Connecticut Flight Academy |
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| Reviewers Male / Female | Recommend Yes / No | Number of Reviews | Instruction & Ground School | School Facilities | Aircraft & Courses | Cost | Total Average Rating |
| 12 / 1 | 7 / 6 | 13 | 7.23 | 7.84 | 5.68 | 5.31 | 6.52 |
| Date Submitted: | September 5, 2010 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 10 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 8 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 8 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 9 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | Yes |
| Review: | My simple opinion Hello. Ran into all these reviews and felt the need to say a few words. I was at CFA as a full-time student from July 2009 to March 2010. Went from 0 time to written ATP. I also got to fly all their planes, including the Cherokees which were deemed so unsafe by some other reviewers. Actually, did over 100 hours in 5005W. Yeah, I had 2-3 flights with some malfunctions but I take it as part of the experience. Stuff like that happens and out of the 250 hours I flew with their planes it's not a bad track record. Can't say enough about the instructors! Great guys, great motivators and a fun atmosphere. Where they lose points is the location, which should be fixed with the Meriden move. My whole program was on budget. What was quoted before I started is exactly what I paid and it was a very competitive offer. All in all, I am happy with my choice of earning my wings with CFA. They made it fun, they motivated me and even now they keep offering me assistance with all the various documentation that was requested of them with my JAA conversion. Comments [ 0 ] |
| Submitted by: | Marius Caloianu 27 year-old :: Male Reviewer :: Milford CT / Bucharest RO |
| Date Submitted: | March 25, 2010 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 1 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 2 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 1 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 1 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | No |
| Review: | Misleading Lies Knowing CFA for years now and personally knowing the owner Tony Cresswell for well over seven years, I am disgusted that such a business is allowed to carry on. The FAA has investigated several incidents with this school, all of which Tony covers up with lies and smoke/mirrors. When the twin engine aircraft rolled down the hill in Chester one year and took out two vehicles because he improperly chocked the aircraft is just the beginning. He skimmed trees and took out the bottom of a Cherokee back in 2005 at KMMK airport. He conned maintenance into covering up the damage on the wing bottoms and it conveniently never made it in the aircraft airframe logbooks...suspicious if you ask me. And guess which plane is being used at CFA, you got it! If he has morals to cover up such a huge piece of damage, what small unsafe things is he continuing to cover up to defray costs at his own place? Another incident, at Barnes, where his twin had a gear collapse after shotsy maintenance again...and he blamed it on his mechanic...what a turncoat! This guy is a greasy snake if you ask me. He is currently bidding to own Meriden Airport in the city bid, but he is a horrible candidate. His unsafe ethics and morals in flying will definitely land an aircraft very soon on the community homes of Meriden...Good luck to that city if he gets it!!! To be fair, the logo, website and attack he uses to bring people in the door is brilliant! Well done! However, what is a pretty cover if the inside story is a mess? My recommendation? Take a trusted pilot or another CFI friend to a school and interview your CFI! There is no reason to accept the first thing that the secretary or office personnel suggests. I have heard that there are great instructors at PFT in Hartford, MAS in Meriden, Robertson Flight School in Plainville and Danbury has come up a few times with rave reviews. So, in the end its your choice, but the reviews and the immature responses from Tony and his little son speak volumes. Use YOUR judgement and BE a PIC :) Comments [ 1 ] |
| Submitted by: | Loralei Simmons 41 year-old :: Female Reviewer :: Manchester, CT USA |
| Date Submitted: | July 10, 2009 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 5 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 10 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 9 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 1 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | No |
| Review: | Honest and Straightforward Review I have some mixed feelings about CFA. When I first sat down with Tony, the chief flight instructor, I was told that I was going into a 141 program and could expect to earn a PPL for around 7 to 8 thousand dollars. I had a few lessons with Tony that went well, he seemed to be a competent and knowledgeable instructor. After 2 or 3 lessons with Tony I was passed on to another instructor and this is where things started to go down hill. Let me be clear, my new instructor was great, he was extremely nice, competent and knowledgeable. In fact all of the instructors at the school are top notch, as I interacted with them constantly. The ground school teacher, Bob was also an awesome instructor. As for their aircraft I only experienced the Tomahawks and I had no issues whatsoever, in fact I think they are great planes. The biggest issue with CFA is its management. There are several reasons for this. First, the management is brand new, and the owner, Arian, was not even instrument rated, let alone a commercial pilot or CFI. Second, there is a HUGE disconnect between the main line instructors and management. As soon as Tony passed me off to my primary instructor the 141 syllabus went out the window. Although my lessons were of good quality, they had a total lack of structure and integration with the rest of the school. Tony comes across as more concerned about making money than the student's best interests. For example, a few of my very first lessons were rained out, instead of scratching the lessons Tony had me come in and do a ground lesson that he spent half the time talking on his cell phone. The second time he told me to come in to use the simulator. In hindsight, there is absolutely no reason for a student with less than 10 hours to be using a simulator. It was just a way to bill me for an extra few hours. Lastly, they are trying to do too much all at once. They were too consumed with getting their 141 to focus on the fundamentals of becoming a good flight school. And now they are all wound up with becoming a charter service? Give me a break! They need to forget about all that stuff and get back to focusing on the basics of good instruction, communication, and the student's best interests, NOT their bottom line. Although I received very high quality instruction from a great CFI, instead of getting my PPL for less than $10,000, it needlessly ended up costing nearly twice that. Comments [ 2 ] |
