Now a flying school in Arizona does American School of Aviation act

Hi Guys

Thank you for putting up your experience. I am of the opinion that most of the flying schools are scams and an awareness should be created among interested individuals. I am in a similar predicament as you guys. I joined a flying school in Arizona in June and had to withdraw from the school in November as the training was deficient. In spite of having a signed contract I haven’t received the balance back.i. e$23000 which I was to receive on 1 Jan 2009. The school I was training in ain’t bankrupt as yet.

However I am determined to get my deposit back. I would really appreciate if somebody could give me inputs as to how to go about it….

Cindy

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We may have made our mistakes along the way, but we are also humans with a limited capacity… and ASA was a business!

At least we do not deserve to be stoned all the way. Our main goal was the quality of training, we may have made our mistakes along the way, but we are also humans with a limited capacity… and ASA was a business, a successful business for 6 years in a row. but if the US and countries governments still can’t solve the fuel problems, why did people think we can? Consider this, Six months ago, we went to all the students saying you have to pay an additional $6,000 to $8,000 more for your training, what would have been the response? i personally went to UAE, China to get more profitable business so your families does not have to come up with the additional funds.

I am surprised, that Sasha Puri, Vikram Pawar, Suraj Chopra and Ameya Kameth did not mention to any one, that they paid their tuition in Gurgaon and that ASA in California never got a penny out of it?!! Specially that 3 of them already graduated, now was ASA out to Scam student? How about each one who paid the $2,000 deposit in Gurgaon? And the US never got a penny of it, but all of you got the credit on your account?

Now every one is going after the management, fine, put your self in Prince’s shoes and he admits he is an AW!!

On New Year’s Day, Juana opens up the school and is feeding the fish in the tank; guess what she found in there?
A: HUMAN POOP!!

On a weekend evening, a drunken student pulls the fire alarm (Accidently!!) who had to leave the house to baby sit the reset of the students?

Students playing cricket in the parking lot, using the school’s furniture as goals..
For God Sake, we had to teach students to take a shower before showing up for class!!

Add to that, dealing with the FAA, Mechanics, India, lawyers, accountants, airport management for every little thing that students do!!

Parents, how do I tell a father, that your son is drinking every night and I have an arrest warrant for him? How do I tell your parents, your son is not showing up for lessons because the schedule is too early?! How do we tell them, your son is too busy with the bank teller and does not have time to study?!! Etc…

Here is what happened,
April last year 2007, Gurgaon was shut down costing a lot of money
July, was the last KFA interview
November, KFA staff came to visit to expand the relationship, instead, students complained about the housing and God knows what else, so they did not give a damn and cancelled the tie up!!
Still in November, 17 Students panicked and left the school creating more negative publicity.

Here is a quick lesson in business, if your current customers are pushing your new customers away for whatever reason, you run out of money and eventually your business runs out!!

ASA lost the market in India, even though, over 200 students graduated form there, all of the sudden, every one forgot that fact!!
November, I go to UAE to get some business, I got one student
March I got to China to get some business, it takes time
April I go to Egypt to get some business, we got 3 .

All of that and the FAA is on our tail to shut us down, in 2007, we had 109 inspections, and my question to them, if we were so bad, why did not you shut us down?!! And if we were not so bad, why did you inspect us 109 times?
I still do not have an answer to that, the FAA alone, costed 20% of Prince’s work week just to entertain them!! Why is it, that none of the students asked them that question?

I am sorry the management had to be strict as we did not have time to baby sit adults who were suppose to be in the air lines in a matter of months, I hope your future captains will make sure to tuck you in your seat before you fly!! Our main goal was to make you a pilot because we truly believed that one day thought out your career, the only thing that will save your life is your training, and that was our priority number 1.

They took our airplanes, cars and our house is about to be taken, but no one can take this from us
Our safety record is 100%, 98% of our graduates are successfully employed and satisfied with the training.

