Working for Flight Training Europe at Jerez [Archive]

machonepointone

18th Oct 2006, 15:29

Hi,

As a former employee at FTE I can confirm Deltoya’s comments with one exception. The working week is five days but it is not Monday to Friday. FTE is a seven day a week operation and flying instructors are expected to work at the weekend. That said, the working week is either Sunday to Thursday with Fri/Sat off, or Tuesday to Saturday with Sun/Mon off. In addition, any instructor who works extra days is entitled to claim days off in lieu. On top of that, and especially during summer, a split shift system is in operation. The reason is to try and get the maximum useage out of the aircraft.

Ideally they are looking for ME Class Rating instructors who are also IRI’s. Next best are SE instructors who are IRI’s. At a pinch they may take on non-IRI qualified instructors but those individuals will be expected to upgrade by the end of their three month probationary period. There are in-house FIC instructors and an FIE who will do the training and testing and the cost of the upgrade training/testing is usually borne by FTE.

All instructors will undergo induction training of not less than 10 flying hours. Ideally two new instructors start together and the training is spread over a period of approximately three weeks. The objective of the ten hours is to ensure that all new instructors are able to teach to the very high standards of the FTO. The pass rate is about 85%. Where many instructors fall down is an inability to break down the lessons into their component parts and teach from the known to the unknown. In addition, since the FTO is inspected every year by the CAA, the quality of the paperwork of students’ records must be practically immaculate. It takes a lot of getting used to and the vast majority of PPL instructors (= all of them) find it very hard to get to grips with.

During the induction (assuming there are two of you), you will either observe the staff FIC instructor show the other instructor how to brief, package and teach the early syllabus lessons or you will be expected to brief and teach the staff instructor as though he is a student. (Bear in mind you will have already observed this). This is a very important part of the training because, due to the pace of the syllabus, practically every lesson is very tight on time. For example, the whole of E of C, and Straight and Level, are taught as one lesson each. Climbing/Descending 1 and Medium Level Turns is a single flight. Since each flight lasts one hour chock to chock, chocks time is fifteen minutes, and there is a five minute transit each way to the training area you will appreciate that it requires a whole new approach to packaging the lesson.

There is no FHT to the induction but on completion you can expect that a Standards Instructor will monitor one flight a month for the duration of your probation. He will sit in at your pre-flight brief, back-seat the flight and then sit through you debrief of the student. On successfully completing the last one just prior to the end of your third month you will no longer be on probation. Thereafter you can expect an observed flight every twelve months plus a 1 v 1 flight with a Standards Flight Instructor in between. Class Rating and Instrument Rating tests are done in-house at no cost to you. The company also pays for medical revalidations and there is an AME in Gibraltar (about an hour and a half drive from Jerez.

When on line you will be expected to get on with your own program planning and management of your students. There are plenty of senior staff who will give advice any time, and in many respects it is better to ask than to try and second guess what you should be doing.

The actual flying can be either extremely pleasant or outstandingly frustrating. The ATC controllers are out of the Dark Ages and although as individuals they are probably very nice, professionally they are (by UK standards and that of most of the rest of the Western world) totally inept. When the weather is nice it is very nice – clear blue skies, fabulous visibility and smooth as the proverbial. There is, however, a local wind called the Levanter, which blows at 90° to the runway heading at anything up to 35 knots. Fog, rain and low cloud are not exactly unknown, but over the course of a year the weather is better than in the UK.

The aircraft are well maintained and it is rare that there are not enough. The only major bottleneck is the availability of the Seneca simulators which can entail their use up to 10 in the evening, and since there are no dedicated sim instructors, guess who will be at work at that time?

The social life in Spain is whatever you want it to be, although it must be said that the Spanish are, by nature, nocturnal. Very few restaurants open before 8 in the evening and often later. The locals are also not known for being particularly quiet when out, and sometimes even when at home in the evening. DIY drilling of walls is not unknown at 11 at night. Overall the cost of living is probably slightly lower than in the UK, partly due to the cost of petrol, (about 70 pence a litre), the cost of cigarettes (but that only helps if you smoke), plus the fact that a pint of beer in the Social Club at work costs a pound normally and sixty pence during Happy Hour on Fridays.

Most people either live in Jerez or Puerto. The former is about seven kilometers from the airport and the latter about thirty. Exact distances obviously will depend on precisely where in town you live. House prices (to rent) vary between about 500 Euros a month (there are approximately 1½ Euros to the pound) and anything you are prepared to pay. As a guide, the further inland you live the cheaper the property. Puerto is on the coast, Jerez is about 10-12 miles inland. It is nor necessary to speak Spanish to live out there, but it helps – not for the routine things but for when something goes wrong. If you need professional help (plumber, electrician etc.) then do remember that the Spaniards invented the word Mañana.

I was very happy working there and it was a very hard decision to make to leave. The management are good and supportive, especially if you have a good track record of pulling your weight. It is a friendly working environment but you will be expected to work hard and, if required, be prepared to be a bit flexible with your working hours. You won’t lose out in the long run.

If you have any questions then please feel free to PM me.

All the best.

M1.1

PS I nearly forgot - Ryanair have two flights a day direct to Stansted so getting back to the UK by and large is no problem.