| Submitted by: | CT Flyer 80+ year-old :: Male Reviewer :: CT |
| Date Submitted: | June 24, 2009 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 10 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 10 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 9 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 10 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | Yes |
| Review: | Instrument/Commercial rating at CFA went to CFA for both the Instrument and Commercial courses. The Warrior with its Garmin 530 makes Instrument training a breeze. The Arrow takes a bit getting used to with its weight and wing differences but handles like any other plane should non the less. The tower is very helpful at Brainard and their voices aren't condescending, even if you make mistakes. Tony is a very knowledgeable Instructor and I would recommend their 141 courses to anyone I came across. Almost forgot! Their Flight Simulator allowed me to log 20 hours of my instrument course. Great money saver! Comments [ 3 ] |
| Submitted by: | mc0210 36 year-old :: Male Reviewer :: CT, USA |
| Date Submitted: | May 31, 2009 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 9 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 10 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 9 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 8 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | Yes |
| Review: | Academy is the best Ok, who are you people writting this stuff about CFA! I'm there about a year now and none of your comments reflects the school. I'm not sure if you got the right school. Anyway, I and as far as I know all the student share the same opinion. The school is great, airplanes are well equiped and FAA standards, instructors are top notch. And as far as owners, they are true Aviators. You don't have to trust me. Check out other schools first and then see what CFA has to offer. Honest student Comments [ 3 ] |
| Submitted by: | Honest student 42 year-old :: Male Reviewer :: West Hartford |
| Date Submitted: | May 4, 2009 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 5 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 5 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 4 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 3 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | No |
| Review: | upset with this school After spending a lot of time at this school I realized, with some help from other schools and people in the area, they were not honest people. Its too bad I had to get some experience in aviation to realize this. They have a really nice presentation but watch out. I should have trusted my gut and went somewhere else. Comments [ 0 ] |
| Submitted by: | aviation 30 year-old :: Male Reviewer :: USA |
| Date Submitted: | November 16, 2008 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 3 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 4 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 2 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 2 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | No |
| Review: | not a good school I was at this school for awhile and chose to leave. I am now at another local school and being at another school made me realize how bad Connecticut Flight Academy really was. The school was in a nice location at a good airport. Some of the airplanes are nice. The office space was clean although the office wasnt a good place to be. The mood in the office is very tense. Im not sure the owners treated the instructors very well. I think the owners are typical business people who want money and dont really like flying. My instructor was good and put a lot of effort into his teaching. Im not sure hes there anymore though. Like I said some of the airplanes are nice. Some are not. I flew several airplanes and they all seemed to have the same problems each time I flew them. Its like they never fixed them and the chief pilot always had an excuse why it was ok to fly. Im not sure the chief pilot knows what hes talking about when it comes to fixing airplanes. Hes said some pretty stupid stuff and even I knew he was wrong. At one point all the airplanes were not allowed to fly for maintenance issues. I think this may have happened a couple times. This is not good and was very disconcerning!!! Also, the prices are very high for the airplanes and the instruction...depending on what instructor you get. I flew with the chief pilot a couple times and I think he fell asleep in the airplane. He talked maybe 3 times during the flight and made it very clear that he was not going to teach me anything. On the other hand, paying for my normal instructor was justified because he was very encouraging and put a lot of effort and preparation into the lessons. The school had some nice features, features that didnt matter much though, but there are much better school out there. The big issues were the lack of the maintenance and owners. Save time and money and find another school. Comments [ 0 ] |
| Submitted by: | not listed 80+ year-old :: Male Reviewer :: not listed |
| Date Submitted: | September 24, 2008 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 10 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 10 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 7 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 10 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | Yes |
| Review: | Bogus Names, Why Hide? All these masked names are just showing to me your trying to trash the schools reputation because you may have been unsatisfied with what you received and did not speak up. We are always willing to help out if someone comes to us with an issue. Until people grow up and use their proper names in these replies and threads, all of these allegations are plain and simple, slanderous statements. I'm only 21 and feel more grown up then the, what I would only assume, older gentlemen that are hiding under bogus names. Speak under your proper names so people have at least some background reference to the comments being said, until then grow up and do something else with your free time. Connecticut Flight Academy (860) 722-9667 www.ctflightacademy.com Comments [ 8 ] |
| Submitted by: | Steve Cresswell 21 year-old :: Male Reviewer :: Meriden, CT |
| Date Submitted: | August 26, 2008 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 10 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 10 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 5 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 4 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | Yes |
