Joburg PPL

[Christafa]

Sorry If this question has appeared here before.

Im planning to visit South Africa in early to mid 2003 to get my PPL. I'll be based in Joburg. Could anyone who has trained in Joburg share their experiences - what was the training like, cost etc. Anyone trained at FTC, Rand Airport, Lanseria?

Thanks

[vrotpiesanguk]

I have recently done my training at Lanseria Flight centre. I spent several weeks in jo'burg getting my licence and i'm afraid i would not recommend them at all.

They really did not take an interest in my progress except for when they were taking my large quantities of cash. They used to have a good reputation in the past, but from my experience I would advise anyone not to train with them. I was not the only overseas student who felt this way.

I could go into lots of detail about my experiences with them but I won't bore you (email me if you want), I just recommend that if you are looking for a school who takes an interest in their students and puts effort into training you, that you look elsewhere.

:(

[Dakota Queen]

I have heard several good reports about Phoebus Apollo fliight school in Joburg - do a web search, spoke to a guy who went there and could not rate them high enough.

There are other good schools in PE though - I recently started a thread on SA schools this so look for it on this forum........

DQ

[john_groome]

I have been flying with CFA at Grand Central Airport. They are very professional and their CPL students generally do very well on the CPL exams.

[NotWithoutMyGPS]

I'm a Brit and did my PPL at Blue Chip at Wonderboom in Pretoria. See DQ's post a above.

[NorthSouth]

Christafa:

Phoebus Apollo's UK agent can be contacted at:

[email protected]

or 0131 661 1133

[Irv]

All you guys in the UK with SA PPLs (or sometime in the future) - there is a new UK SA Flyer Community webpage for contacting others for advice, fly-ins, intro back into the UK, etc - see UK SA Flyer Community (http://www.uksa.flyer.co.uk/)

[GGG]

Did my training at Blue Chip Aviation(Wonderboom Airport). Had no problems,some very experienced instructors there!
Contact no.(012) 543-3050

Had no personal experience with the service of CFA at Grand Central,but they look very proffessional and I have heard many good things about them!

[Flying Boat]

Did some JAR training at FTC, would advise you to give them a wide berth. Very dubious, most instructors were good but the customer service & organisation was disasterous.

CFA, downstairs at Grand Central seemed very professional and there was always a good atmosphere.

Problem with Grand Central Airport is it is too close to FAJS so cannot have any Instrument procedures when the weather is bad. Thus limiting the amount of time you can fly. Weather is good generally but last spring and early summer the weather was not flyable for many more days than advertised.

[likair]

Has anyone trained at Flight Training Centre George, situated at George City, using George Airport? Any experiences?

They give JAR Training too. What was the training like?

Thanks

[GS-OB1]

I did my flying at FTC last year at Grand Central. Not a bad outfit. They've got a good set of planes and the instructors are good. Accommodation and groundschool has moved apparently so can't comment on that, but i had a good time.

[silverknapper]

Wouldn't touch FTC with the proverbial. Instructors good. Thats it. Money grabbers who really don't care too much about your progress. They train a lot of africans and don't know when to say enough. as a result you will be lucky to get two slots a day, if you get that, chances are it won't be the same instructor.
They say 6 weeks for Jaa PPL, would say more like seven. Quite why this is when some places do it in 4-5 I don't know. Accomodation very average. They say you will have transport, will you hell. Only if you don't mind hanging round the airport for hours waiting for a car. And the food at the accomodation is very poor.
You will get the smooth sales pitch, I fell for it and so too did a lot of my peers. I don't know one person here who is happy with the school. Everyone would bug out if there was an option. If it gets worse, I'm off to the states. They don't realise some of us are on tight time scales.

[4HolerPoler]

If there's any impression that I'm not keeping a close eye on this thread please bin it. There's always an associated risk that the party being stonked, by faceless contributors might feel somewhat aggrieved by these accusations. Most of the posts on this thread appear to be factual reports brought about by actual experience with the named company.

Please keep your reporting, on what is obviously a sensitive subject, as accurate as possible. Posts from windup-artists & snipers will be deleted.

