reporting a fatality. This is to be pro-active in the transparency of flight schools, especially Part 61 schools which cater to those who are only able to attend part-time. Once litigation is reached, I will subpoena all pertinent witnesses and proof that during my attendance at ***, I not only studied and prepared, but the school acted in terms of fraud with deceptive advertising (see attachments) and should take responsibility for not ensuring a clear guidance as one who had a student loan to reach her goal of commercial licensure and for taking advantage of my naivete and trust of their teaching methods, while also not properly handling or disclosing my *** had a speeding ticket which listed publicly as "criminal" and how that may affect my ******s, in safety, judgement in safety, and financially (to pay for his mistakes outside of the school.), and that they could understand and take responsibility in my suspicion in the manipulative and questionable sabotaging teaching tactics to prolong my instruction under ****. 

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/19/2025

   
  Complaint: 23261538
  
  I am rejecting this response because: everything I stated in detail in my previous responses. The attachment shows their advertising to get a student a Private pilot's license in 60 days. There are no asterisks detailing terms and conditions. It is a simple straight forward statement. There was no structure. HOW? I had been going for several years paying out of pocket until being approved for a full commercial pilot student loan. With weather, two functioning planes, overbooking and scheduling conflicts with students and CFIs and constant turn-over of CFIs, HOW were they going to fulfill this? They did not take my efforts seriously nor accept responsibility for letting me as a paying student and consumer, fall through the cracks.

  I do not accept their response.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Shakira ****

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/19/2025

  Regarding the "not studying" comment the business shared, just wanted to upload the written knowledge test I retook (since I did not have the flight hours in time the first time I took and passed), and both times I passed one the first attempt. These tests were taken after I invested in online ground schools. (The *************** and The Finer Points). The business' claim of my not taking my studies seriously and as a priority - as it pertained to my being a single working mother, is moot - at best and only said to evade responsibility.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/21/2025

  I have received communication from the business' attorney and by this time, it is exhaustive and didn't have to go this far, if the business had originally accepted responsibility and accountability for neglecting to properly monitor my business with them. I referred them to keeping contact here on this thread until legal counsel on my part is attained.
  As I am contacting the necessary legal assistance to advance, I will strongly advise that their attorney makes sure his client has tangible proof to back up his claims of my being a 'difficult,' 'slow learner who didn't study' and had 'an attitude'. I also strongly suggest their attorney refers to civil court rules he must uphold which suggests if he advised his client alternative methods to litigation such as mediation to not intentional add on more charges that what is deemed necessary. I suggest their attorney carefully reviews my tangible proof provided with consideration of not all information is uploaded only due to the amount allotted for this site, and counsel his client on if he feels proceeding to litigation is worth it. I suggest this attorney also considers that as he and client weaponizes my own social media posts against me, he is establishing my words as credible and to be believed (and thank you because I am).  I also suggest that in reviewing my social media posts, which are used to empower and encourage others to consider aviation, that should I have to go fully public to raise money for legal costs, I will not be held responsible for any projection the public may sensationalize regarding my situation, and that if he does not have proof to back up his own claims, I have no control nor will be held responsible for how the school is publicly presented. However, I am ready for whatever his client chooses apart from apologizing for choosing to insult my integrity and waste my time and simply paying me back my money and accepting accountability and responsibility.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/10/2025

  Ms. *****, 

  I truly appreciate your diligence in this matter. I will hold a breached contract lawsuit with the business soon and whatever needs to happen to protect the consumer will prevail. I have already started and am passing around a petition for transparency. Justice will prevail in spite of their deception. 

  Best to you, 

  Shakira Baly