EFT/Florida in Winter
 

Dear fellow Gonnabes,

3 questions:

1. A colleague of mine has recommended EFT (European Flight Training) in Florida for my CPL. He apparently knows 6 people who have trained there who have not a bad word to say about the place, and gained first time passes. Not one to base a decision in only one source of information, I would be interested in hearing any stories you may have of EFT, good or bad.

2. By the time I complete my exams, assuming all goes as planned, it will be winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Does anyone out there have experience of the flying weather in Florida in Nov/Dec? EFT is on the east coast, at a place called Fort Pierce.

3. If I decide to do my CPL in the UK, what are the chances of completing the thing in a reasonable time-scale in Winter? I missed the last Winter in the UK due to being in the Southern Hemisphere (means I'm getting 3 summers in a row! :) ), but if memory serves, they are not particularly conducive to VFR flying,

TB

EFT - expensive...but good!!

Weather in Ft. Pierce..in Nove/Dec...glorious (normally)....though it's a bit too far ahead to give an accurate forecast :D

Seriously - Novemebr/December...usually glorious.

I know EFT very well...I know Ft. Pierce even better.

Enjoy!!

GoneWest,

Good news about the weather, but are they expensive? From their website I believe the cost works out at about 3400 GBP. As far as I know there are no UK schools currently running CPLs for less than 4 grand.

Admittedly there will be an airfare that I wouldn't require if staying in the UK, but since the other place I'm seriously considering is FTC in South Africa (where I am at the moment doing hours and groundschool), I would have to pay an airfare also. As for accommodation, there are no schools within reasonable commuting distance of my parents house (the only place I can stay in the UK for free!), so even in the UK I would need a B & B, and I would imagine living costs on Florida are cheaper.

If there is something you know about EFT which I don't, hidden costs or suchlike, please let me know,

TB

Remember to factor in accom ($20/night), hire car (1/4 share of $100 per week), ac hire for test ($250), examiner travel fees ($250), CAA test fee ($809). Also ensure that you're comparing like with like. Some CPLs use an FNPT for the IMC training and others offer 10 hrs complex instead of the min 5 hrs.

I have been looking for the same thing. But i chose to look a little bit closer to home and at a better price. In the end I chose Aerofan FTO in Madrid. It was closer to home, accomadation was cheaper along with the prices of the courses. Plus they do deal with each aspect of the ATPL seperately if you want. They can just teach theory ot just do an IR with their students which is good for some. Have a look at www.aerofanFTO.com . It may be in spanish as i think that their english site is down at the moment. I was told that it should be up n running shortly.
Hope this helps.

blueb0y79