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What does the basic flight tuition cover?
Basic flight tuition covers the projected cost of the equipment (aircraft
and/or flight training devices) and the instructor for the minimum number
of hours required to complete the practicum in accordance with the college's
FAA approved syllabus.
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What other fees may be charged related to
flight practicums?
In addition to course tuition there are four other fees that may be
charged for flight activity. Practicum overages (discussed below, item
3). No-Show fee (item 11). Extra-Curricular rental, use of resources
not associated with an enrolled practicum (item 9). Finally, a re-enrollment
fee for students who do not make satisfactory progress in any flight
practicum and choose to re-enroll (item 10).
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What are overage charges?
Overage charges are resource fees utilized above and beyond the deposit
for the practicum.
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How and when does one incur overage charges?
Student pilots are charged for each event that uses chargeable resources.
This is deducted from their current practicum deposit. When they exceed
the programmed minimum number of hours to learn, practice and demonstrate
mastery of these lessons the result is considered overage. Students
and families can assume that they will have overages if they NC (no-credit
grade) any lessons, because these lessons will need to be repeated.
This is common practice wherever and whenever a student pilot is learning
to fly, whether in an academic setting or at a local airport FBO. As
stated in our catalog it is not unusual for some students to see overages
in the 20 to 30 percent range.
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How are these fees calculated?
The resource use fees are calculated based on the time and resources
actually used. On an aircraft the charge is based on 10ths of an hour.
For the instructor fee DWC charges in half and full block increments
(a block equals 1.5 hours).
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What are the resource rates?
While subject to change, rates are normally set just prior to the fall
semester each year. Rates are posted and maintained each month at the
aircraft dispatch desk. They may also be viewed as they are applied
to the students SkyScheduler account (see item 13) (https://skyscheduler.dwc.edu).
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What can we do to avoid overage fees?
Overage charges can be minimized when students prepare thoroughly for
their lessons. This includes their classroom work and quizzes (all quizzes
must be corrected to 100%), being ready for the brief prior to flight,
and being prepared for the flight on a timely basis - this often requires
time before arrival at the flight block begins.
The need for re-currency is one of the causes of overages. Re-currency
can be avoided by staying as long as possible in every semester to insure
that you do not go home until the practicum is complete. When you do
go home prior to completion you are almost guaranteed that you will
incur overages, as you need some re-currency before you can return to
form in your practicum.
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If one needs extra time to master
something, should they just quit flying?
No. Most student pilots take extra time to master one area of flight
or another. If piloting were easy, there would be more pilots and
fewer rewards in the profession! DWC prepares pilots to standards
more rigorous than FAA minimums. Feedback from regional airline
classes from our graduates and their employers tells us that the DWC
graduate performs better than most with equal or higher levels of
experience. We want to make sure our graduates are the best in the
business and the takes time and effort.
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How are curriculum fees different from
extra curricular fees?
Extra curricular fees cover costs that are over and above meeting
the expectations for the college flight curriculum. These flights
are truly EXTRA curricular and are the same as an aircraft rental at
most commercial fixed base operation (FBO). The ability to use
aircraft on an extra curricular basis is a courtesy that the college
extends to appropriately qualified students. Sometimes this is for
extra practice or a flying event such as taking a passenger up for a
ride or flying an aircraft home for a holiday or weekend. These
resource rates are typically 10% higher than the standard curricular
rates used within the students practicum.
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Are overage fees the same as the $1,000
reenrollment fee?
No. An overage fee reflects the time the aircraft and/or instructor
is used beyond the minimum calculated as required to complete the practicum.
The reenrollment fee is in lieu of a second set of tuition fees for
having received a grade of NC.
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Why are we also billed for No-Show fees?
The professions within the field of aviation are highly disciplined
as the resources; the equipment and the flight instructional staff times
are very expensive. DWC schedules its resources (equipment and people)
as tightly as possible to keep the costs down for everyone. When a student
doesn't show up for his/her lesson or is not reasonably prepared those
resources are often wasted, but the costs continue. At the time of a
no show there is usually insufficient time to reschedule the flight
resources for a different mission. The no show fee partially covers
the cost of these resources.
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Can I do anything to avoid a re-enrollment
fee?
Re-enrollment fee are charged for students who earn a NC (no credit)
for the practicum and elect to re-enroll. The NC reflects the performance
levels within a given time frame, not unlike the work expected in an
English or Math class. Students are expected to participate and perform
at an acceptable level and to successfully complete the number of lessons
in a practicum in a semester (or pre-published time frame) even when
sufficient lessons were attempted. A NC indicates a failure to accomplish
this. Students can avoid NCs by being well prepared for their lessons
and by soft scheduling beyond their hard block at least an average of
once a week. Of those students who took a flight practicum during the
fall, spring, and summer of last year 26% received a NC for a course.
If an issue arises, a student should work with their instructors and/or
Senior Flight Operations Management to address and resolve it as soon
as possible.
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When are overages billed?
All resource use fees subtract from the students deposited practicum
funds as shown in our Sky Scheduler online system. Once these funds
are exhausted, a monthly adjustment is made to their main college account.
Once again the student (via their password protected access) may monitor
all specific events, charges, and running balance.
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Are there "extra-help" resources without
a direct fee charged?
Our flight instructors are the only people resource that triggers a
fee. Staff and management often are a resource for many procedural issues.
As far as more direct and customized help the college has tutoring available.
Check with student services for guidelines for drop-in flight tutoring
policies and times.
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