organisation of eft florida

[oskar]

i am writing in relation to eft in florida and if anyone has got any shared experience. recently i was doing my instrument rating with them and to be fair i actually heard quite good reports,but as with most things in aviation training,i found quite the opposite. They had promised accommadation which had been booked 4 weeks in advance, but on arrival no school accommadation,and i was left to stay in a motel for two weeks at an extra cost, than there was the issue of hired cars, again promised but did not materialise, after that there were problems with students names been scratched out of the schedule for the next day without any notification leaving the student with not aircraft to train in,this happened to me on two occasions and also to other students occasions unknown. This gets better, when you go to pay them for what you have flown, a very unhelpful and rude female in charge of students accounts,tells you either to go away or cant you see im busy. my last item of my chest and your probably saying thank god, they take forever to refund your money,im waiting 7 weeks now for a little under 2 thousand dollars. my question here is am i unique to this flying school or has anyone else got anymore experience with them as i am a very broke pilot like many before me. any feed back would be great,even form the school in question

[dorosenco]

Oskar,

I did my CPL with EFT in Florida. I found them very professional and efficient, I even finished my CPL under their estimated cost and time (6 days!). Housing was great, brand new houses for a really good price. Only problem!, yes, they do have only one PA28RT. Booking might be a problem and I also had my schedule removed once by somebody else ...
Remember that winter months are the busiest months for them ! Most of europeans go to Florida in winter because of the bad and cold weather in Europe.
Regarding the money you can only pay by Credit Card with 2 or 4% surcharge, money order or cash. You cannot fly if you're in the hole ! So keep your account under control and PAY AS YOU GO !
I managed to have my account at "zero" when I left so I did not have to wait for any money back.

Talk to Phil or Ben about that. Phil is a great instructor and was very helpful to me ...

good luck with your training,
:ok:

[RLM]

I'm here now. It's great. Had a few problems with the housing as well. It's not EFT's housing, it's Mike Cohen's housing. What ever...
I'm keeping track of my money as well and is always talking to Trevor about it, no problem:O
I haven't seen or heard about any girl taking care of that around here. They might be hiring one soon.

Cheers R.

[CAB]

Oskar,

I was there 6 months ago, and I experienced exactly the same things you are talking about.. housing, cars, scheduling and refund....
The lady you are talking about might be the one in charge of aviators accounting.. can't remember her name...

CAB

[FlyUK]

I did my PPL and Night at EFT about 4 months ago. I found the instructors VERY professional, and although there was the odd occurance of aircraft 'swapping' i never had a real problem. The instructors at EFT always tried to do the best for you....

[Northern Highflyer]

If you are reading the CPL Diary thread, FFF is currently writing about his experiences as he does his CPL with EFT.

It's a great read and EFT sound very professional.

The only problem appears to be the dodgy winds over there. :rolleyes:

[FlyingForFun]

Hmm.

Financially, the only person I've dealth with is Trevor, who I wouldn't describe as an "unhelpful and rude female"!

I'm not staying in their accomodation nor renting a car from them. The people I've spoken to who are doing so haven't had any problems... but you're not the first person who's said those things, and that's one of the reasons why I decided to arrange my own accomodation and transport. All the information is here on PPRuNe, so any PPRuNer who does stay at their accomodation or hire a car from them should know that there's at least a chance of problems.

As for the schedule, I have seen late changes to the schedule, but I've found that, as long as I check the schedule before I leave each day, it hasn't changed when I arrive the next day, except for changes due to faulty aircraft (unavoidable, and the aircraft are fixed extremely promptly, so I can't complain about this). They only book the aircraft a couple of days in advance - and this, IMHO, is a mistake because when someone has a checkride coming up it means the aircraft can't be booked in advance, and they will then bump someone else off the schedule for the (quite rightly) higher priority checkride. The problem isn't helped by the fact that they share the aircraft with Aviator, so no single person knows about all the important flights which are coming up soon. But when I'm several thousand miles from home, with not very much to do with my time except fly, I can't say that this is really a major issue if I have to wait a couple of hours for an aeroplane. Just my opinion, of course.

Did you raise any of these issues with Trevor or Phil while you were here?

FFF
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[alphaadrian]

Hi Guys,
Regarding EFT,I have done a lot of my training with them.Also know a lot of people who have trained with them so am aware of a lot of different opinions.Would just like to make a few comments about them.
First time i was there,there were no accomadation probs but the second time there was no accomadation available for me,despite being promised it.The accomadation,whilst nice is far away from the school so a car is needed.But there are only a limited number of cars available!!!!So yes this can be a pain in the arse!!
I know the lady that Oskar is refering to,and yes she is an obnoxious and ignorant ....er..lady.
One final point.It seems that all who do there IR with them,(and continue with their sister school at EGHH have not been happy with their choice.(Myself included).
Those who do their IR with EFT in the hope of doing it "cheaply"(which is why we take the USA option,right?)are gonna be very surprised and disapointed!!!My advice and others would be to do the whole IR in England with their sister schoolETA.Their instructor Rupert is excellent and extremely professional.
Have a good weekend guys and girls.