CAE MPL Cadet at Phoenix
I am in the next UK cohort to finish training here in phoenix.
My experience so far I will briefly sum up.
F1 Training- This lasted from when we arrived in October till the 31st December. This part of the training was relatively smooth, me and my flight partner averaged 3-4 missions a week. Some weeks off because of instructor illness and other reasons that didn't really delay us too badly.
F2- After the 31st December, me and my flight partner spent 8 weeks waiting doing nothing was not scheduled at all. 6 of those weeks were spent without any assigned instructor. CAE called this the 'holding pool' , which in all fairness wasn't actually a bad idea. The part were they messed up, is ending the holding pool for 4 classes at once. This meant that even if you finished F1 one week ago, you got an instructor straight away, which felt unfair and questioned what I was actually waiting for? Fast forward a few weeks and I am averaging 1 mission a week, whilst people who arrived months after me are receiving 4 missions a week since out of pure luck they were assigned to an instructor that didn't have any delayed students from previous cohorts. When you raise your concerns to management about this, and also point out to them that your leave date is rapidly approaching, you are met with the classic line 'focus on your own training'.
When I entered my final 6 weeks of training here, as I am due to leave end of April, my training started to pick up more. I am now averaging 8 missions a week.
F3- Currently now there is only one UK approved F3 instructor here and he cannot do anymore training for new cadets from my class as he is full of students who are preparing to do their CPL. This has led to my class being told we are going to have a 4 week delay out here in Phoenix. CAE are providing us with accommodation, but currently we are going to have to wait for the other F3 instructors to go to Oxford to get their UK training endorsement before I can finish my training out here.
Summary: My training here in general has been pretty incosistent, with long gaps in missions. However, since our class was made a priority we have gone through F2 pretty quickly. We have been told we are going to be delayed 4 weeks which isn't ideal, but I guess that better than the classes that spent an extra 2 months here.
After I finish my tenure here, it seems like the classes behind me are moving at better pace and will finish on time. However, I can't say that with certainty as course mismanagement seems to be their speciality here.
Last edited by ProFlapOperator; 14th April 2026 at 02:17.