Complaint Review: College of Missionary Aviation Inc

There is a lot of improvement to report.  The Chairman of the board has told me that the former President has resigned & been replaced, although the College website does not show this.  Systems of conventional hourly charges and statements are being established for flight training.  The accounts of "students A, B, & C" in the previous reports have been addressed with appropriate consideration and action.  Thanks go to the Chairman, the Treasurer, and the new President!  God is good!

This 501(c)(3) is still operating and some good changes are taking place.  We, as stakeholders, would appreciate an official website of public accountability announcements.  While the president may have stepped down, its hard to tell if his policies will step down.  Again, hundreds Collegiate aviation programs have shown us how to charge students for flight training and maintain integrity.  Can this organization follow suit and allow the students to maintain ownership of their flight training funds until the cost for each training flight is debited from that balance?  This program has tremendous potential to benefit those worthy mission organizations that need pilots, but I continue to see the unfair and vague invoicing of missionary students.  

This college needs to love these current and former students enough to publicly apologize for this bone-headed accounting.  Please post the new format of student statements on the website. Please also review the history of each student that has ever paid 'Flight Portion' funds to the college.  Account for, and credit, the donations of those students' supporters (both known and anonymous) appropriately and fairly.  Use the flight sheets from each aircraft to add up the amount of LEGALLY loggable flight time for that student, and correlate the total money contributed with the total flight training hours, including each flight with a date, so that the student can compare it with his/her logbook entries.  

Amazingly, this tax-exempt FL nonprofit has not changed these accounting practices or been subject to an independent audit.

Regarding monthly "flight portion" payments, the President needs the students to commit to the 'Program".  This essentially ties the student to this college, and the farther they get behind in training actually received, the more burdensome the commitment becomes.  It makes it a really tough to change your ministry path.  Its just really really strange that a Christian college would try to get so far ahead on money collected, and so far behind on the milestones of success in flight training (FAA Practical Tests with an examiner for a certificate or rating).

 The creation of flight accounts for each student (the balance of which still belongs to the student) will completely solve the problem.  Commitment then works BOTH ways.  If the student does not succeed, or changes her/his ministry path, she/he does not end up in so much debt.  It appears at this point, that a student who elects to do the excellent Bible, Theology, and Missions courses at this non-profit, but does flight training at a successful school, will come out much better.  

Sir/Spokesperson with College of Missionary Aviation Inc ,

    Thank you for clarifying the PAYMENT PLAN well:

"The cost for the 24 month program is clearly defined from the outset of an applying student.  Once the program costs are determined the total cost in then divided into 24 monthly payments and statements are issued monthly.  Each monthly amount is due at the beginning of each month."  

-- You are charging for flight training by the month instead of by the hour.

Let's only deal with flight training here, not general Ed, Theology, and Missions, which are probably going very well.  The flight training success rate is definitely not, and after 32 months of flight training, you need to admit it clearly with the ratio of student starts and successful FAA Practical Tests (with an examiner for a certificate or rating). 

Yours is a payment plan for 100% success for that student.  The student pays 1/24th of complete success in advance, but you are not promising any quantity of flight training or any success for that first month.  Because you are so stubborn about not having an hourly rate, you are not promising any quantity of flight hours in the first quarter or the first year, or even the first 22 months!  Somehow, though, when the student has paid 24 of these payments, she/he will have 250 or 260 hours, and will meet the FAA's ACS for Private, Instrument, and Commercial?  There is no plan for less-than-perfect execution of this training.  But the PAYMENT PLAN, as you have stated, has no faults.  What is your consistent policy regarding a student who runs short and has to stop making the flight cost payments?  Does she/he get to continue flying based on previous payment totals?  How would you even calculate that, if there is no hourly rate?

You need a $4000 roof.  4 squares of shingles.  Your amazing roofer lays out the payment plan and you agree to make 4 payments in four weeks (You are about to pay for roofing by the week instead of by the square).  You write the first $1000 check and he nails half a square of shingles in the first week.  But the second payment is now due, regardless.  "stick with it, and it will all work out." he says.  You keep making payments in faith, but after the 3rd payment, only 2 squares is done. "My truck broke and the weather has been terrible", he says.  He nails another half a square, and you make that fourth payment in faith.  At the end of the fourth week of bad weather, you are both embarassed and you are beyond the 4 week agreement and there is no refund policy.  Building and Zoning inspector comes by and says the 2-1/2 squares on your roof don't meet code and it has to be done over.  There is debt and dispair.  But, the PAYMENT PLAN was perfect, and it was definitely approved by your roofer's CPA.   

 A faith-based not-for-profit should probably not be charging in advance for products and services not yet rendered.   This is especially true if they havent proven themselves to be exeptionally good at their mission.  

Those services that you are attempting to render depend on perfect instructor availabilty, perfect aircraft maintenance, perfect scheduling, no family challenges, perfect weather, Devine Grace, and a few other things. 

