Bristol Flight Centre Loans
 

Any one know anything about these loans, e.g what bank are they with, are they deffered until 6 months after training and how much can you get?? Thanks.

States on their website its with Barclays Bank :}

As for the other details you should contact them and ask to see what the score is.


Regards

Hi,
I was just wondering from all of the guys and girls who have completed the CPL/ME/IR with BFC how they found the training course if they did the ME/IR side of things first? I mean its one hell of a jump from pottering around in a C152 to being able to perform an engine out NDB hold :eek: If you did things this way round did you pass everything first time and in minimum hours?

config-2,

I myself completed MEIR before CPL at BFC in minimum hours with full first time passes. It is possible if you put the effort in. All my hour building was in a C150.

Yes it is quite a step up but have faith in the instructors and the school.

Jetpilot84.:)

BFC
 

It is a massive jump and no-one will deny that. My first week doing the MEP I really though oh my god:eek: why am I here. However the instructors are a great support and you will find everyone feels the same (no matter where you train).

The good thing about how BFC do the training course is you do a 6hr MEP then have your whole IR (sim and aircraft) before you have to look at doing MEP class rating.

No matter what experience you have you will never feel fully ready to go into the courses, however you need to look at the support and atmosphere that you will get from the training provider. I and many others got through first time in minimum hours (or very close to) but again this depends on the individual-how quick they can learn and what other factors may affect them. Bristol do give excellant support and the instructors really do care about their students-not just as numbers and statistics.

The social side of things was really good when I was there (hello Uncle Funkie and Grandad Tablet!!) and you should find someone with a shoulder to cry on or go for a celebratory drink.

Hope this helps,

C99:p

I am very seriously considering BFC and was wondering the following.

I don't have a car and will not be able to afford one. Is the flyer bus adequate or am I going to struggle?

Do they help set accommodation up with fellow pilots. Is this in Bristol town centre or nearer the airport - again transport.

How much money per week would a room sharing a house cost on average?

cheers

Planeshipcar,

Most of the accommodation the have numbers etc for are local to the airport. I'm sure if you asked they could try and sort you out with another student possibly with a car. I myself was lucky enough to have a brother living in Bristol and travelled up on the Flyer everyday, FREE weith your BFC pass. Certainly had no problems with the Flyer and then once at the airport you hopped on the Silver Zone car park bus to get round to BFC.


Regards :ok:


P.S. All my training completed minimum hours too and certainly feel I picked the right place to train.

Hi Cloud99 and jetpilot,
Thank you for your replies. I am almost certain that BFC will be my chosen school. I was just a little concerned that they do the ME/IR first seeing as the IR is meant to be the most demanding flight test we do. However, the results you guys obtained are testiment to the effort both you and the flight school put in.
Thanks again, and best of luck with your careers
Sorry, but just as a side question, would the fact that I haven't actually flown in UK airspace put me at a distinct disadvantage when I come to start the course? Would it be worth maybe going down a few days earlier to get some hours in to get used to the local area, aerodrome proecedures etc??

This will be a factor, however shouldn't affect you too much. A lot of people had done most of their hours building abroad while I was there and it didn't seem to affect them at all. What I would recommend is have a chat to the school about it and definately go down a few days before and ask for a few back seat rides just to get used to the RT and general area.

Hope this helps, best of luck

C99

Hi Cloud 99 and tablet,
Thank you both for your replies. You have both put my mind at rest. To be honest I am now actually looking forward to it. I'll speak to BFC nearer the time and see what they say regarding a few hours in the local area or back-seating. Thank you again for your posts. All the best.

Hi Config-2

I'm sure BFC will be right for you, though just to note they do get booked up and so if anything I'd advise you to start certainly enquiring and letting them know your on the scope so to speak. Great school and hopefully pop back and see them all again.


Regards:ok:

Bristol Flight Centre Credit Card
 

Received the info this morning regarding the new credit card payment scheme Bristol are doing where you don't start paying back the money till 9 months after training. Does anyone know what the APR is as it didn't say (suspicious) before i call them tomorrow?

Thanks

BFC Credit Card
 

Dear SpamCan
I believe the APR is similar to a storecard ie 29% or thereabouts but is interest free for 9 months from first usage. Ideal for those in a position to pay the money off before the interest kicks in but perhaps not otherwise. Give them a call Spam and check it out.Cheers.
:) Alpha

Aeros vs. Bristol Flying Centre
 

Hiya...

