From what I have heard, lots of people have said ardmore flying school has more people than it can handle, lots of people from ardmore flying school have shifted to bayflight and couldnt believe how much flying per day they could do and how nice the instuctors were, AFS instuctors are apprently not interested in aviation and are just cocky assholes from what I have heard[/quote]
I'd be careful what you say Chris G, with the NZ aviation scene being so closely knit, and a number of AFS instructors being members of this site!
Seriously though Kris- I was in your exact position a year and a bit ago, asked the same question on various forums, went into interviews at various establishments, and the main thing I can share from this experience with you is that no matter who you talk to, they are always going to have a bias opinion of this own organisation (obviously), so I'll try my best to lay down the most un-bias opinion of what Ardmore has to offer, even though I'm an AFS student
AFS is the biggest flight school in the country, most amount of training aircraft, instructors and students. However, when you hear about the number of students, you must bear in mind that not all of these are full time, as many work full time also, so perhaps only fly 1 or 2 times a week. If you are a full time student like myself, depending on how many other students your instructor has (logic indicates that you'd choose one with a fewer students as possible to maximize his/her availability), you can get aircraft bookings 6/7 days per week for duel, or any appropriate available time when you reach solo stages. Out of the 30 or so people from my theory class, I'd say only 8 are actually regally flying, so that gives you a good indication of that ratio statistic. I've even (unofficially) heard that AFS hire more students than they have available slots, as there is an expected drop out rate. I can think of another 7 people from my class who left before the theory course ended.
As far as reputation goes- I think it depends on who you hear it from. I've heard both negative and positive opinions of AFS pilots from industry professionals- some saying that Emirates NZ won't even look at a CV if it has the letters AFS on it, yet I know of many people who have gone off to Eagle Air, Airwork, Air NZ (the pilot who I jumpseated to Fiji with went straight from the Duchess to the 737 right hand seat) and Qantas. For example, just in the last month my old meteorology lecturer left the school to fly Metroliners, so don't believe the hype!
I also think that the fact of this instructor personality perception being raised in such a big way is unnecessary- sure, when you meet a new large group of people, there will be some people you may dislike, but once you get to know them, opinions often change. Certain lecturers who seemed rather brash are actually completely different people to fly with, and I know I'm not alone in being able to testify to this opinion change. Even though we're not a club, AFS still have bbq's and pissups every now and then, and the student group and instructor group mingle well. There are a good mix of older experienced insturctors and younger C-cats who can talk to you and teach you on a peer to peer level. Your attitude that your enter your flying with will determine your success, so don't let negative internet rumors spoil that for ya!
On the other hand, AAC sounds like the utopian establishment if you are a casual flyer- being a club rather than a school, however, I preferred the option of always keeping current and flying regularly rather than distracting myself with a job and only getting airtime occasionally- this is a preference that will change depending on each persons lifestyle of course, but at the moment it suits me down to the ground, having roughly 1 hour airtime per day, time left over to study checks/procedures/maunovers, and the rest of the day to just hang around with my other university mates who have similar lengthed lectures! Money was also the over riding factor for me in my training choice, with AFS offering the student loan and AAC not, however, you will find AAC complete license fees work out much cheaper than AFS on paper- however thats a gamble that I'm hoping will end up as an insignificant decison when I'm rolling in the dollars 20 years from now in the left hand seat of a 777
(This is yet another factor that depends entirely on your own personal situation though)
Airline Flying Club is also worth a mention if your keen for the casual approach, as I know a few NZFF members can verify. The guys who work there (even the CFI) are real genuine friendly down to earth people, although they will do thier best to warn you against the woes of the 'big sausage factory' approach to training.