 Also, if each student was paying an hourly rate and had a flight account, you would have a place to fairly distribute the "general scholarship" funds that come in with generous donations.  Where do they go now?    

Please have some faith in your students and allow them to grow as their funds and talents allow.  It will be much better for their spiritual success, self esteem, and indebtedness.  They are no more perfect than your non-profit.  It will also greatly enhance your position in the aviation community.  Let's share this website and civil discourse with your students, our community, and the unnamed board of directors.

Dear Sir/spokesperson,

  We want to believe you about your integrity.  

Regarding statements, you are not saying what is in that statement.  Please provide, for each current and former student, a statement that clearly shows the total amount of money that they have paid for flight training ('flight cost" on your website) up to the date of that statement.  Then also state the total hours of flight training (in an airplane, and separately in an FAA approved flight training device) that they have received at your nonprofit flight school.  

  Regarding student success rates, please provide information to your board of directors that plainly states how many successful FAA Practical Tests (with an examiner for a certificate or rating) that your flight training program has produced for each enrolled student, past and present.  Your website mentions students doing training for their Private, Instrument, and Commercial.  It also mentions the A&P certification, which in itself is 3 separate practical tests.  Sir/spokesperson, passing these practical tests is the very core of our mission in a flight training organization in this country.  Religion or no, that is just a fact of training.  How many total students have you enrolled and accepted money from, and what is the average number of FAA Practical Tests that each of those has passed while enrolled?  Of your 4 graduates, how many FAA Practical Tests (with an examiner for a certificate or rating) did each pass while enrolled at your college?  

According to the media reports on your website, you started training in January of 2015, and according to your rebuttal above, you have a VERY impressive staff.  How many instructors again?  

   In our industry, we can tolerate a certain amount of capability ramp-up, but we cannot tolerate a system where the student is charged month after month for flight training that is not actually provided in that quantity.  I was not a victim, nor was I wronged..  I was actually a party to the scam, and I deeply regret my involvement.  As a volunteer CFI and volunteer staff member, had I realized that the students were paying in advance for this training month after month, and falling so far behind in training actually received, I would have run much sooner.  It was actually mathmatically impossible for us as instructors to provide as much flight training as the students were being charged for.  Prospective missionary students are, right now, looking at your website and talking to their parents and supporters about you.  Will your integrity, ethics, and capability live up to their expectations?  Will they be encouraged to ask about student success rates or the audit history of the non-profit?  Will they be provided with a list of the directors or the conflict-of-interest policy of this Florida non-profit organization?  Are the finances of this organization transparent to the community?  

Some examples from my students at your college:

Student A is on his second training flight on August 28th after starting the program on July 6th.  He is about to make his  3rd  payment of 1145.83/month (this is just flight cost, not tuition).

Student B has 12.6 hours of loggable flight training on October 4th after starting on July 6th.  At this point he has made 4 payments totaling $4683.32.

Student C has less than 11 loggable hours with the college in January, after starting on July 6th.  He has made 6 payments at this point.

Please establish a conventional and fair payment system that encourages performance and rewards that performance with lower cost and lower debt.  Conventional flight schools allow the student to control the flow of money to the institution based on the amount of flight hours that they can actually fly.  They get their results because of the students' understanding of cost vs. goals accomplished.  This is done through a simple and cost-free Flight Account for each student.  If that is too complicated, it can be done simply with prepaid gift cards and a card reader, so that if there is no flight made, there is no debit to that card.  

 Thank you for your consideration, and I sincerely apologize for my role.  Perhaps more and honest information will encourage better systems and performance.  I'm prayerfully looking forward to your success.  

The individual filing the ripoff report is a disgruntled former employee/volunteer. 

The College of Missionary Aviation offers a degree program along with flight training for less than 25% of what it costs to attend most Colleges or Universities for the purposes of education and flight training. 

The cost for the 24 month program is clearly defined from the outset of an applying student.  Once the program costs are determined the total cost in then divided into 24 monthly payments and statements are issued monthly.  Each monthly amount is due at the beginning of each month.  

In addition there are is a general scholarship fund that students can apply to receive to reduce their cost even further. 

Our program has produced 4 graduates to date and students attending the school are very satisfied with their education and flight training.  We have over 34 professors and instructors on staff.   In addition we will be beginning a relatively inexpensive rotary wing flight training program in January 2018.  

The President answers to the Board of Directors and we have a qualified CPA to review all our financial records and produce a form 990 tax return each tax year along with a budget that is approved by the Board of Directors.  

We are a qualified Non-profit corporation 501(c)3 tax exempt religious organization under the laws of the State of FLorida, the IRS and the United States of America.  

If one looks at most expensive flight school programs, it does not take a lot of effort to realize that the schools are making massive amounts of money and leaving graduates in terribly high amounts of debt that make it extremely difficult to pay off, at best.  One of our obljectives is to graduate students without debt.  Any inquiries should be directed to the school at (844) 735-9262.