I am currently trying to decide where in the UK to take my flight training for my frozen ATPL licence. I am finishing my ground school in april from Oxford Aviation Training but have decided to do my flihgt training elsewhere.

I am now trying to decide between Aeros in Gloucesershire and Bristol Flying Centre.

I was wondering if I could get any experience information from member here on Pprune. I've heard alot about Bristol but I've only heard from one that wen't to Aeros.

So...anybody out there who has finished from Aeros or Bristol?

Thx... :cool:

Did my CPL at Aeros, gained a 1st time pass, and I am currently ½ way through my IR with them, top instructors, top course and a top place to train, you will not regret it one bit.
Of course everyone's opinion is rather subjective as they only ever train with 1 establishment so have nothing to compare it with, go visit them and make up your own mind, good luck :ok:


:edited: to say, with Aeros you only get 2 students per instructor, and the IR is split 25hrs Sim - 25hrs aircraft, definitely a plus point, and their CPL/IR FTP rates are stunningly great :D

Aeros v BFC
 

2 of the lads at the school I was just at (they were building hours) said that BFC was quite simply the dogs ********. They were insistant there's not a better school about. Both did MULTI CPL IR and were full of praise. Obviously, its difficult to compare one school against another as most people only do each module once at one school. I'll be giving it a look on Tuesday.

Best Regards

Rossco

Hi there,

Did both the CPL and IR with Aeros last year, gaining a 1st time pass in both. The standard of the instrucution was excellent. For the CPL one distinct advantage is Gloucester has 6 available runways so only the windiest days will see you grounded. Also it was very rare for the circuit to be too busy to accomodate training. Sadly this is not the case at Bristol as its a far busier airport. BFC have the backup of being able to transit over to Kemble (about 30nm NE) to do their circuits. A perfectly reasonable situation but not the best when the weather is crap for nav but fine for the circuit at the base airfield. The opposite to that argument is that BFC are based at the local CAA exam centre for the IR. So if your with Aeros you will do transit lessons landing at bristol, then conducting a route out of BRS. Again not a significant operational problem.
Both schools benefit from a reasonable size fleet and in-house maintenance.

The best advice as always is to visit both schools if you can and see which one is best for you.

Thanks for the replies boys. I am at least gonna go and check Aeros out. I've got a good feeling about that place so there is a good chance that I will end up there...

cheers...

This is a quote from Bristol's (lfying center) website :

"Aircraft training (incl solo hire) is billed at airborne + 0.2."

I do not understand... 0.2 what ? peanuts ?
is it a fee ??

Would you mind explaining me that?

thanks

0.2 of an hr, so that's 12 minutes (obviously) :)

ok thank you very much!

so if I understood, each flight we would have to pay 1 hour plus 12 min ??

Yes indeed, take off to land plus 12 minutes :)

I believe Aeros charge for Airborne +10 minutes.

now it may sound like im splitting hairs here, but think! the IR training rate at both schools is about £6 per minute! Just imagine what you could do with that extra 12 pounds! As one of thte instrcutors there said to me:

"its the most fun you can have outside of soho for 6 quid a minute"

At the time i begged to differ, not that i've ever experienced what you actually get in soho for six quid

Combine

You are right, Aeros is airbourne + 10 minutes, and yes £6 per minute soon mounts up if you take the odd 2 minutes from every flight, I did a 2hr 5min flight in the Seneca today but due to traffic we were held at the holding point on the ground which meant the airbourne time was 1hr 40 + the 10 minutes, you do the sums :ok:

Not a bad egg and bacon sarny though:rolleyes:

I am a high time pilot (6000 hours total, 2000 hours flight instructor). Most of my experience in small turboprop and Piper Chieftain aircraft. I recently contacted BFC and spoke with Roy Hitchon about an IR conversion. I was interested in the 10 sim/5 multi program. Roy was very adamant in trying to sell me an IR conversion at 10 multi/5 sim instead of the above.

I asked, "What is the average time of completion that a pilot, with experience as myself, can expect for IR conversion?" He said, "It depends on skill." That wasn't a good enough answer so I asked him again. "What can I expect to see for a completion of an IR conversion?" His response did not make any sense. He said, "American Instrument Ratings are not any good and people will have a hard time flying in the UK." It was a very negative answer.

