Training Location (Florida or California)

[makchunyinjohnny]

Hello to all,

I am planing on getting my FAA CPL ME-IR in the US. I have looked into a few flight school in the states, however, I am sure you know better then I do! :ok:

I am thinking of doing my training either in Florida or California. I find it very difficult to choose. Anyone with first hand experience on those locations? What is like with the airspace / climate (e.g. how often are we on the ground due WX, hurricane season, etc) / quality of instruction there?

Thanks

[zondaracer]

I have to agree with SoCalApp, there are actually 50 states in the union, not just California or Florida. Maybe not all are best for flight training but there are plenty of great options apart from the two previously mentioned states.

I have experience doing training in Colorado (good mountain flying!), California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Florida, and also in Europe. I can tell you from my experience, that Florida was the least challenging, and the unnamed JAA school that I visited was the worst flying school that I had ever seen.

I have friends that have done their FAA training from Alaska, New England, Texas, Georgia, Florida, California, Arizona, and many more. The big advantage to flying in the south is the better year round weather, but flight training can be done all over.

[Peter PanPan]

Just want to mention that indeed it can be done all over as long as it's a SEVIS approved school (In the context of a non US citizen)

Here's the link for the SEVIS schools in FL: SEVP: List of SEVIS Approved Schools in Florida (http://www.ice.gov/sevis/map/fl.htm)
You can browse it for every State, the only thing is you will find plenty of other non aviation related institutions such as Religious schools, other kinds of vocational schools such as beauty academies ;)

[B2N2]

I'd vote for Florida.
Lots of info through a google search on average temperature, rainfall etc.
But FLorida is 350-400 NM long so average weather conditions can be different depending on location.
For instance Florida as a state has 3 freezing nights a year on average.
That's probably one for Key West and 25 for Tallahassee.
Hurricane season has started on June 1st but no landfall in Florida for the last 4-5 years.
Florida is flat as a pancake while California has more diversion in elevation.

[makchunyinjohnny]

Thanks guys, for the advice. :D

I have an open mind to all locations but since I am foreign, the best places for me are probably CA and FL where they are used to foreign students. I am also, concern on the training quality and the climate as I want to get this done ASAP.

My plan is getting FAA IR - ME CPL then convert to JAA CPL MEP - MEIR in the UK, so it would also makes sense to stay at the JAA school to do the FAA. They should have a good understanding the JAR syllabus.

I know there some people prefer the FAA conv JAA, whilst others prefer the US JAA, UK MEIR route.

I am open to all suggestions :)

[zondaracer]

There are quite a few foreign students in Arizona as well, and not just the Lufthansa and Oxford guys.

[makchunyinjohnny]

To me (just my opinion) this seems a very expensive way of doing things. If you have no real need for maintaining FAA certs, then I would simply suggest only doing the JAA and saving conversions costs until absolutely necessary.

It worked out to be about the same. It is because FAA training is slightly less expensive than the JAA. Also, as for the JAA route, the ME-IR can only be done in a JAA state, so if I were to do the JAA route in the US, it would have to be JAA CPL MEP + FAA IR then back to the UK for the JAA MEIR conversion. Most importantly FAA PPL-IR-CPL MEP takes ~ 6 months whilst the JAA (FAA PPL, IR -JAA CPL ME, ATPL ground) takes ~ more than 12 months without the conversion.


There are quite a few foreign students in Arizona as well, and not just the Lufthansa and Oxford guys.

Any recommendation for FTOs in Arizona? How's the weather like in there?

Please feel free to correct me and constructive criticism is always welcome http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/thumbs.gif

Thanks

[zondaracer]

Arizona weather is hot and sunny, winter is a little cooler but generally year round VFR weather. In the mountains there is snow and cooler weather. Winter time, day temps up around 19-25, night temps 0-10. Summer, day temps 35-45, night 25, but it´s a dry heat!

Plus, Arizona doesn´t do daylight savings, so you can still get night flying at a decent hour in the summer. The school where I trained in AZ doesn´t do Visas, but maybe someone else can comment on other schools.

[sapperkenno]

The school where I trained in AZ doesn´t do Visas, but maybe someone else can comment on other schools.

I can recommend Chandler Air Service, in Chandler, Arizona. I did my FAA Instrument, Commercial, Flight Instructor and Multi-engine with them. They are a part 61 and 141 school, and registered with SEVIS. I did this over the course of around one and a half years, but made a friend there from Belgium who now works in Africa. He did 0 hours through Private, Instrument, Commercial (including all the time-building) and Multi-engine in around 5-6 months.

The quality of instruction is very high at that school, and the only negative aspect of the weather is that it gets very hot in summer. The heat is bearable though, and hasn't stopped people flying throughout summer there. Airspace wise, there's Phoenix Class B nearby, with a shelf overhead, but you can stay clear of that and don't need to enter/exit it while training from Chandler. Plenty of Class G to the South. The beauty of the location allows you to avoid the major airspace when you can't be doing with it (unlike a lot of airfields over CA way) but is close by enough to be useful when you want to use it. One example would be when flying North from Chandler. You can either scoot out to the Northeast and avoid the class B by flying under it, or fly west from Chandler and then transition through the Class B to take you directly overhead Phoenix Sky Harbor.

Their website is Chandler Air Service (http://www.aerobatics.com)

@makchunyinjohnny
Most importantly FAA PPL-IR-CPL MEP takes ~ 6 months whilst the JAA (FAA PPL, IR -JAA CPL ME, ATPL ground) takes ~ more than 12 months without the conversion
Have you already done the JAA ATPL exams?? As you still need to pass them to obtain the theoretical knowledge prior to "converting" to JAA. Hope you're aware of that, and haven't overlooked such an important aspect.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I've JAA and (derivative) FAA licences, and have flown in FL, CA and AZ - by far, I'd go for Arizona again if the sole objective was the flying. Of those three.

Cheaper, good food, great scenery, easy hassle-free flying. Consistently very nice people as well I've found - a bit less intense than Californians can be.

G