National Flight Centre Weston
 

Having attended the recent Flyer exhibition in Dublin i got to speak to most of the schools i wanted to. I also picked up a free copy of Flight Training News.

In that it says that NFC have 6 full time flight instructors, 6 full time theory instructors, with 2 instructors for the FNPT. It says they have zero part time. This can hardly be true given that they operate a fleet of 14 Cessna's and a Duchess.

I flew a few hours with them some years back and am anxious to get flying again and they're on my short list. However, those instructor numbers appear very low.

Can any current students comment on the truth or otherwise of those numbers and comment on their experience training there?

Another Irish school i didn't get to visit, despite the huge numbers of staff they had there, was PTC. Can anyone post an approximate cost to fATPL from zero hours with them?

Thanks for the help.

Hi,
At the exhibition in question PTC made a presentation and indicated the cost of their fully integrated course is €80,000
Willby

vin diesel, check PM

Hello Willby, received an electronic brochure a few weeks ago from PTC and it advertised it at 85,000 euro. However I hope your price is the real one;).

for the €85k quoted for PTC, does this include everything from PPL, atpl studies, CPL and multi IR?

Are flights to USA, accomodation there, accomodation at Waterford extra?

Is the MCC included or additional?

Presumably flight test fees are also additional?

Can I ask does anyone have first hand experience of their 98% employment record? It's remarkable that it has never changed since the day they traded! Every two months exactly 98% get employed! I'd much prefer to see an OAT style running total of 2007 graduates employed.

I'd prefer if they gave a total number of CPL, Multi IR graduates rolling total
versus the number of employed CPL multi IR graduates and their respective airline/instructor employers. But I won't hold my breath!

Again I'm just working off the brochure so I'll try and answer a few of your questions. Yes that 85k does include ppl, atpl, ir and cpl. The price also includes return flights from Ireland to the USA, the accommodation is both shared in Waterford and in Florida and its in the full price as well. Examiner fees are yet again included however IAA licence issue fees are not included. The mcc is not included in the course so you need to budget for that also ( possibly 5,000 euro with Parc I'm not sure with prices.) I'm afraid I can't help you with the 98% recruitment situation.
P.s Sorry for hijacking your Weston thread...;)

Hi Folks,
Funny how PTC say they're in touch with all Irish airlines regularly - I don't think they've had 1 recuit hired to EI, have they?!
98% ...49 of 50 is 98% ...50 students ain't too many ... so what's the total number of students???

...I spent 6 months visiting and reviewing the FTO's out there before I commited to one, and I reckon it was time very well spent! If you're going to compare FTO's, compare them to JAR-FCL licencing requirements ...I've yet to read a pprune thread where wannabees examined FTO courses vs. JAR-FCL ...but this will help you determine value for money!

promotional hype
 

I have seen the banner and website claims that interviews are garuanteed to qualifying graduates? what does that mean? ever tried getting an answer on that from PTC. you stand no more of a chance of getting an interview let alone a job offer by going to PTC or indeed any other "connected" school than any other. It is market forces that dictate recruitment, dont fall for the spin and crap they will try to sell you in order to get your business. As for the 98% of graduates in airline employment within 6 months. Dream on PTC!!!! I know 3 first time IR pass students that didn't secure employment. 2 still havn't and that is now 2 years later.:=

Just to let people know, PTC are not an approved FTO for Intergrated training.
They just make there APP course look like an intergrated course when in fact it is modular! so be careful

Indeed PTC is does not do an integrated course. To be fair they don't advertise it as such. What they offer is a series of modular courses, structured not unlike an integrated course. Having said that, I met one of their students who was convinced he was doing an integrated course. Which struck me as very odd.

No Irish school is approved to offer an integrated course and it's unlikely they ever will.

As for the NFC, they do have part time instructors. But I think they are only used for PPL's. However, I have a feeling the 6 full time instructors they are referring to are the commercial and instrument instructors. Which are the only ones used to train pilots for those ratings.

In my experience. I had no trouble booking any of these guys when I needed them. Good instructors too.