Correction
 

You can do all the TSA stuff before even hitting the US - the only complicated issue is the fingerprints (but there are a couple of locations in the UK you can go to). I actually went to Paris.

I go out to the US on the 20th Jan, and start flying on the 21st (jet-lag permitting!).

So, you don't have to 'waste' a week in the US, you can do EVERYTHING before departure...

Sam.

If I was doing it again I'd definately do the fingerprints in the UK before I go. Some people are lucky and get the TSA approval in three days or so after sending the fingerprints away, others (like me) can be unlucky and it can take ten days or more.

EFT new prices
 

Hi,
I noticed on the EFT website that the PPL course price has gone up 700$ as of January 1, I booked my course in September when it was still 5700$. I am scheduled to start there on January 14 . Does anyone know if I have to pay the new price or the old one when I enrolled and paid my deposit ?

I returned from EFT late December, my second visit to this particular school, and so may be able to offer people some current insight.
I do not have a gripe with EFT, since I achieved what I set out to accomplish there. However, that is not to say I was disappointed with what I saw. Bearing in mind this was my second visit, my first being two years previous. I could see how things have detiorated in that time.
For now, my personal opinion on training there is two-fold: if you have a deadline to train to, then I would not recommend this school at present for any license nor rating. If, on the other hand, you have time to waste, instruction is good albeit time consuming.
Of course, it is not my intention to defame a schools reputation, but purely to place the facts in front of prospective students so an informed decision can be made.

It is a shame this school has gone the way it has, because it used to be a good place to train. I do hope they give themselves a good kick up the arse and get things back on an even keel there.

• Two instructors, teaching both PPL & CPL students, is just not enough. I believe a third is arriving in February, but I am unconvinced an extra instructor will alleviate things to that extent.
  
• The management do not limit student numbers, leading to a situation where two instructors become swamped with students. The result is that a student will only fly once a day if they are very lucky.
  
• If you are a CPL student, then the Arrow is tech nearly constantly. “It will be up in a couple of days,” then “…next week,” then “…the following week.” I saw many CPL students leave having never even got into the Arrow. One complex single a/c which is nearly always down leads to a backlog of CPL students. Once you have done your training in the 172, you may be sat around for weeks waiting for the Arrow to come on line again. In my experience, when the Arrow does come up, it usually goes tech again soon after anyway. Bear in mind, that all this time, you are paying for accommodation. If you decide to leave, you will get a partial refund of your monies. Unfortunately, this was the same situation with this a/c during my first visit some 2 years previously. I had hoped this circumstance would have been remedied by now, but it hasn’t.
  
• Trevor and Ben, the owners of EFT, are great guys. They get things done. However, they are not there nearly enough of the time since they both are airline pilots and are away 4 or 5 days of every week. The students I attended with were of the opinion that running EFT was a bit of a hobby for them now, and it did not demand a good slice of their attention anymore. When Trevor is in the office, things do get done and students get slots.
  
• Which brings me onto the current instructors. Quality of instruction, when you get it, is good. Don’t be under any illusion, they know their stuff and will bring you up to speed. However, when left in charge, things do not get done as quickly as if Trevor was chasing things up for example. If you have a scheduling problem, hands seem to get washed of it, shoulders shrugged.
  
• The scheduling system is out of the Dark Ages. One diary shared between EFT & AriBen, where a student pencils him/herself in for a slot. Open for abuse. You may have booked your slot in 4 days beforehand, but you turn up with your kit and find the a/c has been taken by another or has gone tech! A round trip of 30 or 40 miles for no reason could have been prevented by a simple phone call from either your instructor or Dispatch which never comes. Dispatch, run by AriBen, can be less than helpful shall we say. Some EFT students claim a scheduling bias in favour of the AriBen students, but I never encountered this personally.

If you are a prospective CPL student phoning to make an enquiry, ask them if they have any plans to lease a new complex single in or how many hours the Arrow has flown in the last month. How many CPL students have passed through their doors in the last month. Of those, how many have gained their CPL‘s. Ask to talk to current students - they are always around outside the office. Ask the right questions.

A final thought if I were to do it again and for some reason I had my heart set on going to EFT. As has been stated before, EFT piggyback on AriBen. A premium is charged for a/c rental & accommodation. If you are a PPL student or an IR student, have you thought of attending through AriBen and converting back in Europe? AriBen instructors are more numerous (at least 20 in number), have fewer students between them, work longer hours, and the accommodation is cheaper too. Either that, or go elsewhere.

