Flying in America I caught the bug!

[flyboy1818]

Hi guys,

I have been flying for ten years now and I have held a PPL for the past six. I recently spent two weeks flying in America and I absolutly loved it, there attitude to general aviation is spot on, the facilities and airspace are so good that you can actually make use of a light aircraft for transportation purposes rather than just for pleasure flying. I used the Aircraft I was renting to go to the beach and go clothes shopping. I'm just stunned at how bad it is in this country, without an IR its impossible to access the airports and airspace that I was using to fly point to point between large cities, flying VFR on the victor airways. I also found Air Traffic much more helpful.

In the end I got what I wanted, I got the hours I need at a cheaper price than in the UK, and that includes everything, yep every penny I spent in the states.

So heres my complex, I have put down a small deposit for a CPL course at a decent local flight school, but now I have the urge to train in the states. I visited two schools when I was over there, ormond beach and naples. I was not impressed with the first but the second seemed as professional as any flight school in the UK and watching them train both when airborne and on the ground they seemed to fit the bill.

My initial career goal is to instruct and later move into business jets. I am not interested in being an Airline Pilot and I am currently employed in the business jet industry. Would training in America reduce my chances of suceeding in my career goals? If I trained in America I would get both FAA and JAR licences as many business jets even in this country operate on an N reg.

[BigGrecian]

Impressed with Naples.

That is probably the funniest statement I've ever heard in my time as a pilot.

You obviously did not speak to any of the students there at the moment then ..... and just got the "tour"....although I guess compared to Ormond....guess it's all relative.

Why didn't you visit EFT and OFT? If I were about to spend money I wouldn't visit the two schools which get slated consistently on this forum.

I would have at least visited EFT and OFT as well!

[flyboy1818]

I went over there to do hour building and I visited Naples and Ormond Beach for that exact reason, I was passing by and I thought lets pop in and have a laugh. Ormond Beach lives up to the status, but I'm not so sure about Naples. On the day that I went to visit OFT the weather caved in. If I do flight training in America I will be visiting both EFT and OFT before proceeding.

[fernytickles]

You'll find that many folks learnt to fly in the USA - for all sorts of different reasons, myself included. It shouldn't affect your chances in the long term, and you may find it very handy to have FAA licences with the substantial number of N reg business jets.

You'll probably find there's pluses & minuses to both schools, and how you approach your training is as significant as anything. If you do decide to come & learn in the States, make sure you take the time to do some long cross countries out west - the scenery is breath taking, and you can do the whole trip, if you choose, non-radio :ok: And make use of the EAA calendar to find out about local fly-ins & pancake breakfasts; fun flying & cheaper than clothes shopping ;)

[benish]

Flyboy, you should visit London Aviation round the corner from Naples Air Center.

Brilliant school, I strongly recommend it, I have a contact for cheap accommodation too in the Naples area!

I love flying in the USA. I dont care if people say its boring and too easy compared to the UK, but the whole point in hour building and experience is to fly to new places, on different routes, learn how to navigate, nail the landings, and most importantly get better at holding headings, altitude and communicating with atc. And right now at this time the weather isnt perfect so it offers a whole new factor to gain experience with.

[INNflight]

Flying GA in the US makes every single Euro country look crap. Simple as that.

Say what you want, if you never tried it, you miss out on a great part of enjoying yourself.

No landing fees even at the big airports, friendly people all over the place, TONS of small airfields, some with runways as narrow as a road, some with 12,000 feet available. Easy night VFR, perfect for touring the country.

Plus, they take a sensible approach at teaching you how to fly. I am still stunned they take 5 pages of lecture in a JAR ATPL book to explain how to fly a turn :ugh:

Such is life... GA is a pleasure in the US, but commercial flying is a lot more interesting in Euroland I think...many countries, lots of places.

[islasdad]

like big grecian i laughed long and hard at the comment naples air centre was professional I spent almost a year with them doing the atpl ground school and yes it is pretty proffesional and i have a lot of time for their ghief instructor there but as for the flying side.

Having spent 18 years as an aircraft engineer you couldnt pay me to get in one of their aircraft and the incidents that have occured are numerous and pretty scary. I flew with european american acros the road and they were great right up until they switched the entire flet to diamonds half way through my instrument rating with no prior warning and that irritated me quite a bit.ean

In my time in florida I have flown with EAA as i said, Sunstate who were pretty good first time i went there but not so good a year later Dean Aviation whom I realy liked and who I rented a 172 from for a week flying round the Caribean ....that was fun.. and i returned a year or so later to do my CPL with Ormond beach.

I find Ormond get a really bad press on here at times and its pretty unjustified . I found them proffesional helful and I got my CPL done in a minimum of time..Yes Adrian can be a grumpy old git at times but he was a great instructor and I couldnt realy fault the place...

Up to you to draw your own conclusions from the many posts on here those were just my personal experiences.

ID

[flyboy1818]

I think its true, you need to draw your own conclusions. I considered going integrated a few years ago and when visiting the modular schools I did not find them any different, same planes, instructors with the same licences, so I decided to go modular. Until this point I was adament on not touching flight training in the US, however most of the opinions on this website are all about what the Airlines want, and to be honest I really don't care about that! What I need is hands on flying since I want to head down the instructor/ ferry pilot/ Business Jet Pilot route. I think I will at least do the IR in the states since 35-40 hours actual handling time in a twin followed by doing the conversion over to JAR is bound to be better than 40 hours on the ground in a sim followed by 15 hours in the Aircraft! Sure thats great for future Airline pilots, but I can't really see how that helps if you see yourself flying single pilot ops or something similar in a few years!