stevechew
17th Feb 2013, 22:32
EASA review - January 2013
Introduction
I went to EASA enrolled on their PPL Deluxe course. Despite their claiming course completion within 21 days I scheduled myself 5 weeks, from 3rd January to 7th February. During this time I took a total of 3 days off and a day off due to sickness. I did return home with a PPL licence but no night rating due to a lack of time. Before going to EASA I had not completed any exams or read any of the material. I am a navigation officer in the merchant navy and must admit to going there with the attitude of “how hard could it be”, where in reality, it is a very hard course to do!
The reason for writing a review is because of a lack of any credible reviewers out there. It was very frustrating trying to figure out where to earn as everybody had negative things to say but nothing to explain why.
Starting back at the beginning…
Application Process
All communication was through their chief operations officer and I don't have any complaints about that.
You are guided the while way through the complicated SEVICS, TSA and Visa application process with easy to follow and extremely detailed instructions from the school. This process wasn't cheap with both the SEVICS and TSA registration costing $200 each I think, plus phoning the embassy and a £85 booking fee you're already spending a lot of money before you've agreed to go!
Once I had my visa and booked my flights I was to pay my deposit. Rather foolishly I transferred the whole amount of cash. In retrospect this probably isn't a good idea but it worked out okay, e funds were there in my account when I arrived.
5/5 - I was very satisfied with the level of service and the instructions made the whole process very easy.
Arrival
I flew into Orlando from London Gatwick and having spent a lot of time in America before I decided that a rental car for my stay was a necessity and not a luxury. They do offer a service to pick you up, not sure on the price.
My instructions were to drive to the school (it was 9pm) and find instructions stuck to the office door, which they were. The course includes 3 weeks of shared room rental in one of their many houses. Instructions were once again very detailed and I had no problem finding the house and gaining access.
Word of warning… The next day on enrolment to the school it did feel liked had to pay a lot of money. You need to put a deposit down on the accommodation, they give you the option of paying $200 so if you break the plane you don't pay anything, (I paid this as I assumed they'd be out to get you for any damage), you have to buy a headset, fuel tester, chart, aircraft manual and kneeboard. I also got a bag for my headset and it all added up to rather a lot.
5/5 - not much they had to do but it was a relief finding the instructions for the house there as they had promised.
Accomodation
The school had a few houses throughout a small neighbourhood near to the airport. They are within walking distance to the school, probably about a 15-20 minute walk but that's about the only thing within walking distance. The houses do have bicycles in them to make life a little easier.
The house itself had 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, each room had 2 beds in. The house was always busy, we never had less than 5 of us and at one point there were 9 of us there. The house was in a pretty bad state considering 9 people paying a total of $1800 a week. It was dirty, the sofas had holes in them, the drains were blocked in the kitchen and the cooking equipment was just plain nasty. In order to save money the school blocks hot water during the day, so forget showering before 6pm unless you can deal with ice cold water, and make sure you're up early to get the last of it before the tank runs out. The wifi router is located in the house next door, so although there is free wifi, it's only accessible from one half of the house and is pretty slow.
Overall the accommodation is poor for the money you pay. If you haven't got a car then you're stuck there. There are no supermarkets within walking distance or cycling distance, Walmart is a 10 minute drive away. If nobody in the house has a car then you have 3 weeks of papa johns pizza delivery to look forward to because there isn't anything else.
1/5 - the accommodation was just awful.
The School
The school is reasonably modern and clean. Includes several classrooms and a study area as well as a small cafe offering basic food during the week days. Closed on weekends so don't be expecting any access to food and drinks however there is a vending machine.
Every night at around 5pm your daily schedule is uploaded onto an Internet site which you can access at the house. It is clear what times you have to be there the next day.
4/5 - no complaints
Aircraft
Make no mistake, the aircraft are old, but the school does have their own maintenance department which operates on weekdays. I never had an issue with broken planes but my room mate did a couple of times. Whilst they may be old they are kept in good condition and I have nothing negative to say about them. The PA-28 was a nice aircraft to learn on.
4/5
Instructors
Although this is a JAA school it is also FAA and therefore there are instructors which teach both methods. This can be a little frustrating when learning procedures as obviously they have different methods.
Overall the quality of the instructing was good. I only got the feel from one instructor that he was there just to hour build. We went up in unfavourable conditions and it wasn't a good learning experience. For he rest, two instructors really stood out. Darrell was a dedicated instructor, he was always approachable to ask questions and took his position very seriously. Greg, although primarily a FAA instructor was great to fly with. Both of them were serious about the instruction and commanded great respect in the air. They were direct and if you messed something up they made it clear that you had and gave you clear instruction on how to perform the manoeuvre correctly, they didn't beat around the bush and that makes a refreshing change. I don't want to be told I'm doing something okay if really I'm not.
Although not an instructor, Erika on dispatch was also great, she helped me out a lot with best scheduling for weather whereas the other dispatch lady would just be plain rude and do the opposite of what you requested.
