Stapleford Flight Centre (Merged 2009)

[flyvirgin]

Hi Mitch.
I'm going to London Met to, I start on august 31st.

[Philmacavity]

Stapleford is great..
Dedicated and professional instuctors, never heard a bad word about ANY of them.. (Although some students may have a 'personality clash' with the head of training.. Personally didn't have an issue with him, but can see why some do!)
DA42's are a great pieces of kit.. The Arrow's, well, they do the job and are relyable, the Seneca's have seen better days, but you will 'Bond' with them.. G-TEST is legendary!
On site accomodation is a real plus..
The course co-ordinator is a lovely lady, very friendly, makes all the students feel like they are number one priority.
Aircraft and sim availability is pretty good, although expect to have a couple of sessions 'moved' to accomodate people ahead of you on their course doing tests and 170a's.
Costs..
Just calculated what I have spent on the whole thing... I didn't need any hours building, so from starting the ground school, (London Met - full time) to having the licence issued, including all CAA fees, 170a's, landings, approaches, (No resits or partials) and accomodation at SFC.. All in £29,117.10!!

Personally, cant see why anyone would want to go anywhere else!!

(BTW - The airfield is in the middle of nowhere, there is a student car, if you have a licence or you can bum rides from other students to the supermarket - or TopGolf in Abridge!!!)

[rriisshhii]

Since leaving 6th form I have been on a seemingly never-ending quest to find the best FTO to undertake my training with, and am somewhat exasperated by it. I know I'm not the only person. I've vacillated between deciding whether to go down the Integrated or Modular route to undertake my training, and which FTO to pay a vast sum of money to in the respective categories.

I have decided on Modular simply because I am unable to see any justifications in the excessive costs evinced by the Integrated training providers. Those of you who have taken this route may argue this but that's my own opinion. Recently, one of these integ.ftos have been offering a 'cheaper' Integrated route with prospects of an 'interest free loan'. This tells me one thing; they're desperate for students.

Having almost narrowed down my choices, Stapleford Flight Centre seems to be a solid organisation. Admittedly each FTO has their own psychological marketing warfare to tempt you into parting with your cash, such as placing a gleaming polished DA42 directly in front of the open day attendees whilst leaving their less than attractive aircraft sitting outside away from the prospective candidates, but I don't blame them. Having said that I still feel that they seem to be the best Modular FTO in the UK, not just by the praise on PPRuNe but by their open day, but I will decide that for definite after visiting the Flyer exhibition.

I have searched PPRuNe for opinions on SFC but have only come across one recent thread to convey these: http://www.pprune.org/professional-p...on-please.html

I would like to know if anyone has uncovered any more RECENT views on SFC on PPRuNe, or whether you have your own? Preferably those of you who have done all your training at this establishment, but PPLs, CPLs, etc too.

Thanks very much.

[Halfwayback]

One thread for Stapleford, please!

HWB

[tigermagicjohn]

I needed to redo my complete PPL because I let it lapse by 16 years, fly as required. I prepaid for 20 hours - after 13 - 14 hours they said I was ready for my skills test - I personally wanted a few more hours to feel confident as I had not been flying since 1992!

So one thing I got from that is that they are honest, they could have requested me to fly as much as they wanted - only reason for slight delay was the bad weather and christmas holidays!

Also did my night rating with them, took 5 hours - so as they say does exactly was it says on the tin - instructors excellent and dedicated. End of the day you have to do the work and get yourself trough it all - but I appreciate that they got me trough it quickly - and could have been cheaper then I had expected, so did not try to add a whole bunch of extra hours to my flying. (I did not fly any solo before my skills test - already had much PIC time from before 1992) Still it was like flying my first solo all over again - thinking what the heck, the only way now is down again!

I now do PPL hire there, if I could/can I would/will do CPL/IR there, but other circumstances dictate that I might need to do that elsewhere. However yes some of the PA 28 are a little tired, the ones for CPL are better. But aircraft all well maintained, only minor problem is the compass on some of their aircraft - a bit crooked sometimes.
It gets busy there, but if you need help there is always someone to ask and will give advice!

Recommended A +

[scallaghan]

Hi

I did my IR at Stapleford, finished a few weeks ago while working full time and got a first series pass.

