Ground school – Excellent instruction, but no management communication.

Flight Phase – Fun (but I’m sure wherever you do your training it will be fun) but ultimately poor organisation.

Simulator phase – Professionally run.

GROUND SCHOOL:

I did the ground school part of the course in Coventry (L3 no longer have this site), This part was well run (by the fact it was on time). They grouped us in houses, which gave a social element to the course and definitely helped with studying. However when I was going through the course there was lots or rumours of delays being handed out to cadets, and when questions were asked to the staff they could not give us any answers due management not even communicating to its staff let alone cadets.

FLYING

The Flying Phase was where a lot of problems arose. I completed this phase in New Zealand. The facilities were excellent and the accommodation (Clearways) was very social. L3 clearly had too many cadets for the amount of instructors and aircraft. It was not uncommon to only have one or two BOOKINGS (not flights) per week so during bad weather it was common not to fly for weeks. It was also really had to plan days off as you were told to be available 6 out of 7 days a week and the schedule only came out at 3pm the day before, this always ended up in frustration as you only received 1/2 bookings a week.

SIMULATOR

Being on the MPL this part lasted 6 months. I cannot fault this part, after coming back from the very poorly run flight phase, the simulator phase ran on time knowing exactly when your lessons were 2 months in advanced. The new London training centre facilities and staff were excellent.

Overall the staff instruction and facilities were excellent, however the flight school should be avoided due to the management (or lack off) and the non-existent student support and communication.

Course(s) taken: