Well nothing changed here. Every ones putting the ****e in to each other, so student numbers must be getting limited again.
For what its worth, I ve was instructing in NZ when the student loan funding started and I have managed to be involved in a number of training schools and commercial operators with training machines.
My Advice is not to comment self to anyone until you have visited the ones on your short list. Avoid large training school with student loan funding, anyone who wants cash up front, and be cautious of the hard sell, as if you sucked in by this then you will not succeed in the industry.
You need to have a plan and stuck to it, getting a commercial is the easy part. How are going to build your hours up. So you need to decide what niche of the industry you won't to get into. Work out what the requires are and how you going to achieve them. NETWORK and stay in contact.
As for picking a flight training operator, I would be looking for a small school with commercial ops, and a mix of junior and senior Instructors. The junior guys with the motivation to get the hours done and the senior guys to get you outside your comfort zone. Spend some time talking the girls in the front office as they can be your best source of info, and listen to what's been talked about in the reception area if there are other students around.
When visiting if the operator tries and talks you out of doing it, this may and I say may be a filtering process.
If you have cash, look/ask for a good deal, ie additional rating, discounted rate for advanced payments(but not all up front).
But they all have there strengths and weakness, and in the end its your decision and you will only get out of it what your prepared to put into it!
Check out a South Island Operator. For my money Garden City Helicopters and I don't do my licence there.
Last edited by Dogs; 8th Oct 2005 at 00:31.