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Old 2nd Apr 2003, 01:21
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Sentenza
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Vienna, Austria
Posts: 7
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Let's see...

I converted my FAA PPC to JAA with them; did hours building with them; did my MEP(L) with them; did my CPL with them; and started my IR with them (finished that in the UK).

Got first-time passes for everything, and attribute that completely to the very high standard of instruction (and in the case of the IR also of course to the equally high standard at ETA Bournemouth).

Basic training is done in C172s, which are fairly well worn, but far from decrepit. I would call them average flight school stock. There are no goodies like GPS or A/P (gasp!). 100-hour checks are religiously followed. Thus, unscheduled maintenance (read: unservicabilities) doesn't happen any more or less often than with any other plane of similar vintage. When unscheduled mx does need to be performed, there are quite often enough planes left to take up the slack.

Complex training is done in a single P28R. The fact that there is only one obiously does present a problem when an unservicability occurs. Even so, I finished my CPL in four weeks last November (lost one week due to weather).

ME training is done in BE76s, for which generally the same things can be said as for the Cessnas above.

Accom for me was quite good. I had sheets, but no roaches. Clean; TV in every room; large fridge, large kitchen. Not luxurious, but overall quite good. Well worth the money. I rented a car for USD 100.00 a week through neighbouring flight school Ari Ben Aviator (an FAA outfit), which turned out to be a gas-guzzling, A/C-less Cadillac. I shared with my roomie, so really only paid USD 50.00 per week.

I whole-heartedly recommend EFT for all your flight training needs. Instruction is excellent. Weather is generally very good (try doing a CPL in four weeks in November in the UK). Aircraft are adequate for the task. Staff are friendly and helpful. Other miscellaneous items (accom., surroundings) are adequate as well.

I can't really recommend EFT for hours-building, though (even though I did build some hours with them myself). The reason being that their aircraft are almost always booked by students, and that, when it comes to scheduling, students take precedence over hour-builders. Therefore, it can become rather tedious to build 100 hours, if you can only fly, say, two to four hours a day.

So, ask yourself what you want and need:

If you want top-notch instruction from people who talk to you on a first-name basis, and who have an excellent training record to boot, then EFT is for you.

If you don't care whether your instructor only knows your student ID number, and you would rather do your training in brand-spanking new airplanes that are equipped with all the nice stuff you'll never get to use in your training, then maybe one of the big-name flight schools like Flight Safety is the right choice for you.

If all you need to do is build some hours, then find someplace where you can rent a plane at a low block rate and with which you can then fly all over the country.

Now... hope I didn't forget anything.

HTH

Mike
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