US PPL Flight Schools
 

Hi all,

I'm planning to do an intensive (3 week) PPL course in the US soon and would be interested in hearing from anyone who has recently completed a course (was it value for money, quality of instruction, treated like cattle by the school, weather in July/August ??, etc)

Looking at the following schools:
Britannia Flight Centre, UK Flight Training, Ormand Beach Aviation, Orlando Flight Training, Naples Air Centre

Is it really feasible to do a course in 3 weeks (providing some study is done before) ???

cheers for any help

hey bud,

three weeks is extremely short to do your private as anything can happen like wx, airplane u/s. I have finished my private in January in Daytona Beach, but I have been flying before that for a month and a half.

Make sure you have all your work down pact and know your FARs. Do you have any hours, because minimum hrs for training under Pt 63 (or 61 can't remember) is 40 hrs, 10 hrs solo, the usual xcountry and stuff.

You should contact the schools, tell them what you want, before allotting the times for your license.

I currently live in the Bahamas, and starting July to September is hurricane season so do have being wx in mind.

Hope that was a little helpful. Cheers.

Hi,

I done my PPL at Britannia Flight Centre last year during August / September. I finished the PPL course and gained my night rating in exactly 3 weeks.

It is achievable but you have to work flat out.

Britannia has excellent availability during August but may I add it's extremely hot and can get quite unbearable for that 5 mins or so when you sit in the plane with the prop turned off.

Heard a lot of bad reports about Ormond Beach - can't comment as to their truth or not! I went to UK Flt training back in '95 and had a great time. If, as I suspect, you are doing a UK licence then get all of the ground school exams passed before you go. I realy can't recomend this enough, as it will free up all of your spare time and you can enjoy your holiday as well. Lets not forget that flying is FUN.

Bite the bullet and take four weeeks. I would recommend Rainbow Air Academy, in Long Beach California. They have a good fleet of well maintained aeroplanes, and some of them are quite new. I actually flew with the owner and collected a Piper Warrior III with only 100 hours on it TT. That was only last year. Rates are reasonable, and a good quantity of Brit/Aussie/US Instructors. Airspace is busy class B....mix it with C17s and MD11s....Good R & R locations locally...ie., Chino air museum, Universal Studios, Disney, Knotts Berry Farm......Good X-Country destinations too, like Catalina Island, Santa Barbara, Las Vegas and Palm Springs!

Tailwinds!

PS - Suggest you do all the UK writtens BEFORE you go, then you can juast concentrate on flying and having fun!

Hey lads,

Just wondering, I heard US conduct very little ground school, how far is that true ?

Thanx !

Cheers,
Herman :)

Err, can you elaborate a little, what is groundschool? :)

groundschool is anything you do on ground AND is chargeable.

They do and will charge you for reviewing and some also charge for pre and post flight briefing.

I also went to Raibow Air once, but I was staying in Torrance, and it was a short trip. Extremely inconvenient for me. The people there to me (personal opinion) are ok......but I have heard great things about them.

Do carry extra cash, as some places will get you an arm and a leg.