Vista Air

Went to take my PP written there, and Alley the proctor (who looks like she crawled out of an alley) comes out with greasy hair, dirty shirt and double tongue piercings and had more of an appearance of a mechanic, then a test proctor. She had an attitude from the start. She refused to accept my endorsement and then after I did what she wanted she then refused to give me the test. Its actually kind of bizarre. It’s as if she didn’t want to do it and looked for a reason to shoo me out the door. Then as I walked out she further inflamed the situation by yelling out sarcastically «have a nice day» as if she enjoyed wasting my time. Flying an airplane is supposed to be a regal pursuit, do it where you are treated like they appreciate your business.

I have flown out of Whiteman Airport for close to 20 years now. Vista has always had a somewhat spotty reputation on the field, but I still wanted to give them a chance and requested an estimate for some upgrades on my Cessna Skyhawk, possibly in the range between $ 1500 and $ 2000 by my estimation. I contacted them four weeks ago and received — insert sound of crickets here. So I guess either they are so super busy (good for them!) that they don’t need my/​any new business or they simply don’t care. Either way, I will not impose on them with another outrageous request for an estimate again in the future.

It’s been over a year since I last been here but ended up finding another flight school at El Monte. My first lesson here the instructor smelled of cologne… Not a big deal for many people nor myself but I tried another instructor. This time the lesson was paid for ahead of time. We flew 20 minutes over and the instructor demanded $ 35 More (it wasn’t the plane rental and the instructors are paid separately). After realizing that the instruction rate is $ 35/​hour and that I already paid, I called the receptionist to resolve it but had no such luck.
Glendale Community college uses Whiteman airport but I don’t know if they use Vista. Anyways the planes that I used flew and they were decent but not anything special. My complaint is about the employees.

I have been a renter at Vista Aviation since 2008. Though they have had some great flight instructors, as a consumer I am now chosing to rent airplanes mainly from other places due to their customer service policies.
A senior policy for any well run business is that the customer is always right. Of course this will need to be applied with some judgement and prudence.
Policies of businesses are not senior to the purpose of the business; maintaining great customer relations and provide excellent service.
have been renting airplanes from different companies since 1986 and most businesses have a minimum usage of 3 hours per day if you rent the plane for the whole day. That is a fair policy, I agree.
Yesterday I rented a Cessna 172 for half the day up until 2:00pm. I flew out to Mojave Airport on an event to promote general aviation and ended up flying for 1 ½ hours. The plane was not booked by anyone for the rest of the day and there were other Cessna 172’s available for rent at Vista, I checked the schedule on that and did not think it would be a problem with the minimum time.
I was charged the full 3 hours, even though I brought up the above facts and ended up talking to the Customer Service person at the counter, their manager the next day and I also spoke to Dusty, the owner after that.
None of them were not budging on this policy.
During my 25 years of dealing with airplane rental companies, I have never been charged an overage — not one time. As a customer my value has been recognized and I have always been able to resolve any points of conflict but approaching the employees or managers of who I have been dealing with.
From a policy standpoint, yes, as a customer I made a mistake and if lawyers were involved I would have no leg to stand on. You can argue and say that «we have to treat everyone the same way».
Well, there is a point called judgement and maintain good customer relations in a business. My philosophy of running a business has always been «do more than what you get paid for and you will end up getting paid more», «the customer is always right» and policies can always be modified to better forward the purpose of the business and to handle occasional upsets from customers.
Vista can maintain their rightness in this matter and probably will do if they respond to my comments, but as a customer, this is my sentiment and at this point I have found good alternate places to rent airplanes from, where the businesses are run more in accordance with my own preferences as a customer. I used to recommend Vista to others, but will no longer do so. So the question is, did Vista gain a better goodwill as a result of enforcing this policy or is it resulting in more profits for them? I leave that for you the reader to determine.

I’ve been coming here for flight leasson and can’t complain about it!!! They have a great service and also dedicated instructors. I have recommended this place to all my firend to come and take flight lessons here. Their been occations in where my lesson have been cancelled due to maintnance or weather and I have been advice hours before my scheduled flight. Their are occations in which I tend to have expired navigational charts and I love the way that they can have it for you ready to pick them up!!! I am definite am retunrnig here to get my Instrment Rating here!!!

The reply from this company says it all. The wind speed was actually FIVE knots. They called my wife a couple of minutes before I pulled into their yard, refused to identify themselves and left no message. If the instructor did in fact show up it was well after the appointment time. The company demanded I sign a credit card agreement after they had asked me to pay cash and I asked what I was signing for. They literally refused to tell me (three different people) and said it was «policy». We were in fact told the only option to pay the instructor was cash.
Very arrogant, zero customer service skills.

If you’ve ever even toyed with the idea of flying a plane, then this is the school for you. It’s a lot easier to get started than you probably think. I think that the best thing for you to do is to start off with one of their discovery flights. It’s $ 99 and I know that sounds like a lot but compared to other schools, it’s a comparative bargain. This will give you a good idea what flying is all about.
When I began my flight training, I looked around and I compared all of the flight schools at Van Nuys, Whiteman and Santa Monica airports. I also looked at how much the introductory flights were, the cost of renting and the cost of instruction. When I called I was immediately greet by the warm and friendly staff, who then gave me the details of how to get started.
When I went into school, I was kinda expecting some low budget trailer park style operation, but they were in a brand new building. The facilities were well kept and very clean, and the staff is the best.
Once I got there, I took the Discovery flight. This experience certainly made me understand what pilots go through and appreciate flight more. Flying a plane is truly an awesome experience, which not very many people get the chance to try. We took off to the north and flew over the Newhall pass and circled over Magic mountain. Once we leveled off, my flight instructor James Greziak let me take the controls and I flew the airplane. At this point, I was hooked on flying. 8 months later I earned my Private Pilot Certificate.
I think Vista is a great option. It’s economical because they have planes that fit every budget. They have the older trainers with the round gauges, all the way through the latest G1000 equipped Cessna. Another great thing is that you can pay as you go, which in my situation, since flight training isn’t cheap, is a real plus. You’d really be hard pressed to find an operation that rents planes and keeps them in an airworthy condition for less that what Vista offers. Vista is also a Cessna Pilot Center and a FBO, which means they have their own mechanics, work on other planes and they also have a pilot shop, which offers great prices too.
The instructors are great too. I’ve been flying with James Gresziak for almost two years and he’s great. I found him to be resourceful and full of patience, especially when it comes to explaining holding pattern entries. Mohammed Elghobashy, Hiram Ireton and Robert Illian are also really good, talented instructors who have a sense of humor and are good helping make sense of complicated procedures and explaining what’s going on while you’re flying.
The only minor bad thing is that they don’t offer multi-​engine training here.
Anyways it is a great school, the instructors are amazing and it is a real helpful and friendly environment. Without a doubt I feel I made the right choice and I would choose this school again in a heartbeat. I’m continuing on for my commercial and flight instructor certificates here.
***The school address is 10 000 Airpark Way, Pacoima, 91 331***
To get there on Osbourne, you go past the Airport driveway, past the LA County Fire Dept facility and make a left on at the next driveway. Keep driving past the Dirt Depot and you’ll see Vista on the left after about ¾ mile.