They admit about 20 students per year.
Ok, so it is not really applicable, because I am sure France trains more than 20 CPL/IRs a year.
It is like saying you can get a PPL for free in the UK, which is true – there are scholarships for women, the disabled, and I believe some other schemes which come up from time to time. A very small number; maybe 20 a year.
I have no experience with this but my (French) instructor used to say about the ENAC (and the air France pilots) that they are so peculiar because they are convinced they taught the birds how to fly :-)
Bordeaux_Jim wrote:
ENAC also trains all french controllers
I did my flying module at Biscarosse.
We flew the TB20’s IFR with state of the art avionics in 2012. 
The instructors I met there were far from thinking they taught the birds how to fly…
Yes, towards a “compatriote” AND a designated student. That would twice override the default “imbécile” …
I think I must just be incredible lucky to have met only polite and courteous people throughout my aviation “career” in France….
Bordeaux_Jim wrote:
I think I must just be incredible lucky to have met only polite and courteous people throughout my aviation “career” in France….
All jokes aside, I have mostly met some very nice people in French aviation too, many who I now call friends.
It’s NOT free. It’s just paid by other people than the students.
Piotr_Szut wrote:
It’s just paid by other people than the students.
With 20 people a year getting this scholarship, it’s not a big thing, is it? How many CPL/IRs train in France each year? Also, from the POV of the state-owned institution doing it, the cost to them is just the marginal cost, which is nil for the classroom, almost nil for a sim (just the money paid to the IRI), and just the DOC for the aircraft. It will be only a fraction of the money paid to the typical ATPL FTO by an ab initio customer.
Peter wrote:
Also, from the POV of the state-owned institution doing it, the cost to them is just the marginal cost, which is nil for the classroom, almost nil for a sim (just the money paid to the IRI), and just the DOC for the aircraft.
You mean that there are no fixed costs in a state-owned institution??
