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matjr79
29th May 2008, 07:42
Does anyone know what has happened to MSF at EGCC. Have they closed down? Also does anyone know if Lancs aero club are intending to start up a flying school anytime in the future. I am currently living in melbourne and the price of flight training over here is about the same as the UK. 737/767 pilots over here are telling me i'm better off with a european JAA licence....

Whats the rough price of UK schools now with landing fees incl and vat???
Mat

ATR42300
29th May 2008, 09:31
In response to your question, MSF closed down about six weeks ago folowing the latest hike in their lease costs and also the fact that Manchester Airport would no longer hold supplies of AVGAS.

Lancashire Aero Club at Barton have not as yet advised their intentions however a member of the Club bought the aircraft fleet and all the instructors transferred to the LAC Flying School at Barton. basically all the same but a different name, still a good outfit

BackPacker
29th May 2008, 10:17
I am currently living in melbourne and the price of flight training over here is about the same as the UK.

I assume that's Melbourne, Australia and not Melbourne, Florida, USA, is it? Because there are several JAA flight schools in Florida so you can get the PPL over there. In fact, in Sebastian, just a few miles south of Melbourne FL there's an instructor associated with OFT running his own little OFT branch office.

Anyway...

An AUS PPL or a JAA PPL... It depends on what you want to do and where you want to do it. An AUS PPL, being an ICAO PPL, is either implicitly, or easily "rendered valid" in other ICAO countries and generally gives you privileges in that country up to the level of a PPL from that country. If your only intention is to fly for fun, in Day VFR conditions within the UK then your AUS PPL is as good as anything.

A slightly more complex issue would be your medical though. I simply do not know if an AUS PPL plus a JAA class II medical is enough to get you flying in the UK. If not, then you need to find a way to keep your AUS medical up to date in Europe.

A JAA PPL is less of a hassle in JAA land since international flying requires less paperwork and you can far more easily add things like an IMC, IR or other things to it.

You can do all your flying training in JAA land and get a JAA PPL. But it is also possible to do large parts of your flying training in AUS. Have the instructor properly sign off your logbook, make sure you bring your student folder over to the UK with all the "instruction complete" marks next to all flight exercises, bring a copy of the instructors licenses (as they will not be known to the CAA, obviously) and you should be able to count those hours towards the 45 hours requirement from the JAA (and all its subrequirements).

Upon arrival in the UK, you "only" need to do the seven theory exams, the R/T practical, a few hours aircraft and airspace familiarity and then the skills test.

So you can start your training in AUS, and finish it whenever you get to the UK.

(Having said all this, it would be a good idea to contact the UK school where you intend to finish your training and see what sort of paperwork they exactly require for this to work.)

Dog's Bone
29th May 2008, 18:35
As already noted, MSF have finally closed their doors.

At Manchester Barton (or City Airport Manchester as the owners like to call it) the LAC Flying School was sold in March 2007, and now trades totally independent of LAC (the aero club) (http://www.lancsaeroclub.co.uk). Stuart Carr's 'LAC Flying School (http://www.lacflyingschool.co.uk)' trades as such, with the same staff and aircraft fleet which he purchased from LAC.


Ravenair (http://www.ravenair.co.uk) also operates a flying training operation at Barton as well as from its main base at Liverpool. If you refer to the company's price lists you will see that it is cheaper to learn to fly at Liverpool Airport than it is at City Airport Manchester Barton! Apart from being cheaper, you also stand a better chance of completing your PPL training during the winter months, when Barton is waterlogged closed to fixed wing operations for days-on-end.

I'd stay in Australia if I was you ! If only for the sunshine......