I was very patient with Roy. In doing so, he admitted that I needed to budget for 30 hours.

I would be very careful with this school for 2 reasons. BFC markets 15 hours IR conversion. This is misleading. Also they are not confident enough, in my eyes as an experienced professional instructor, in their ability to pass people in a given and fair amount of time.

I have seen this strategy of flight schools to make money time and time again. For a school that has been around for ages, BFC must certainly have enough experience, and confidence, to complete IR conversions in a given and set time. Flight schools will entrap a student making them feel guilty about the amount of time and money spent during their course of training thereby psychologically inhibiting that student from leaving and seeking training elsewhere.

Roy specified each flight takes 1.5 hours at a cost of 370 GBP per hour. This is approximately 555 GBP per flight. That is too much money to gamble in a school that cannot give me a concrete answer. I asked him, "What if I need more time?" He said, "We'll give you a deal?"

I will not be attending this school.

Good luck with your training

Roy is a good chap and I guess that he was trying to be realistic in advising you how long it will take to convert your IR. I imagine they are fairly busy at present and it would not be in their interests to offer you a 'deal' etc.

They have alot of experience in converting overseas IRs, more than other modular schools I would think. When I was there, the guys converting all took alot longer than the min hours. They have experienced instructors, a good fleet of PA-34s, the sims are indentical to the a/craft, and there is a CAA examiner on site. All things in your favour when looking to convert in as few hours as possible.

If you haven't already, I suggest you pop along to see the set up and chat face-to-face before discounting them.

Oxfordman, why are you digging up posts from over a year ago? You've made 3 posts about B-F-C and they all read exactly the same? I can't see the mods being too pleased with your spamming antics. :uhoh:

I'm not. He's thread banned from this discussion.

WWW

Whys everyone so angry at Oxford? I wish I got that advice a long time ago before I went to BFC. Would have saved me tons of cash


Se note regarding Shipsmate on the other BFC thread - Admin

Not necessarliy angry, just trying to balance his argument - though dragging up 3 old threads is a bit suspicious. BFC is a good school and has stood the test of time. Those looking for training options will often search here first for opinions. And I have no axe to grind.

On a more positive note..............

What sort of connections with the airline/cargo/air taxi worlds has BFC got ?

Do they recommend students ?

Thanks in advance.

Hi. For many reasons I haven't posted anything in months but I'd really like to jump to Roys defence.
Firstly to ask any school to give you an exact number of hours to complete a conversion is crap. The same for an IR, any published hours are minimum hours you'll be flying. Someone with as much experience as Oxfordman should know this.
You really would be shooting yourself in the foot if you take BFC off your list.

BFC handled my CPL Multi/IR flight training with absolute professionalism. They were more expensive than most other modular schools but every day I entered their building I knew I'd get value for money. Instruction really was superb, damm swipe cards to enter the building and pay for flights.
Real brefing rooms, with whiteboards that are actually used after every flight.
Accessable computerized flight and student accounts and full access to the instructors. Open door policy with anyone in BFC, if you fancied a chat with Roy he always made time.

Once I reached the IR stage I was short on time. There's not much a school can do as they've got lots of students but they did tolerate and even encourage my own timetable modifications to fit in extra flights and sim sessions.

The day of my IR skill test I was actually short 1.2 hours so they arranged a quick pre flight with an instructor. I was only short because I took the test a few days early when another student cancelled.

I know schools change as instructors leave so a recommendation isn't worth much and I'd always we hesitant to offer one because of that: based on my experience though I'd wholeheartedly recommend BFC.

I had bad flights in the sim and aircraft, aircraft did go tech, instructors are sometimes sick, but my God it's the real world and !!!! happens. When it did happen BFC were right on the ball organizing extra flights or offering a different instructor.

I've been through a few more training phases since Bristol and at each phase I've commended myself for choosing BFC.

If I could I'd walk you in the door and introduce you to all the guys in Bristol and show you the sim and aircraft, chat about accomadation and great scenary around the area. Please read this post as a virtual introduction to BFC. With your experience you know how bad training can effect your flying, you've invested too much so far to wipe these guys off your list.