National Flight Centre Integrated
 

Howdy folks,

Just wondering if anyone who's on or completed the NFC integrated ATPL course has any thoughts on it? I was hoping to attend after college this year any advice?

Much appreciated! :ok:

Id strongly look into Atlantic in Cork. Excellent school which is getting bigger and better by the day!!

National Flight Centre Integrated
 

If you're planning on doing the training in Ireland I'd strongly advise looking at both schools and all the options they offer .check out their fleet and facilities . Intergrated v modular , the age old debate but needs serious consideration .

I sent the nfc an e-mail a while back and a few reminders, never got any answer. Poor customer relations.

Thank you. Only downside with Atlantic for me is that they are in Cork an I'm living in Dublin. I'd save on living expenses by going to the NFC. Both seem fairly equal in standard.

Ask NFC how many of their recent students have gotten jobs!! Both don't have an amazing placement record at all, however Atlantic students seem to be doing better, all be it with no help from the school after you finish!! Ryanair especially seem highly impressed with the standard out of Atlantic.

Thanks for sharing. I will ask at the pilot training fair! And of course take what I'm told with a pinch of salt but I've found in the past they both have excellent employment prospects! I almost have a degree in aircraft systems so I'm hoping that'll help me get into a company, somewhere! Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

@westonflyer

Why don't you phone NFC and chat with the CFI or HOT - as you say from your handle it should be on your doorstep!

Whilst these training fairs are good from one perspective but if I were seriously thinking about investing the kind of money you're looking at I'd go to both places and talk to them at leisure, chat to their current students, see the aircraft and facilities and so on.

Thank you Dutchess Driver! I will do that! Have you any experience yourself with the NFC they seem like the right place for me!

No competition- as with any flight school you should always visit the school to see what it is like and most important speak to the students as they will be the most honest!

If you go to AFTA in Cork , you will notice the large amount of Dublin and Leinster based pilots training there.....that should tell you everything you need to know.

I did all my training in USA (except ATPL ground that was done on Oxford), after did all my conversion from FAA to EASA in National, and I didn't have any issues, even they offered to shorten my training due total amount of hours and hence could use Competency Based routed instead of full length (saving me some hours for both CPL and ME/IR) which specially with ME I appreciated.

Airplanes are old overall but in good shape, sim is really old but again does it's job, and instructors really nice, so no objections to proceed with National Flight :)

Irish Carrots - as I suggested earlier to WestonFlyer why not actually pop in to NFC and ask all the questions you need answers for. As for their record you can ask the CFI for a list of students who have been taken by the airlines.

Both AFTA and NFC offer quality products - AFTA scores with the contracts for airlines and therefore the volume/throughput is bigger which is where you will suffer as a self funding integrated student as you'll fall down the pecking order when 'contract' deadlines loom. Percentage wise, I'd be surprised is there was a vast difference in FTP rates or placement outside those contracts

If NFC facebook page is anything to go by, the place looks very much alive and well.. Its flightwise that went under last year, maybe you're mistaking for it, as both are/were based in Weston

I would still think twice before handing over my money to them, lack of twins is a worry and their prices are far from competitive

I can't see much benefit in taking that risk either, because in actual fact you're not making much by way of savings whatsoever.

You can expect to do the CPL/IR MCC/JOC for about €70,000, say then you're very lucky and get hired by Ryanair, that's another €28,000. So overall it's taken you €98,000 (as well as living costs) to get everything up to the job. However you can go to one of the "Big 3", and pay an extra few grand and do an MPL with a job, TR and everything else included for really not that much extra.

Savings are very minimal, and when compared with other options, those savings are entirely insignificant, they are still expensive.

If you train via a modular route, (which can still be done in a similar time frame to integrated, you can be ready for a type rating for between €45,000 - €60,000, depending on where you train, your own personal circumstances and your skill level. You will end up with the same frozen ATPL licence as an integrated student.

I think comments like these are not entirely fair to the business. Can you share with us exactly what experience your colleague had with NFC and what he had to say about it?

IrishCarrots, Amuari my comment was in no way dedicated to you. If momo95 would elaborate on his comment that would be most welcomed, otherwise it looks like a hit&run bashing with no real grounds.

@Amauri


Sorry, but this really pisses me off.

Bleating about schools being bankrupt - spreading total :mad: like this can do untold damage and could land you in a lot of trouble. IF they are bankrupt then you'd better tell the integrated course that was running at 1700 this afternoon and the one that is due to start in the next couple of weeks.

The National Flight Centre own all of their own aircraft, pay their bills and don't ask for any money up front. Sure, they don't do the volume that AFTA do but then there are several other aspects to the business - but as for their graduates not getting jobs, that's just total :mad:.

As I've said before, why don't you actually get off your :mad: and visit these places for yourself - for one thing, you'd be able to say from first hand experience rather than rely on some (possibly) bitter and twisted student who didn't do the work and consequently failed to make the grade! Plenty of others have done the work, passed the tests and got the job.

NFC vs AFTA
 

I'm very late to the party here but some of the things said in this threat have really pissed me off so I thought I'd offer my insight.

Having done parts of my training in both Atlantic and NFC (I left AFTA for NFC), I will say that the schools are very, very different. I much preferred NFC but appreciate that AFTA is a good school too.

AFTA's class sizes are huge. There were around 40+ people in my ATPL classes, mostly cadets from Astana, Turkish etc. I found it was very hard to get a word in and if you aren't integrated you aren't paid attention to. Standard of teaching was good, huge focus on the question bank and learning off answers. Flying was non-existent due to Cork's weather being terrible 80% of the time, and a massive focus on the airline cadets. As an Integrated student, the school is very strict. Employment opportunities seem good however a lot of the students that got jobs when I was there didn't make it through their line training at a well known European low cost airline (I'll let you guess who).

NFC on the other hand is extremely relaxed, more like a flying club than AFTA's academy approach. The standard of teaching ATPL classes was very inconsistent- some teachers were excellent and some were awful. Flying, on the other hand, was fantastic. The instructors know what they are doing and do everything they can to help you to learn and get your CPL, even stay in late after class to go over everything with you. I don't feel like AFTA was that personal. There was 10 in my ground school classes.
It bothers me that you've said that NFC is in trouble as that is simply not true. Tell that to the integrated class that's running at the moment, the one I finished up in and the next one starting in October.

In terms of employment opportunities, the majority of the people I met at NFC are now in airline jobs, including a few of the instructors, so I don't know where you are getting that information from but I assume it's just hearsay to fit your agenda. The same goes for my old classmates at AFTA, I know a few of them who are happy in employment now. Bottom line seems to be pass your ATPL's first time around and get placed from your MCC.

Hope this clears up some things for any prospective students of either school!