Reny Kozman

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Solo Flight School providing free pilot training to stranded Indian student

Aneesh Mullacheri traveled halfway around the world only to watch his dream of becoming an American commercial pilot became a nightmare. Solo Flight School in Lakeport is helping him get back in the air with free private pilot training. (Tiffany Revelle)

By Tiffany Revelle — Record-Bee.com

LAKE COUNTY, CA – To call Aneesh Mullacheri determined is an understatement. He traveled halfway around the world only to watch his dream of becoming an American commercial pilot became a nightmare. But he hasn’t given up.

A six-month time limit on his visa is ticking while he eats and sleeps less than 100 yards from the small aircraft he will fly in Santa Rosa this weekend for the last leg of his private pilot licensing exam. His flight school American School of Aviation in Atwater, CA folded in July, taking the $40,000 he’d paid upfront and leaving him stranded. Solo Flight School in Lakeport is helping him get back in the air with free private pilot training.

“I know something good is going to happen,” Mullacheri said, a sparkle in his brown eyes.

In the same breath, Mullacheri acknowledged that flying days are over if he has to go back to India when his visa expires in February. He landed in San Francisco on his 18th birthday, ready to start commercial pilot training at the American School of Aviation in Atwater.

Mullacheri had $400 to his name and nowhere to live when the school declared bankruptcy. He called home for help – but not to his family.

“I didn’t want to give my grandfather another heart attack,” Mullacheri said.

Solo Flight School Co-owner Nancy Brier and her family took Mullacheri under their collective wing in October when they learned of his plight. The family’s already thin budget can only bear the cost of his private pilot license training, which is the first step to a commercial pilot license, which in turn is a stepping-stone to becoming a test pilot and ultimately an astronaut.

“My goal would be to at least help him get his commercial license,” Brier said.

She said the money is coming out of her family’s personal account, on top of providing transportation, living quarters and personal support. The family felt compelled, she said, not just by his circumstances, but also by his spirit.

Mullacheri said he felt responsible for his grandfather’s first heart attack during his eight-month struggle to get his visa and scrape together enough money for the flight school. His grandfather had been his only supporter at home, and had loaned him the money he still needed after selling approximately two acres of farming land he had inherited from his mother for approximately $25,000.

On top of selling everything he owned, Mullacheri broke centuries-old social traditions in his homeland of India by daring to follow that dream. His grandparents raised him after his mother died and his father dropped out of his life when he was four years old.

His career choices were down to a literal coin toss between the engineering and medical professions, with his peers and his grandparents tossing the coin. Mullacheri wanted more.

“They never ask what is your interest, what do you want to be? That is what I saw here, they are really optimists (here). But in my place, no. Maybe one in a thousand will be an optimist. All the others say, ‘Never dream big things,’” Mullacheri said.

Flight instructor Vernon Childers has walked Mullacheri through almost a month and a half of private pilot lessons, and said he “could use 20 more just like him” who have his determination and work ethic. Childers said Mullacheri passed the oral part of his exam in 30 minutes, a process that can take hours.

To learn more about Mullacheri’s circumstances or to help, call the Solo Flight School at 263-9920.

Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.

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Shatterred dreams. Kingfisher Airlines frozen pilot recruitments of ASA passed outs

It is very unfortunate what has happenned to the students of American School of Aviation but now it is turning out to be more worse for those already passed out from ASA. On-going slump in Aviation Sector all over the world has forced India’s second largest Domestic carrier Kingfisher Airlines to freeze current and further pilot recruitments and Airline is not honouring the ‘letters of intent’ it issued for the position of co-pilots earlier this year, mostly passed out students from American School of Aviation, according to the Indian media reports.

Young pilots, who received letters of intent from Kingfisher Airlines promising them co-pilot positions once they completed Type Rating training in American School of Aviation say, several of them have successfully completed their course and have got Indian licences, but have not heard from the airline regarding the promised job.

”They have been told that the airline do not require crew. The communication was given to students as and when they completed course and contacted the airline for the promised job,” says a source.

A young pilot who had been issued this letter says, ”The letter was issued to me in April and it clearly stated that I had to bear the course fee at the American School of Aviation, a one & only institute recognized by the airline. Since a job at the end of the course was guaranteed I coughed up USD 72,000 for this training programme. But after I came back, I contacted Kingfisher but I was asked to stay put and that they would get back to me, which has not happened so far.”

