European Flight Training (EFT)
 

Every FTO has been put through the treadmill of the good and bad to pretty and ugly.

European Flight Training, Fort Pierce Florida.

Can you comment on this FTO? If so please do so. It will benefit many of us considering them sooner or later.

The web site is pretty productive and has excellent detail about everything, but personal views are much more honest.

Put in your pennies worth!

Paul

Accom was crap. Cockroach infected. No sheets. Missing light bulbs. Truly awful. I moved into a hotel after a week.

Aircraft were generally mediocre. They had only one Arrow for the complex ac training and its serviceability was up and down like the proverbial whore's whatsits.

However, the standard of instruction was excellent and, overall, I would recommend it. Also, owners and management were generally fair and if you had a gripe they were usually willing to listen and sort it.

If the ac serviceability holds up and you get one of the decent apartments, of which I understand there are some, then I would commend them to you. My CPL examiner was very happy with my GFT and I can only suggest that this was based on the training I had had with EFT.

Ham,

I am very sorry to hear that you had a bad experience at EFT. I plan to rent a the Heatherway apartments 5 miles away, because I have company coming with me for a year.

However, I am very gald to hear that you felt the quality of instruction is excellent. That is definately a bonus.

Thanks for your input.

Paul

Let's see...

I converted my FAA PPC to JAA with them; did hours building with them; did my MEP(L) with them; did my CPL with them; and started my IR with them (finished that in the UK).

Got first-time passes for everything, and attribute that completely to the very high standard of instruction (and in the case of the IR also of course to the equally high standard at ETA Bournemouth).

Basic training is done in C172s, which are fairly well worn, but far from decrepit. I would call them average flight school stock. There are no goodies like GPS or A/P (gasp!). 100-hour checks are religiously followed. Thus, unscheduled maintenance (read: unservicabilities) doesn't happen any more or less often than with any other plane of similar vintage. When unscheduled mx does need to be performed, there are quite often enough planes left to take up the slack.

Complex training is done in a single P28R. The fact that there is only one obiously does present a problem when an unservicability occurs. Even so, I finished my CPL in four weeks last November (lost one week due to weather).

ME training is done in BE76s, for which generally the same things can be said as for the Cessnas above.

Accom for me was quite good. I had sheets, but no roaches. Clean; TV in every room; large fridge, large kitchen. Not luxurious, but overall quite good. Well worth the money. I rented a car for USD 100.00 a week through neighbouring flight school Ari Ben Aviator (an FAA outfit), which turned out to be a gas-guzzling, A/C-less Cadillac. I shared with my roomie, so really only paid USD 50.00 per week.

I whole-heartedly recommend EFT for all your flight training needs. Instruction is excellent. Weather is generally very good (try doing a CPL in four weeks in November in the UK). Aircraft are adequate for the task. Staff are friendly and helpful. Other miscellaneous items (accom., surroundings) are adequate as well.

I can't really recommend EFT for hours-building, though (even though I did build some hours with them myself). The reason being that their aircraft are almost always booked by students, and that, when it comes to scheduling, students take precedence over hour-builders. Therefore, it can become rather tedious to build 100 hours, if you can only fly, say, two to four hours a day.

So, ask yourself what you want and need:

If you want top-notch instruction from people who talk to you on a first-name basis, and who have an excellent training record to boot, then EFT is for you.

If you don't care whether your instructor only knows your student ID number, and you would rather do your training in brand-spanking new airplanes that are equipped with all the nice stuff you'll never get to use in your training, then maybe one of the big-name flight schools like Flight Safety is the right choice for you.

If all you need to do is build some hours, then find someplace where you can rent a plane at a low block rate and with which you can then fly all over the country.

Now... hope I didn't forget anything.

HTH

Mike

HAM,

I UNDERSTAND THAT EFT USE ACCOMODATION IN VERO BEACH AND NEAR FORT PIERCE - WHICH ONE WERE YOU REFERRING TO. I'M GOING THERE IN A FEW WEEKS SO ANY PRIOR KNOWLEDGE WOULD BE MOST HELPFUL. HOW MUCH DID THEY CHARGE AT THE HOTEL YOU EVENTUALLY STAYED AT? CHEERS.

I had my wife and son with me so we stayed at a rather smart hotel by the beach (can't remember the name). Accom I had was in Ft Pierce. It did have a tv but no aerial (hence no picture) and the fridge had cockroaches in as well. I come from a military background so used to slumming it but I was paying for this!

