Dear Tiger Magic John
I am glad you had a good experience at Stapleford, I however didn't and Evan 21 who started this post was seeking our opinions on this forum, he now has both mine and yours. If everyone only posted positive experiences what a bed of roses life would be.
To address some of your points but not all of them, I started there on a CPL modular course but was so put off by them that I didn't stay and complete the PPL part of my training. I am currently embarking on the CPL portion of my training.
Flexibility, alas not money, was my decision on going modular rather than intergrated.
I was resident and therefore never late and was available to fly anytime.
I have no idea what the gossip from the chattering classes was but I had the nerve to dare to interupt them to be served as a customer as I stood in reception. By the way it was Student 88 who had the pleasure of hearing the details of the gossip plus he also had the same sentiments about some of the staff.
Wow, they had a VOR/DME on top of the hill that was their runway, not exactly an ILS. It is shear luck for them that it's there, if they closed down tomorrow it would still be there as it forms part of the standard terminal approach and hold for traffic inbound to Heathrow amongst others.
Yes the runway and airfield could be worse, there could be a cattle grid at the transition from the asphalt.
Finally, so you clearly agree the Capt. (ahem) Collin Dobney is an uncharismatic old
...
If we are giving it a score I personally would rate it 3 out of 10.
Go on, your turn to shout...
Muddy Boots
As an addendum, there were others who were disgruntled by Stapleford, my experiences are 3 1/2 years old, maybe they have cleaned up their act.