Orlando Flight Training - Help

[Mark_ms]

Hi all,

I have just booked my groundschool with CabAir EPTA Bournemouth.

I am doing my PPL with there partner Orlando Flight Training, the visa was sent for today.

Unfourtantly I did a search on OFT. Everybody has something bad to say, and as you can imagine my blood pressure is going through the roof.

I would desperatly like to hear opinions on the school from people who have been there recently.

Is it still just as bad as mentioned in nearly all threads I have read i.e. bad planes, bad management, people getting regularly ripped off, etc

Please any suggestions ? and recommendations of alternative schools that do JAA PPL in Florida

[nottelling]

Check your PM's

[busz]

Hey,

I was there last summer and had a few problems. Overall however, i did my training well within the allocated time and on budget. There are some really nice people there, although my instructor has now left.

Alex:ok:

[fflyboy101]

Heard on the rumour mill, that their approval to do JAA was being pulled, but that is for helis I believe.

[KILO-04]

I'm due to go there shortly for a PPL/Hour building and feel somewhat uneasy having read a few entries in this forum. Anyone been out there recently got anything to say about OFT, as many of the experiences are relatively old now and things can change either way. Are the C152's still in a poor state of repair etc. Are the Managers/Instructors supportive?

I'm not too bothered about staying in a luxury hotel and was wondering what the appartments are like? Many people seem to opt for the hotel. Are these appartments really poor?

Is it all doom and gloom? Can someone with very recent experiences of OFT please let us know?

[[u]]

Some Dutch guys went there and got their PPL's,
thet were 'OK' with OFT, the only thing they resented
was the fact you had to check the 'hours/account' yourself
very well. Sometimes hours were deducted that were
flown by others. However when pointed out it was corrected.

Their url:
http://www.mijnvliegopleiding.nl/orlando/index.htm

Use the fish (http://world.altavista.com/) to translate.

Their FAQ in FishEnglish (http://world.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=nl_en&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.mijnvliegopleiding.nl%2forlando%2fhtml% 2ffaq.htm) :p

[trainer too 2]

While I was there I was quite pleased. Have been hour building at a lot of places in the states over the years and found OFT reasonably well organised. I also flew some brand new warriors with a nice GPS kit onboard. Some guys who were there were unhappy but they had unreasonable expectations...

Just remember with any flyingschool in the US:
1. Never pay everything up front, always pay by CC
2. It is not your local flying club so things will be different
3. Make sure that when the school says 2 weeks you plan 3 weeks, you will always start flying in the rainy season with a lot of cancellations
4. Add at least 20% to your calculations at any school any place because your a pilot not an accountant thus the money start flowing faster as soon as you see an aircraft ;)
5. AGAIN it is not your flying club, it is always less organised so make sure when you have arrived that the guys at ops understand who you are and what you want
6. make sure you have your medical sorted
7. the primary purpose of any commercial school is to make money and secondary to make you happy so keep that in mind: your the customer and don't let them forget!
8. American beer stinks :bored:



Have fun in Kissimee

[KILO-04]

Thanks guys, your respective posts are reassuring.

I'll also post some feedback when I've completed my time out there.

[[u]]

Posting experiences with US Flight Schools (good or bad)
is always good as it seems to be a recurring issue on this
forum.

many happy landings in FL !

[raceeend]

Hi Guys,

I've been to Orlando Flight Training In January 2004 to get my PPL.

It was hard working but i mannaged to get my PPL in 45 Hours, and since I'm from Holland the English language doesn't realy help to speed up the learning proces as you can imagine.(imagine you trying to get your PPL by learning in the dutch language:-)

The school isn't that bad if you keep in mind that it is a commercial organisation. The Appartment I had was OK as were the English Fellow student's (Doug and Roger) I lived with (3 bedroom shared appartement) i had a great time with them and we spend "some" free time in the local PUB "the Fox and Houds".

The Cessna's are "dogy" (I believe that's what they say in England when it is CRAP!) But the Piper Cadet's are OK.
I am stil happy i upgraded to the PA28 Cadet's.

And I believe upgrading to the PA28 helped me a large bit to reach my objective to get the PPL in 45 hours. I would never have mannaged to do it in a Cessna that fast since the Cessna's of OFT are frequently U/S.

Don't expect to much from the staff or the instructor's unless your have Hutch Tinny as your instructor.

You HAVE to do it all by yourself, and ofcourse you can ask all the instructors if you have a question, but in the end it is you that has to do the studying!

For the rest, Kissimee stinks, but flying in Florida Rules! and if you plan to go there to get your PPL in 45 Hours, you won't see anything but the school, the appartment, and Florida from out of the air!

Another Tip! Plan to go there for 4 weeks if your want to do the PPL. I did it in 21 days but there were some weather cancelations and it took me 4 weeks!

Good luck everybody who want's to go there.

Another Tip: from recent students in Holland I heard that Naples Air Center is the better choice!

Especialy if you want to go all the way!! (Full time Atpl in Florida!!!)

Greetings

:D André:D

[simfly]

Another tip..

If one wants to see and experiance Kissimmee/Florida, do most/all of your exams before you go. When I went to OFT I didn't expect to see much other than from the air. I wouldn't expect many places to have much time for teaching you stuff on the ground... if you wanted that the schools would be charging much more!

[Matty J]

I was out at OFT in March and the experience was ok although i was not overly impressed.

I upgraded to the Piper Warrior to do my PPL as the Cessna's really had seen better days and there was no way i wanted to die in a light aircraft. The cadets are fine aswell i flew one of them a few days when the Warrior was not available.

The attitude of the staff was quite poor i thought although my instructor (Nihar) was very good. It seemed as though no one had any time for you accept when they were taking your money.

The facilities were ok i guess and the hotel i stayed in was excellent. The apartments were in quite bad condition so i heard which is why i chose the Best Western which was about 20-25 mins walk away.

Overall i would'nt personally go back to that particular school but flying in Florida is great. Always book more time than is reccommended as i could'nt complete my PPL due to the aweful weather which hung around for around a week and a half!!!!

Matt.