Canada CPL/IR expedited training - recommendations please
Hi guys,
I have a current EASA PPL and IMC (325hrs), and am looking to go to Canada in Feb/Mar or Mar/Apr next year to do a TC CPL/IR. Will get medical and all ground-school studying out the way before going to Canada. I've discounted the States at the moment, simply because of the visa faff etc. Canada seems a lot more accessible!
I am trying to find recommendations for a flight school who can accommodate this in a compressed timescale, as I will be away from work/family/kids. I've reached out to a few who have said that the curriculum is 60 hours (I'm fine with this), and that it would take 2-3 months for the PPL conversion and 5-6 more months for the CPL/IR! (not so fine with this!!!).
I recognise fatigue levels etc, but I am pretty sure I am capable of 2-4 hours of flying training a day. I did my initial PPL in 4 and a half weeks (incl ground-school), so taking double the time to convert seems crazy to me.
A couple of questions:
1. I'm assuming it is necessary to convert from EASA PPL to TC PPL in order to do the CPL. Does anyone have experience of how long this actually takes to convert a foreign license in Canada, assuming flying capability is not an issue? Just wondering if the PSTAR exam ->results -> flight test really takes more than a week?
2. Does anyone have any recommendations of flight schools who will accommodate an expedited timescale? At the moment, I am simply crawling through websites to find schools, but recognise that I could be missing out on complete gems. I'm agnostic about location, although given the time of year, the far north may prove challenging with weather! I thought the bigger schools with loads of aircraft and instructors may be a good bet, but they all seem pretty rigid in their syllabus. I am ok with a one-aircraft-one-instructor school but recognise the risk to timescales if the aircraft goes tech etc, so I guess I am looking for a flight school with a little depth but with flexibility. I am happy to be out in the bush, so no issue there. Finally, a few of the schools I have spoken to say they are booked until late 2022/23 - I guess this is the COVID delayed guys from last year filling them up. Good time to be an instructor I guess!
3. In my ideal world, I would progress through the CPL/IR in 8 weeks. Assuming all ground-school complete and this is just to focus on the flying, am I dreaming? I recognise it will be hard work, but I am prepared to immerse myself in it and focus solely on the flying. The reality of it is that I will probably struggle to get more time off work than that, so if it is entirely unreasonable, would probably end up having to separate them out and do them individually on 2 separate visits.
4. For those who know the weather, is Feb/Mar/Apr out of the question in terms of flyable days?
Advice and recommendations gratefully received!