J.A. Air Center Reviews

Good place for a TKS install. Bruce from JA is knowledgeable and communicated well throughout the whole process. I fly my Cessna 182T, N55RY, on average 40-50 hours per month and safety is very important to me so in Michigan where I live ice protection is a must. Installation turned out very good and provided a good opportunity to get some other preventative maintenance and minor paint work done as well. These installations can be tricky and involve considerable disassembly of the aircraft but these guys know the system well and are good at it.

My experience was poor. My issue started when I went to their location for my UAG written exam. As I was asked about my status, I told that I m not a citizen but a resident(green card). I was told then that I need more than just an Driving license as an ID like a passport. I did my research before going there & I knew that I don t. I even asked them to call & confirm with PSI but they didn t & Leslie (Employee) came back & told me that they need it. I was offered that I can give my exam & go back home after finishing it & bring my passport to get my result sheet. After going back & bringing passport to Leslie(employee at J.A flight training), I tried to explain her that even I didn t have to bring, I still did just to be polite & tried to educate her about it. The response was you don t have to educate me . I did it because my BOSS Jim told me that you need it. I called FSDO to mentioned the issue & THANK YOU For being so nice about it. I hope these people get some education & understand the terms like Resident alien & non-us citizen. I have seen negative reviews about her in past too but still gave the benefit of doubt & tried them. She said sorry but with an attitude that it didn t feel like sorry. Not going there again in future. It s a slow airport anyhow so they probably don t care & that s why have an attitude like that.
Sorry J A Center if you are going to ask me to put this review in J.A. training review section but there is no section like that. Google doesn t have a separate option for J.A.TRAINING.

Their customer service is 2nd to none! Great people and a well maintained aircraft. I needed to fly a bunch of multi-engine time before my interview. They made sure to block the airplane off for me in order to fly the time I needed. Highly recommended flight school!

Class act folks. The absolute best place I have gone for flight instruction. Had the pleasure of meeting a lot of employees and every one of them are top notch.

I was pursuing my instrument rating at JA air. I talked to their chief instructor Jim, and got everything arranged. Jim agreed to train me in my own plane (NFC aircraft). So I paid FAA AFSP fee and tried to get started there. The front desk lady Leslie is incredibly terrible: for my first lesson, I flew to KARR and however was told there was no reservation made (come on!). Not surprisingly, dear Leslie of course did the same thing to my second lesson. Just no instructor there when I landed at KARR, again!!! And later, they told me they cannot train me in my own plane. The only option is to switch to their planes. FAA fee is not refundable and non-transferable, BTW.

It's unfortunate that Mr. Kang felt the need to post a negative review here. I am the Assistant Chief Flight Instructor at J.A. Flight Training and would like to point out a few facts about Mr. Kang's interaction with J.A. Flight Training:

1. He was scheduled, but showed up for his appointments without the insurance for his flying club airplane he was told in advance he was required to have.
2. When he flew into KARR for his IFR training lesson, the weather conditions were at or below VFR minimums.
3. When he departed the airport, the local controller told him the field was IFR and he proceeded anyway.
4. He came to us because nobody in his flying club wanted to train him.
5. His flying club (NFC) ultimately removed him from the club because he had engaged in several unsafe and illegal practices and damaged the airplane.
6. He knew everything and argued about not needing insurance for J.A. Flight Training.

I'm sorry that Mr. Kang had a negative experience, but so did we.

Terrible prices, terrible customer service. Never again.

We stopped at this FBO on our way to Oshkosh. It was the nicest FBO I have ever visited. They have a nice pilot area to relax and plan your flight. Great service, would recommend to anyone who needs to stop in that area.

Excellent flight simulator training. Jim Witt was a perfect trainer in the simulator, explaining everything and coaching me through flying and landing. I would recommend J A Flight Training and Jim Witt to anyone who wishes to experience flying.

