Vocational Programs

The Ottawa Flight College offers four vocational programs aimed at preparing students for a professional career in aviation:

• Diploma Program (through Algonquin College)
• Professional Pilot Program (combined PPL, CPL, Night licenses and ratings with partial instruction in multi-IFR)
• Commercial Pilot License (CPL) and
• Flight Instructor Rating (FI). 

With these license or rating, you will be able to earn money as a professional pilot or flight instructor.  The CPL is the foundation of the advanced training you will require to get a job with the airlines and the minimum requirements for any job as a pilot.  The Instructor Rating will allow you to teach other instructors. For more information on these ratings, see the pages for the Commercial Pilot License or the Instructor Rating.

Since these are vocational programs, their conduct falls under the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities which imposes requirements on career colleges to ensure the quality of the education and the financial protection of the students.  As a registered Private Career College,  the Ottawa Flight College exceeds these requirements.  Specifically:

• The quality of our education is governed and audited by Transport Canada.  Our instructors are regularly re-certified and our programs, policies and procedures are audited every few years.
• Our aircraft are maintained to the highest standards of Transport Canada by certified Aircraft Maintenance Engineers.
• Our tuition fees are minimized to only cover ground school classes - so we are not holding your money. 
• You pay-as-you-go for most of the instruction and flight training which means you are encouraged but never required to put a large sum of money on account or to pre-pay for your training.

The MTCU also requires that Private Career Colleges collect information about their students and report, in their financial statements and operational data, on this information.  As a result, students in the CPL or Instructor Rating vocational programs are required to sign a Student Contract and provide this additional information.

Revenue Canada also recognizes the CPL and Instructor Ratings as vocational training and provides an HST tax exemption for the minimum requirements for both ratings and licenses.  Many flight training institutions charge the full HST on all their training - putting the onus on you to reclaim the HST from the government.  The Ottawa Flight College is one of the only schools that actually applies the HST exemptions to your flight training so you are not out of pocket for the 13%.

At tax time, the Ottawa Flight College will provide a completed TL11B tax form to all vocational students.  The TL11B tax form can be used to claim portions of the flight training and tuition expenses as a credit on your income tax.  This is a valuable tax credit that can refund approximately 30% of the cost of your flight training (depending on your tax situation).