G&B Aircraft G&B Flight Academy Ripped off; Gene Curtis ,owner, and family took money and would not return. THis and other violations being investigated. Woods Cross, Utah

 Looks like the FAA finally caught up to Gene Curtis. The aviation community is relatively small and ppl line Mr. Curtis are a discrace to aviation. FAA Article: https://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=19494

Broke into the CEOs Office?  Never happened

Poor q***r sap?  Not true, Bi yes, poor yes, sap no

Your facts on the rest are erroneous and fabricated from the Curtis camp

Gene is slick and I saw it first hand for a long time and it was his family, the nepotism that pushed me out and triggered the whole mess.  All I can say to you is you were not there!  What you posted is so way off the mark, way off!  I would love to meet you FACE TO FACE!!!!

To the original author of the report. Are you still in aviation?

It would seem to me that you do not understand how an aviation mechanic receives his/her aviation mechanic certificate. The process that you describe of one mechanic doing the work then another checking the work is correct. It is done at every repair station and is the proper order that work is completed on an aircraft. Even the major airlines perform their work in this manor. So as an industry standard it is not a double charge. Personally I would rather have two people look over my airplane rather than just one. The "student" mechanic learns by doing, and the teacher looks over the work. The FAA requires that this be done.

I also happen to know as a fact that Gene himself was paying for his family to fly. It was not on the UAA dime. I wonder if you have the financials to back up your story?

If what you say is true about the registration of the aircraft and about how none of the members of the UAA actually owned any of the aircraft. How is it you were able to take 12 of the aircraft south? If they were not legally yours, then you stole them and they should be returned. What you say seems quite a contradiction.

This just shows how little you know about what the registration of an aircraft really means. The definition between registered owner, operational owner, and operational control of an airplane. Many airlines operate and have operational control of an airplane however they are not the registered owner of the aircraft. So it is in factional ownerships, the majority share holder should legally be the registered owner however this does not mean they are legally responsible for the aircraft. The contracts between the owner and whom ever has operational control determines who is responsible. At what point during a fractional ownership aircraft gets registered under the group name or stays with the majority share holder is a matter for debate.

As I understand it the UAA no longer exists. So it makes me wonder who is the better businessman? You who seems to have run UAA into the ground and now the members no longer have any benefits to aircraft ownership or Gene who is still in business?

I have also been in aviation and flight training long enough to know that flight training is like most other things that are hard to do. They are what YOU make of it.