In the admin office, Kim was there to handle all your payments and your account. If your account started to run low then you would be stopped from flying. I read plenty of reviews about EASA where people say they just want your money. I did see Kim chasing people around a lot but that was all due to the fact that people didn't keep track of their accounts. I would go see her first knowing that I was getting low and she was nothing but polite to me. They have a business to run and if people get crappy with them when they have to pay them I can understand why they get fed up with them.
Quality of instructors 4/5
The Training
Everything was going well for me, I did my first solo within 5 days and continued to progress until I reached my solo cross country exercises. Weather kept me on the ground for 9 days. I was getting closer and closer to the end of my time there and I agree that I was being a pain in the ass to the dispatch people but it would have been nice to have received some sympathy. Being told by them that “instructor flights are more important than your flights” when you have 5 days left and over 15 hours of flying left to do does not sit well with me. I felt more like a prisoner than a customer during that period of time. Because of the weather I was unable to get my night rating, it is completely separate to the cross country but they wouldn't let me fly with an instructor at night and do some solo circuits until I had my cross country done. This wasted valuable time and was complete nonsense. Other students were being allowed to do it with other instructors and in the end it cost me and extra 2 hours of instruction as I couldn't do 2 solo hours and it cost me a night rating, something I will have to do at home at the cost of 5 hours of rental and instruction. Thanks EASA!
For the rest, do not expect much in the way of ground school for your exams. The ground school is there for the flying, the written exams are down to you to prepare for alone. I strongly suggest getting them done in the UK before you come out, they were annoying and took up much of my free time. If you fail a subject 3 times you cannot sit your PPL skills test so you need to be confident of your work. GET THEM DONE AT HOME BEFORE YOU GO TO FLORIDA.
4/5
Conclusion
After reading all the bad reviews before I came out here I was a little nervous as to what I might find. In the end it was better than what I thought it would be even though the accommodation was horrible.
I came to EASA to get my PPL and I left with it. 3 weeks is not nearly enough time, budget more and I came really close to not getting it all done in time with 5 weeks there and 4 days off.
The quality of the training was good, the only negative thing was the standard of accommodation. It was very poor.
Don't go there thinking that you can do it all for the price they quote. I consider myself to be quite hands on and I needed additional lessons to be ready for the test. In the end I did it with 47.9 hours and nearly everybody else there looked like they were going to need some additional training. It's not the schools fault, but it's just a hard course to complete for minimum hours. A car in my opinion is a necessity. I also strongly suggest completing your PPL written exams before you go there. It will mean you can concentrate fully on the flying and can forget about the boring books.
I would recommend EASA to other PPL students. They will get you out of there with a PPL but it is down to you to put the effort in.
Introduction
I went to EASA enrolled on their PPL Deluxe course. Despite their claiming course completion within 21 days I scheduled myself 5 weeks, from 3rd January to 7th February. During this time I took a total of 3 days off and a day off due to sickness. I did return home with a PPL licence but no night rating due to a lack of time. Before going to EASA I had not completed any exams or read any of the material. I am a navigation officer in the merchant navy and must admit to going there with the attitude of “how hard could it be”, where in reality, it is a very hard course to do!
The reason for writing a review is because of a lack of any credible reviewers out there. It was very frustrating trying to figure out where to earn as everybody had negative things to say but nothing to explain why.
Starting back at the beginning…
Application Process
All communication was through their chief operations officer and I don't have any complaints about that.
You are guided the while way through the complicated SEVICS, TSA and Visa application process with easy to follow and extremely detailed instructions from the school. This process wasn't cheap with both the SEVICS and TSA registration costing $200 each I think, plus phoning the embassy and a £85 booking fee you're already spending a lot of money before you've agreed to go!
Once I had my visa and booked my flights I was to pay my deposit. Rather foolishly I transferred the whole amount of cash. In retrospect this probably isn't a good idea but it worked out okay, e funds were there in my account when I arrived.
5/5 - I was very satisfied with the level of service and the instructions made the whole process very easy.
Arrival
I flew into Orlando from London Gatwick and having spent a lot of time in America before I decided that a rental car for my stay was a necessity and not a luxury. They do offer a service to pick you up, not sure on the price.
My instructions were to drive to the school (it was 9pm) and find instructions stuck to the office door, which they were. The course includes 3 weeks of shared room rental in one of their many houses. Instructions were once again very detailed and I had no problem finding the house and gaining access.
Word of warning… The next day on enrolment to the school it did feel liked had to pay a lot of money. You need to put a deposit down on the accommodation, they give you the option of paying $200 so if you break the plane you don't pay anything, (I paid this as I assumed they'd be out to get you for any damage), you have to buy a headset, fuel tester, chart, aircraft manual and kneeboard. I also got a bag for my headset and it all added up to rather a lot.
5/5 - not much they had to do but it was a relief finding the instructions for the house there as they had promised.
Accomodation
The school had a few houses throughout a small neighbourhood near to the airport. They are within walking distance to the school, probably about a 15-20 minute walk but that's about the only thing within walking distance. The houses do have bicycles in them to make life a little easier.