When contacted, a Kingfisher spokesperson – appearing hassled – said the airline would comment on the matter after a day. He referred to the statement issued by the airline on Saturday on the salary cut issue that spoke of the turbulence in the aviation industry meriting reduction in the capacity deployed.

‘All these letters say that the airline would absorb us once foreign flight licence is converted into Indian and we are found ‘skilled enough’,” avers a pilot, who too holds an Letter of Intent. He says this ”skilled enough” criteria that airlines could use against them.

The present job crisis seems routed in the massive recruitments that several airlines undertook in the year 2006 when many pilots undertaking training in India were called for placements. However, no airline is undertaking such placement exercises now. The placements in 2006 included a psychometric test and a personal interview following which letters of intent promising a job in the airline were offered. ”Of 107 people who had appeared for these interviews, 45 were selected and I was one of them,” says a pilot who had appeared for Kingfisher interview.

In 2007 when these cadets were training in American School of Aviation, senior officials of the airline visited them there also. American School of Aviation used to run 12 month course named Kingfisher Airlines Programme (KFA) India, offering special discounts to KFA employees, their siblings or children. During the programme, they get free housing facility, which estimated to cost around $3,500.

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North American Institute of Aviation flight school in Conway shuts down abruptly.

It seems that outcome of American School of Aviation affairs has encouraged the authorities at The North American Institute of Aviation flight school in Conway to close down its doors indefinitely Friday, giving notice to staff in their pay checks that their services would no longer be needed. I would rather look at it as a first aviation school who took the initiative of following the footsteps of Prince & Reny very boldly. Result is same like ASA, students and staff is clueless and school authorities is playing hide & Seek with Journalists and students.

Many stranded students have already enrolled into automotive schools all over country. As aviation school all over the country are finding it hard to continue their business, demand for automotive schools is growing by the day as automotive industry is unfazed by the global slowdown.

“This layoff will result in the cessation of most training and flight activities conducted by the Institute. It will not result in the closure of North American Institute of Aviation, Conway/Horry County Airport, or the delivery of fuel and maintenance services to aircraft based at Conway/Horry County Airport or to transient aircraft,” wrote president of the school, Benjamin Creel, in a release.

Creel and the school’s director of operations, Dan Flaherty, did not return phone calls for comment Monday.

Students at the school, many of whom are from foreign countries and living in the United States on student visas, were told Friday that the school would be ceasing its operations. Both foreign and domestic students were left wondering Monday if and when they would get their remaining tuition and expense money returned or it will be the same story like American School of Aviation of whose students are still fighting it out there.

Horry County spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier said the school’s lease at the county airport was not scheduled to run out until May 2009. The county is in the process of rebidding the lease on the airport property, which includes most of the hangar space, as well as the take off ramp. She said NAIA is eligible to rebid the lease.

Students sensed that there was something wrong when they were given credit cards to fuel the planes at other locations than the on-campus airport depot.

“Not too long ago they gave each of us a credit card to fill up the planes on fuel,” one of the student said. “Those cards filled up quickly and a few days before Friday, the school told us they were basically out of fuel.”

Instructors told foreign students that the school is trying to work out visa agreements to allow them to transfer to the Pelican Flight Training Center in Florida.

The American students are not part of that agreement.

Students were told they had 30 days to vacate the apartments on Airport Road in Conway, which are not owned by the school but are paid for through a contract between the realty company and the school on a monthly basis.

A search of Bankruptcy Court Records filed in the past six months showed that neither Creel nor NAIA had filed for bankruptcy. Creel also owns Creel Oil Co. and a distributor for Shell Oil.

Karim Sadok Chatty, NAIA dropout of 1996

Calls to the college and to staff to ask about whether student money would be refunded were not returned Monday.

Horry County police stationed two officers at the school through the weekend, in case of unrest from students.

North American Institute of Aviation first came into the news in year 2002 when one of their dropouts Kerim Sadok Chatty, a Tunisian was arrested with a gun in his carry-on luggage at the small Swedish airport of Vasteras near Stockholm on August 28, 2002 as he tried to board a Ryan Air flight to London’s Stansted Airport. He had flunked out of NAIA  in 1996. Chatty was later released after spending a one month in total isolation for lack of evidence.

