PeterDublin
If you do your PPL in Dublin, I take it you will go to Weston, and more than likely NFC!
If you train with NFC, beware!! They are a busy school with a not as many instructors as they used to have....lots went to the airlines over the past few years. My personal experience was as follows ( and lots of people I spoke to said same):
I ended up with many different instructors who although very nice,WERE NOT FOLLOWING MY PROGRESS!. Everytime I got into an aircraft, I was asked what stage I was at, by a different instructor, sometimes by the same instructor. YOU MUST DRIVE YOUR OWN TRAINING. Get the Trevor Thom books or JeremyPratt Books(especially the PPL1 flying training book which contains all 18 PPL training excerices, which are well illustrated).
STUDY EACH OF YOUR LESSONS BEFORE YOU GO FLYING IT, this will save you time and money and will give you a good picture of where you are in your training. Try and stick with the one instructor. You can do your ground school in Bolton street or at weston. I did mine at Weston, but not with NFC, so I don't know what the standard is like for the gnd school. On the whole, they are busy and seem to loose track of your progress and this can get very frustrating( my past experience, things may have changed?)
All I am saying is that your PPL is very much in your hands, take it seriously and WASTE NO TIME....it took me nearly 3years on and off and that was my own fault, it was a big waste of money.
Get it done, concentrate and try not to leave too many gaps during your training as this will mean that invariably you end up going back over things. There is always the FAA option and coming back to convert to JAA PPL.
After your PPL, launch into your ATPLs, distance learning.
You have options here: NFC, would not recommend! IF you can go for 3weeks to the UK (twice) go and do it with Bristol or Oxford, as the level of support is good, or you can look at PTC in Waterford, which means doing your exams in Dublin but your ground school in Waterford ( they use Naples manuals). IF you can take 7months off, you can always go at it full time but not in Ireland, this option is not open to us. A school environment is much better, AS IT IS HARD ON YOUR OWN. As far as working full-time during ATPLS, I COULD NOT DO IT!! Too much to learn for me, I could not cope with a days work and 4 hrs of study at night.
The quoted 3hrs of study a day is B***S***!!!!!! Unless you are a super genius with the memory of 10 very bright elephants.
After that I can give you no other advice as that is as far as I got.
PS you have two other options for PPL at Weston. Skytrace, who are PTC in Waterford, teach PPL ( could be good) and Flightwise ( one instructor) but I imagine you will get continuation in both those schools. Talk to all of them and make up your own mind.
Weston in itself is a great place, I love going out there and it is developing all the time, with improving facilities, increasing jet traffic etc.
Regardless of airline training, if you love flying, do the PPL, you will not regret it, it is a wonderful achievement and you will feel great when you get handed your licence. Remember, it's in your hands, BE EFFICIENT in your training and do your best to minimise the costs by wasting no time and by being prepared.
ENJOY ENJOY ENJOY
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