This really is the last thought. The past six months at least have seen a glut of Indian students at AriBen seeking to be trained on top of the American & European students, leading to huge numbers of students at both schools after the same a/c. This impacts on a/c availability for EFT students too due to the piggyback nature of the schools. I found that the 172’s had the bollocks flown off of them during the day and by time builders at night. On at least two occasions, all flying was suspended for a whole day because the 172’s were all tech or there was only one left flying and the schools couldn’t afford to have that go down too.

I hope my experiences and others posted here help you make an informed decision. Weigh up the pro’s & con’s and make your decision. Above all, ask the right questions! There is more than enough discussion here to come up with some taxing questions to put to the management.

Thanks for the input Chitty,
Doesn't look that promising, I will be going there in a week and was hoping things had gotten a little better based on all the inputs from everyone. Seems like the two problems that keep popping up is the availability of a/c's and instructors. Guess they are not likely to change things before I get there :ugh:

Quote:

---

Two instructors, teaching both PPL & CPL students, is just not enough. I believe a third is arriving in February

---

Seems odd really when they have an APP course that has graduated students work there to gain hours?!?

I was looking to do the APP course but something doesn't seem right. They limit their APP intake to 1 student per month and the training from 0 hours to a CFI is less than 12 months.

I'd assume they'd have a dozen or so CFI's floating around EFT at any given time with a one in one out system going on? Clearly I am wrong.

Wouldn't it be beneficial to EFT to lower the cost of the APP course to increase their instructor numbers? More instructors would mean more modular PPL/CPL students finishing their courses on time and a better reputation. I can see the AC availability is a problem too but having too many students and not enough instructors isn't really an excuse?

Makes me wonder if the current APP students want to stay after their training? Capt Relax was looking to go there for ages and left for EFT in Oct if I am not mistaken. Where is he now? How is he getting on?

I still like the idea of the APP course they offer but I am now looking toward doing my training in BFC / Aeros as it's pretty local and they have a good rep and AC.

FI Course - EFT
 

Hi DC-8

Sorry I havn't posted a response sooner - too busy doing my ATPL's and CPL. As it happens I am sat in Vero Beach right now and will be starting my FI course tomorrow, so I'll let you know.

Kjebjerg

Where are you intending to stay whilst out at EFT?

Can any of the lads who was out at EFT in December tell me if they have managed to get there money back which wasnt used while there?
I have tried emailing them several times with no reply, Calling them doesnt seem to help either as the phone doesnt get answered.

Hi there Privatairdreaming,

I am one of those, and no, didn't get a refund yet. Neither did any of the other guys as far as I know. It's quite interesting, as there is a clause in our contract saying that refunds are issued within 30 days...

But to be honest, after all I saw and went through while I was training there, I didn't expect anything else from them.

Some advice to guys considering training with them:

1.- Watch you account VERY closely, they make mistakes (I want to think they're mistakes) quite often. If you point them out they usually do correct them, but don't expect them to rectify without your intervention.

2.- Make sure you have an "open" time frame. Delays happen (at least they did happen continously during my stay) and if you choose this school you must be ready to take them. Either that or finish your training somewhere else (my case, and I had allowed for twice the time they specified...).

3.- If you're not comfortable with old planes, forget about this place! Also be prepared to experience failures, usually just annoying. High in the list were radios and transponders. These tend to be repaired and put back into service, I didn't see them replace a single piece of equipment while I was there, so they also tend to fail quite often.

4.- Instruction quality is GOOD in general, they just need more guys!! This means your training might be delayed until these poor guys have some slots for you. Also might mean they just can't dedicate enought time to the student on the ground. The guys are hard workers and they do everything they can to get you through, thank you for that!

5.- Make sure you read your contract in full and keep a copy. They might try to make you pay for stuff your contract doesn't say anything about, as one of the guys found out the hard way.

6.- Last but not least, If you do get in any trouble with them make sure you get everything in writing.

Conclusion (for my experience): been there, done that, won't ever be back!

Your experience may differ! this is just a compilation of my personal experience.

Regards!

Same is happen to me. Didn't get my refund back. I'm now more than 3 month at home and give them a lot of calls. The answer everytime: "We will send you the money soon"

Damn it, doesn't sound good.

Anybody studying there at the moment?

7574ever, when did you study at the EFT?

cl0ud9, i would be very happy to hear your experiences there so far.

I am considering EFT, and thinking about to start in autumn.


Feel free to PM me also:ok:

Just wondering if anyone has managed to get there money back which was just sitting in the accounts over at EFT??
Has anyone had any luck with them actually replying to emails regarding the return of the cash??
I have asked them to wire it to my account and they keep giving me cock and bull reasons as to why they cant do it.
Anyone got any ideas on how to light a fire under their ass?