I own 2 airplanes, one purchased from JA. I called to ask a tech about a radio transmission problem. I was told that they couldn't answer a question about that. A radio does 2 things; transmits and receives. If a RADIO shop can't answer a question about one of the 2 basic radio functions, do you really want to have them do ANYTHING to your plane?

Mailed 2 radios into JA Air Ctr for repair. 1 KX175B(MAC1700) and an old KX170B.
After arrival I was contacted by Luke Gummol and told that only the MAC 1700 was repairable and that repair would be approximately $250. I told Luke that was fair just to ship the old unrepairable radio
back with repaired radio. Luke requested a CC# for the expense and I obliged. Next day...
My CC acct was hit for $254.02 for the MAC repair and $123.02 for the KX170(Un-repairable)
Charged me for repairs to an UN-repairable radio !! Seriously ??
On receiving the package with two radios bagged and boxed...The supposed repaired MAC is in worse condition than when it left my address !! LOOSE parts rattling around inside the radio !!
Over $400 dollars (repairs and shipping) wasted !!! I will contest these charges with JA Air Center.

I am a student a J.A. Flight training and I could not be happier.

Having been to other flight schools in the past (I have a Commercial-IFR Helicopter rating), the level of which J.A. operates has exceeded any and all expectations I had about returning to a flight school to get my fixed wing certificates

Leslie, Jim and Bill all went above and beyond the call of duty to help with everything I needed to get my fixed wing flying career up and going. I cannot thank them enough.

J.A. flight training is not a pilot factory, It is a flight training community where the instructors care about their students and their true understanding of everything that comes along with learning how to fly an airplane(at least that s how I feel). Every instructor I have met have been a pleasure to deal with, all offering their own little bits of helpful advice.

The planes are maintained meticulously, all but one have glass cockpits and they are always clean and odor free. Once you have flown a well maintained aircraft, it's pretty easy to tell which ones are not looked after.

If you are thinking about a career in flying or just want to see what it's like, I highly recommend contacting J.A. flight training.
I was initially going to go to a different flight school elsewhere in the country, but after a not so pleasant experience with them, I decided to look elsewhere.

Right from the first phone call with Leslie, I knew that J.A. was going to be a great experience. Jim and Bill spent countless hours doing research for me and shared all the information with me before the mention of any money, I have saved well over $30,000 by going to J.A. for one-on-one training versus the other school which wanted me to "join" one of their classes (12+ students per class) without any credit for ratings held.

I have been training at J.A. for the past few months so I feel that this review has a leg to stand on, I have read the negative reviews on J.A. and have failed to understand a single one of them. Come on guys and gals, this is flying, there will always be weather and other restrictions that decide for you whether your reservation is going ahead or not, we are not in a perfect world. I completed my Helicopter ratings in sunny southern California, I have learned so much about weather and winter flying out here in Chicago that I almost wish I had found a helicopter school here all those years ago (Almost).

On June 29, 2012, we signed a contract with JA Air Charter (Sugar Grove, IL). The contract was for travel on a light jet from Chicago, IL to East Hampton, NY departing August 17, 2012 and returning August 20, 2012. The contract included our credit card which would be authorized as a deposit for the trip.

On August 10th, 2012 they sent us a flight itinerary that included names of passengers, departure times, FBO information and pilot s names.

At that time we were told that everything was fine and the trip was as scheduled. On the afternoon of August 15, 2012 (36 hours before departure) they called us saying that they were unable to do our trip because we now have another trip that we re going to do instead. So we were left without an aircraft a day and a half before departure without any other options but to fend for ourselves.

We were able at the last minute to find another jet, but we had to pay several thousand dollars more. They neither offered to get us another aircraft nor (even worse) offered us an apology. We have never heard back from them! The only thing that we were happy about is that although we gave them our credit card to secure the jet, they requested an upfront wire. We refused to send it. We probably would have lost all of our money.

Do not do business with JA Air Charter and do not send them a wire. Because even if you have a signed contract it means NOTHING!