The house itself had 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, each room had 2 beds in. The house was always busy, we never had less than 5 of us and at one point there were 9 of us there. The house was in a pretty bad state considering 9 people paying a total of $1800 a week. It was dirty, the sofas had holes in them, the drains were blocked in the kitchen and the cooking equipment was just plain nasty. In order to save money the school blocks hot water during the day, so forget showering before 6pm unless you can deal with ice cold water, and make sure you're up early to get the last of it before the tank runs out. The wifi router is located in the house next door, so although there is free wifi, it's only accessible from one half of the house and is pretty slow.
Overall the accommodation is poor for the money you pay. If you haven't got a car then you're stuck there. There are no supermarkets within walking distance or cycling distance, Walmart is a 10 minute drive away. If nobody in the house has a car then you have 3 weeks of papa johns pizza delivery to look forward to because there isn't anything else.
1/5 - the accommodation was just awful.
The School
The school is reasonably modern and clean. Includes several classrooms and a study area as well as a small cafe offering basic food during the week days. Closed on weekends so don't be expecting any access to food and drinks however there is a vending machine.
Every night at around 5pm your daily schedule is uploaded onto an Internet site which you can access at the house. It is clear what times you have to be there the next day.
4/5 - no complaints
Aircraft
Make no mistake, the aircraft are old, but the school does have their own maintenance department which operates on weekdays. I never had an issue with broken planes but my room mate did a couple of times. Whilst they may be old they are kept in good condition and I have nothing negative to say about them. The PA-28 was a nice aircraft to learn on.
4/5
Instructors
Although this is a JAA school it is also FAA and therefore there are instructors which teach both methods. This can be a little frustrating when learning procedures as obviously they have different methods.
Overall the quality of the instructing was good. I only got the feel from one instructor that he was there just to hour build. We went up in unfavourable conditions and it wasn't a good learning experience. For he rest, two instructors really stood out. Darrell was a dedicated instructor, he was always approachable to ask questions and took his position very seriously. Greg, although primarily a FAA instructor was great to fly with. Both of them were serious about the instruction and commanded great respect in the air. They were direct and if you messed something up they made it clear that you had and gave you clear instruction on how to perform the manoeuvre correctly, they didn't beat around the bush and that makes a refreshing change. I don't want to be told I'm doing something okay if really I'm not.
Although not an instructor, Erika on dispatch was also great, she helped me out a lot with best scheduling for weather whereas the other dispatch lady would just be plain rude and do the opposite of what you requested.
In the admin office, Kim was there to handle all your payments and your account. If your account started to run low then you would be stopped from flying. I read plenty of reviews about EASA where people say they just want your money. I did see Kim chasing people around a lot but that was all due to the fact that people didn't keep track of their accounts. I would go see her first knowing that I was getting low and she was nothing but polite to me. They have a business to run and if people get crappy with them when they have to pay them I can understand why they get fed up with them.
Quality of instructors 4/5
The Training
Everything was going well for me, I did my first solo within 5 days and continued to progress until I reached my solo cross country exercises. Weather kept me on the ground for 9 days. I was getting closer and closer to the end of my time there and I agree that I was being a pain in the ass to the dispatch people but it would have been nice to have received some sympathy. Being told by them that “instructor flights are more important than your flights” when you have 5 days left and over 15 hours of flying left to do does not sit well with me. I felt more like a prisoner than a customer during that period of time. Because of the weather I was unable to get my night rating, it is completely separate to the cross country but they wouldn't let me fly with an instructor at night and do some solo circuits until I had my cross country done. This wasted valuable time and was complete nonsense. Other students were being allowed to do it with other instructors and in the end it cost me and extra 2 hours of instruction as I couldn't do 2 solo hours and it cost me a night rating, something I will have to do at home at the cost of 5 hours of rental and instruction. Thanks EASA!
For the rest, do not expect much in the way of ground school for your exams. The ground school is there for the flying, the written exams are down to you to prepare for alone. I strongly suggest getting them done in the UK before you come out, they were annoying and took up much of my free time. If you fail a subject 3 times you cannot sit your PPL skills test so you need to be confident of your work. GET THEM DONE AT HOME BEFORE YOU GO TO FLORIDA.
4/5
Conclusion
After reading all the bad reviews before I came out here I was a little nervous as to what I might find. In the end it was better than what I thought it would be even though the accommodation was horrible.
I came to EASA to get my PPL and I left with it. 3 weeks is not nearly enough time, budget more and I came really close to not getting it all done in time with 5 weeks there and 4 days off.
The quality of the training was good, the only negative thing was the standard of accommodation. It was very poor.
Don't go there thinking that you can do it all for the price they quote. I consider myself to be quite hands on and I needed additional lessons to be ready for the test. In the end I did it with 47.9 hours and nearly everybody else there looked like they were going to need some additional training. It's not the schools fault, but it's just a hard course to complete for minimum hours. A car in my opinion is a necessity. I also strongly suggest completing your PPL written exams before you go there. It will mean you can concentrate fully on the flying and can forget about the boring books.
I would recommend EASA to other PPL students. They will get you out of there with a PPL but it is down to you to put the effort in.