Has anyone given any thought to contacting AOPA to see if they can help with this??

Eft Misery
 

Hi all,

I was out at EFT from mid Nov 07 - Dec 08. I paid money up front also and never had to use any of it because no a/c were available to spend it on during my 2 week stay. I would also comment that I was lead to believe there would be an aircraft ie PA28 Arrow, available for use when I arrived. I soon discovered that this was not the case and it had been u/s for several days before I had arrived. Why couldnt they have informed me of this and I could have delayed my visit until it was functional or an alternative a/c was available. Obviously theu just want your custom.

Anyway after a lot of phone calls and lies on their part ie, yeah we have sent the money, I finally got a cheque in the post some 7 weeks after I returned.

I basically expected this because it was an accurate reflection of their complete breakdown in organisational ability which I had to endure whilst I was over there whilst enjoing my holiday in the lovely tourist resort of Fort Pierce.

I could not recommend them from my experience.

:rolleyes::ugh::*:ok:

Cheers

More like 4-6 months. In the months August to December, only 1 CPL completed, everyone else hung around due to promises of the Arrow being fixed, but most eventually went home and then to a different flight school.

What's up with EFT? I am interested in a course they offer, and I sent some questions with email one month ago and have yet to receive an answer from them. I also called them last week and secretary told me that instructor will be back shortly and answer questions next week (this week) and I have received nothing yet.

Anyone here working in EFT? Quite impossible to apply for a course if I can't get a reply. Not the best way to serve a possible customer either.

You will find that alot with this particular FTO, they have a great habit of not replying to emails that are sent no matter how urgent they are.
You will also find that for weeks on end you will be told you need to speak to a certain person only then to find that when this person shows up they tell you to go and talk to someone else. You can find yourself chasing them alot.
But everyone has different experiences and this is only mine and a few friends.

FI course
 

Hi everybody,

I need some information about this school as I intend to do the FI course with them next april.

I will do the course as part of the PTC Flight Instuctor Career Program, but I can see that this school is not really serious. I´ve tried to contact them by e-mail and phone also, but it seems almost imposible to get a response.

I´m leaving in a month and I do not have yet the I-20 form nor accomodation confirmation. On the other hand, I can see from the forum that the don´t have enough staff, planes, etc... so I´m really worried.

If anyone has done the FI course with them or have recent contact and could give some information I would appreciate that a lot.

Thank you a lot!!!

Not really serious....................

Ok, I work six days a week, every week, I am training JAA FIC and FAA CFI/MEI, I have a 100% JAA FIC pass rate....I work every day with the FIC course.......let me ask you a question, do you wanna get a good FI course? Or...do you wanna be one of the people that wants to be in a 'get outta here, the world owes me an FIC course in three weeks' kinda people'?

I will train you to be an instructor, it will take as long as it takes, work with me and learn to instruct, I promise I will not let you down..or will you be one of those guys that think they are waaay to cool for ground school??? It's up to you...

Sorry, but the attitude of some people gets my goat right now.

OK I am sorry, it's been an emotional day, but I am sure some of my recent students will tell you that I gave 100% to give them a good course............Tim, Damien, et all, please pass the message!

Mordacai,

First of all, thank for your comments.

Because I want to do a good course I intend to do it in a really good school and also in an english speaking country to improve my english, otherwise I would do it in my country where would be cheaper and quicker for me.

I´m not worried about time, I mean, I do not want to do an express course, just a good one, so if I have to spend more time than planned, it won´t be a problem for me if I learn to be a good instructor, but.............

When I did my CPL training, I had a little problem with my FTO. They sold two of the three Seneca´s they had, and when the only one we had to train broke down, We had to wait for more than four months to continue the training, also, half of the instructors where dismissed because of the economical situation, so I know what´s a school with serious problems and lack of staff, so I don´t want to be again in a similar situation, that is why I´m looking for as much information as possible about this Centre and others.

I believe you must be a great instructor, usually, instructors are the best part of any FTO, but if I intend to do a course with you and I send three e-mails to request basic information about the course and accomodation, the first one more than two weeks ago, and I don´t have any response yet, I can not have a really good opinion about your "customer service".

Cheers

:ok:

jlpilot , agreed, I will deal with that today, it irritates the p!ss ouf of me when that happens.

Look forward to meeting you

"Sorry, but the attitude of some people gets my goat right now."

I'm sorry, but that sort of statement coming from an FTO where instructors don't turn up for lessons because they are "fed up of waiting around for a servicable aircraft" is just insulting.

jollyrodger

You are obviously not at EFT.

Any instructor who did so - would have been fired a long time ago.

