Heritage Flight Academy

Extremely professional and courteous staff. I got my private and instrument rating with them. Always felt safe. The instructors are incredibly thorough. Neil, the CFO, is one of the nicest persons I know. I would highly recommend them.

Yes, this place employs a «fast track» approach to the FAA Airframe and Powerplant certification, and there is not a lot of instruction. There was a session going over common math problems at the beginning of the class (probably an hour or less), and then you are taken to a classroom in the hangar and are shown the best method of studying the guides to prepare for the tests. After that, you’re kind of on your own, as far as studying. The value here (GREAT value) is having computer terminals in the classroom that are loaded with practice tests for the General, Airframe, and Powerplant exams. Once you have studied the entire study guide, you begin taking practice tests on the computer. Once you can consistently pass the test with about an 85% (not set in stone, you can take the FAA exam whenever you feel ready), you are taken to the FAA exam room in the same facility. This, to me, was worth the price of admission. Being able to take the exams immediately after spending hours or days studying the material ensures that it will be fresh in your mind. I was able to easily breeze through all 3 exams with passing grades.
Once you’ve taken and passed the written exams, you are run through a «what to expect» for the Oral and Practical exams. This is not in depth, and they don’t teach you how to use tools or perform tasks, but I didn’t really expect a lot of hands-​on. If you’re taking this class, you are already a mechanic, and should have a pretty solid understanding of aircraft maintenance. If you are not already a mechanic, and are not familiar with aircraft maintenance, then this is not the place for you. This is designed for people (usually military mechanics) to get their FAA certification in a week or 10 days based on knowledge that is already possessed. If you don’t have the knowledge, then you need one of the full 18 month classes for people just trying to get into the profession.
The O&P prep consisted of a list of typical questions, and the references to find the answers if you feel uncomfortable with any of the questions. This is not a «guaranteed» list of questions, it’s just a list of possibilities that students have seen in the past. It was helpful, but I probably would have been fine without it.
The school will schedule your O&P from a pool of local DME’s. Like the other reviewer, I was paired with Pete Borneman as my examiner. Yes, the write-​up about him had some strict rules (no hat, don’t ask for breaks, arrive early), but I found Pete to be a nice guy. He was direct and to the point, and seemed like he didn’t want to waste time on nonsense. I’m good with that… I don’t have time for nonsense, either.
My oral exam consisted of me sitting with him in his office while he shotgunned questions at me. Keep cool and answer the questions and you’ll be fine. The Practical exam consisted of about 9 hours of aircraft maintenance tasks, inspection, forms, logbook entries, sketching defects, etc…
I will say the O&P was not easy. But if it was easy, everybody would be an airplane mechanic, right? It definitely wasn’t anything that should be beyond the capabilities of a mechanic with a solid background in aircraft maintenance. I passed the O&P and was given a temporary A&P certificate by Pete (My permanent FAA certificate arrived in the mail less than a month later).
Went back to the schoolhouse to let them know that I was done, and they helped me take care of all the paperwork to file my GI Bill claims. This is also a very valuable service that they provide. The staff at Heritage Flight Academy is very knowledgeable about the GI Bill claims process and will take care of just about everything for you if you’re using the GI Bill to pay for the tuition.
Overall, this course was well run. I liked the self-​paced tempo, and the availability of experienced staff members to help out/​answer questions if you have any. The benefit of having the FAA exam center right there in the facility is tremendous!
Well worth the time, money and effort expended.

The school employs the «fast track» method of learning and aside from the 15 minutes or so of instruction that took place before the General Test there was nothing further in regards to the writtens. The remainder of time it takes to pass your Airframe and Powerplant tests you will be studying on your own and taking practice exams. You are basically paying for a quiet place to study. You will be expected pass the three written exams by Thursday morning and begin the O&P review. The Oral review consists of a Q&A of potential questions that have commonly been asked by the DME’s. I would guess roughly 70% of the questions that I was asked were covered in some form. If you pay attention and study hard you’ll pass the Oral. The Practical review is disappointing and contrary to the images and verbage on the website there is no hands-​on training. You’ll handle a Micrometer and Vernier but we never left the classroom. This was the aspect of the «refresher» that I looked forward to most and finding out that it was non-​existent was a surprise. I could have done everything that the school did by purchasing a few ASA guides and placing a call to the local FSDO. The DME is chosen for you by the school and a «what to expect» is provided on the individual. While other DME’s were described as laid back, straight forward, and takes their time, Peter Bornemans «what to expect» spoke of what I could and could not wear (including piercings and baseball caps, better cover those tattoos too), you «must» arrive at least 15 minutes early (your already arriving an hour earlier than any other DME requires), instructed not to ask for a break or lunch as you will not get one (it says bring a snack but I didn’t even have time for that), it states don’t let him catch you studying your O&P material in the parking lot before your exam (isn’t that my time?), says if you smoke or chew-​forget it, and it mentions not to forget to bring his cash three separate times. I made a mistake by not demanding another DME. I failed his Practical Test the first time on logbook entries/W&B/and Form 337. After requesting a different DME for the re-​test and being denied due to the schools policy on remaining with the initial examiner. I was once again charged the full $ 650 by Pete Borneman who proceeded to fail me for setting my clean tools down on a Spark Plug Gap spec sheet that was caked in grease and for not accounting for the removal of a Pitot Static Cover when describing the sequence of events covering testing.
Some of his projects were: Any&All discrepancies on an ELT, A&A of Fire Extinguisher, locate, identify, and describe how Fuel Adjustment Screw of a Fuel Control is set, use an Altimeter to find barometric pressure at 100ft, solder 2ea. wires onto motor, is battery serviceable/​secured properly, inspect Pilot/​Co-​pilot seat belts list A&A., take fuel sample tell if contaminated, inspect fuel Shutoff Valve is it functional, inspect engine mounts list A&A, inspect Induction Air Cleaner list A&A, remove, inspect, and reinstall Airbox hdwr, inspect exhaust/​shroud, identify 1ea. fuel, air, and oil line on engine, identify how air enters and exits engine cooling shroud, check oil level and identify if it is within legal flight limits.
I’m 36 yr old prior service Marine 5 yrs CH-​53E and 10yrs UH-​60A-​M. Plenty of experience for what many refer to as a learning license.