Best training pace

[KayPam]

Hello,

I am currently wondering about training pace. Some school like L3 will take up to 7 months to provide a CPL MEIR (last year a friend of mine did that)
Others like DFAS will wrap it up in about 2 months.

From a financial and personal point of view, it's quite obvious that the fastest is the best. Cheaper requires no explanation as why it's better, faster is better because everbody is so impatient to sit on seat 0B.

But from a quality point of view ?
Is there an ideal training pace, like one flight per week, one flight every two days, one flight per day, two per day, as fast as possible ?
Schools like DFAS must be at about two flights per day, five days per week placing the theoretical duration of the CPL MEIR at 6-7 weeks + any delay due to cancellations/weather/other, placing the total at about 7 to 9 weeks.
Schools like L3 must be at about 3 flights per week, which is 5 months + delay, giving 6 or 7 months of real duration.

I really have no idea why some schools would choose a fast pace and others a slower one.

So I'm asking for your opinions.
What's your take on the subject ? Which is best ? Does it depend on the student ? Do fast schools like DFAS have any problem in passing statistics due to their fast pace ?

[parkfell]

It depends what stage of training you are at. Ideally one flight a day until solo, increasing to say 2 flights daily, 5 days a week (5/7).
In the IR phase, one event a day ideally, or perhaps 3 events over two days (5/7). Trying at this stage to 2 events daily (5/7) is not recommended. Think about the concept of OSMOSIS, and the rate at which you can occur. The brain is like a sponge, where a gentle 'drip drip' is best for absorption.

The Operation manual will specify just what can be achieved.

Establshments who will have "bitten off more than they can chew" by having more customers (students) than they can cope with, are likely to damage their hard earned reputation. Self funding Customers (white tails) are put to the back of the queue, as the airline students have dates to complete training with probably penalties clauses for late completion.

Read the contract carefully and be aware how invariably it is heavily weighted in favour of the ATO so that when things don't quite work out as anticipated, your redress can be limited, unless a serious breach occurs.

[KayPam]

The phase that concerns me is CPL and IR.
My opinion is the following :
- for all flights and simulator sessions that include a navigation to prepare : one per day, five days per week.
- for all other flights and simulator sessions that require minimal preparation on the student part : two per day, five days per week.

It's clear that faster rythms can cause emotional and even physical fatigue and worse rate of learning than theoretically possible, but what about to slow rythms ?
Like someone who would want to keep a fulltime job and fly one or two sessions per week.
Is that an efficient way of learning ? Does the additional time for the brain to absorb new skills positively compensates the memory loss that happens in the same time, about aircraft procedures, the school's methods, and whatnot ?

Like flying two days in a row (the weekend) then working 5 days (the work week), or flying wednesday and saturday or any combination of one or two flights per week.

[parkfell]

If you have aspirations of airline flying, then you need to be prepared at the 'normal pace'.

You need to understand that working full time & professional flying training is not recommended. Fatigue.
The CPL/IR modular phase is probably best undertaken on a full time basis (5/7) as is the MCC phase.

The most critical part of the training is your ability to select the prescribed power / attitude and TRIM perfectly !
Without this fundamental skill, life will remain a challenge ......these basic skills must be learnt during the SE phase.

[Andyh009]

SE? Phase.

[KayPam]

If you have aspirations of airline flying, then you need to be prepared at the 'normal pace'.

You need to understand that working full time & professional flying training is not recommended. Fatigue.
The CPL/IR modular phase is probably best undertaken on a full time basis (5/7) as is the MCC phase.

The most critical part of the training is your ability to select the prescribed power / attitude and TRIM perfectly !
Without this fundamental skill, life will remain a challenge ......these basic skills must be learnt during the SE phase.

It's pretty funny to read this.

I take it you understood I wanted to keep a fulltime job and train in parallel because I talked about a really slow training pace : "two days in a row then a five-day weekend"

Actually I am fulltime studying at an ATO where we fly only twice a week, be it in a row or on separate days.
This is is the normal pace here.

What is, in your opinion, the normal pace ?

[31Pilot]

I’m going for one or two lessons per week (sometimes more) and working full time. I can only have a max of 2 lessons a day and 10 flying hours per week, which I’ve opted not to do yet. That’s prescribed in the trainers ops manual as the absolute limit. I’m enjoying the pace, going over what I’ve done and reading what we’re doing next. (I had already studied all of the PPL material prior to stepping into a plane).

I’ve had a few instances where I haven’t flown for 2 weeks and it shows, it’s amazing how quickly you can forget things. Partly because of availability and some weather issues cancelled some lesson. I’d recommend a minimum of a lesson per week, I’d even try for more.

I have been told ME/IR & CPL is 15 weeks Mon-Fri and that’s compulsory, I’m working on a creative use of my annual leave to cover some of that. Hopefully spanning two separate leave years and maybe some unpaid leave, but I’ll be there. Whatever it takes.

SE I assume he means single engine, PPL and hour building stages.