| Review: | An honest review. I won't hide behind a screen name. My name is Kevin and I have been a CFA student since December. Tony and Arian and the rest know me. First some pros - Their offices are beautiful. Very professional. The ground instruction is top notch. Mike Berlin ran my course and I passed the knowledge test with a 92. I also know that Bob Polselli does a great job as well. I have used 3 flight instructors at various times throughout my instruction. Mike Berlin, Steve Dutil, and Terry Keller. I can't say enough about Mike. Steve was great but has moved on to bigger things. Terry is awesome. More about Terry later. As for the rest of the instructors, I have not flown with them and I cannot speak for the instructing ability. I can say that all of them are professional and friendly. Some cons, The aircraft rentals seem a bit overpriced to me. I have compared around to other schools and you can rent comparable aircraft for less. The instruction is also priced a bit high BUT I don't mind paying a little more for great instruction. I'm sorry, guys, but the Tomahawks are in need of some TLC. The reason I have stayed there is because, as I have stated before, the isntruction is excellent, everyone is friendly, and Tomahawks are great trainers. I was disappointed at the comment made about Terry Keller in the other post. He has been my primary instructor and he has been excellent. You will be hard pressed to find a career instructor that is so committed to training. His aviation knowledge is extensive and he is a great pilot. He has been thorough and held me to high standards to ensure that I fly safely, smartly, confidently, and efficiently. He has gone far above and beyond what I would expect from an instructor. As far as I know, he is respected by all his colleagues on that staff. Whether he is gay or not is completely irrelevant. This is an unsolicitated defense of someone that I now call friend. Comments [ 0 ] |
| Submitted by: | Kevin Rame 35 year-old :: Male Reviewer :: Hamden, CT |
| Date Submitted: | August 17, 2008 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 9 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 8 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 8 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 8 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | Yes |
| Review: | A School that will make you a Pilot This is no question the best Flight Academy i have ever seen. I started my Private Pilot in Florida, that did not last long. I have being passed from one Instructor to another every other week with no excuse Back here in CT, Schools are stuck in '60s. Still talking sheet metal and looking down on the GPS. At CFA, the owners Tony and Arienn have the right idea how to put a School together. Their School is well equiped with Airplanes,GPS, Advance Flight Simulator.... They also have A&PMechanic on staff !!! Instructors are the best. However i will stay away from Terry... (I think he is Gay) I'm almost done with my training and expecting to go for my checkride soon. If you think about becoming a Pilot this is the School you definetly wanna check out. Happy Student Pilot Comments [ 1 ] |
| Submitted by: | HappyPilot 23 year-old :: Male Reviewer :: Connecticut |
| Date Submitted: | July 30, 2008 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 10 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 10 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 9 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 10 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | Yes |
| Review: | Turning High Flying Dreams Into Reality! Since flying with CFA, I have nothing but a positive experience with the owners and instructors. There Elite RC-1 simulator is state of the art and a great experience. I logged 20 hours toward my IFR training and can log up to 50 hours of my commercial license! This helps a bundle on my part. CFA shows they are solely about teaching people to fly, and will use any means necessary to help people attain their license. This school is a blast and always has a positive atmosphere, I would highly recommend this flight school to family and friends. There's always two sides to a story, stop by the flight school and join the experience. Comments [ 1 ] |
| Submitted by: | Flyboy 34 year-old :: Male Reviewer :: Hartford, CT |
| Date Submitted: | June 12, 2008 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 10 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 6 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 2 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 2 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | No |
| Review: | Why did I even bother getting a pilot license? I'll make this short and simple. I came to this school thinking that I could rent planes and use them to get away. Wrong. The owner wants renters to pay 4.5 hours minimum if your rent the plane for more than 2 hours. That's ridiculous if you ask me. Whats the point of flying? I paid all that money so I can tip toe around the clouds. Come on. How many student pilots are flying an arrow when they start? Owner is all about the money not students. So if you plan on flying some nice long cross country trips and want to rent think before you rent here. Beware. Instructors are above average. Comments [ 8 ] |
| Submitted by: | Side Slip 25 year-old :: Male Reviewer :: Hartford, Connecticut |
| Date Submitted: | May 12, 2008 |
| Flight School: | Connecticut Flight Academy |
| Location: | CT - Hartford, United States |
| Instruction & Ground School: | 2 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 9 out of 10 |
| Aircraft & Courses: | 1 out of 10 |
| Cost: | 1 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | No |
| Review: | Smoke and Mirrors This school is all smoke and mirrors. The facility looks great and they have a high-tech toy - I mean trainer. The reality is quite different. The maintenance on their aircraft is poor. Their primary trainers, Piper Tomahawks, look like they were bought from a junkyard. The owners quote unrealistic prices to complete training. They convince you that you can earn a license at the FAA minimum of 40 hours when the statistics show that the average student learns in 65-75 hours. They lied about being a 141 school. The reality is that they are applying to be a 141 school, but they are not yet a 141 school. The owners care more about money than they do the students. It appears that they are running a charter service though they are not a 135 operation. Several of their instructors are excellent however it does not take long to figure out that they are very unhappy with their employment. Lastly, I heard a rumor that the chief flight instructor crashed a twin engine Piper Seneca. You have been warned! Stay clear of this school! Comments [ 7 ] |
| Submitted by: | Hoodwinked Student 27 year-old :: Male Reviewer :: Hartford, CT |
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