Flight schools Florida- My views (FlyOFT)
 

Well i arrived there for some hour building and a rating this year and what can i say?

Well to start off with...

People on here always say "oh you can move schools if you don't like them"

Which is all well and good but when it came the time for me who was frustrated with flyoft to change schools they say oh well we keep 25% of what money you have given us.

Note: you have to pay all upfront which they tell you once you have arrived.

Do not go for the cessna 150/152s, I overheard the tower on several occasions - moaning at the students in a positive way that the mechanics should have fixed that engine yesterday and not to send it up again, that was twice while i was flying, then you have the radio failures that they just say "well they weren't using it properly" and they just put something in the mx log so they don't have to do it.

Oh JP well he's a car salesman after 1 thing and doesn't tell you where the savings can be made.

On a Positive note:

Morag : Brilliant person - she got stressed because of the way things were run and has sadly left there.

Denise : lovely

And all the others eg. instructors were great

Try Flight safety, even though they don't do JAA

Saya a lot about Cabair who are partners with OFT.

Orlando Flight Training in july
 

Is there someone to the OFT for PRO-PILOT COURSE (JAA) that will begins in July?

Someone knows about OFT Housing?

Thank's and Bye

big NONO
 

my advice would be to stay away from ANY Jaa Atpl Groundschool in the states...........:=

with so many options to do it in Europe and the prices being pretty much the same, I dont see any reason to go to a different continent with inferior training and risking being stuck up s**t creek without a paddle.....

just a thought

I did the aptl's twice, first with cabair residentail, got totaly confused had no clue and pulled out half way through.

tried again 2 years later with London Met, great teachers great class but from inside knowage of someone ahead of me in the course they said use the online bristol question bank in the evening and pay attention in class

I recon without any class work just doing the online bristol I would still have passed as easyly as I did 2nd time round, bristol is gospal!

3rd, atpl's at OFT, hmmmm,,, would rather slam my co*k in a car door than do that, I spend 2years there and in all fairness from MY! expericance which can be different to others, they dont know there arse from there elbow, and are just a cash monster looking to dry your bank account out before you leave, if you get your ratings then its just a bonus.

I would rather tear my passport up than do the atpls there, just think how many schools there are in the UK that are still perfecting there atpl ground school and have been at it many many years, no way after 6months thee set up for it,, no way no how!

Cpt. Relax,
my arguments are reading these posts here about OFT and myself having attended the OTHER legendary Groundschool in Florida......:{

I am not saying that all Groundschools in Europe are good, there are most likely some really crappy ones over here too, but when you are in your own country or at least an EU state, getting completely screwed is less likely. Also, you have more options to get out compared to the US where you have to leave your balls in a basket before they let you pass through customs.........:ouch: Your "JAA UK approved flightschool" is fully aware of this...;)

Hello,

for those going there for the CPL conversion course (FAA ---> JAA) just stay away because they don't have instructors the only one available JAA is always busy, so if you don't want to waste your time & money look elsewhere.

The school by itself is good, people very nice generally speaking and don't need to talk about MOREG :mad: , maintenance is good and the guys doing it are very cool, but you are supposed to be trained by a JAA instructor not a FAA as good as he can be he's not JAA certified, philosophy is not the same.

In my case it was suppose to take not more than 10 days and at the end it was more than a month, too bad.

Bye.

OFT
 

First of all let me offer some advice. Never pay a penny up front to any flightschool. As soon as they have your hard earned cash the service will probably go downhill rapidly.
You also have the risk of the school going under. Dont be bullied into this, make this your number one rule. If you have only flown for a couple of hrs and the service is non existent you can always move to another school.

I would like to remind you all that you may not use your anonimity to attack named individuals on Pprune. If you make any post that can be interpreted as libellous, they will be removed. Internet forums are not exempt from the laws of libel, and prosecutions of forum contributors have been successfully brought. As Pprune is not willing to be dragged into any such legal action (why should we be?), we will not let any post we consider to be of marginal legality remain on the board. If that means some good information goes in the bin, so be it.

