I stumbled across this thread and felt compelled to comment on my (rather negative) experience(s) of SFC.
Please bear in mind this was back in 2003, so perhaps not so relevant now, but from what i've read here some of the characters may not have changed very much.
Living in north Kent it would have made perfect sense for me and my friend (who was also looking for a commercial school) to do our CPL/IR's there and save on accomodation expenses. We were basically pleading with them to convince us to part with each of our £17,000 (or whatever a CPL/IR was in those days) - and we really would not have needed much convincing!
We went along for a pre-arranged informal chat with one of their instructors and our impression was very similar to some earlier comments on this thread. It took an eternity to be dealt with by reception (who were only busy talking to each other as far as I could work out), and the instructor we sat down with spent the entire time complaining how exhausted he was. After a rushed mini tour of the 'facilities' which even included a grunt from the 'head honcho' we left feeling rather disillusioned.
Still, I felt perhaps we'd been unlucky and I decided to go back on another day for a second opinion (afterall I really DID want to train there if only for convenience). I spoke to a second instructor (whose name I forget but was the type who would be probably call 'a spade a spade' and who I believed at the time might be better suited as a London cabbie). After lecturing me on how unlikely it was that i'd get through an IR test first time and how he despaired at how inexperienced 200 hour pilots hoped to pass in minimum training hours I once again left feeling dissappointed, and with cheque book firmly in pocket!
Both myself and my friend ended up going to Professional Air Training in Bournemouth (and with the extra accommodation costs) who sold the course to us in 10 minutes flat by telling us they'd ''get it right, first time'' and subsequently helped me (and my pal) get through our CPL/IR's first time, AND in minimum time... fabulous place and people, but I digress.
Maybe if i'd still done my training at SFC i'd have a completely different impression and I completly accept that others have had very positive experiences......I didn't (twice), and I am still amazed there are businesses like these that turn good money away from their door.
I echo the earlier comment to refrain from training at a school just because you live close by.
As an afterthought can I just mention that in my limited experience flying commercially for the last 5 years with 2 different UK carriers I have never once been called a c**t in a training environment (and would never expect to be). I personally don't think that particular style of training has any place in modern day aviation training, it's just lazy and serves no purpose....it perhaps worked 40 years ago but I hope we have moved on from those pre-CRM days. I was lucky enough to instruct for a year before gaining my first airline job and found that the best results would always be gained from building a students confidence, not destroying it.
Good luck to all.
Last edited by ruthers; 11th Mar 2010 at 21:01.