Wannabes going to the USA

[spitfire747]

Does anyone remember back to the threads generated by the fall of SFT in Bournemouth and the posts by the people who had lost their invested money with the company ??

If yes then you will remember a post by Captain Richard Gentil of Naples Air Center offering to "help" those who had been burned by SFT. Following a "NO WAY" of getting reduced flying hours with the associated school of SFT - Ambassador in Naples and with a non-refundable ticket - I opted to go and headed out for Naples Air Center, Inc.

I just wanted to extend my thanks to all at the school, they made me extremely welcome and through two weeks i managed to get 21.4 hours of time built and my JAA Night rating which i wouldn't have been able to get without the generosity of Richard and Niki.

The school was great, the people great, the planes were great, while i was there never lost a day due to one being broken, saw some great sites, had a ride in a PA31-Navajo Chieftain (FAB makes me realise where i am heading one day), hotel accomodation was excellent value for money and not forgetting the 4 little kittens, relax anyone just before an exam.

In parting i realsie there are many schools out there in the states, i have been to a few and i really will be returning to NAC in the future to do my ratings and hour building.
This industry is based firstly on reputation and secondly on quality.
If anyone is thinking of going to the states to do some flying, check out Naples Air Center
www.naples-air-center.com (http://www.naples-air-center.com)

My thanks again

Spitfire747
p.s. I am not employed by the marketing dept!!!

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Spitfire747 - I know you are genuine and not Naples Marketing director!

Well done to you and Naples. Doubtless part of the intention was to garner such good press and future custom - nothing wrong with that at all.

WWW

[spitfire747]

My Granddad always used to say

"If you help others, you will reap rewards yourself" !

[Thoroughly Nice Bloke...]

Spitfire 747

Thank you for your post, I'm off to the States early next year to build some hours and have now decided where to go.... ;)

[bow5]

I too saw the post where NAC offered that deal to the unfortuante SFT trainees. I had never heard of the place before but the reports it's had on here, and the fact that Capt Richard Gentil had the nouse and kindness to make an offer like that means that when I do want to do some hour building and further ratings, NAC will be very high on my list of places to go.

It's a simple equation, treat your customers well and they will come back and spend more money. Treat them badly and they will go away, bad mouth you and put people off. It still somewhat astounds me that in a lot of businesses nowadays, not only aviation, something as simple as this is forgotton by so many managers and staff.

Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool available!

[skywatcher]

I concur with the sentiments about NAC. i spent a couple of weeks there doing a rating and their after-sales manner is just brilliant. Well Done NAC. :)

[spitfire747]

I have been to quite a few schools and i believe, due to the cost of flight training, that quality of value is more important than anything else.

I try to report on the school as acurately as i can; good and bad.
NAC got the thumbs up from me and my fellow students and i wanted to let other wannabes know.

Happy Flying

[mad_jock]

Just a wee note from another happy customer of Naples.

If any of the IT types out there are having problems getting exams booked in the UK for the microsoft exams. Richard also runs a pyrothingy test center. So if you wanted you could get some MSCE exams out off the way as well if you could be bothered.

MJ

[blended winglet]

I can vouch for Naples too,
top oufit, top people ;-) :)

[Wrong Stuff]

Another vote from me too. Seeing the original offer from Richard and Nikki convinced me it was the place to go and I wasn't disappointed. A quality, professional outfit.

[Max Drift]

Another happy customer!

I would definitely recommend NAC. I was there October/November time, weather was excellent so plenty of flying and they would bend over backwards to find you a plane if you fancied going off for a couple more hours.

A quality operation reflected in the comments on this thread.

[theodor]

Maybe a lot of us believe that NAC might just be the best place to fly. I saw the original message from Richard and wanted to finish my training there. However I´m so far along that they don´t yet have the license to train what I´m missing.
But here is some advise to danish students. DON´T begin your training in Denmark go to NAC, you´ll save money, time and have more fun.

[spitfire747]

Glad to see i am not the only one !

[AeroBatfink]

Just an aside...

Seems a lot of people are confirming which FTO should be top of my list when I do my CPL/ATPL. I had NAC recommended to me by Avasp as being excellent training as well as financially secure - a vital consideration after recent events!

Incidentally, if you haven't already done so, the Aviation Aspirations website is well worth checking out (http://www.avasp.com/), they've got loads of useful information, and after contacting them by email, I had a phone conversation with one of the guys which gave me a lot to go on... it was just useful to be able to get a bit more industry insider information. Apparently, NAC is one of their recommended FTOs.