Scroggs

OFT
 

Hello all!
Just a quick question, wondering if that Fat,Bald ground instructor is still teaching in Orlando Flight Training? Cant remember his name for the life of me?

Oh dont be rude to steve, he is a good guy, sure he is a little on the cuddly side...but he does have some hair so calling him bald is just damn rude! As for his vertically challenged (height) problem.... well you can blame the milkman for the that one as his father is taller than him! But like the mods said there is no need for name calling, he is doing a good job with the limited 'tools' he is provided with, and people are passing first time which what really matter isnt it!

:eek:

FLYINPTU,there are a couple of Indian Students there. They seem to be happy. You should enjoy it.

Instructors
 

Is Andrew Mclaird still chief pilot there? Is Richard Tkaczuk still only JAR CPL instructor?
Thanks

Yes he's still the chief pilot, I was there in April and the only CPL instructor was Prudence Ruzucka - she was very good and I really enjoyed being instructed by her.

Orlando Flight Training!
 

I know people are getting a bit tired of newbies like me asking questions about flight schools however I have used the search tool trying to find info on the above and all I ever seem to find is "do a search for them"!!:ugh:

Little bit tired of chasing my own tail now, so just wondered if anyone could please either point me in the right direction of where these threads are on here(please include links!) or let me know what your experiences were.

Many thanks!

OFT
 

sticky at the top of the threads page.

OFT
 

Had a look and I can not see anything about OFT.... can you post or PM me the link? :ok:

Umm...I don't think that's the correct link...unless poor seat pitch OFT's fault?

umm yeah, I was a bit confused about that as well!! Oh well, have now been advised by a few other people to avoid the place but thanks for ya help anyway

Opinions on Orlando Flight Training
 

Hey guys

Just asking for your opinions basically. I am currently looking at flying schools to undertake training all the way through to a frozen ATPL. Ive been looking at Oxford and Jerez and i am about to book assessments t both. However i have been lately looking at OFT partly due to shorter training time and the cheaper costs.

What are your opinions on taking th OFT route? Anyone done the course out there? Would airlines prefer Oxford or Jerez?

Any Help greatly appreciated!

Right now OFT is not the place to look for, a lot of indians in training + 2 broken planes and a lot of delay in the training.

Plus the fat bald man is going back to flying and wont be there any more soon!

If you can afford Oxford/ FTE, go for them no question!! The key thing to look at is who has managed to gain the most employment for their students in the UK and OAT and FTE would win by miles in that context. That said, you pay well in excess of £70k for the privilege which is out of reach for a great deal of people.

I only did my PPL and NR at OFT about a year ago now and I must say I was fairly impressed, although transition from US airspace back to the UK is bloody difficult of you only know US procedures and have only used US RT. I guess that is fairly dependent on the individual though. I found that I saved probably close to £2k on my PPL having done it in the states (some of that offset by having 2 1/2 hrs dual conversion when I returned to the UK) but still a good deal. The accommodation was fine (in fact I was pretty chuffed with it - we had a pool and tennis court which was great after a long day at the airport and the rooms were a good size and well furnished. My instructor was pretty good - she was perhaps letting me get away with errors she should have jumped on but other than that, she got me through fine. I flew the 152 and had no real problems there - the warriors at the time were very busy but I managed to get booked in everyday at least once on the cessna. They were ... shall we say rickety, but had plenty of character! I could have paid another couple of grand and flown in the lovely 172 S models but I was on a budget. The ground school teaching in all honesty was a bit of a shambles - not that useful, but the confuser and my CBT stuff got me through all the exams. So all in all, I left pretty happy but I think I would prefer to train in the UK if I had the money.

However, I do know someone who is out there at the moment doing a bit of training who trained with me last year and he says it has definitely gone downhill a bit - a few too many aircraft going tech and not enough instructors. This is only secondary source though so don't take it as is necessarily - just make sure you do lots of research! With OFT, general advice is budget to spend at least 10-15% more than quoted and allow more time that stated. If you allow for this, you shoudn't find yourself under too much pressure.

