my gf recently tried to do her PPL there (in 5 weeks). She failed in that, also because she is less gifted and did not finish her theory before the flight start. However....
Some major issues:
The owner presents himself as the CFI but he is not even an instructor. He does however vent his opinions on flying things left and right and is unable to see things in aframe other than his own. Self centered i would call it.
The real CFI (Brian) is good but he was not always there and was too late there to correct the issues. Also he depends on the owner for his bread, so....
We booked the PA28 but it was not available (rented out!!!) at her start so we had to go 172. One PA28 and 2 172 is the fleet, so dont believe the website!
one 172 is a good plane, the other so old and so much movement in the control yoke she didn t feel safe and refused to fly the plane. This was unacceptable to the owner and the german instructor. There was no understanding as to the pedagogical aspects of good equipment (girls are more sensitive to that).
contrary to th website they do not provide organised groundschool.
She had 2 good UK instructors (a time builder and a pro) who nudged her along nicely but the damage with the german instructor (nasty and hurtful logs) and plane had already been done. Reverting back to the good 172 after 2 forced sorties in the bad one led to at least 5 sorties just to feel safe again..
The young ops people were friendly (hour builders). No issues
The airport is a busy one (so on her first solo circuit she had to do 3 orbits
which i think is a good thing.
when the one 172 that she felt safe was rented out to another customer for a long weekend and therefore there was no plane to fly for her, she decided to call it a day. The owner refused to return the money(...!), it was only a few hundred pounds or less so we didn t make an issue of it. Sometimes you take your losses...
in all i feel it s a missed opportunity. great weather and food, good airport to learn (traffic) but lousy material and an owner who sees the business as a milk cow and meddles in the training.
I just hope he ll still be willing to hand over her training records to the school where she intends to finish after this.... but it was a sad month for her..... and a irritation for me...
Bert