To Whom it may concern:

My full name is Alan Lord, I currently hold a valid Australian, New Zealand, US FAA ATP/MEL/CFI and a PNG Senior Commercial License.
My total flight time is just over 12,000hrs and I have regular public transport experience in all of the above countries.
At present I am a Training Captain on the BAEJ32EP type aircraft for a part 125 operator based in Wellington, New Zealand.
Early this year (2007) I had the opportunity to complete my command rating on the A320 aircraft utilizing the facilities provided by Active Aerospace, Vancouver, Canada.
Mr.. Walt Lazaruk went out of his way to ensure top notch tuition and first class instructors were available.
I am completely satisfied with the training provided by Active aerospace and in particular with the instruction given .
Great bunch of guys to deal with!! I have no hesitation in recommending Active Aerospace to anyone who is thinking along the lines of a rating.
I now have the A320 validated on my Australian ATP,and plan to continue my training on the A330/340 with Active late this year.
Best of luck to all in Active Aerospace.

Sincerely:
A Lord.
 

July 16,2007

Hi Walt,
I just wanted to say that my type rating course at Active Aerospace was a great experience. The instructors and check airmen are very helpful and interested in teaching you the proper techniques for flying the aircraft in different situations. The instructors and check airmen are all current Air Canada captains, or retired from Air Canada, so they have a wealth of knowledge and experience for you to draw on.

Walt has been very helpful to me in the upkeep of my license. With a Canadian license, you have to renew your type rating every 2 years, and Walt has been very helpful in setting up an instrument renewal for me.

I am very happy with my experience at Active Aerospace. I feel that I've learned a lot of great techniques for operating a B757/767 from the great instructors and check airmen provided for me, and I would highly recommend that you get your type rating from Active Aerospace.

Jon Katahara

The following email, is an answer to a request, from a prospective student, asking for information on the program. He requested the answers come from a graduate that recently completed the A320 course

(1) What type rating did you complete and what was your prior flying experience?

A320 – ATPL - 7500 hours total with light business jet and medium transport turboprop.

(2) How did you find the home study? Hard/Easy? How much time would you recommend spending on home study before heading to Canada?

Home study is a great head start but not absolutely essential. It’s easy. You can finish the home study in the matter of a week, but don’t base your course commencement on that. Of course the more knowledge and familiarity you have with the airplane the more you will benefit from the course and instructor. (I will explain what I mean from “instructor” more in details in your question about the instructor)

(3) Did you complete the training at the advertised price that Walt quoted you? Where there any hidden extra's? How long did you spend in Canada?

The price was exactly to the cent that was quoted. I personally didn’t spend anything more than the quoted $15,800. I truly believe when it comes to Walt nothing is hidden, the first day he sat down with all three of us and read and explained in real English the whole contract, clarified and answered any of our questions along the way. He is a loyal and honest person. You may find some negative comments about him and his organization on prune but I suggest you don’t allow these rubbish cloud your vision and affect your judgment about him until you experience him yourself first hand like I did.

Remember that there are extra costs if you “DO” need extra help in the sim or briefing, ..etc but they are not hidden and this issue is well explained in that first day talk and review of the contract with Walt.

The course can be done from in few weeks to few months, is all depend on your progress. If you walk they will have to slow down and walk with you but if you run they will run with you. Having said that, the course has its levels and steps that has to be down in sequence and each step is prerequisite to the next level, you have to understand that CBT, SIM cost lots of money and neither you nor they can afford to push you into the next level of the course while knowing that you are not ready. I started the course on the 3rd of May and told Walt that I would like to finish the course by the end of the month, well how can I say this..? Let’s say the ink on my license with the new type rating was drying up on the 25th of May. Exactly 6 days earlier then promised.

(4) How did you find the staff? Instructors?

There are several instructors training but Walt runs the whole thing, which is nice. He has everything very organized and is always around when you need something or question.

Instructor: We had Len for our course, he is a 767 Captain with Air Canada with almost every Boeing product in his logbook, and he also flew A320 as a Captain with Air Canada for few years. His level of knowledge and experience is not even an issue to be questioned. He is calm, thorough, clear, friendly and patient. To my opinion he gives a true meaning to the word professionalism m. He thought us how to walk before running, he started his lesson plan with the number rule of teaching, known to unknown, familiar to unfamiliar, easy to difficult.

