Hello all
I'd take anything from EFT with a pinch of salt. Trevor and Ben are nice guys but their website is disingenuous with the truth, to be polite. I was there in 00 and found the following:
They did not own the aircraft. Aviator does. There were/are 5 Duchesses, not 8 (as continuously stated on Aviator's adverts in the popular flying press),none of which had a functioning radar or heater. The twins were used for night hour-building as well as their day schedule, which meant that, having been away all night, any snags that appeared overnight ate into daytime availability. This was compounded by, at the time, no night maintenance. Whilst there's nothing wrong with hiring in aircraft, the use of the phrase "our fleet" is, ahem, economical with the truth. It didn't inspire confidence.
The cars for hire from the school were absolute crocks and broke down frequently. Given the quantity of cash being obtained from students for their hire, they badly needed to be in better order.
There was no sim, of even the most basic kind, which would have helped greatly. "RANT" on a PC doesn't quite cut it.
Aviator charged students 3% for making payments by credit card. Add that up when you've spent $30000 dollars at the school and it's a bit of a stinger! Indeed, the fact that EFT were a "piggyback" school, being physically hosted by the famished remnants of a once-great school, was not apparent until one appeared at the door.
There were no on-site examiners. The gentlemen concerned had to travel from Michigan once a month and often were delayed by bad weather and missed connections. They were sometimes unable to test all the students available for testing, which meant that those students took a big financial hit.
The school is physically too small. There was no room available for quiet study because they were constantly required for tuition by either EFT or Aviator students. The fact that Aviator students paid almost half that charged to EFT students per flight hour was another unpleasant revelation.
There were more niggles, minor and major, that increased the stress levels and left me with an overriding impression that the dollar counted above all else. Individually, the instructors were mostly fine and quite good. I'd give the place 5 or 6 out of ten.
regards
TDD