Beware. Russ Miley is the CFI. He runs it out of a location in Punta Gorda, Florida in the winter,…read moreand at Antrim County Airport in Bellaire, Michigan in the summer. Russ was my CFI.
I made 2 trips from Europe, each lasting 11 days, in June and July of 2017. Everything seemed to be going well. I did solo after 11.4 hours of training in his AeroPro EuroFox LSA airplane and planned to come back in August of 2017.
He videoed my first solo flight, and I was very happy with the experience. He promised to send me the video, which I wanted for my 8-year-old son. My son wanted to show his classmates. Well, here I am a year later, and he never sent the video despite repeated requests for him to do so. I would phone him and ask about it, and he always had some sort of excuse like, "I'm working on it", etc. My son was heartbroken, as he had told his classmates all about it.
He became somewhat combative in his text messages when I was trying to arrange my next training visit in August 2017. He then just stopped responding. I have no idea what his issues are, as I always paid him for each lesson, I showed up early for each session, and we seemed to get along fine.
I can only assume he took great satisfaction in not forwarding the video of my first solo, which was a great milestone in my life, (and in all pilot's lives), that came at great financial expense thru traveling, purchasing aircraft insurance for Russ's airplane, hotel rental, car rental and all the other extra headaches that come with intercontinental travel.
As anyone can see from his site, his last reviews posted are from 2013, five years ago. I found that interesting. I did a little digging and found out that others in the aviation business have had some issues with his behavior, to say the least. Russ is a very capable pilot and knows his stuff. He is a smart man and definitely has a high IQ. I wrote a glowing review about him after my first training visit in June 2017. And I meant every word of it. But he has no empathy for anyone. He does NOT keep his promises. And he simply doesn't care about anyone except Russ Miley, CFI.
I am happy that I soloed.
But unfortunately, he is not a man of his word. I wish things could have been different, but that's life. I have continued flying and always will.