Weston

[Daniel_109]

Has anyone done their PPL in weston, county kildare? If so what does it cost, how long does it take and what are they like to deal with?
Cheers
Danny:)

[eolas]

Hi Danny,


NFC in Weston is fine its about the best that u will get here in Dublin.

The instruction is good though it will take a while to go solo.

All in all u can get a ppl in about 65 hours, the ground school is good and u can get ppl examins in one sitting.

There is a good club atmosphere also, sometimes there are group flights away and at reasonible cost.


Check www.nfc.com for detail of costs etc.



best of luck

[HomerJay]

Hi Daniel,
I set out to get my PPL from Aerial in weston a year ago. In three to four months of going weekly. Although I found the instruction to be good, i had only flown 2.5 hours and had finished the groundschool (due to weather), its also 145euro an hour for instruction in the cessna 152. eventualy gave up and went to the states for a fraction of the time and price

[weston150]

HEY

HAVE BEEN TRAINING IN WESTON FOR JUST OVER A YEAR NOW BUT STILL HAVENT MANAGED TO GET MY PPL!! THE TRAINING IS VERY GOOD AND ALL OUT THE ARE VERY FRIENDLY AND THERE IS A GREAT ATMOSPHERE
PRICES: CESSNA 150 145EURO
CESSNA 172 175EURO
PLUS 2EURO A LANDING!
CESSNA 152 IS ONLY FOR PEOPLE WITH PPL'S!

GROUND SCHOOL 450EURO BUT YA GUARANYEED TO PASS THE EXAMS!!

CLAIRE :p

[clarityinthemurk]

If you have lots of time and money do your ppl in Ireland. Otherwise, go somewhere sunny and cheap such as the US. That way, you'll get your ppl in the time you would be waiting for the weather to be right for your first solo. If you want to fly in europe, then you may have to do 5 or 6 hours marginal weather flying in domestic airspace when you get back, but you'll still be way ahead in both time saved and money in your pocket.

[weston150]

if you only considering going to ppl level your probably best not going to us as training not great over there and if you want to come back and fly in weston they will make you fly extra hours as they dont think the training is good enough in us
so would probably work out the same in price :cool:

[Daniel_109]

What part of america and how much cheeper is it?

[clarityinthemurk]

"if you want to come back and fly in weston they will make you fly extra hours as they dont think the training is good enough in us"

well, they would say that wouldn't they....nothing like a vested interest. i'm not saying the us is the only option - just choose a school in a climate which will allow you to get the job done in a reasonable timeframe, and which has a decent reputation. there are lots of threads in this forum about overseas schools - look them up.

[boeingbus2002]

link should be
www.nfc.ie

Not too sure about the situation in Eire, but flying in the UK is completely different to the US. Airspace here is much more congested, restrictions on altitudes, more formal RT.
Weather is a big factor too. Getting used to flying in poorer visibility and lower cloud as opposed CAVOK everyday in states gives you much more confidence.
Navigating using more features which tend to look similar like fields, small towns, minute rivers and rail lines as opposed to the coast of Florida and interstate highways!!
Sure once you have your PPL, take a holiday there to build up some hours and improve your handling. You can do some nice trips and in the US they are (or were when I was there) very GA friendly.

[Looper]

I've flown at NFC and the instructor I had mostly (Fergus) was excellent.

Being a considerable distance from Weston makes it much more difficult for me. I thought about taking time off work, booking accommodation and trying to complete my PPL in one go.

Things that put me off: the weather, the expense of Dublin, the expensive rates in Ireland and (unfortunately) the somewhat lax approach of NFC in general. Double booking of aircraft and instructors was not uncommon. To drive 2+ hours to be told 'oops, sorry, do you mind flying with x today instead?' or, 'we're just waiting on an aircraft coming back from a cross country' - 1 hour later you're may be still waiting. :bored:

Again, I stress that some of the instructors are very good, its not necessarily their fault about double bookings, but an admin/management issue.

Its been several months since I've flown there so things may have improved greatly - if so, I stand corrected.

[dublinpilot]

Looper,

If you meant Fergal, then I can only echo your comments on how good an instructor he was. He left NFC and went to Sky Trace, and then got a seat with Ryanair.

If you were correct with Fergus, I didn't meet the chap.

Daniel,

I'd advise you to take a look at Sky Trace in Weston too. I've heard nothing but good things about them, which is more than I can say for NFC.

My experience with NFC was post PPL (I trained with an old school, no longer in existance), and wouldn't rate NFC particularly highly. The mention above of missing planes, double booking etc sound very familiar.

You should do a search on pprune for Weston & NFC and you'll see what other people thought of them too.

As for training in the USA, any club/school here will still require you to do a check ride, which will probably take a couple of hours. Money grabbing? Probably, but there would also be an element of familarisation with the rules and reg here, and local proceedures. You'll probably feel you need it anyway.

Boingbus
The airspace over here is lovely and quiet compaired to the UK. I have to concentrate which harder looking at a UK chart! You should fly over this way sometime, and enjoy our open skies!

dp

[TonyR]

Quote..

"Not too sure about the situation in Eire, but flying in the UK is completely different to the US. Airspace here is much more congested, restrictions on altitudes, more formal RT.
Weather is a big factor too. Getting used to flying in poorer visibility and lower cloud as opposed CAVOK everyday in states gives you much more confidence.
Navigating using more features which tend to look similar like fields, small towns, minute rivers and rail lines as opposed to the coast of Florida and interstate highways!!"...

I would suggest that you are wrong and you don't get an easy PPL in the US. I did my PPL in the UK but have flown a lot in the US and have had just as bad weather there, also the radio close to major airports is very sharp and with so many airfields the navigation is just as difficult.

I would suggest the USA produce better pilots than the UK and Ireland. I think the FAA systen is still more like what the UK system was some years ago, ie. when you actually had to learn to fly and a licence meant something. I am talking about a proper FAA school not a 3 week assembly line.

I can count on my fingers the pilots I would sit in the back of and aircraft with while they were flying, and I know a lot of pilots.

A new PPL should be able to hop into most simple singles with an hour or so notice and fly VFR without GPS from Blackpool to Bournemouth on their own.

I don't think we produce the goods anymore.

So my advice is to fly about 7 - 10 hours here, go to the USA and you will get your PPL and enjoy the experience.

TR