QUOTE
lots of people from ardmore flying school have shifted to bayflight and couldnt believe how much flying per day[/quote]
I think I've only heard of one person from here who went there after completing there theory, however, I know at least 2 people at AFS who have come up the other way from Bay Flight so I'm not really sure that's a relevant point. Also remember that with the size of AFS's fleet and amount of usage each aircraft gets, the mandatory 100 hour inspections come around rather quickly, so every now and then flights get cancelled due to being in maintenance- thats surley just a fact of life that is shared with any large flying school trying to make a profit
My advice would be to either go sit down and talk to some of the instructors, or set yourself up for some intro flights with these guys so you can form your own opinions. Lots of the stuff posted on forums like these is just hearsay- so don't believe everything you read (meaning I'm hypercritically wasting my time here haha). All the best!
Posted:
Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:37 pmby Goose
I started my training at AFS, so far what people have said on here is generally accurate.
I really enjoyed my time there although it was pretty full on. Did my theory courses there, from ppl right through to ifr. Once my exams were complete however i moved on to bayflight, Mostly due to personal reasosns like family. AFS is good because they have a brand new fleet and are pretty efficient when it comes to theory courses but when it comes to the flying, there are too many students for the number of planes they have available. The way it worked when i was there is each plane had four to five instructors assigned to it and each instructor had 10 or so students which means there was roughly 40-50 students to a plane and they all wanted to fly every week.
But in saying that, that was just my experience, and i didnt do any flying there so can't really comment. It depends on how you want to go through your training. The way i have done i have gotten through it alot faster than my ardmore class mates but alot of that has also been because of aucklands notoriously cr@p winter weather where as down in Tga we are lucky enough to have the Kaimai's so although you may not be able to do cross countries you can cruise around tga till your hearts content.
As for what Chris said, There are four of us, that i know of, who are now at bayflight who were once at AFS, im not naming any names but one did have a particularly bad experience at ardmore, ive never asked him the full details but from what i can tell it was a personality thing between him and some of the instructors up there. As for myself i really enjoyed my time there and still keep in touch with some of my instructors from AFS. Where ever you decide to go the main point is you'll get out of it what you put it and it'll only be as good as you make it!
Posted:
Tue Oct 27, 2009 8:48 pmby travnz
Goose wrote:Where ever you decide to go the main point is you'll get out of it what you put it and it'll only be as good as you make it!
This is an excellent point, remember that it isnt where you have done your training that matters. It is your attitude and work ethic that does!!!
Also, when you move on no one really cares where you did you training, it is where you have gained your experience! Your not going to go from the 172 straight into a Boeing, there are going to be steps in between. These are the ones that do count!!
As for the instructors at AFS the ones that I have dealt with are excellent, (leo's and my former instructor is now an A Cat, top bloke and excellent instructor) the idea is that while you are new at where ever you choose you take time to meet the instructors and find the one the suits you!
Travis
Posted:
Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:48 pmby pilotgallagher01
I didn't mean to make it sound like a cr@p flying school as I'm sure it's far from that, I even considered applying fo the school a while back anyway...
Getting to th point, I'm also not suggesting all the instructors are cocky assholes at all, you always get the odd cocky kind in any orgnisation so sorry for making that sounds like they are all cocky..
I hope I haven't offended anyone from the school, being at the level looking for a training organisation myself you hear all sorts, but what I said above, it's come up a few times when talking to people an beingh told so I thought I woud share it since more than one person has discussed it with me.
Anyway not trying to say it's cr@p at all and sorry if I had caused offense, this was not my intentions
Posted:
Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:37 pmby FlyingKiwi
No offense taken here; as I said in my previous post there are a few instructors at the flying school who do come off as a bit arrogant and not all that interested in their students, but they are a small minority. Unfortunately often it only takes a few bad eggs to make the whole organisation look bad, which is very unfair on the majority of instructors there who are just as friendly and helpful as those in any other establishment.
Posted:
Thu Oct 29, 2009 6:59 amby krispilot
cool thanks for you views guys. very appreiacted.
Posted:
Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:41 pmby krispilot
Trolly metioned Ailine flying club. Had a look round the website and it seemed good. Was wondering if anyone had done their training (or parts of it) there?
