Stapleford flight center.

[Elbiot]

Hello,
Ive been looking at riverside recently but today was looking over the stapleford website. It seems there isn't that much difference in price to train zero-fATPL. Would stapleford be a better option seeming as its in the uk?

Has anyone trained there and got any opinions on it?

Tried to do a search on it but couldn't seem to find much info on it.

Cheers

Elliot

[Elbiot]

anyone????

[Brian304]

Stapleford has a better reputation with its DA42's than riverside. I haven't been there personally though, but been hearing good things about there IR course. Even the 19 year old Titan airways pilot did his IR in stapleford, so if its the same price I would recommend you stapleford, personal opinion anyway.

Brian304

[norton2005]

i did my PPL at stapleford. Not the best, not the worst, your average school. obviously this is just PPL info i didnt do anymore training there after. My main issue was the bookings and slots. really got on my nerves the way they booked more people then they had instuctors for and you lost lessons so they could keep things "fair".

[markstevens]

Elbiot, hi,

I totally diagree with your last post. I took my very first flight lesson at Stapleford and completed everything there. Personally I have absolutely no complaint at all about it, and everyone else there speaks highly of it. Incidentally, I went to Uni and trained with Ed (The 19 year at Titan) and he neither had any complaints about the school. I've never been to another flight school, so it's difficult for me to compair, but I'd definitely recommend Stapleford Flight Centre!

Good luck mate!

M

[G SXTY]

I did my PPL at SFC and was very happy with the standard of training. Went elsewhere for my CPL/IR but that was no reflection on them, I just wanted a change of scenery.

SFC have a pretty good reputation and I've never heard any serious complaints about them.

[damicod]

I done everything at SFC bar the PPL and haven’t got any complaints. They’re a good all rounder. The instructors are the best thing about it. They’re not the sort that you get at other so called designer Flying schools that are on the "wash and go" Instructor route of a quick session as a flying instructor as a ladder to their jet jobs. SFC are also users of the diamond which is a great a/c to do the IR on. Its easier than an Seneca. I’ve heard several rumours that the national average IR pass rate has risen as a result of it. Don’t know if that’s true or not. But would certainly understand why if that was the case.

[athonite]

Complete waste of time and money, there are better places

[alphagolf]

Complete waste of time and money, there are better placesCan you please explain more in details?

[Philmacavity]

Really, fella!
Don't just make throw away remarks without backing them up without explaination!
Just been to see them today, they seem very competent and professional. Why do you say they are a waste of money? Were you in the 2% that didn't pass 1st time?

[frostbite]

Up to athonite's comment I have never seen or heard a bad word about them.

Don't think I set much store by his pithy remark.

[BellyAir]

I did my commercial training at Stapleford and thought it was very good.

It's a busy school and you have to speak up a bit sometimes to get what you want but otherwise it has some very good instructors, the DA42 is great to fly IR and there is always someone to speak to if you have a problem (personal or flight related).

I would recommend Stapleford if you can speak up for yourself. If you're a shy wall flower maybe you cold work in a labrary.

The world's your lobster, as one of the IR instructor will tell you.

If you want more details you can send me a message.

[tingtang]

Hi people

Can anyone let me know if the thielert engine situation is giving any problems with the use of the DA42 at Stapleford for training?

I'm doing a CPL/IFR conversion there starting the end of October and have experience in the DA42 so would make sense to keep flying it. The place I learnt to fly it in Florida has grounded it's fleet and I'm going out to Florida again before I start at Stapleford so I'm wondering whether I should get some cheap seneca experience in Florida in case I have to fly one back in the UK.

Cheers

Will

[adz1616]

Hi Will,

I believe stapleford have sorted out the DA42 problem and have resumed normal rates on it.

Best to give them a shout and have a chat with them.

And to reconfirm the above views Stapleford it a very professional flight school which has over 99.9% of great reviews on here and i suggest those with unpleasant reviews should look at their own performance first!

Some people are just not cut out to be pilots and find out at the latter end of the practical training!

[tingtang]

thanks, just want to make sure they are flying as I've enjoyed flying the DA42 from 0ft all the way up to FL180!