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Open letter to the parents of victimized ASA students

Dear Parents of victimized ASA students:

I have no doubt the sentiment and plea expressed in the letters addressed to the respected Mr. Vayalar Ravi, the Minister sent by many of you represent the collective emotions of those who were caught up in the recent ASA fiasco of horrendous order of magnitude. My heart goes out to you all during this time of enduring hardship.

If I may, I’d like to ask if any one of you ever received a reply from the Minister’s office for coming forward with a relief offer of any kind let alone simply acknowledging the receipt of your letter so far?…….thought so.

While I sincerely hope a meaningful relief is forthcoming from either government, it seems that to happen in this instance is far less likely much to everyone’s disappointment.

While I am firmly convinced what the duo Prince and Reny have done to the students amounts to a criminal fraud and they must be brought to justice, I am also firmly convinced that the recovery of the lost student’s funds should be vigorously pursued by all means by instituting the most formidable consume fraud case in the history of Indian jurisprudence against ASA as well KFA as a plausible accomplice by knowingly or unknowingly in aiding and abetting the Ponzi scheme then run by ASA.

It won’t happen overnight and no one can do it alone. It takes a collective determination and intention (will) to follow through until the objective is achieved. Never mind the government assistance, it’s not coming except in a form of meaningless lip services and dancing and skirting around the issue.

Why not organizing the ASA student family group in India by contacting and enlisting alliances with other families, consumer advocacy groups, legal outreach groups and likes all the while promoting public media attention?

It will succeed eventually as long as the effort continues. Just expecting someone else to do it won’t work because nothing will ever get done in that way. Everyone must get involved and take an active role however small that may be in a collective effort for a common cause. Isn’t that what the great people of India brought down the Great Britain to its knees to forfeit then the colonial territory in the end?

It can be done and to think otherwise you’re vastly underestimating what the collective effort by a group of determined people can achieve. Don’t be daunted by a sheer size of KFA and the Indian lending institutions as the corporate size means little, if anything, in the justice of law. Rise up and press on!

All the best and good luck to you all.

Sincerely,

Echo Yankee, ATP/A&P

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Civil Matter – American School of Aviation

A file photo of Flight Instructors of American School of Aviation, Atwater, CA

Possible code and ordinance violations;

Federal Statutory Code;

Improper aircraft registration
Non compliance with aircraft registration requirement

Improper aircraft maintenance
Non compliance with aircraft maintenance requirement

Improper school operation
Non compliance with P141 school requirement

Improper report, paperwork
Non compliance with AFSP, DHS requirement

Non payment on tax due
Non compliance with IRS requirement

Non payment on employment taxes
Non compliance with IRS requirement

California State Statutory Code;

No aircraft insurance filing
Non compliance with PUC insurance requirement

No payment on employment taxes
Non compliance with EDD requirement

No delivery of services contracted and paid
Non compliance with Business & Professions code requirement

No tuition refund made
Non compliance with DEO requirement

No payment on fuel purchased
Non compliance with Business and Professions Code requirement

Merced County Ordinance;

Unpaid office/hangar, tie-down rent
Non compliance with county lease agreement

Unhealthy dormitory conditions
Non compliance with county health code requirement

Hazardous and reckless operation
Non compliance with airport operations requirement

And perhaps in more possible violations committed by ASA. Any competent lawyer should be able to find an appropriate code, ordinance citation and build a strong enough case against the duo Prince and Reny in a civil court for getting a civil penalty and judgement in their respective case.

Echo Yankee

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Criminal Matter – American School of Aviation

What occurred or reported to have occurred at ASA

1. It (ASA) failed to deliver flight training to its students as per the agreement
2. It failed to refund the unused tuition to the students when requested.
3. It operated in violation of numerous Federal, State and local regulations.
4. They (Prince & Reny; owners) lacked moral, professional and business fitness to run a fight school.
5. They defrauded students.
6. They defrauded local merchants.
7. They defrauded local governments
8. They defrauded federal government
9. They endangered the health and welfare of the students and their parents home.

