PPL at Panshanger/North London Flying School
Having done my PPL at pans hangar some time ago, I feel it s time to express my opinion on the place.
At the time i thought the service and tuition was pretty good, however since having experience at other airfields i can say that i would NOT RECOMMEND PANSHANGER TO ANYONE!!!
I finally completed my PPL with around 75 hours, yes 75! I was told this was uncommon although i am aware that this is sometimes the case elsewhere as well. However as i was young and quite capable i now feel that this was probably a money grabbing tactic.
I will say that the cafe is very nice and food on offer is good, the club house however stinks of cigarette smoke, and even though i am a light smoker, it wasn't always pleasant and i feel for those members who don't smoke.
I first went to panshanger after reading good reviews from curtain websites however after looking at them again, it seems they have been written by people who only flew trial lessons and not by PPL students, like me.
Since getting my PPL i've now started flying at a different club and it has since become clear how unprofessional north london flying school is. The instructors look very untidy i.e unshaven, muddy and scruffy uniforms, untucked shirts and dirty looking clothes etc. The instructors also use the frequency for general chat and although it is light hearted and jokey, its unprofessional and as a PPL student, i began to believe that this was common practice, until flying elsewhere. Also something else i that i have only seen at panshanger is the instructors responding to calls for 'panshanger radio' from other aircraft to give radio checks and advisory QNH, I'm not sure if this is within or against the law but i haven't seen it happen anywhere else, as far as i was aware, the 'radio' prefix should be a fixed ground-based station and not instructors pretending to be this from another aircraft!
Having read some other posts i can see that other people have had the same kind of experience, however nothing has been posted for some time, many of the other posts mentioned the owner and he's still the same by the sounds of it. Very egocentric, arrogant and actually quite unpleasant at times, not everyone's cup of tea.
My advice to anyone would be to look elsewhere for ppl training. If you can put up with the bad standards at NLFS then by all means consider it, but if you want to attain a good standard of flying then go somewhere else.