Originally Posted by
RichardH
100% agree rudestuff.
When I started my training nearly 50 years ago I was flying twice a day, flying training requires CONSISTENCY. Maybe 3 or 4 times per week but 1 or 2 per month what a farce and some of these post are out in sunny PHX where you don't have to worry about the vagaries of the British weather. Ground school is easy to control as everybody knows where they are for 6-8 months but it's the flying phase that usually causes the problems (aircraft & instructor availability etc.).
When I was an ATPL ground instructor at the good old OATS back in 1999 a full-time UK based integrated course was approximately 55 to 60 weeks. I know there have been changes & various add-ons with JAA/EASA but really anything over 15-18 months needs serious questions asked. I believe that these schools are over extending themselves, too many students (bums on seats = cash) & not enough correctly licensed instructors.
Unfortunately consistency is non-existent out here at the moment. There is no doubt in my mind that a lot of the problems that CAE face are self-inflicted due to lack of planning, being reactive rather than being proactive and biting off far more than they can chew with number of cadets that they need to get to easyJet and other airlines (they're even trying to get a military contract at the moment, when they can't even fulfil their current contracts properly). Admittedly since being out here, the weather in Phoenix hasn't been as good as I was expecting, it's sunny pretty much everyday but it also gets incredibly windy and many of my coursemates have had missions cancelled due to it being too windy (I had one that was borderline where we had to come back and wait for it to die down). In total, we're getting around 80 hours out here, with around half of it in the sim, so there is no way it should take 6 months, but alas that is what we find ourselves in and luckily it should be in the past very soon (can't wait).
EDIT - Just did some calculations, and since starting F2 in March, I am averaging 1.6 missions (flight or sims) per week.