Applicable California State Penal Code

Criminal fraud committed against students
□§532 False pretenses; obtaining money, labor, or property; punishment;

Every person who knowingly and designedly, by any false or fraudulent representation or pretense, defrauds any other person of money, labor, or property, whether real or personal, is punishable in the same manner and to the same extent as for larceny of the money or property so obtained.

□§484b. Diversion of funds received to obtain or pay for services, labor, materials or equipment;

Any person who receives money for the purpose of obtaining services and wrongfully diverts the funds to a use other than that for which the funds were received, shall be guilty of a public offense and shall be punishable by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or by imprisonment in the state prison, or in the county jail not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and such imprisonment.

□§476a. Checks, drafts or orders on banks; insufficient funds; intent to defraud; punishment;

Any person who willfully, with intent to defraud, makes or draws or utters or delivers any check, draft or order upon any bank or depositary, or person, or firm, or corporation, for the payment of money, knowing at the time of such making, drawing, uttering, or delivering that the maker or drawer or the corporation has not sufficient funds in, or credit with said bank or depositary for the payment of such check upon such funds then outstanding, in full upon its presentation is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison.

Crime against creditor
□§154 Debtor fraudulently removing, conveying, or concealing property;

Every debtor who fraudulently removes his property or effects out of this state, or fraudulently sells, conveys, assigns or conceals his property with intent to defraud, hinder or delay his creditors of their rights, claims or demands, is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or by fine not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both; provided, however, that where the property so removed or sold or conveyed, or assigned or concealed, consists of a stock in trade or a part thereof, of a value exceeding one hundred dollars, the offense shall be a felony and punishable as such.

□§155 Defendant or judgment debtor fraudulently removing, concealing, or disposing of personal
property sought to be recovered;

Every person against whom an action is pending, or against whom a judgment has been rendered for the recovery of any personal property, who fraudulently conceals, sells, or disposes of such property, with intent to hinder, delay, or defraud the person bringing such action or recovering such judgment, or with such intent the time of the commencement of such action or the rendering of such judgment, is punishable as provide in the proceeding section.

Crime against landlord
□§537 Defrauding innkeepers, etc.;
Any person who obtains any accommodations at apartment house, without paying therefore, with intent to defraud the proprietor or manager thereof, is guilty of a public offense punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for a term not more than one year, or in the state prison.

Most of the above offenses if not all are felony offences each carrying one or more years of imprisonment if convicted. In the ASA case, if the DA is successful in achieving even one criminal conviction, that will land over 100 years in jail time for those convicted. (each one count times a number of victims/students and you get the idea.)

Don’t let the front desk clerk to tell you it’s a civil matter and turn you away. A completed crime report must be accepted and a crime reference number (CRN ) must be issued upon filing. You’re not making any request there, rather you’re making a unilateral filing action. It’s important that the crime report (pleadings in lawyer’s term) is completely prepared in accordance with the county’s criminal procedures protocol. Ask your lawyer if you already have one, if not contact SABA and ask one of their pro bono lawyers to help you prepare a crime report and have it filed at Merced county sheriff’s dept.

Now those are just few of the state penal codes that I came up with for the moment and by doing a little research on my own (I can’t afford a $250/hr lawyer for reading the same law books).

On the Federal statutes violation side, here’re some of the applicable codes under the Title 18 of USC –Crimes and Criminal Procedures that could well apply to the ASA case on the Federal offense side for the feds to pursue.

□§31 Aircraft and Motor Vehicles
□§241 Civil Rights
□§371 Conspiracy
□§641 Embezzlement and Theft
□§1001 Fraud and False Statements
□§1231 Labor
□§1341 Mail Fraud
□§1343 Wire Fraud
□§1421 Nationality and Citizenship
□§1821 Professions and Occupations
□§1951 Racketeering
□§1961 RICO
□§2071 Records and Reports

What needed to achieve a conviction requires only two things like everything else in everyone’s life, desire and strong enough intention (will) to carry it out, the rest will follow.

