Island Air

Reviewers Male / Female Recommend Yes / No Number of Reviews Instruction & Ground School School Facilities Aircraft & Courses Cost Total Average Rating
3 / 1 4 / 0 4 7.50 4.50 8.00 4.50 6.13

Date Submitted: November 13, 2010
Flight School: Island Air
Location: ON - Toronto, Canada
Instruction & Ground School: 8 out of 10
School Facilities: 4 out of 10
Aircraft & Courses: 9 out of 10
Cost: 6 out of 10
Recommend: Yes
Review: The Staff make the place
I've been lucky enough to conduct all my flight training with the professionals at Island Air Flight School. School Facilities are not the greatest however this is not an indication of quality of the flight training at this school. The instruction and ground school are amazing, instructors move at a good steady pace and often draw upon examples that are easy to relate to and understand. The Aircraft are maintained in amazing condition and Mel (school owner) makes sure to keep his instructors on coarse and moving the students along in a timely fashion. Costs are a tad high, but compared to a drive up north to a (closing ) airport on the 404 its worth it. Overall I highly recommend this airport to train at because of the constant commercial traffic making the student get use to busy airspace. From personal experience other pilots that I have talked to that have trained at other airports are generally timid when it comes to talking to air traffic control in busy airspace as well as landing in a cross wind situation ( Runway at the Island often remains the same regardless of wind due to Porter commercial operations). This exposes students to landing in a cross wind condition early on and insures that they get a lot of practice through out their flight training. This also builds student confidence and is one less item to worry about when landing at an airport that only has one runway. I hope to complete my instructor rating with the school and be lucky enough to be a team member on the staff at Island Air.
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Submitted by: Capt.Cessna
30 year-old   ::   Male Reviewer   ::   Toronto Ontario

Date Submitted: October 11, 2010
Flight School: Island Air
Location: ON - Toronto, Canada
Instruction & Ground School: 5 out of 10
School Facilities: 3 out of 10
Aircraft & Courses: 8 out of 10
Cost: 6 out of 10
Recommend: Yes
Review: Convenient location, dismal facilities
My main reason for choosing Island Air is the convenience factor which, if you live in TO, can't be beat. I had also read good things about the flight instructors, which in my experience so far, have all been true. The folks who work here seem to be all good-excellent pilots. And, there are at least two women on staff, a definate plus for female would-be pilots! :)

In terms of first impressions, the school physically was pretty crapped out. I agree with the other reviewer who says better put money into maintenance and safety of planes, rather than beautification, but that being said, why not invest in both? I mean, the main area and classrooms are pretty dingy -- not really an ideal learning environment! And power to anyone who can find a working kettle for tea or coffee fix at breaktime during ground school, lol!

The people are what make a place welcoming or not, and I must say Eric Cantin was extremely welcoming towards me as I began my journey towards my PPL -- although I have never booked him to fly with, he always greets me with a smile and even uses my name. He also took a little extra effort during his ground school evenings to make things marginally more interactive than his colleagues have so far.

Ahhhh, yes, Ground School.... A little tip: get a tutor, and do lots of reading *before* you come!!! I was SHOCKED at the extremely poor learning community here. I was really looking forward to bonding with my peers as we learned about flight theory, MET and so on... alas, very few of the instructors to date -- despite their generally strong knowledge of the material -- have worked to build a learning community, or to really ensure we were learning what they were teaching. It has been largely sit for three hours while the instructor talks at us, using a ppt he is not always familiar with (there have been a few minor exceptions, but in general, instructional strategies have been minimal to non-existent!)

I am not sure if they just don't care about it, and don't really want to teach ground school, or if there is a general lack of professional development for the instructors at the school. For me, though, this has been the biggest disappointment. I really thought the Ground School was going to be where I learned the basics and explore questions I have about the science behind being a pilot, and instead it has been a source of stress and dissappointment -- I feel totally stupid after every class; and I'm not really that dumb! (Thankfully, we have a great ground school class that seems to have bonded together in spite of the lousy instruction.)

Again, though, in terms of positives, the instructors in general seem to be very good pilots, passionate about flying, and great at teaching in the air. The airplanes are dated, but seem safe, and the school is conveniently located at the foot of Bathurst street, a free ferry ride across the water.
Comments [ 1 ]
Submitted by: Drummergyrl
37 year-old   ::   Female Reviewer   ::   Toronto

Date Submitted: March 21, 2010
Flight School: Island Air
Location: ON - Toronto, Canada
Instruction & Ground School: 8 out of 10
School Facilities: 4 out of 10
Aircraft & Courses: 7 out of 10
Cost: 2 out of 10
Recommend: Yes
Review: The pros outweigh the cons for me
Here is the breakdown of various pros and cons, as I see them:

THE PROS

INSTRUCTOR QUALITY:

With the exception of one relatively mediocre instructor, all the instructors I've flown with ranged from quite good to excellent. This is probably the main factor that's going to affect your experience as a student. Bear in mind though that instructor turn-around may be very high, especially when the airlines start hiring again, so this review may not apply a year from now. Personal recommendations for instructors: Peter Carvalho, Lary Zappia, Eric Cantin, Ron Marshall (quite different personalities, pick one that suits your own best). It's not that others are bad necessarily; I've just never flown with them or taken a ground course from them.

PLANES:

The planes primarily used for training are 6 172s, 3 150s and 1 152. Usually it's possible to find a slot even a day or two before you want to fly, unless it's Friday and you're trying to book a long cross-country for the Saturday.