I am getting through the Single Engine phase of my commercial training now with an excellent institution who operate as closely to an airline operation as they can and I much prefer it this way - there is pressure to achieve certain things in a certain amount of air time with little room to play with but my flying has improved already quite a bit and I find myself preparing a lot more on the ground before going up. I think you would see something closer to this at OAT/ FTE and that might be preferential to you. It's all individual at the end of the day - the money you save could allow you to get a type rating and be more employable that way.

Borntoflywillfly. Check your personal messages. Happy to go into detail.

i used to work there and ill tell you NOT TO GO. this place is all about takung your money...many times i was forced to take a student on a "review" flight numerous times before skills test even though the student was ready...

many broken airplanes and being forced to fly them

dont do it

how applaud you for putting up with prudence...

that place is going to hell in a hand basket...

unless A.M chief has cooled his jets

wouldn't suggest OFT. bad reputation of with the overcrowded school. they had too many accidents and incidents.

oft
 

standards and customer service have dropped since oft moved from there old base to the white shed at the end of the runway, too many indians and cabairs swanning around like they own the place, the access road is an accident awaitng to happen, too many students, too smaller maintenance, seems a lot of the more experienced instructors who were gonna stay, have recently gone (plane crashing?) and i believe poor Prudence is the JAA flight department on her own. it seems greed has entered into the equation and standards have dropped considerably. full marks to the place when i first went there last year, however its a fail now. one last thing....instruction has gone up, even more than the Naples schools and east coast schools, and thats for a zero hours instructor and FAA checkrides are $450 compared to $275 most other places......i never did get justification for the high cost and the high fail rate for first timers.

OFT
 

Hello guys I used to work for OFT as a CFI on the Helicopter side and I did have an interest in the Fixed wing side and I noticed the staff where good and you do get what you pay for. There is not one school in the USA that everything runs smoothly in and if there was the price would double. So enjoy where-ever go.

orlando flight training
 

Hi all
any comments on oft.
am going out in oct already have jaa imc rating am going for the faa ir, hour building atpl ground school and the cpl me at the end

anybody been out there and please let me know your opinions
CJ

next time don't be lazy to do your research
 

What did they quote you for all that? Double the money and the time frame, then give yourself a surcharge of five percent then another one of ten on top of that and add some tax to it and you'll get it done.

Don't go. You'll be lucky to find anything positive about the place. Been there. Trust us.

OFT
 

Don't go! Been there this summer for two months! Lots of hidden fees, price increased for instructors WITHOUT notice. One of the very annoying things there is that for the FAA training they had only one very "unfriendly" examiner. My SE IR skill test with this guy was the most unpleasent flight ever (I passed the skill test the first time).

If you want to go, double your planned money, add 20% extra and buy an open plane ticket.

I wish I knew about this forums before I transfered my money to OFT.

Good luck!

JP - Overpromises and under delivers "We'll get ya done!:D" - No we won't get ya done...... ever

Mclaird - Deserves to take a lesson in customer service and how to talk to people properly without letting his ego come into it - jumped up t*at:rolleyes:

hi
i go every 2 years to oft to fly my 12 hours for my license, also with a mate we do 24 hours flying in totall and used to fly the c152's but we had a few problems with them such as fuel not being taken from 1 wing, engine starter motor going and being stuck at cedar key for 4 hours while waiting to be rescued!
but generally we have had no other probs and are going out on thursday to get 24hours in but flying the c172sp this time.
vikki

Sounds not a good environment for learning:=

Friends are mid-way through a ppl course with OFT. There are areas that are not 'perfect' but on the whole they are very happy. Two on aeroplane JAA and one on rotary FAA.

Will post again once course is complete!

Sam.

Just returned from OFT, renewed my MEIR with them last week, had no problems, found them very good. What i would say is this, all flight training organisations have problems, not just OFT. It very easy to log on to PPRUNE and whine about your bad experience, but what you need to do is talk to JP or Andrew, in a plesant manner and tell them your problem. What is most important, is your flight training, anything that distracts you from putting your whole effort into this needs immediate attention. I have found from experience that most things can be sorted out through talking to those involved. Enjoy your training, it will be one of the most fun times of your life, and what seem like huge problems now, later on will seem only minor.

Good Luck To All!!