This Review Overall Rating
The positives first; Instructors were amazing. My basic flight phase of training is one of the best periods of my life. Living in New Zealand and flying regularly. The Ground School instructors went above and beyond expectation, and provided everything to get through the exams. Accommodation was not what was promised, it was better. The problems with this company rarely lay with the instructors, they where definitely worth the money.
I had only small complaints up until the Advanced flying stage. Several company delays hit. For a example of the competence demonstrated after four months of being stood down from training I was told at 6pm that my flight back to New Zealand was for the following day at 10am. Not a whisper for four months then less than 24 hours notice. Only then to not be booked in for a flight/lesson for over a month. No communication from the staff as to why, but it was evident that there was a priority put on 'Tagged' cadets, and the Integrated cadets where not the as 'financially important' to L3. Problems like this became routine and the statements from the heads of training in return were flimsy, bureaucratic, defensive, damage control.
There is so much that this company got completely wrong. It seemed to be facing extensive internal problems, but could not admit it to the cadets.
A 18 month course that turned into 33 months. Irregular scheduling for the advanced stages of flight training left training inconsistent. Terrible customer service and a blasé attitude to dealing with complaints brought on by their exploitive business model. I found the attitude by the head staff, 'Pay more or lose everything,' which was reinforced by regular intermissions in training and no support offered voluntarily. Ignore the marketing claims and listen to the ex-cadets, the company is selling snake oil and enough people are aware of their reputation. They are desperate to save face.
In the current economy there is minimal post flight training help and the Hold Pool is permanent. The jobs that have been offered up via the holding team have all been insultingly, ground based office jobs.
L3 Harris out-sourced my MEIR phase of training to Leading Edge. It was more professional and I felt like a customer, not a blank pay check. I thoroughly enjoyed training with them. I recommend to prospective pilots, now that New Zealand has closed down, to avoid L3 Harris entirely. Instead favor these smaller flight schools that are customer satisfaction focused.
Course(s) taken:
General
Aircraft
Simulators
Theoretical Training
Practical Training
