gbotley
I think you may have misunderstood my post - I was supporting your enthusiastic appraisal of your training and ATO, although I must admit to having been confused, as I was under the misimpression that you were an EZY tagged student. My fault for not reading your other contributions properly or looking at your blog. My curiosity was sparked by comments made concerning EZY recruitment and also the relocation of training in the US, and although I appreciate you are in NZ, you clearly have some meaningful insight.
The management visits you describe should be expected and are quite proper following an acquisition and rebranding by a large overseas corporation and it must be reassuring to feel that the company has it's customers best interests at heart. If you had read my post properly you would have understood that my comment regarding posting sensitive or proprietary information was not aimed at you as I think you do a fairly good job of presenting your view in a balanced and proportionate way. I have not suggested that you have covered anything up, acted libellously nor breached any contract and I have no means to determine the accuracy of the information you post although it sounds reasonable. That said, comments by other posters might be seen as verging on the side of contention and my counsel would be to exercise caution and restraint to others when discussing aircraft accidents and potentially sensitive matters in the context of this thread. You merely stated that there had been problems as a result of
growing pains off the back of changes at the Lufthansa owned facility in Arizona.
which in turn led to mention of DA40 performance problems in hot weather and all that followed (I believe CTC/L3 CTS lease part of a LFT owned company's training facility at Goodyear, AZ). I sought more information but none has been forthcoming. You give the impression of being a well informed and trustworthy source of information who keenly imparts his experiences, and as such I feel it only fair that others here who have a genuine interest in professional pilot training, school selection and airline employment should seek your opinion.
I'm disappointed you feel this thread has gone off topic as I think that, as mentioned, the OP's title for this thread surely had to be a red rag to a bull to anyone close to or involved with either the airline or largest source of low experience pilot candidates? A discussion that has evolved from that is surely to be expected? One thing that is clear though is that EZY are not desperate for low houred recently graduated pilots at the moment; there is a need for more experienced candidates as departures to BA and elsewhere continue but the airline are unlikely to be 'sponsoring' inexperienced ICAO licence holders to obtain an EASA ticket with type rating. As far fetched as that may sound, I can remember a time when Britannia Airways (Thomson/TUI) were pinning postcards to flying club notice boards inviting applicants with a CPL and 700 hours TT to apply for a bonded IR course followed shortly thereafter by almost ten years of zero flightdeck recruitment; it's said that the only consistent part of airline recruitment is it's inconsistency.
Good luck with your training George and enjoy the training for the IRT.