[BrianP]

Didn't you pass out? Or maybe you had scuba gear on?

[Nashers]

great school to train in and ive enjoyed myself here.

hold your breath on the dimonds though as ive just teched one due to an engine loosing power on takeoff. this was at cranfield this afternoon. thankfully i had canx my flight test due to the wind anyway.

they are wiating for 2 engines to come back for one aircraft, another aircraft went tech last week due to a cracked cylinder head, and another aircraft also had engine troubles last week so has gone tech.

i feel sorry for them as they do try to get them fixed asap and generaly the whole fleet is kept flying. if an aircraft goes tech, they usualy get it up in a day. just bad luck all the DA42 engines decided to pack up in the same week!

[tingtang]

we did have an O2 tank but used cannulas which are rated to 18,000ft and since the service ceiling is 18,000 we tried it out on a flight from near Miami to the Bahamas!

thanks for the info Nashers.

[scallaghan]

Hi

I am thinking of doing my IR with SFC, any recent positive / negative experiences?

[paulyp]

I completed my IMC & Night at SFC without any complaints. I found all the instructors to be helpfull, and very down to earth. Yes there's always going to be a/c going tech, but i experienced that at another local flight school during my PPL. I find the airfield an ideal place to fly from, and have also joined a group there to hour build. I'd give SFC a go !!!!!

[aviationdreams91]

Hi Elly , let me say my experience hope it is useful and compare a little bit between stapleford and others ..... i have been searching for flying schools to start from zero to atpl for months now and Stapleford was the best in the uk !! i have went to cabair , BCFT ( bournemouth ), bristol , oxford and i checked evrything there so i think i can compare very good . i will write in points to be easier to compare .

1) Stapleford has a very large fleet including more than 40 aircraft wich no other place have it with this variety as they have the C152 , piper arrow , piper warrior , Sceneca , and the D42 wich is a great aircraft to fly
( Compared to oxford, they have only the Cessna's , warrior , sceneca , so they dont hae the D42 which is a very big advantage to stapleford (
NB: to b fair the C152's used for the ppl is a little bit old but flying wise no problems and will be great to fly them )

2)The location of stapleford is one of the best locations in the uk to train in , b cuz around the airfield there is their uncontrolled airpsoace and also there is the controlled airspace near central london and essex .
also for the location ,l it is suited between 3 big ariports like heathrow , gatwick and stansted so a lot of traffic to deal with .
wen i flew the C152 tehr i spotted the Emirates A380 :D lol
NB: it is less than 60 min driving from central london !! ( the point is u need a car )

3)They have two runways asphlat one and grass one .
(the asphalt one isn't equipped for the ILS , so they use Southend airpot , so u have an advantage ther )

4)very high pass rates .

5) very good recruiting record to graduates ( u can check their site )

6)Instructors are the best !! very professional , kind , down to earth.

7) 99% postive reviews :)

This what i concluded from all my visits and questions .
hope this helps evryone
thx,
Mina

[Leezyjet]

5) very good recruiting record to graduates ( u can check their site )

That list on their website isn't very long considering the number of people that train there, and looking at some of the names, it goes back a number of years to when times were good.

It is also worth bearing in mind that Stapleford offer little to no further help and assistance in finding a job once you are out of the door, unlike the other "big" schools in the country so I would guess most of those people on that list have probably found their own jobs once they left which makes it a bit of a cheek to put them on there.

I don't even know if Stapleford actually have any contacts these days with any airlines (they used to punt Ryanair and Astraeus in the past, but that was it), as you often see airlines stating they will recruit low hours students from CTC or Oxford, yet you never see any airline claim that about Stapleford and Stapleford never offer to put you forward or assist you at all - or maybe they do just they didn't with me or anyone I trained with, whilst Oxford are still assisting those who finished 18 months - 2 years ago to find what little jobs there are.

:hmm:

[aviationdreams91]

BTW regarding the unifroms . does SFC offer their uniform ?? or students buy them from anywhere , and when is it essentially needed to be worn in training .