Very good school, Scott and Brian were excellent for the IR training and ground school.

[flying_maxime]

Hi everyone, I've seen nowhere on the flysfc website how was the exact number of planes in their fleet. Can anyone tell me about it? I plan to do the ab-initio training there but I don't want it to last 3 years because of a lack of planes or instructors.

Thanks for the answers. bye!

[Spit-Fire]

Lots of aircraft in their fleet as stated previously - the chances of all the planes going tech is nye on zero and they also have a large maintenance centre on site. Go for it, great place to learn.

[flying_maxime]

Ok thanks for the answers.
Also, how do they manage to have such low prices? the ab-initio training costs about 33000 £ ....where is the trick?

[777-Aviator]

Hi all

I need to know about the entry procedures/assessment/screening tests.
How about their accommodation/facilities?

Thanks for your help

[Spit-Fire]

With ref. to cost, not everyone believes in the greed culture, thank God!!

Add 10-15% 0n for exam fees and aircraft hire during your training, I have a feeling they may not be mentioned in the total fees literature. I had a good look around before starting there and I'd recommend the same to you if it's viable. It's 'horses for courses' out there and you may find another FTO more suitable to you.

[StudentHenry]

I went to SFC last year. The prices you are provided in the literature are estimates and do not include everything.

This is what it cost me:

PPL - £5,800
Night Qualification - £850
Hour-building (not through SFC) - £11,000
ATPL Theory at BGS - £3,800
CPL - £5,100
ME - £2,100
IR - £15,000

£43,650

Not partialling the CPL and IR would have saved me £2,000... And I didn't do cheap hour-building!

But this does include:

170A fees and aircraft hire
Holding, circuits, approach, landing fees for training and Skills Test
CAA ATPL Theory Exam fees
CPL and IR Skills Test fees
Licence Issue Fees (mainly included in IR costs).
Accommodation for 4 weeks in Bristol for brush up courses and 2 weeks in Gatwick for exams.

And, of course, a lot people do go over hours, not because they have to, but because they decide to do an extra flight to keep current while waiting for a Skills Test or decide it that extra flight gives greater security going into the Skills Test (which you don't want to fail!).

Also, the fuel surcharge last year adds hundreds to your costs over the course.

Have fun at SFC. It's a good place.

StudentHenry.


Edited to say:

The owner of SFC also owns the airfield, so I should imagine their overheads are considerably less than other comparable sized modular schools.

You assume he spends his money on SFC and the Airfield rather than his horses...

[flying_maxime]

thx a lot Henry! And at last, the one million dollar question: How are the employment perspectives after stapleford?

bye

[Spit-Fire]

Henry sums it up very well.
With regards to jobs, if we knew the answer to that we'd be very rich. I'm taking an educated guess that the job market will take at least a couple of years before employment begins again, unless you have the money for a 'type rating'. Certain popular low cost airline/s may take your money in return for work.

Keep positive, network loads and enjoy everything you do.

[Mikehotel152]

£43,650

Sounds about right. About £40K modular. £60-£70K Integrated.

Agree that SFC is good value, but you have to be realistic about the costs of gaining an fATPL. Every FTO will only give the basic costs in order to seem more marketable.

I would recommend SFC.

[flying_maxime]

I've seen on the price grid of flysfc 33K £ for the ab initio atpl programm. If you ad the accomodation and various fees you do not exceed 45K £. (without type rating)
How can you get to 60-70K £ ???

[Mikehotel152]

Er, SFC don't do Integrated courses. That's referring to an Integrated course with someone like Cabair, CTC or OAA. Rough figures, obviously. Check their websites for details.

[flying_maxime]

That's what I thought. Thanks anyway. I think i'll be heading to stapleford during June to get some info's.

Also I noticed that the stapleford airfield is not equiped with IFR, how do they managed to train IFR then? Simulation, other fields?

[Spit-Fire]

Southend, Cranfield & Cambridege are used

[flying_maxime]

Thanks to all your comments, I'm pretty confident to start my training at sfc for the CPL-IR-ME. I still have some questions (how long takes the atpl theory a London metro etc) but I'm going to visit sfc soon anyway.

bye !