Flying School Recommendation

[spleener]

Ladies and Gents,
I was asked by a friend which school I would recommend for professional pilot training in Oz - BNE area 1st choice, but anywhere okay. This would be for his 18yo son. Since I've not always been a professional :cool: [ie worked for that non-profit RAAF organisation] I declined comment! I tried a pprune search, but nothing recent was thrown up.
Bottom line: if pushed, where should I steer this guy? I'm not convinced that degree courses and such are necessarily better, given what I've seen at this end. The ideal would be - professionalism, commensurate value, limited B.S.
Thanks
Spleener

[Runaway Gun]

Try Matt Handley at Aerotec in Toowoomba. A very safe and talented instructor.


Aerotec (http://www.aerotec.com.au/training.html)

[huntsman]

send him to the Sunshine Coast!!
great spot next to the beach.

ADFA, Aero Club, Fogarty's (they still called that?)

Sunny Coast Airport (http://www.sunshinecoastairport.com/tenants.htm)

[MakeItHappenCaptain]

Yup, Fogarty's Aviation is the new name. The old CFI (Mr Fogarty) retired (I believe due to ill health) and company was sold. New crew have installed Greg Smith, who was heavily involved with British Aerospace at Tamworth (Manager of Defence Flight Screening) and Parafield. Time involved as CFI instructing cadets for QANTAS, Cathay, Malaysian, China Air, Vietnam Air and S African.
School has RTO approval and a very shpiffy new ATC 610 Syn Trainer.:ok: Nice airport to train at too. Very scenic.
http://www.fogartys.com.au

[Ratshit]

Bob Harris at Innisfail. Highly expereinced GA instructor/pilot - great guy!

R:cool:

[GolfTangoVictor]

Professional Pilot Training in Coffs...

Far enough away from a city that there is no distraction, and not too far from BNE, or AF- we did Navs to CG,AF, and TWB, as well as BK. Cheap onsite accom. and instructors who teach RAAF VIP style- CFI ex Roulette, good sim, and if you dont do it right, they hammer you- it's your money, why no?
cant recommend it highly enough- everything taught was good solid stuff, and the rest of the students they teach go from a BE76 IFR flight test straight to a Dash8, so it needs to be.

Left for my CPL test with 150hrs exactly, so I didnt spend anymore than I had to.

[VH-FTS]

You might want to check out a previous thread about the same topic:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=229599

[MakeItHappenCaptain]

Brain fart. New sim at Fogarty's is an AT-21 running Elite S/Ware. Old piece was the ATC-610:ugh:

[MakeItHappenCaptain]

Left for my CPL test with 150hrs exactly, so I didnt spend anymore than I had to.
Beware of schools who promise and quote your course with this. Not saying DreamerJules hasn't got the proficiency to have completed his course in the minimum time TO REQUIRED STANDARDS or that this school is dodgy, but when people take more than the minimum hours to complete their course after being promised this they get pissed off. You can't guarantee a CPL pass in the minimum time without being willing to pass off a percentage of students with sub standard skills. Remember the CPL used to have a 200 hour minimum with NVFR requirements..... I wonder why.....:hmm:

[TopTup]

Spleener,

Do your research..... (as you are now) but get this "kid" out and about and do the leg work. I have had direct dealings with 2 of the mentioned schools mentioned thus far, as well as met with students from these places. Happy, rosey times are FAR from what you might hope to expect. I will not go into names for obvious reasons but am happy if you wish to personal meesage me to have a decent chat with you.

1. Know what you want and how to go about it.
2. Speak to ex students throughout that instructor's / flying school's past, not just the ones they want to tell you about! How many other names have they traded under, and therefore why? Why and how has that instructor come to be where he / she is now?
3. You are the paying customer. Flying schools forget that fact.
4. Does the instructor have any commercial experience themselves outside of a flying school, how many hours, etc?? Hard to teach commercial ops if no commercial experience themselves.... (Not that "PAID" instructing isn't a commercial operation).
5. Speak to small operators where pilots go to chase the hours. Where do they think the best new CPL pilots come from?

Like I said, get in touch. Way too much money to spent on "the dream" some operators will sell to take your money, then tell YOU the paying customer to clean THEIR aeroplane. Trust me, it happens. A good instructor and flying school are worth their weight in gold. Too bad there are too few.