For distance TK, in France there is Mermoz (but I don’t know their level of English and was annoyed at having ATPL books for my IR)
My current club use (or used) Bristol
For practical, well I didi it in my club which is a non profit ATO/FTO but then I’m not sure you can get the availability you need. Up to you to see.
Otherwise I also heard very good things a bout Iroise and I belive there is also a school with good reviews in the south of France (ensuring good enough weather to keep a short schedule)
Dunno about specif CBIR courses in any of these (except my club :-)
Several people here did the ground school at say CATS and the exams in their home country. It may not be cheaper but it is a lot more convenient because normally you can’t sit the exams in one day so it saves travelling back to the UK.
I did it there in fall 2015. My FI was a Hop first Officer and they managed to register my own plane in their fleet in order to train on her.
I had my 40 hours of training in 3 intensive weeks spread in about 6 weeks : I began on 22/10/15 and got it on 1/12/15.
Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! (And keep it coming if you have more.:) For the TK it looks like the most common approach is CATS or CAPT in the UK. I eventually ended up with a UK PPL after being frustrated trying to complete PPL in Norway, so that’s probably a good option anyway. (=
bogivara wrote:
Then I went to Jerez in Spain for intensive flying training. http://www.fly-in-spain.com/ I was there twice. I was lucky and had a good instructor,
Indeed you were extremely lucky. I have other experiences from there, could never recommend them……
Check out South Sweden Flight Academy, former SSSA.
Located at ESMS Malmö/Sturup airport.
Have been very good prices and used to be the cheapest school in Europe at least.
I took my PPL there 2 years ago and are currently doing my CBIR there.
Happy flying,
Mårten
I made the brush-up at the beginning of June at CATS in Luton before sitting the exams, nice people, friendly staff.
Easy location, near the airport, in just a day I did it all.
After 15 days I went to the CAA House in Gatwick, I found out that CATS don’t have the latest EASA question bank, at least 5 % of the questions never seen.. A bit disappointed
I also want to say that during the brush-up they (HT) suggested to subscribe aviationexam.com for the latest quiz
I hope it can help
Don’t know the availability for doing an intensive IR, but I guess schools often anyway set up individual programs. Some are more flexible than others. Based on experience (…and hearsay) , I would recommend to check the following schools in Sweden (in alphabetical order):
Airways Flygutbildning,Västerås ESOW http://www.airwaysflygutbildning.se/
Kungsair, Norrköping ESSP http://www.kungsair.com/
Nordic Flight Training, Malmö ESMS http://www.nordicflighttraining.se/wp-se/
Dont’ forget the rule of thumb…“you get what you pay for”. Works fairly well, at least when competition have same market conditions
Best of luck. IR is expensive to get, but even more FUN!
Why not come to France? IAF , Iroise Aero Formation at Brest. Great people, a good deal and if it can get me through an IR it can do the same for anyone. They are not one of these places that are really only interested in future airline pilots, and there is a lot of them about. Gabriel Ollivier, chief executive and one of the instructors is fluent in English so it’s possible to do the course in either English or French, possibly even German but I am not sure about that.
Sorry I might have got the wrong end of the stick. I did my theory at Mermoz in Paris, a few days there and then distance learning. They do now have course books for the CBIR and EIR plus up to date question banks. Although most of the instructors speak English and they encourage you to take the exams in English, you can of course do them in French. However I am not sure how much of the course literature is now also in English, although I believe they do also have a tie up with an English school, I can’t remember which.