Ham,

Thanks for that. I'm apparently staying at Vero Beach so I just hope its better than the one you stayed in. I think I'll insist on an inspection before parting with any cash up front. How have you fared since your courses - any work? or is it as dire in the States as over here (I hear KLM in Holland are shedding more jobs!)

I think the roach infested accom everyone is talking about is the lovely Virginia apartments in Ft Piss. Accom is now in quite nice spanking new 3 bed houses in vero beach.
As for the caddies, what more do you want for $100 a week?

BTW the instruction was quite good too!

Florida Weather in July & August
 

Thanks for the detailed opinions Sentenza.
I am probably going to EFT in a few weeks time.

2 things I would like people to comment on:

1) I am very surprised to see that it took you 4 weeks to get your CPL done, due to a week of bad weather.
Is it unrealistic of me to plan 3 weeks, or were you very unlucky?
(I plan to be there in July & possibly into August)

2) Can anyone here comment on how EFT compares to the others (eg. IFTA), based on first hand experience.

Thanks,

IH

Island Hopper
 

I note that you are from N. Ireland in which case do not plan on a couple of weeks to complete your training unless you already hold a student training visa (M1, F1, or J1).

Due to the summer, there are many more students applying for visas whether for holiday, business or study; due to this there is a 5 weeks waiting period in the UK to get an Interview which was only 2 weeks before. THe US Embassy in N. Ireland is definitely more speedy, but I suggest that you check before making any firm plans. EFT will be able to help you with this.

As for choice, the only places I would recommend are EFT or Comair for CPL training.

(visa)
 

Thanks for pointing that out to me, although I have already booked my interview.

I aggree with you generally, that it can take quite a while to get a visa sorted at this time of year.
However I think you have slightly exaggerated the times involved.
(some of your facts are fiction!)

Yesterday I booked an interview at the embassy in London for one and a half weeks time.

IH

(also not from N.Ireland, but S.England!!!)

IH
 

Glad to hear that you have an appointment earlier than thought.

You must be a lucky one as I know two people that booked an appointment last week who couldn't get an appointment in London until July 5th (Pure Fact!).....so what do you know that they don't....spill the beans to help all!

EFT - put it through the treadmill
 

No secrets or anything, just call up the £1.30 per minute number!

Initially they gave me a date for 3 weeks time. When I expressed an interest for an earlier appointment, I was advised to call back in a day or so when some more dates were to be released.

Back on to the topic: Anything wrong (apart from accommodation) with EFT?

IH

If you're looking to be critical, having only one complex single airframe is a potential problem. N2878U went u/s for 5 days halfway through my CPL which meant we went back to the 172s. In the end it didn't make a difference but it could have done. If you want a positive perspective you could say that maintenance issues are taken seriously.

Oh come on!
 

Hp,

" I come from a military background so used to slumming it but I was paying for this!"

Military?? When did you change service?

Used to slumming it?? What's that then? 4 star hotels? :D

Gazeem,

Chortle, chortle. I haven't laughed so much since ......I heard you were instructing. And I do seem to remember you discussing a change of uniform yourself?

3 weeks enough?
 

Island Hopper:

I'm not sure what to tell you. Sure you can do a CPL in 3 weeks' time. In fact, just before I went there, there was one (or two?) guy there who did his/their CPL in 3 weeks. That said, I myself would definitely plan to spend 4 weeks for the course, simply because things can go wrong. The weather can turn bad, or the a/c might go tech. Or, God forbid, the course might prove to be more difficult than anticipated. Or, even worse, you might not get a first-time pass.

Sorry, but I have no first-hand experience with IFTA, so can't help you there.

HTH,

Mike

Sentenza - unless I've misunderstood, the 3 weeks which Island Hopper was talking about was nothing to do with the CPL course. It was the initial estimate from the US Embassy for the waiting time for his Visa interview. :confused:

The length of time the course takes is a completely different question!

FFF
-------------

FFF,

I was referring to IH's question from the 7th, 15:05.

Mike

3 weeks for a CPL in Florida??
 

Yeah, I was referring to the amount of time one should allow to complete a JAA CPL in Florida at this time of year.

EFT say 3 weeks is no problem.

If you said 2 hours per day is a sensible amount (or would it be ok to do more than that?) then assuming you fly 6 days per week, that's about 24 hours in 2 weeks.
Surely you would easily complete in 3 weeks???
Even with a bit of bad weather or extra training.

There must be about 10 hours of possible flying per day (in terms of daylight) at this time of year - so maybe you could do a bit more than 2 hours on some days.

Would it be silly to only allow 3 weeks, Sentenza has suggested 4.

Other opinions?

IH