Qualified professional instructors with high standards, makes every learning experience safe and enjoyable. Best in Vancouver

During my recent visit to this flight school, I was genuinely wowed by their awesome simulator building. It's fantastic how they provide students with advanced training right on the ground. I'm seriously considering choosing this school for my aviation journey.

Coastal Pacific has been by far my best experience flight training in the Lower Mainland, and I can say this having trained with four different schools, two at Boundary Bay Airport and one at Langley Airport. Although a further drive from the city, the airport is right next to two less crowded practice areas making training more efficient. The airport is not busy and very little time is wasted on the ground. The planes are in excellent condition and easy to book, the Dispatcher, Kayla, is friendly and extremely helpful, and the Instruction us top notch. I also felt there were less unnecessary restrictions placed on students (you can do more as long as safe) making for better training. I hesitated about the longer drive from the city, but it's actually saved time and money for me.

I originally did not want to post a review because I wanted to give this school the benefit of the doubt but since transitioning to a new flight school out of Chilliwack, my experiences at Coastal and that of a buddy who has since moved on from Coastal too, I felt the need to share an objective review so prospective students are fully aware of what to expect before they sign-up. Firstly, on the ground school side, the instructors were friendly enough, but the deliverance was a total let down. If you were attending the online ground school technical difficulties meant there were zoom issues affecting a significant number of classes, we were given no access to the online classroom, presentation slides looked like they had not been updated since the mid-2000s and wi-fi issues went unresolved for weeks. Obviously, the technical functionality here leaves a lot to be desired and ridiculous seeing as we were paying good money and coming to class four evenings a week. I get that teaching ground school is not the most exciting part for flight schools but if you are to offer it, put the effort in so students can engage and become the best pilots they can be. The fact that only 6 students out of a class of around nearly 30 turned up to sit the ground school final exam speaks volumes about how confident many of our class were feeling about sitting the exam on their timeline with the delivery of the ground school we experienced. Secondly, the flying and dealing with dispatch. Again, my instructor was fine, but I got the vibe there were flight school politics at play. Some of the dispatchers working there were (and I am sorry to say this) not up to the standards I expected. They are obviously there to get a shoe in the door so they can be employed as instructors there in the future, but some didn’t realize they have a present job duty of being a dispatcher. They could do with some training on how to act professionally around students. I witnessed one dispatcher who was moaning about operational things right in front of me instead of just knuckling down and solving her own problems or asking management for help (you want to be a pilot-moaning in the cockpit is not a helpful tool). This same dispatcher once double booked the plane I was supposed to fly, so I was forced to hang around dispatch until it was available and thought it was appropriate to loudly ask students’ (and instructors) vaccination status before any mandates at YXX came into effect and provided no reasons why or who she was asking for. Another dispatcher struggled to communicate effectively, and it sometimes felt you had to do part of their job for them. My flight instructor was professional, but I did not appreciate how the school just selected one for us. I think students should have an opportunity to fly with a few instructors. I did feel at times I had to work around my instructors’ availability which I get to an extent but also maybe the school should have more flexibility in not being so restrictive in assigning instructors. There was sometimes mixed messaging about scheduling which led me to turn up at dispatch, do my walk-around and paperwork only for my flight not to go ahead because my instructor did not book it because of forecasted bad weather all week but my WhatsApp chat which I had with my instructor implied we were still on, and nothing was cancelled. Lastly, the admin situation was confusing too. Their administrative assistant quit early on in my ground school which left an admin gap until a replacement was hired (fair) but technical issues continued to be ignored by school management. I submitted a close account form in mid-December for my remaining balance (including the infamous $1000 deposit each student must keep in their account before they fly) and am yet to receive my cheque. Ultimately, I got the vibe Coastal has an ego about itself (it has a long history indeed and many students have gone onto become successful pilots) but I think over the years some complacency has set in so you are not as much of their priority.

I love it here and love their training standards. If you're looking at flight school's, I highly recommend Coastal Pacific Aviation.