Just wondering if things have changed that much??
Back in the late '70's, as was common then, I split my training between Penfield (Sunbury) and Essendon.
The benefit at Penfield was no congestion, just jump in and go (after a suitably thorough preflight of course!
) and learn to fly without sitting on the tarmac chewing up $$$ waiting in sequence.
Further down the track when I needed navaids, twin training etc then Essendon came into play.
Is modern wisdom that you HAVE to train in controlled airspace and/or HAVE to use an integrated course as opposed to maybe using a number of suppliers/locations etc??
It was great in the early stages to simply learn to fly without having the added pressure of CTA, radio calls, delays etc from day 1, those things arose as experience/training progressed.
Maybe like many things I have fond memories of an era that no longer exists??
