Company called UK Flight Training

[stuart007]

Hi All,

Sorry if i repeat any previous threads, but there are an awfull lot to troll through :8
I am currently finishing off a PPL (H) and am looking to go commercial. I am obviously looking at all my options and deciding that this is going to be an expensive exercise.
I happened across this web site in my search www.ukft.com
which seems to promise over 600 hours of Helicopter training time, some of the 800 hours on the blurb being fixed wing time for some obscure reason. With 50 of these hours being a turbine chopper. Books and ground school inc. all for $59,000 US. Having talked to them, it also seems a $5000 rebate would be mine having completed my PPL.
so $54000 US!!!!! (£30000). 50 hours on a Jetbanger alone in this country (UK), would be say 5 hours type rating, plus 45 self fly would come in around £21000 inc VAT. The course is FAA, but most chopper jobs are not in this country anyway....
So i have to ask myself what's wrong?
So my question is does anyone know anything about this school?
trained there?

[Just Boxes]

Ask for testimonials from real students that have completed this course, and call and verify their experiences.

I don't remember UKFT having any helicopters, let alone a Jet Ranger.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is...

[bcat]

Yeah I agree with "Just Boxes" (interesting name), find out as much as you can before signing up. If it sounds to good to be true then it is! Be careful with supposed cheap PIC turbine time. many of these companies offer PIC but don't put you in the pilots seat. In other words they have an experienced pilot going to do a job and you tag along. You don't get to start the machine nor do the take offs or landing. Only the A-B stuff! Not a lot of experience to be gained with that. I had close dealings with a company in New Zealand that offered ratings on B206 and AS350 along with your CPL. Yes you got the ratings but never got to fly solo in the turbines and it wasn't an "add on" it was included in your 150 hour towards the CPL. This is okay just as long as you know that and don't think it'll be over and above the minimum 150 hours. What I trying to say is be very careful of what you get and what you expect. The other thing with doing and FAA licence is where will you use it. I spoke to the US Embassy on 4 separate occasions when in Auckland (NZ). They assured me that a work visa was very simple to get and took no time at all. At the end of the year it was a simple case of going to the local office in the States to renew it. Ha ha! When I got to the States and started asking questions to Immigration Attorneys and HAI in Florida I got a completely differant story. In a nutshell it was going to be virtually impossible to get an employer to go through the paperwork (and fork out fees) and then convince the US Embassy that no other American could do the work. Even then you had to wait 8 weeks and get back to your country of origin for an interview with the US Embassy there.
Think I'm starting to waffle on a bit and I'm sure I got more to say, so I'll get back to ya.:ok:

[stuart007]

Thanks for your time to answer guys,
Looks like nobody seems to have trained there !!!!

I will probably look elswhere...

:D

[smith]

I spent a couple of weeks at UKFT in Long Beach a few years ago (fixed wing), can't remember any jetrangers but they had a few robbies which they used for training, mostly japanese and korean students as far as I remember.

[Julian]

They didnt last time I was there either at the training school next door. You may find they are subbing out the helo side of the operation to another organisation, as Smithy says, they was a helo school next door which was run by Koreans/japanese and likewise attracted loads for training as believe its very popular over there.

I suspect that the helo side is actually being undertaken by Rainbow for them who have R22/R44s and are located in the same building.

Julian.

[clamb]

There are 2 different companies operating from Long Beach. UKFT and Angel City flyer. They all use rainbow air aircraft and also contract with other companies for training. I think they are pretty smart since it keeps their running cost low.

[scameron77]

There are actually 3 companies, Angel City Flyers (I'm doing the internship there), UKFT (I believe there is also a company based in Florida with the same name but no relation) and PCH (Japanese only flight intruction).

All four companies share the building but to the best of my knowledge UKFT doesn't have a specific office or space within the building.

Rainbow as two sides to it, the flight school and the air ambulance/charter side. The majority of the people at Rainbow are on an internship program. Usually the deal is 1,000 hours of instructing after getting their CFI/CFII/MEI and then onto another company to get line training and 250/500 hours turbine time.

The fleet includes 4 C152's, 2 C172's, 3 C172 SP's, 1 Warrior, 2 Archers, a Seneca and if I've missed anything out I apologise. The interns at Rainbow get the chance to fly a King Air 90 or 200 after they are Multi-Instrument rated.

There were 3 Robinson R22's until recently, one went back to the leasing company leaving two. I'm unsure if there are any plans to get hold of additional helicopters or different makes/models. I personally have never seen anyone at Rainbow be given Jet Ranger instruction from a Rainbow instuctor.

The director who runs the flight school side of Rainbow has, so I've been told, is the world's most experienced R22 pilot in terms of hours logged. There are two other helicopter instructors

ACF, PCH and UKFT rent aircraft from Rainbow, keeping costs down, and allowing them to use other schools at the airport (California Flight Centre, Long Beach Flying Club, etc) if a Rainbow aircraft is down for maintainence. I am unaware if the other two schools have done this when required, however I went elsewhere for my Multi-Engine checkride when the Rainbow Seneca was down.

ACF have recently acquired a Cessna 172 with a glass cockpit Garmin 1000. Due for delivery mid-August.

UKFT also contracts rainbow instructors, ACF and PCH do all training inhouse, however have a reciprocal agreemet with a Japanese Rainbow instuctor if she is required to cover busy periods with PCH.

In terms of simulators ACF owns a G501 simulator and another based at Torrance airport, has a Garmin 1000 simulator on order from Elite (due to be operational in September). There are no helicopter sims on the site.

A few of the helicopter interns have ben promised turbine time when their instructing is finished, another few guys looked into a scheme with a guy based in El Monte who is a ferry pilot for Robinson delivering R44's. He puts qualified pilots under the hood and charges them $200 approx per hour, a third of the price of R44 time in the UK I'm led to believe.

[Julian]

Scameron,

Have ACF gone into aircraft ownership now? I though they were going to use other FBOs rather than their own as keeps costs down?

Julian.

[scameron77]

A former stundent has recently purchased a 172SP with a G1000 glass cockpit. He is uk based and wants to see how aircraft ownership works (tax breaks including 60% depreciation in the first year can be written off, etc.).

It will maintained by Rainbow and parked on their ramp and dispatched along with all of their other aircraft, however ACF have ultimate control and priority.

I got a sneeky peak at a glass cockpit yesterday, I was like a kid in a candy shop, having an Atitude Indicator the size of a small melon is pretty cool.

[Julian]

Cool, will it be avaliable for solo hire or just training and have to go over to Hart for solo hire? What the rates going to be on it?

Julian.

[vinil]

Rainbow Air recently held a Cirrus day and the brand new SR22 G2 aircraft on display. They are hoping to have a few Cirrus on line.