The last poster is obviously miss-informed. The UAA was a great Idea but the problem is the members of the club didnt actually own any of the aircraft. All but one of the aircraft was under Gene Curtis's or G&B aircraft management's Name, as well as other family members names. The members of the club were lead to believe that they were 1/10th owners of the aircraft purchased, but which aircraft was theirs. there was over 200 members of the club, they all owned 1/10th of the 172 in question? the plan was the members would get 10 people to join the club and then the club members would vote on the next aircraft to be purchased but that is not what happened. Gene and his son Jerry would take the money $5,500 x 10 at the time and buy another aircraft under G&B's name or again, one of the family members name. Never the UAA! Gene Curtis was mismanaging the UAA's money and over charging the UAA for maintenance. Gene's son Jerry Curtis was at the time the head mechanic for G&B but unannounced to the members of the UAA Jerry was not a certified A&P mechanic. So Jerry was doing work on the aircraft at the tune of $125.00 per hour and then to be legal they had another A&P certified mechanic go over all of his work at the tune of $125.00 per hour. The other mechanic had to go over all of the work Jerry had performed and then sign off the work so he would not be liable for any mistakes of the Non-certified mechanic. That comes out to $250.00 per hour for maintenance done to the aircraft. How is that not over charging? As for the UAA voting Gene out of the CEO status, The UAA had seen what G&B was doing so they decided to Vote him out of the power position and elect a new CEO of the club to make decisions for the club. Gene was furious!!! so he decided to put mechanics lien's on all of the aircraft and take many of the aircraft out of srevice "due to maintenance issues" until the club had satisfied the debt to G&B. that is when the UAA got a lawyer and filed a suit against G&B and Gene Curtis for mismanaging the clubs money and over charging the UAA for maintenance on the aircraft. In a mad dash to recoup the money he was about to loose due to mismanagement of the clubs funds Gene started double charging students who were members of the club for flight training and sending invoicing students for unpaid balances. I was one of the students that got an invoice for unpaid balances. I never had a balance, i never ran up a tab. I paid for every flight at the end of a flight. When i approached Gene about this he told me that i was bouncing checks left and right and he didnt want me flying his aircraft anymore plus he told me that he would take me to court if i didnt pay by the end of the week. I promptly produced bank records proving that he had indeed cashed my checks and i was up to date with my training cost. So how is Gene not a crook? The UAA decided to take 10 of the aircraft down to the West Jordan Airport and put the aircraft in the cair of the Air Center of Salt Lake. It took six more months to get 2 more of the 20 plus aircraft the UAA funds had paid for. In all the UAA only got 12 of their 20 plus fleet of member purchased aircraft. Gene and G&B only have aircraft because of the UAA and their money. Did i mention that the Curtis family also received all of their pilots license's on the UAA's dime. Children, Grand children, nieces and nephews. Why wouldn't the UAA want to vote the Curtis Family out of power. All you have to do is Google Utah Aircraft Alliance and Gene Curtis, to see the law suit's. So now you may ask how do i know all of this, where do i get my info? i worked as a fuel'er for G&B to pay for flight training. I saw all of the aircraft airworthiness certificates and registration papers in the aircraft. they asked me to be a part of said club but i didnt understand why the UAA's name was not on any of the paperwork in the aircraft so i knew it was a scam from the get go. I saw first hand people getting scammed out of their hard earned money. I saw the family getting free flight time. I saw Jerry getting his work looked over by a "real A&P mechanic". I saw the UAA aircraft being used by non-club members and the UAA members not benefiting from it. I WAS THERE!!!!!!!!! So to the previous poster, dont tell me or the other people that got taken by Gene and G&B that it didnt happen. That Gene was totally honest. he is a crook, and now he is trying to do it again. Buyer be aware of his shady business plan, it is set up to benefit him and his family alone. Never to benefit the pilot community. 

Sorry that you feel this way. Very inapropriate however. After leaving G&B's Flight School and onto the Airlines, I have in fact several friends still work for G&B. The inside scoop is never at anyones disposal until after a few years have past and your sitting at the bar sipping a few. The facts of the matter are that G&B did not file for bankruptcy and Gene is not a wealthy man. The Utah Aircraft Alliance filed bankruptcy. Gene Curtis was voted out of his CEO seat by a couple of UAA staff employee's by illegal leap frogging unapproved voters ballets. Just because of some poor q***r sap was fired for not doing his job properly over and over and over, broke into the CEO's office, stole several documents that didn't even pertain to the business end of things, made out a bunch of false accusations and then coursed other friends and co-workers the same way of thinking as he, and then taking the voting percentage of students and renters, and try to take Mr Curtis for a ride. Mr. Curtis had several of his personal Aircraft in the Club, a total of 23 aircraft flying as I had left. The clubs income to dept ratio was still over 5%. They actually had over 100 thousand dollars a month in flight income, parts inventory of 35 thousand plus, and outstanding dept to parts distributors for over 500 thousand. The club voted and decided to leave Skypark airport and take their aircraft to another airport to have the another agency manage their aircraft. Gene was stuck with that 500 thousand dollar parts dept to outside sources in which it took 5 years for him to clear off the books. The Insurance came up due in October, the club after leaving Skypark no longer had the cash revenues, and actually had the balls to contact Gene Curtis and ask to float them a loan after all this non-sense. Of course Gene refused the loan, the club shortly thereafter filed for bankruptcy. The managers that took the club over has since filed bankruptcy as well. Gene proposed to the UAA Students and Renters that he would in fact take the agreement costs from UAA and apply them to the new G&B. Only a few people had taken advantage of Gene's proposal. The ones that didn't are ones who sided wrongfully with the Dismissed Employee. To Bad for those people and 'I beleive their thinkers are off the track'. Gene is still doing his business as usual. He said to me at one time, " If your in a business, it's not if, but when some poor old sap will try and take what's not theirs by suit." Was he ever right. 
I now have several hundreds of hours flying for Sky West and Delta Airlines and my thanks to G&B's School Flight training Programs. I have several other friends that are pilots from there. 
My co-workers feel the same way as I do.
Let's just try and get over who's in charge and deal with your aches and pains--- Quietly. !-) 
               You are the one responsible for your actions - Right or Wrong !.