Therefore, the fact you writing on the wrong thread is just insulting. ;)

Well thats a little odd...because they've definatly still got a lot of MY money which despite several emails/phone calls (I hate it when emails don't get replied to "it irritates the p!ss ouf of me when that happens").

I'd like to think an instructor behaving in such a manor would be fired, but despite my concerns being raised with the head of training...he's still there. Good job really, as that would leave them with 1 and a half full time instructors.

The place is a disgusting excuse for a flying school, quite honestly I wish you were right, I wish I hadn't gone to EFT and "donated" all that money.

The FTO didn't make the comment - I did. I am not EFT.

THIS IS ONLY MY OPINION - however...a month at eft last summer is enough to give an educated opinion.......

mordacai - clearly its u Poll,dont pull the wool over any1s eyes! ur attitude stinx and lazy. there is no extra effort put in your part and the 6 days a week u refer to i beg to differ...more like 6 half days - which im sure even with ur limited mathematics can figure out - computes to 3 days. if as much time was spent with students opposed to eating and messing around ur phone would help everyones cause.

eft has potential to be a great school, but with lack of admin and no CFI worth there arse anymore, organisation is a shambles!

anyone considering going over, request matt adams - he'll get u through, but with student FI ratio be prepared to spend a lot of time on the ground.

cant really agree with some of the last post the last post.
i dont think its a great mystery who mordacai is or that he is trying to hide it
he helped me a lot when i was there. i am very grateful to him for helping me through a tough phase in the cpl and after some very good debriefs got me back on track.
You cant blame him for the problems of eft.

Stephen Fisher
 

From post 132

I worked at Swallow Aviation at Gloucester for Stephen Fisher and Antonia and it was not pleasant. I believe he actually served time at Her Majesty's pleasure in the mid 90's as a result of some of his underhand dealings. I remember seeing the report in the local newspaper.

Tread very carefully if you have any dealings with this man.

As a current student of EFT, I am not up to speed with the problems people are talking about on this thread.

Just for those that are wondering though - I can now heartily recommend EFT as at May 09.

I have just worked my way through Night, IR, ME IR, CPL and am currently still on the FI course - I can say that in my experience that the training and support has been excellent. It is a nice environment to train in but standards are high - don't expect to come to EFT for an easy ride -and you do come out a much better pilot!

Hope that's of use!

Just want to congratulate you with your achievement. I have seen you working hard for it and you managed to get it all. Well done :ok:

By the way, not bad for a 40+………. :D (Dutch humor)

For Glen Corcoran
 

Hey Glen, congratulations for your achievements.
You said you are on a Flight Instructor course, aren't you?
I sent an e-mail to FTE asking info about the FI course but they answered me they are not doing that at the moment.
Can you give some info about? I'm currently working on my FAA-JAA conversion and by the beginning of october I should be able to start a FI course if I can't find anything else, so I was thinking about FTE cause I heard that it's a very good one.
All the best for your future
Happy Landings
Federico

Sorry guys, I made a mistake.
When I referred to my e-mail I misunderstood EFT with Flight Traing Europe.
Obviously It was my mistake.
I apologise with everyone, expecially with European Flight Training.
Regards

I'll be looking to join them as well in July. Looking forward to take full advantage of the new instalations.

funny that...

i actually rang them about two weeks ago and they were telling me how you need to get a certain grade in certain exams to be able to become a FI with them, all sound a little iffy to me:confused:

I think they are using that as a ploy to attract students, and then admitting that it all 'depends'...

He never specified what criteria had to be met in order for you to qualify..i was more confused and was about to explode with unanswered questions after talking to him:ugh:

Was my no. 1 school on my list for me until i had spoken to the guy on the phone. Because, honestly, it was the instructer part that caught my eye, and the oppertunity to gain hundreds of free hours FREE!!

Thought it was too good to be true..

Turns out it was:rolleyes:

As an instructor there - I would like to the add the following to the above post.

We make it very clear in our welcome presentation on day 1 the standards required to be eligible for employment and also if you speak to either the CFI or myself we will explain the criteria on the phone no problem, and will always express it in writing if you wish.

You must :

• Pass each exam within two attempts.
• Complete each licence/rating in no more than 120% of allocated hours.

Now obviously if you are constantly late, look a mess - then you wouldn't be employed. Common sense is applied - and if you fail to meet any of the criteria - we have a review system where you placed on review and have a chance to rectify the situation. As with any programme be it Oxford, PTC or an airline - learning to fly is NOT an attendance course and requires effort and a willingness to set even higher standard than the ones your at.

I myself completed the programme with 2 of my Italian collegues.