Sunrise Aviaton, Florida

[Gingerbread Man]

Hello, I was curious if anyone has had any experience with this flying school and if so what their views on it were. I'm thinking of doing some flying with them over the summer but thought i'd do a bit of homework before I book the flight. Cheers

Ginger ;)

[B2N2]

I had never heard of them.
Just checked their website, fairly low key operation by the looks of it.
What kind of flying were you looking to do over the summer?

[Gingerbread Man]

Just a week or so to get my hours up quickly to keep my PPL. Hoping either to do IMC or a night and complex rating. I've read the other Florida thread though and noted the unreliable weather, which my instructor (he's CAA and FAA certified) didn't mention, so I assumed it wasn't a problem. Now i'm not sure.

Ginger ;)

[captain_rossco]

sunrise aviation, nice little place at ormond beach municipal airport!

Its nice over there, not had any dealings with them, they run a few cessnas etc, when i was at OBA there were plenty of people knocking about and they are very cheap.

A safe bet I'd suggest!

PM me for any additional info!

Regards

Rossco

[BackPacker]

If you go there just for hours building, you need to get an FAA PPL based on you JAA PPL (I think it's called a restricted FAA PPL because it depends on the validity of the JAA PPL) and an appropriate medical. I don't think for the validity of your JAA PPL it matters whether the hours flown and counting towards your experience requirements (12 hours PIC in the year before license expiration) were flown on an FAA restricted or your JAA PPL.

But if you want to expand your knowledge and get an additional license, particularly the UK-only IMC rating (which is not an ICAO license, after all), you need to go to one of the five-ish schools that do JAA training. AAA in California or OFT, OBE or Naples in Florida. Check the CAA website or one of the other threads for the definitive list.

If you're doing flight training (as opposed to hours building) you also need an M-1 visa and TSA clearance.

Florida weather is very reliable and predictable: there's a minor or major tropical storm about every five to ten days, april to october. A few of these grow out to be hurricanes and get their own name. But apart from these storms, an excellent place to go flying. And these storms are generally easy to predict. But if you're only going there for a week, you might just find that week coinciding with a tropical storm of course...

For myself, I would not want to go through the hassle of getting visas, TSA clearance and everything for just a weeks flying/hour building. Remember that just getting a visa appointment may take a month or so, and the appointment itself might take two-three hours plus the travel time. Spend those hours in an aircraft at your local field and you're halfway through your night rating, and a quarter of the way to your experience requirement.

[mcgoo]

Backpacker wrote:
For myself, I would not want to go through the hassle of getting visas, TSA clearance and everything for just a weeks flying/hour building.





You don't need a visa, TSA clearance and everything for hour building, visa waiver program is just fine, 1 little form.

[Gingerbread Man]

I was aware that I have to 'convert' the licence (i've got the form), and had read and asked about the extra security measures, but apparently for this type of flying I just have to make sure I say 'holiday' as my purpose of visit, to avoid any confusion/visits to Gitmo.

Cheers for the information :ok:

Ginger ;)

[BillieBob]

you need to go to one of the five-ish schools that do JAA trainingSix, actually, including Sunrise Aviation (well, Western Air operating through Sunrise, to be precise).

[Gingerbread Man]

Will I have met you BillieBob? Western Air is the school i've done 90% of my flying with (which is why I know about Sunrise, as you've probably guessed).

[B2N2]

Six, actually, including Sunrise Aviation (well, Western Air operating through Sunrise, to be precise).

Anybody care to explain how that works?

[BillieBob]

Gingerbread - No reason at all that we should have met, I've never been near Western Air, or Sunrise for that matter. I just read Standards Doc 31 from time to time.

B2N2 - Western Air hold the approval and have an agreement with Sunrise whereby the latter provides the weather, aeroplanes, instructors and other facilities. The sub-contractor will often market courses as though they held the approval themselves, which is misleading although, to be fair, this does not currently appear to be the case with Sunrise. However, have a look at the MFC website - beyond stating that they offer courses "in association" with Cabair, the clear impression is that they are approved by the UK CAA in their own right - this is untrue, it is Cabair alone that holds the approval. MFC may carry out only such JAA training as Cabair allow them to, and may use only the course profiles that Cabair have designed and have been approved to provide. The relationship between Western Air and Sunrise is precisely the same.

The danger here is that the real approval holder can suddenly decide to terminate the arrangement, as AFT did with Delta Connection, leaving a number of students unable to complete the courses for which they had paid.

[DBisDogOne]

Bear in mind a couple of things:
1: Weather in Florida, while better than UK, can be unreliable, don't believe all the hype about "It's always lovely flying weather here". This is a generalisation. I lost 25% of my time while there due to high winds & low cloud, this was in winter, supposedly the best time, or was I just unlucky?
2: If you are doing hours, no probs, you only need a visa waiver plus an FAA airman's certifcate (plus medical) I think. If you want to do further training/ratings you'll have to jump through all the bloody hoops (M-1, Visa, TSA etc.) as if you're doing your PPL. This is means alot of time, paperwork, hassle and money. I'm with Mcgoo on this one! Might be better to do this at home? Leaving the hour-building to do abroad.
It's all a bit six of one/half dozen of the other IMHO.
Be seeing you.....