Booker Aviation CPL/MEIR

[Flyer1988]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice from anyone who has experience with Booker Aviation.

I am now in a position to start the CPL/MEIR in January and need to pick a school.

The closest to home is Booker Aviation based in High Wycombe being 20 minutes drive, The MEP/IR is done in a da42 and the sim work in a da42 ALSIM.
CPL in a pa28 and pa28 arrow.

Does anyone have any advice or feedback on the school, there training and reputation? They are relative in terms of pricing with competitors around the UK.

I would like to give myself the best opportunity in gaining employment by choosing a good school, I cannot afford the likes of CTC and would never pay what they are asking! I understand that the MCC/JOC is a critical part of the training and plays a major role in gaining employment so a good organisation will be chosen for that part too.

I have also considered Diamond Flight Academy in Kalmar Sweden, which costs the same as Booker but I will have added accommodation, living and travel costs.

If anyone has any feedback or advice or suggestions, please do get in touch as its an important decision I have to make over the coming weeks.

[portsharbourflyer]

I have used them for an FI revalidation but cant really comment on the IR training side of things. I have generally only heard good stuff about Wycombe, but the issue with Wycombe is there are no instrument facilities on the airfield, so the IR training flights will involve transit time. If you are training somewhere where there is NDB and ILS on the field than every approach back to base will be another instrument approach. No matter how good a school Wycombe is every other approach on your IR will be a VFR approach back to base; that will limit the efficiency of the training. At 400 plus an hour for ME IR training those 20 minutes transits will soon add up.

That said there aren't many modular training providers left. Also consider what type of flying you want to do afterwards, there are a couple of operators out there who wont take someone who did the initial IR on a Twin Star because of past problems with Twinstar trained pilots trying to transition to analogue.

[CAT3C AUTOLAND]

Flyer 1988,

Firstly welcome to that stage of your career!

I don't have any experience of Booker either, however like PHF, I have heard some positive feedback.

I did my IR at Blackbushe a number of years ago now, and that didn't have any instrument approaches either so we had to travel to places like Shoreham, Southend and occasionally Bristol to shoot the approaches, however, I didn't have a problem with this and went through in the minimum time. Obviously, talking to the guys at Booker they will be able to give you guidance on this.

Also, and everyone goes through it, myself included, but from experience I wouldn't get too hung up on the school you do your training at. At the end of the day as long as you have the licence you are potentially employable by any airline. I was modular, didn't go to any of the big schools for any phases of my training and I am now enjoying being a Commander with a very large British Airline based at LHR :ok:.

All the best with it and enjoy it. You have a really enjoyable future ahead of you, its the best job in the world believe me.