More from your Q2; Len (instructor) started teaching us way beyond the standard of the course and as our performance allowed we covered multiple emergencies, wired scenarios, challenging weather environments. We were so used to having lots of emergencies on our hand that on the actual flight test we were all yawning from boredom even with one engine failed and fire on go around. My point is, the more you get yourself ready for the course and the more input is from you the more result you will get from the instructor and the course in general.

(5) Quality of simulator?

Not even an issue, great CBT, and level C or D approved by Transport Canada. He uses the Air Canada’s simulators. A320, 330,340,757,767,737-200 is available in Vancouver. We only cancelled one session and that was due to heavy thunderstorm activities outside that introduced power surges to the system.

(6) Free Play Trainer... Walt tries to sell this pretty hard, is it that helpful? Is it simply just a desktop simulator like Microsoft for example?

Free play trainer is a great learning tool. It is a desktop simulator but is no way near a game like Microsoft simulator. You need to be master in programming the MCDU and doing it fast as you will do that every single time you get reset back at the threshold of the runway for another take off in the sim. Which again comes back down to the money, as every min of your sim time is valuable and trust me you don’t want to spend more than a min of your time figuring out how to reprogram the MCDU. I don’t know what type you are considering to get but A320 is a fully managed airplane that you need to fly via the computers. And the cheapest way to learn it is using the Free Play Trainer. It’s well programmed software and allows you to program a whole flight and then fly it. I don’t think Walt tries or needs to sell this as it sells itself once you use it.

(7) Any other information that you feel beneficial, please pass on.

Having a laptop with you would help as you can review the systems back in the comfort of your hotel room.

If there are three guys in your course you will get more time in the sim. This is not cheating the system. Walt is the first one to offer this to you.

I really enjoyed dealing with Walt. He is an extremely honest and professional person who delivered on all of his promises and more. There are lots of negative rumours out there and that’s all they are….rumours. If you are looking for the most efficient and cost effective program then this is for you, but then again you can go to other organizations and pay two or three times more for the same program which may end up being less in the end. The contract is written is favour of both parties.

My only advice to people out there is; don’t let someone’s opinion be your reality.

Good Luck
and give my warmest regards to Walt and Len

Capt. Cameo Pourghanad

“A320 course comments, from our graduate student- Harald Summer, from Austria”

About my critique: I did a lot of research about Active Aerospace on the internet and especially on prune
Quite a number of people on prune did not talk very positive about Active Aerospace.
Nevertheless I decided to start a course with you and as I said I have no regrets that I did so.
The only critiques I still have are the manuals. I should have wrote that maybe in a different way on the piece of paper you gave us but maybe also my English writing is a bit no sensitive. Of course this is only a small aspect of the entire type rating but you must understand it was also the first impression I had.
I was very pleased about your quick response about all my questions I had before starting the course. The internet-course was very helpful and I was surprised how quick I got your package.
Summing up my experience with your course I must say that the negative rumours are wrong.

Harald

Dear Walt,
I did it. I did it. I did it. Finally after years and years of hard work, training, study, exams, flight tests, medical exams, and license conversions, I did it. I got my dream job. Actually much more than I ever thought of. From flying a piper Seminole to an A320. That is just one of the best and one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me in my life. I really worked hard for it and I earned it truly. I did very well in my interview today and I will be flying as an F/O starting April 1st with this company based out of (HECA) Cairo International. My first 3 flights will be from the jump seat as an observer and it will be to (HESH) which is a resort called Sharm El Sheik in Egypt. After that I will move right into the right seat with a supervising captain in the jump seat. They will place me only on the domestic flights and then as I progress they'll let me fly some international routes. They or let me say WE fly to Moscow, Paris, Madrid, Rome,etc.. Cool STUFF. I have one week to study their SOP's and Aircraft Specs. I have tons to do but hey no complains, after 4 years of hard work this is nothing.

