g-babe, you are just showing your lack of comprehension.
No one will pass you purely because you have paid.
If I am good I expect to pass quickly, if I have a mental blockage I expect to take a bit longer, however I expect a professionally operated organisation to monitor my progress & adjust my programme accordingly, trying to fit me in wherever they can, flying up to 3 times a day if possible.
If it is impossible to complete a PPL in 4 weeks, as advertised, mainly verbally, inform students it will take 5 or 6.
Skilled instructors will assume almost the worst of a student & plan their course accordingly, then they can speed up the training when the student responds well. If all students are assumed to be air aces before they enter an aeroplane, not one will finish in the promised time.
The people that make the course structure at the CAA or JAR do not arbitrarily pull a figure out of the air for the minimum hours to train. These figures are generated due to years of knowledge about student's capabilities.
Regular flying will improve the students' skills much quicker than a break of one or two days, but there are too many people chasing too few planes with the possibility of bad weather to help on this score.
What about the sponsored non-european students that took over 100 hrs for their PPls, was the training not structured well or would you say either they were not good candidates (but the money was) or the instructors were no good?
FTC used to catch victims with the phrase 350 flying days a year, if lessons are called off due to bad weather in the afternoon, they cannot say that was a full flying day. I knew of over 1 month of cancellations due to weather when I was there, Grand Central is a purely VFR airport so the smallest vis problem and the IR rated instructors cannot fly, wheras if Grand Central had some form of radio aid, not GC, for a procedure (impossible due to Jo'burg's proximity) they could do lessons and bring the students back. If you, as their champion, are telling the world that weather is a major problem for FTC then they obviously are not such a good choice for JAR flying training, are they?
Perhaps FTC's answer is to move from Grand Central (back to Lanseria), reduce the size of the organisation (reduce the salary & maintenance costs) and rediscover what gave them a good reputation years ago.
Doubt it though!
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I can't be bothered to carry on with this old arguement being revisited over & over again, I am now going to read with interest but only reply if absolutely necessary. I've now got better things to do than play Cowboys & Indians with FTC.
Last edited by Flying Boat; 20th May 2003 at 22:11.