Orlando Flight Training in July!

[Elbiot]

Is anyone going to be at OFT in July? I start there on the 7th, Also booked in for GS start on Oct 13th. Still indecided where to do my CPL, ME. If i like OFT then I will stay there but if I dont then, maybe somewhere like OBA.

Elliot

[alanmtc]

Dito...

7th July @ OFT
GS on the 13th Oct!

PS Elliot is my husband.... ha ha Ell Bell!!

Alan

[BRS_flyer]

7th of July start at OFT for me as well on JAA PPL.

See you there

[Duffer2007]

anyone starting faa ppl on the 16th june at oft? pm if you are! when you say groundschool, is that with oft or somewhere back europe?

ian

[p4mmy]

I am at OBA just now, good place, all the students well looked after but a bit out in the middle of no where if u dont have a car. I was going to go to OFT but they were terrible at answering emails or telephone messages. Weather is good but thermals can get a bit annoying.

[Duffer2007]

Really? I found it to be the complete opposite, OBA were very slow to answer and very unhelpful, OFT were and still are brilliant! Adam always at hand to answer the hundreds of emails i sent him!

[belleh]

Sorry to thread hijack, but I have a quick question or three. Having looked over the OFT website, I see that their prices are a lot cheaper than doing things in the UK (even with extra associated costs...). I would like to know what people think of doing things this way? More specifically, what are the pros and cons?

Also, if I were to take their FAA 1000 hour program and then look to do a conversion to JAA after the fact, what would the pros and cons of that route be? And does anyone know what the difficulty in (assuming I could find a job... big assumption at the moment, but that aside) obtaining a permanent working visa in the USA as a pilot would be if I decided to stay over there?

I'm just looking for the low down on these types of questions, and anything I should be particularly wary of (state of the industry aside, I'm more than aware of all of that side of things, and as I have my final year of university to go followed by a mega saving session, this wouldn't be on the cards for another 2.5 years at least - by which time, I'm hoping the industry may be starting to turn around!).

Cheers.

[BRS_flyer]

You may have difficulties in that approach for several reasons: To enable you to undertake a course of studies during which you can earn money as part of it you need a US J-1 visa. OFT is only authorised to issue M-1 visas and so you would not be able to undertake the 1000hr program and be paid as an instructor in the second year. There are a number of schools approved to issue a J-1 visa but a good option may be Fly Aviator at Fort Pierce (http://www.aribenaviator.com/proCourse.html) who offer a similar course (although you need PPL first). Bit more expensive than OFT but lots of ME time and includes both MEI and CFII ratings. Advantage to any of these schemes is that in terms of weather you can build time much faster than instructing in the UK.

You probably should gear all of this towards converting at the end and could even distance learn your APTL's while instructing as the chance of obtaining permenent authorisation to work in the US as a pilot is pretty much zero (unless you marry an American that is).

[Elbiot]

Ian,

Im starting the FAA PPl on the 7th July so probably see you there.

Elliot

[Daultonio]

Hey just come back from OFT have you been there before?? NOt a bad school i advise you do your ME out there and even your CPL very good instructors especailly for the ME and CPL.
Any other questions feel free to ask

[Elbiot]

No never been there before looking forward it it. Yeh if I like it there then I will stay and so my cpl me with them as well. What were you doing there cpl me?

[belleh]

You may have difficulties in that approach for several reasons: To enable you to undertake a course of studies during which you can earn money as part of it you need a US J-1 visa. OFT is only authorised to issue M-1 visas and so you would not be able to undertake the 1000hr program and be paid as an instructor in the second year. There are a number of schools approved to issue a J-1 visa but a good option may be Fly Aviator at Fort Pierce (http://www.aribenaviator.com/proCourse.html) who offer a similar course (although you need PPL first). Bit more expensive than OFT but lots of ME time and includes both MEI and CFII ratings. Advantage to any of these schemes is that in terms of weather you can build time much faster than instructing in the UK.

You probably should gear all of this towards converting at the end and could even distance learn your APTL's while instructing as the chance of obtaining permenent authorisation to work in the US as a pilot is pretty much zero (unless you marry an American that is).

Marry an American... :D:D. But seriously, thanks for the information. I realised the visa situation would be a problem fairly quickly after I posted last night. Anyway, I've been looking at the site you linked me to, and it does indeed seem more tempting. Primarily because of the ability to hour build as an instructor, but also because of the ME time etc. It also seems that you don't have to have a PPL, you can add $x to the price to have that included. Certainly seems to be one of the more tempting offers so far, on the face of it, but I'm still wondering if there are any pitfalls of this kind of route that I should be aware of? Industry state aside, would completion of this 24 month course leave me with the right qualifications/ratings and hours to be technically employable for an airline company (excluding any conversion I may have to do if I want to fly in Europe)?

This also appeals to me because... well, I had wanted to get out of England for a bit post uni graduation, but decided that I don't have the time to if I'm serious about getting on with this.

Finally, apologies once more for thread hijacking, I really should have started a new thread on this one! Many thanks guys.

[sTaurinn]

I arrive in Kissimmee on july 16th and start my FAA PPL on the 21st, then it is on to ATPL in october.

I am starting to look forward to it alot

See you all out there

P.S. HAve you found accomidation there yet?

[Elbiot]

No accomodation booked yet. In student accomodaiton until we find somewhere. Hoping to find somewhere pretty quick as its expensive in the student housing! we should all try and arrange something once we are all settled in it will be a lot cheaper then.
check out
http://www.realtor.com/ for accomodaiton etc.

Elliot

[Duffer2007]

Elliot,

I sure will, i'll let ya know how i get on im really lookin forward to it now!

Ian

[tumboseppala]

I´ll come to OFT on 11th of August for my JAA PPL. Hope to see you there if you´re still around ;)

-tumboseppala

[abs_kols]

pm me if you want more info about this place