I am so happy Walt and I want to thank you so very much for all your help and support that you showed me and the rest of us during our course at Active Aerospace. I also want you to thank Len and tell him the good news. You are the first to know by the way. I'm gonna send an e-mail to Fabien, Claude, and Sameer and let them know as well. I will keep you posted as to my progress. Wish me luck.
OFFICIAL A320 F/O,
 Amir

MY A320 TRAINING March 13th, 2005

In order to get a A320 type rating, I had the required training with Active Aerospace. I had a very good flight instructor and excellent flight training. The only thing I didn’t enjoy was the late simulator sessions.

Kalboussi Seyfullah
Belgium


P.S. Seyfullah has been hired by a mainland Chinese Airline because he has a type rating.

 

A320 type Rating March 13,2005.

The simulator was very good and enjoyed all of the training. I would have liked to have more time to prepare for the ground school and the simulator. It would be nice to do the training in the simulator during the day.

Sukh Sergill
Vancouver.

A SUCCESS STORY FROM AMIR OF EGYPT

Dear Walt,                      
How are you and how is everything. I passed my Sim ride in Cairo at Egypt Air 2 days ago and received my license today with the endorsement. I got 2 hrs as PF. It went well. I scored 85%. Now I have 2 licenses with a valid EA32 type rating on both. I will start applying here and see what comes out of that. Hopefully I might be able to find something. I am optimistic. I am in contact with both Fabien and Claude and we are all optimistic. By the way the examiner was very pleased and he told me that your level of training is maybe a guy who has at least 300 hrs on the actual aircraft. He was really impressed. I was first confused because I was flying as a PF from the right seat and not the left as we used to do in Vancouver. Besides I had to study
their SOP's which is a lot different than the ones we had even though they all lead to the same result. With the emergency procedures the sequence they have here is a lot different , so I had to do it their way. Believe it or not I had to do some stuff in the PPC ride which I never did in Vancouver.
Here are some just for you to know and tell Len about so he can introduce to the future students. I did a normal T/O without autopilot involvement just to see how I handle the aircraft then a circuit and an ILS approach and landing hand flying it all the way. Then a normal T/O with an engine out at V1 just like we did then continue with a circuit and an approach then a go around
with the failed engine after the ILS approach at minima. That was very interesting because as soon as you advance to TOGA the yaw is incredible and you have to apply full rudder bearing in mind that you are off the autopilot which had disconnected at minima. That was neat. Now I am at 35000 feet and I made an emergency descent once without structural damage like we
were trained so I descended at 340 kits and then the second was with structural damage and that was new to me. I knew that I should use selected speed but then to increase the rate of descent lowering the gear below FL250 and below 250 kts then selecting speed to 270 and then at 10000 retracting the gear but first selecting speed 220. Then 2 ELACs failing so you're in
alternate law, then I was asked to do a 45 degree bank without FD's or Auto thrust. That was new too. Then gear down so now you're in direct law and he asks you to order your PNF to select gear and flaps plus to make things easy for you a 25 degree angle of bank ( Dirty Config ) and stall the damn thing. Now that was really tough. Not to stall it but the recovery in direct
law. What else. Oh then he asked me to do an ILS approach with Nav accuracy low so I had to use raw data and Rose ILS and not Arc plus he gave me a 90 degree cross wind at 15 kts and I had to land the damn thing. That I did very very very well even though i never did it before. However, I used my good airman ship and made a nice smooth landing and he was very impressed. Now to make my day, on the roll out, he gave me an engine fire on the ground
which was straight forward and that was followed by evacuation. And that was the end of it. Of course I did a lot of other stuff like engine vibration above 4.3 for N2 and EGPWS and TCAS , and a lot of other stuff which was a piece of cake. So that was it and I hope you tell Len about the check ride so he can add those exercises for future students. In my opinion mainly , the
alternate law direct law , stall , recovery , 45 degree bank and structural damage with emergency decent where you extend the landing gear were the toughest exercises. Oh another thing he gave me was dual Hyd G and B sys failure which is an emergency situation although it was mostly stuff done by my PNF except for the landing gear manual extension and slat and flap jamming which I order him to do depending on the ECAM call that he gave me. Anyway, I learned a lot and it was fun and I did very well Thanks again Walt for all your effort and help and send my regards to Len and wish me luck.

I'll stay in touch and keep you posted and updated. Until then all the best.

Amir

 

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