The planes are solid and well-maintained, at least when it comes to crucial stuff like engines. The school has a good safety record. Things like ADFs or plastic bits on the inside are another matter though (one plane used to be notorious for having the plastic front to the instrument panel fall out at the most inopportune times). There are a few newer and nicer planes though. I personally feel, though, that the fancy gadgets are actually detrimental in the early stages of the training, and it's better to learn to fly on something safe and basic, so the lack of fancy trimmings on the planes never bothered me.

There is a multiengine plane (Piper Aztec), but I've never sat inside it, let alone flown it.

CONVENIENCE:

This was a HUGE factor for me: going to any other airport around the GTA would've required an inordinate amount of driving. For a downtown dweller, getting to the Island Airport is a breeze. I don't even bother taking the car (parking is scarce and expensive around there anyway) - there is a free Porter Airlines shuttle bus that goes between Union Station and the airport. If you're out in the 'burbs, your experience will be different, of course.

SCENERY:

Call me impractical, cheesy and sentimental, but the view simply can't be beat! At least not by any airport in the GTA. Coming in from a cross-country at night, with the CN Tower and the skyscrapers all lit up is just breathtaking. Also, it's probably one of the easiest airports in the world to navigate to: marked by the world's (now second-)highest free-standing structure. :-)

THE OWNER:

He's been running the school for a long time and knows a thing or two about doing this sort of thing and flying generally. Can give useful tips for dealing with TC, plane maintenance etc. Has tons of hours himself, instructor and charter.

THE AIRPORT AND THE AIRSPACE:

You definitely learn to talk to the controllers, both at the local tower and at the Toronto terminal (for flight following), and not freak out when they spit instructions out like a machine gun does bullets. And it's pretty cool to be sharing the airspace with Dash-8s. :-)

CONS

THE OWNER:

Can be a real grump at times... This guy has a weird personality, for sure! He is just incompatible with some people, unfortunately, and others do have to get used to some of his quirks. My opinion of him improved as I got to know him better though (I guess I got used to some of his quirks).

THE PRICES:

This school might have the highest rental rates in Canada! Everything sold at the school (like headsets) has a lot of mark-up on it too. Combine this with a 10-15 minute trek to the training area (though it can be used for some useful things, like instrument training), and the fact that take-off waiting times are generally longer at controlled airports - and you're looking at formidable sums. However, for someone like me this is the cheapest option regardless (because time is money, and I'd rather pay a bit more than spend two-three hours every flying day just to commute to the airport and back).

THE AIRPORT AND THE AIRSPACE:

You get limited amount of exposure to uncontrolled aerodromes in the initial stage of your training. What I would suggest is that around the time you start learning the soft-field technique, you ask the instructor to take you to Greenbank, where you'll have a chance to practice real soft-field landings, as well as uncontrolled aerodrome procedures.

Also, the runways are kind of wide: I have a hunch that, on average, students at Brampton and Burlingtone have much better centreline holding skills than those at the Island or Buttonville. :-) That said, if your instructor holds you to a strict standard, you'll do okay. I had no qualms about or issues with flying to places with narrower and shorter runways.

And the 11 p.m. curfew can be a problem, especially if you're trying to get a night rating in the summer...

THE FACILITIES:

The reception and classroom areas are kinda dinky: mismatched furniture, rickety chairs... There were problems with roof leaks over the classroom, but I believe that has been fixed now. Often space has to be shared (several ground briefs going on in one small classroom). To me, these are secondary concerns, and I'd rather see a school put money into maintenance rather than buying new leather sofas.

SUMMARY

The combination of good instructors, safe planes and convenient location sealed the deal for me.
Comments [ 0 ]
Submitted by: j
30 year-old   ::   Male Reviewer   ::   Toronto

Date Submitted: December 22, 2009
Flight School: Island Air
Location: ON - Toronto, Canada
Instruction & Ground School: 9 out of 10
School Facilities: 7 out of 10
Aircraft & Courses: 8 out of 10
Cost: 4 out of 10
Recommend: Yes
Review: Island Air first review
This is a good school in my opinion. I haven't tried others, but the fact that I was able to do flight test and get 104 mark after 55 hours is a fairly good indicator.

The instructors are very knowledgeable and provide a very good practical skills and try to make the lesson plan interesting. I ended up going through my training with 2 instructors because one had to leave for about a month, so I had a good chance to compare different instructors.

I have mixed opinions about planes. The main fleet are 1970s C150 x 5 and C172 x 6, a 182 with glass cockpit and a piper aztec. I would say they are very safe and in very good mechanical order and school safety record seems to back it up, but they could be a bit more polished up inside. Some planes are better then others, with GUOB been favorite as it has a working VOR, DME, ADF, dual radios and a heading indicator in good condition and GKWM been least favorite as VOR,DME,ADF don't work. While those things are nice to have, there are planes to pick from that have it and I would rather be in a plane that's well maintained and safe then one with bells and whistles.

Cost is one thing that could be somewhat lower. Compared to other schools it's one of the more expensive ones (you can check website for rates), but for me I couldn't beat the convenience of walking to airport in downtown :) In the end it's the quality of instruction that will depend how much money you'll spend before you get your license.

In general I would recommend this school, there's a good selection of aircraft and instructors to find a good fit for your training.

PS:
Personal recommendation for instructor is either Lary Zappia or Lari Korkka
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Submitted by: Andrew
26 year-old   ::   Male Reviewer   ::   Toronto