Advice On PPL

[EH8]

Hi Guys,

I’m looking for a school to do my PPL, my intention is to go on to do my commercial licence depending finance etc. Unfortunately time is against me (I’m 36) and due to the winter weather I’m looking to North America. I have narrowed it down to a couple of options (although suggestions will be much appreciated).

Anglo-American Aviation in San Diego seem OK and I like the all in price i.e. accommodation, transfers, exam fees etc.

Orlando Flight Training, Florida seems to be a popular choice also.

Any advice / feedback would be appreciated.

EH8
;)

[ratsarrse]

I visited Ormond Beach Aviation getting on for a year ago - it seemed pretty good. I have heard a couple of positive first-hand accounts from satisfied customers.
You should really go and visit a few places and get some trial lessons before committing to anything. Get a cheap flight to Florida, get a car and go see for yourself!

[michael penny]

Hi EH8,
Good advice from ratsarsse. You really are spoilt for choice in Florida. Visit some talk to some instructors and students. Do not pay all your money up front. As for your age I know pilots who didn"t start trainning until their mid 40"s and now have commercial pilot jobs. Good Luck.:)

[stiknruda]

At the start of this year I did some advanced spin recurrency trg and worked through my competition sequence with a guy in N Florida.

He works out of a small FBO on a large but incredibly quiet airport and offers ab-initio trg in a Katana or a C150.

He is a career instructor in his mid 40s. He is gentle, calm, not at all macho and he managed to impart some pretty useful info to me (a bit thick at times!). I saw him at work with some ab-initio studes and was impressed at their progress.

You'd get quality one to one instruction, you'd need to source acco and a vehicle.

Having flown with loads of instructors in the past 12 years in 3 continents and twice as many countries I really rate this chap.

Do a Google search for Amelia Island Aerobatics and ask for Keoki.

Good luck

Stik

[essouira]

I also suggest using the "search" to find several earlier threads on this subject. Some of them have gone into a lot of detail. Two things I would stress out of the comments so far is - Don't Pay Upfront and Ask Lots of Questions.

[EnglishmaninNY]

Hi EH8

I attended Anglo American Aviation in 2001, and I must say it was a good school. Suffered from the same problems as just about every other school (planes breaking etc. - unavoidable really), but the management is good there, and they are concerned with your progress. Weather in CA is generally great, although there is a marine layer just about every morning - this burns off by about 9am though. Lots of interesting places to fly to - Vegas, Phoenix, Palm Springs etc.

Just a word of advice - don't eat the gyros at the cafe! ;)

If you want any more info on AAA, email me@ [email protected]

Enjoy your training wherever you go.

[pops]

Have you given any thought into coming to Canada? Your money will go much further, the weather is great, and we have a licence that is an easier transfer to UK. or wherever you go.


Check out Professional Flight Center (Pro IFR) in Vancouver. They have a name like none other. John Montgomery (the owner) is known the world over for his system of teaching. The guy is great too and he'll break his back trying to make sure you're happy while you're here. They have great accommodation, including a couple of cars that the students share, mountain bikes, basically, if you ask for it, John will do his best to get it for you.

You'll find quite a few students there from your neck of the woods, as well as an instructor or two. Vancouver's great. It's one of the most beautiful cities in the world. If you like the outdoors at all, you will have your fill of hiking, skiing, swimming, mountain biking, etc.

The flying experience is the best part. The airspace is quite busy, but you don't have to go far to find nice empty practice space. You will be able to log oodles of high altitude mountain time.

Pro has a program now for FAA conversions, and it seems they're actually getting quite a bit of business from the US even. They sometimes find it cheaper to come to Canada, get a Canadian CPL and multi-IFR, then convert it and go home with 2 licenses, practically ensuring them worldwide acceptance.

Unlike the rest of Canada, Vancouver seems to stay relatively snow-free. We have had none yet this year, and will usually only get a flake or 2 even on the coldest days. Summers are beautiful. You should be careful about training some place hot if your flying is going to be done in Scotland. Cold weather flying is a whole different lacrosse game (or cricket if you prefer). More than one Southern flyboy has died in Canada becaue they forgot to change altitudes for cold weather corrections, or they were suddenly surprised by icing on their wings. That's not counting the embarassing scenes when a "new Canadian" first tries to start a cold engine, or stands there looking confused in the morning, wondering how to work the deicer!

I know I sound like a bit of a salesman, but I would give some serious thought to Canada if I were you. At the risk of offending my American brothers, I must say that our license is will be much more similar to the license in the UK. Where the British license is known for being unnecesarily thorough, the FAA license is at the opposite end of the spectrum (they publish the questions and answers to their exams!!), and Canada falls somewhere in between.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Pops, what you might be unaware of is that here in the UK we now use a common European ("JAR-FCL") licence and there are a bunch of schools in the US (mostly in California or Florida) who train for the European license.

As it happens however, UK CAA will accept for day-VFR flying only any ICAO PPL, so the Canadian one would do for that. But I think the cheapest ICAO licence to get at present is the South African one, although personally the idea of practicing PFLs over the Kruger national park isn't all that appealing !

However, EH8 has said he's looking for a commercial licence, and I think the US is the only place outside Europe with schools approved for that training - UK CAA won't accept any non-European CPL, and gives very little training or exam credit for the holder of a foreign CPL wishing to convert.

G

[pops]

yes, I'm familiar with the JAR. I also know several people who did their private training in the UK, and came to Canada for the CPL and IFR training, then went back and converted with minimal hassle. Many of them are now in the airlines in fact and some of them return regularly for IFR recurrency training.

Now I realize that half the south africans are moving to Canada, but If you were suggesting some sort of similarity between Canadian Aviation and South African aviation, I would suggest that you should go visit some of the colonies and see for yourself. (apologies for the run on sentence)

You're right though, some school that specializes in the european license is probably better, but you should check into all your options.

I've had friends who have been soaked at certain schools, so be careful and talk to as many students of different schools as you can. My post was just my opinion on the place i trained a few years ago, and I came away extremely happy with the service and quality.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I'm sure you're right Pops, but over the last few years UK CAA's flight crew licensing people have got so much into the habit of moving the goalposts constantly that great care is needed, and We'd all hate EH8 to get some excellent Canadian training that then wouldn't be taken account of by the Gnomes of Gatwick.

G

[EH8]

Thanks for the input and the emails, unfortunately no further forward it would appear every school has good and bad reports.

I have the option of waiting until the weather improves and train with Tayflite in Perth who seem quite professional (and a hell of a lot closer).

Any opinions on Orland Flight Training? The search facility has been useful but some of the info will be out of date I would imagine.

Thanks Again
:)