The Pilot Centre
 

I've seen quite a few people asking about the Pilot Centre EGLD Denham and various other schools on here. I have experience with Cabair and TPC.

Firstly let me say that The Pilot Centre; is the better of the two. They have some fantastic instructors; with the majority over 1000 hours. Cabair are around 300-500; whilst they wait for their big Jet job. Cabair also will hit you with various fee's to ensure that as much money as possible translates into as less time in the air. Such as taxi time, flight equipment and flying in conditions which are not ideal for learning.

However; the Pilot Centre I simply went to because I liked learning at the Aerodrome and i'm very glad I did. The atmosphere is fantasic and they are always willing to help you learn.

If the conditions are suitable but you won't actual learn the objective e.g. nav on a hazy day. Then instead of making money out of you; they will wait for the right day. I have flown in all conditions with TPC; however each was part of the lesson objective.

They are very honestly priced at £145 an hour in the C152's.

Please feel free to PM me if you want any further details.

Learning to navigate on a hazy day is great!! You really think all your nav trips will have 10km+ sigh, cavok, etc etc? Respect the minima, respect your own minima, and let students learn to navigate in tough conditions, makes it easier for them once they dont have experience on the right hand seat.
Very good advert from you btw, they pay you to post this?

Sekmeth makes a good point here. Too many FTOs are reluctant to send students up in marginal weather conditions and that means that they never gain the experience that they really need.

As a result, the student learns what they need to pass an exam but when they're allowed off on their own as a qualified pilot they can find themselves operating in conditions that are legal but far worse than they ahve seen before.

Ideally, early nav would be done in good weather to learn techniques but later exercises conducted whenever it's legal so that experience can be gained.

Yes exactly what I was saying; early nav is about learning the right techniques and adapting to the new task of flying and navigating. Cabair were happy to take me up into Cloud over the Chiltern ridge into a 60kts headwind. Which has no benefit to me learning a PPL. Yes in a commercial career you will fly in alot worse; but if you havn't mastered the basics properly this will be confounded. If you want to pay around 11k for a PPL go to Cabair at Denham or if you wanna pay around 7k for the same license go to the Pilot Centre. I have recomended a few people now over to Denham from Cabair and they have also been more than please with what they got.

And if your against learning in CAVOK conditions what about all these people learning in Sunny florida? Obviously there is a reason and i don't think you understand the Idea of a Learning Objective.

The pilot centre is in theory probably one of the best clubs in the UK. Mostly great instructors and atmosphere and very fairly priced.

Practise can be different though. The club is too busy and it's hard to learn if you are having one lesson a week which could easily be cx due to weather.

On top of that - and this may just be my personal experience - i had a major problem with instructor consistency. I did my first 12 odd hours with them and ended up with at least 7 different instructors. This was partly due to last minute changes by them, and partly once again because it was so busy it was hard to get a slot with your favourite. I found this to be very detrimental to my confidence and eventually felt very alienated.

Granted i could have kicked up a fuss about this, but i would have hoped for a bit more initiative from them too.

And there you have the other side of the coin...

Jugs08, "Cabair are around 300-500; whilst they wait for their big Jet job". This stuff is good, where do you get such rubbish from??? Is that what TPC told you to get you to sign up? :ugh:

And as for doing your PPL with them for 7K! Good luck!!! They may advertise themselves as cheap, but cheap often doesn't buy you the best training.

I also know of students who have left TPC having been mucked around with 5 or 6 different instructors or who have flown in wholey inappropriate weather conditions just to get the planes making some £££. So you get what you pay for (in a shabby C152)... ... All these things will increase your costs, so before you know it you'll probably spend £10k anyway!

Once again, there's the other side of the coin.

No actually i went over to them from Cabair. Their airplanes are perfectly fine..ok it's a C152 but Cabair will charge you double to fly the privilage of a PA28. Joke. I'm sure people have had bad experiences with everything; but as a easy going person im happy with my progress. I have flown with 5 instructors over 35 hrs and the majoirty with just 2.

Jugs, It's good to hear that you're happy with your progress. Simply slagging of Cabair because they're slightly more expensive is wrong :=
From previous dealings with Cabair I have found them to be a Highly Professional outfit with many very very experienced instructors.