4HP

[Irv]

Likair wrote
They give JAR Training too.

I've no idea if the school likair mentioned is a JAA school or not, - please don't read this as aimed at any school - this is just a general 'for info' comment on adverts you see with JAA phrases in them:

Sometimes students get confused by wording in adverts (wonder why?). Schools sometime offer 'the JAA CPL pre-module' or some similar phrase. It means cheap hours building either just fun or structured, to get the pilot to the 150 hours which is the usual pre-req for a JAA-CPL flight course (with someone else) using the modular route to a CPL. Nothing wrong with that - it's quick and not expensive, but it doesn't mean the school is JAA approved - it doesn't have to be just to get your hours up. It would even mean a SA ppl on the way if you didn't have a PPL to start with. See
UK SA Flyer Community FAQ (http://www.uksa.flyer.co.uk/uksafaq.htm) - number 9.

[likair]

Ok just to clarify things:

I have found this advert sentence on the net:
"JAR Licence is now available from Flight Training College GEORGE." (Mentioning the school name to be more precise and not for any advertising purposes)
The first impression is that the school is a JAA approved and can lead to a JAR FCL PPL(A) licence.
However, they don't state that they are a JAA school!!

I have sent an e mail to them to acquire more information about this "JAR licence" in SA cause it seems strange having a flight school not JAA approved (it seems its not) but giving JAR Licence courses. But they stated that currently they are not offering this course. (haha makes sense)

Am i good or that advert sentence means for cheap hour building?!
Correct me if I'm wrong!!!

BTW is Flight Training Centre George, situated at George City, using George Airport and FTC at Grand Central the same? I think we must make a difference!

Thanks for your attention!

[centre]

Well, this hoohah about FTC seems a bit odd to me as I know loads of people from our muddy island that have very good things to say about it. I was there a while back and I got in a good average of hours a day.
They organised everything for me and everything ran pretty smoothly. Food wasn't very good in the accommodation but from what I have heard that's all changed.
Anyhow, my experience of flying school's is limited but I think FTC is a very good school.

[skyer]

to likair

i found the following out a while back when i went out to FTC (in JHB):
FTC Joburg is the only school in SA that is JAR approved. The George FTC is thus not JAR approved and cannot offer JAR training. I think they used to be affiliated with the old FTC in Joburg (now under new management) and use that as the reason they can offer JAR PPL's (i.e. on FTC JHB's behalf).

Hope this is understandable!!

[Flying Boat]

Centre,

I have recently met over 15 former students from the said, dubious, 'good school', who all had bad stories about the 'gang'.

My advice to all Wannabes is avoid GC like the plague, until they sort themselves out. The fact that many instructors want to leave, the better ones first was my impression, is testament to the status of the quality of this service company. Several departed whilst I was there.

We are all customers and not inferior plebs to be messed around.

To use a quote from 1 member of staff," Once they have your money, they don't 'care'." I use the word care to describe the general meaning of the words used.

To be fair they should be given a second chance, but only after they sort themselves out. They way they are, this will take 1 to 2 years. We are on a limited budget which is why we consider RSA.

The people at the top have enough funds to survive without we European victims for up to 2 years. Then we should give them a second chance.

Good luck in your future aviation exploits.

:D

[likair]

Yes as Skyer stated, some flight schools may work hand in hand to promote each others courses or on behalf other schools. Infact ftc george recommended ftc in Joburg for the JAR PPL. And I think this is case ..

I am not, in any way, saying odd things about any school. I'm trying to acquire as much information about schools so that I will have a clear view of what expecting if having a course in a particular school and so I will not be misled. After all the best way to find out about a flying school is talk to people who have been to that school. I think there's nothing wrong about this. hope so.

In the mean time thanks for you information.

[Oscar]

If they advertise JAR approval they must show the approval no. Then check with the CAA against that number. Simple.

PPLs in SA can be converted to JAR by writing the exams, and doing Flight test. If you've got more than 100 hours, then only HP and airlaw need to be written.

JAR ATPL ground school can be started with any PPL, not only JAR, so a SA PPL will get you admission to JAR ATPL school, and hour building later will take you over the 100 hours.