Report online the duo Prince and Reny’s criminal fraud to FBI also.
FB I Crime Report Form
https://tips.fbi.gov/

Echo Yankee

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WHY ON EARTH IS THE AMERICAN POLICE NOT ARRESTING THESE FREAKS…PLEASE DO SOMETHING ON THAT REGARD..

zombie,
I think many of us on the blog echo your outrage saying “WHY ON EARTH IS THE AMERICAN POLICE NOT ARRESTING THESE FREAKS…PLEASE DO SOMETHING ON THAT REGARD..” believe me we’re all trying and doing just that. American police we call them county sheriff here works with their set of priorities then set at any given time and they are not so quick to jump the guns so to speak on every case that falls into their doorsteps. We’ve been trying to push the case to their higher priority as you could read in my and other’s earlier posts.

Worry not, the justice will be served one way or the other without fail. We could leave that to the US judicial system and if not to our all mighty boomerang system. Either way, it’ll get done. You watch.

Now since putting the perpetrators behind bars won’t deliver a dime to the students and their parents (or, is it 10 PAISE in your homeland?) and we are equally or even more interested in how to recover the lost student’s funds in the meantime. Dealing with this isn’t quite easy because lawyers often come into play. Some are like magicians as even a simple black and white matter can be gradually changed to gray and before you know it, it’ll be completely changed to the opposite color in the hands of a skilled lawyer.

But worry not, a half the lawyers lose their cases, so everyone has a 50% chance of success to begin with, we just have to build a strong enough case that holds water and find holes in other’s. It can be done. It’s not easy but not as hard as clearing the IIT entrance exam in your homeland, IMHO.

Stay tuned on this channel for more ASA latest.

Echo yankee, out!

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Merced County Sheriff’s Department turned down student’s complaint against Prince & Reny, told it’s a civil matter.

Mark N. Pazin (Sheriff/Coroner) & Bill Blake (Undersheriff)

Ravi hegde,
Thank you for the reply.
So let me understand this right, you guys went to Atwater PD and Merced County Sheriff’s Department and tried to file a criminal complaint in hope to put Prince and Reny behind bars and then turned down flat by being told it’s a civil matter. Is that it?

Now the questions,
Did you have any idea how the filing needs to be done before walking into their offices? …… thought so.

Did you ask them why they think it’s not a criminal matter?…….though so.

Did you ask them how to make a criminal report then? thought so.

Did you do anything after that to find out further on how you could bring a criminal charge, or more or less giving up by doing nothing except hoping something to happen in the future? thought so too.

I could see that outcome even long before you guys got to the PD and the sheriff’s dept. with such ignorance and unprepared approach.

Allow me to make a flat statement here that asking a help to law enforcement agency in a white color crime is like throwing an anchor to a drawing man.

It’s same with banks when you need a loan how bad and how desperately need it doesn’t play in the bank’s lending decision. When you really need an umbrella in rainy days, there’re no where to be found but when in good days and you are not needing anything, they come to lend you a parasol with an eager alacrity. Get the picture?

You just have to learn how the system works and approach the task at hand in ways to get the job done, in other words to make sure there’s nothing left there standing to block your intended objective.

Not blaming on anyone but here’s what didn’t go right IMHO,

1. Walked into Atwater PD which has no jurisdiction over Castle Airport
2. Walked into the sheriff’s dept without knowing how to get a crime report filed beforehand
3. Engaged in extemporaneous verbal exchanges with the front desk clerk and gave him/her an opportunity to brush aside your case as a civil matter on the spot.
4. Erroneously and vaguely understanding the crime report as a request instead of filing
5. Not understanding a crime reporting is not a request but a unilateral filing action.
6. Not understanding a properly prepared crime report must be accepted or the clerk will face a disciplinary action.
7. Not knowing simply reporting and explaining verbally at the front desk unless you’re expert in criminal proceedings all would be brushed off aside and not taken seriously unless you’re reporting physical injury, violence, robbery and other heinous crimes in progress.
8. Not seeking help from SABA or elsewhere before walking into the PD and sheriff’s dept.

Once again, ignorance and wrong assumptions are all too often end up in a wrong result.

No one can skip the process and steps necessary and then expect the judicial system to work for you. You can’t have both ways. You have to do your part right by following the established legal procedures step by step.

There’ s nothing to stop you from try it again and if you do, do it right the next time, and press on.
It’ll get done for sure.

echo yankee, out!

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