Originally Posted by
hedges81
Yeh, but what is "structured hours building"? What exactly are you looking for in your hours building. If an instructor tells u to fly a particular route solo, or if you pick it yourself, what is the difference?.
Hey guys. I have finished all my training, and went from zero to hero at stapleford. Im now half way through my B737-800 type rating.
I personally cant speak highly enough of stapleford. The training i had there was exellent, and as mentioned in my other posts for here, I know people at other training centres, and thier views of those places.
The level of training is exellent. I passed everything first time, and within hours, but bare in mind, the instructors and expecially CFI's wont put you forward for a test if you arent going to pass it. Thats as simple as it gets.
Hour building.....when i was there it wasnt structured, and i have spoken to various people there about that, as personally i thought that was the only thing that they could improve on.
Being a PPL, you may think that you should be left to do what you want. In some respects i agree with that, but in others very much disagree.
I was lucky enough to have know someone who is did a BA scholorship at oxford. He told me all the things that i would need to know for CPL and IR. Therefore i practiced these things.
What you want to be doing is every 10-20 ours, go up with an instructor just for half or a whole hour, and ask them to make sure you are not picking up any bad habbit. Do this early, because when U get onto the CPL, it gets alot more expensive bashing about in an arrow and making mistakes, then being in a C152 for 30mins with an instructor!!
No one is saying that structure means "Do this route and this one....never do anything yourself". Of course do the routes that you want to do, but make them difficult.
For example:-
Do a route completely visual that isnt feature crawling
Do a route around london using VOR clockwise
Then VOR anti-clockwise. (believe me, one is easier then the other)
Do a route using only ADF and NDB
(this is very very useful because all Ur IR will be using NDB, and on your CPL test, some of the examiners love NDB tracking)
Talk to the CPL students and find out what routes they are doing in CPL nav lessons, and do those, so you have abit of a heads up.
All these sorts of things are very useful, and believe me they help massively!!
I will tell you now form my experiences since leaving. Every place I have been regarding aviation, everyone knows Stapleford and comment on the standard of pilots coming from there. This is due to the amazing instruction, and especially Colin and his high standards. He knows what is required to not just pass the IR, but to breeze any course or sim selection that you go too. I have met some people at MCC that didnt even know how to do a hold. (Lesson No.2 of IR)
At SFC you will be the most prepared person out there. You will have the same piece of paper as everyone else, but the only difference is durring your training you had a good time, and a life!
Like is said about 3 hours ago when i started writting this. I cant speak highly enough of SFC. Its cheaper then everywhere else, its got one of the highest pass rates of ANY flying school, and the atmosphere is brilliant. I dont regret going there in any way shape or form. And if it wasnt for that flying school, i wouldnt be bashing about in an NG sim at the moment.
Good luck guys.....and most importantly, dont believe all the negative things on here. People that speak badly of places 9/10 times dont know what they are talking about. Spend the £50 it costs to go and check the flying school out yourself adn TALK TO THE STUDENTS!!! They have parted with their £30,000+ and are never going to lie.
Enjoy.