As for PA28 vs C152. I value my safety. With 10+ years flying experience and hundreds of hours on both types, I would prefer to fly a PA28 every time. Reason = Flight Safety = due to better all round visibility; Important at the best of times, but even more so when you are training, as the instructor will be busy demonstrating/briefing/navigating/note taking etc.
Just my view mind...

pa28 double the cost of a 152? whose arse did you pull that out of?

i am doing my ppl at cabair elstree and they are perfect. i don't know what cabair denham is like though. i've only had 2 instructors in the year i've been training there. you will probably find that most young-ish instructors are looking for a commercial job anyway regardless of the company they work for.

Well double may have been a slight exageration; Currently 1hr Dual at TPC is £140; Cabair in 2008 was £216. And i can only imagine the price have gone up since then. They also charge you as soon as Chocks are off; meaning you end up paying full whack if your sitting waiting to get airborune for 10 mins; whereas TPC only charge you 5 mins either side of Takeoff and Landing.

TPC provide full ground briefings the same as Cabair.

I was on a Bucks Uni Course back in 2008 Cabair charged me £4855 for 15 hrs in a PA28, Ground School for exams and books. Rip off merchants' numerous candidates on the course are unhappy with them.

strange. on their website here:

JAR Private Pilots Licence PPL

and in their download section it says £9345 for 45 hours, ground school, materials etc. including all home landing fees - it might be different at denham though.

the hourly rate i pay is about 180-200 or something. so i don't know where they got these prices from to be honest.

Well I think personally the Bucks Course you get turned over with. As the PPL was ending up at 11k £4855 then around £6k for the US. The UK time was so expensive and pointless; why pay to UK fly if your already going to the US.

All the TPC aircraft are GPS equiped and well maintained C152's. You will have a full ground briefing same as Cabair. The instructors are just as good if not better aswell. You also get the personal touch. So in the majortiy of respects I would say TPC over Cabair.

I'm not going to comment on the two schools, but this last paragraph is utter cobblers.

Statistically the fatal accident rates are very similar on the C152 and PA28 (the straight wing PA28s are slightly worse than the C152, the tapered wing models slightly better), but one of the biggest deficiencies of every model of PA28 is that you have no view behind you, whilst the single engined Cessnas almost all boast a really very helpful rear window. The instrument panel of the C152 is slightly lower giving a better view over the nose as well.

Inevitably you can't see below you very well in the low winged PA28 and can't see much into a turn in the high winged C152.

Add in the considerable safety benefit of the pilot having their own door, less cluttered cockpit, and the shorter field performance - and, albeit by a small margin, the C152 is in my judgment the safer of the two aeroplanes.

Aesthetically, I admit that I also prefer the PA28 - but that's because I find it the more comfortable and enjoyable machine of two very safe training aeroplanes. That said, I'd choose neither if flying for pleasure - there are much more enjoyable flying machines out there, although arguably very few better ab-initio trainers.

G

I have been flying with the Pilot Centre for over 3 years and I have not had any problems. They are always friendly and only once did I feel that I got ripped off after a checkflight which should have been an hour ended up as 3 flights over 2 1/2 hours. That has been the only frustration. Apart from that I have enjoyed flying from there and their prices are great. To hire a PA28 for £140 which includes all landing fees is a good price especially so close to London.

Pilot Centre
 

hi guys,

I'm going to do my PPL at Pilot Centre in Denham so thanks for the info.

I was hoping I could ask a few questions, one step at a time but i'd like in the future to be able to get CPL. I wanted your opinion on how difficult it would be to get a job as a commercial pilot with frozen ATPL/CPL at the age of 30? From what i've read it's not much of a problem? I'll be self-funding my training...

Also, i've read about people doing their PPL in Florida etc, but i'm a bit confused, everyone says it's cheaper, but if you get past the obvious advertised cheap price in Florida airfields and look into the small print, it's probably the same as doing it in the UK no?!!

Thanks!
Steve

I've just passed my CPL skill test at Denham with The Pilot Centre.
Although I've had to extend my modular CPL training over 6 months (I have a job!), the instructor I had was good enough to make me reach the skill level required for the test. He and The Pilot Centre staff were very supportive, friendly and professional during my CPL training.
I definitely recommend that FTO