This Review Overall Rating
I studied all parts of my practical training (PPL, Night rating, Hour Building, IR(R), MEP, MEIR and CPL (Yet to complete UPRT)) with Aeros. Most of my training was done at their Cardiff base except the MEIR Sim hours were done at Gloucester along with my CPL (as Welsh pandemic lockdown rules at the time prohibited flight training in Wales). From the first day I went to enquire all members of staff have been supportive and helpful in providing honest information to me about flight training and my courses. Doing my PPL at Cardiff was fantastic as it is a fully functional International Airport with Controlled Airspace and a full Radar unit, this was a huge boost to my confidence as a pilot being exposed to these things from Day 1. My PPL training was primarily split between 2 instructors, one for my initial general handling and one for navigation (with my first instructor returning for my final 10 hours and mock exams). I also had the chance to fly with a couple of other instructors at the Cardiff base for one or two ad-hoc lessons. I think the diversity in the types of instructors was a great positive to learn all these great techniques. Some with a very heavy airline background, some with a more light aircraft background and then some in between. During my hour building, I was given full access to all Aeros facilities across the UK (which was great as my ATPL ground school was in Gloucester so I had full access to aircraft hire and facilities in the Aeros Gloucester base) which also meant there was a lot of opportunities where I could get very cheap hire rates for positioning aircraft between bases for Aeros which saved me a lot of money. A good amount of the aircraft Aeros use for the PPL and hour building are pretty old (except the Diamond DA40), however, this does keep the cost down especially as much of the maintenance is done in house. During my hour building, I was encouraged to explore as much as I could, taking friends and family up plus many school fly outs were arranged. My biggest regret in my hour building was not exploring Europe or at least going to France, Aeros are completely fine with you taking aircraft abroad and having an extended rent of the aircraft, even to the point they will send out an Aeros engineer if required to perform 50-hour checks etc. Many schools (including ones I've visited) have a strict policy on hour building, no going abroad, no taking passengers, no grass strip landings, no weekend hire etc. So I am very pleased with how flexible Aeros were. When moving onto advanced training (MEIR, CPL etc) this is very different. Since being at Cardiff from the start, by the time I came onto my Multi-Engine work, the flight school was getting pretty busy which did actually cause problems with briefing room availability which meant sometimes we ended up having to brief/debrief in a less suitable area. As there was no simulator for my IR training available in Cardiff I had to travel up to Gloucester to do the Simulatorportion of my training which was a shame however Aeros tried their best to accommodate us with it. I cannot stress how impressed I was with my MEIR, CPL and MEP instructor. He had previously been an instructor but has also flown in many other environments such as low-level work, turboprop commander and even long haul airliners. He applied all of his knowledge and experience to the training he gave me and other students. The aircraft used for my advanced training was the Diamond DA42, all of the ones I used were in exceptional condition and well maintained. Aeros even provided complimentary sim time to get me back up to speed when I was forced to stop training due to government lockdowns which I thought was very generous.
My main criticism was the lack of suitable briefing rooms at Cardiff, especially in the summer, a small lack of some more aircraft and subject-specific training material's that I could study after being taught it in the lessons, many instructors, however, used their own material, and finally, the lack of Simulator in Cardiff was a shame as travelling up to Gloucester (and sometimes staying in a hotel) wasn't ideal.
The biggest positives I have was the quality of instruction at all stages of flight training, the flexibility of the company to work around my schedule, Except for the initial deposit, I was not pressured or asked to pay anything upfront (massive positive) it was all pay-as-you-go (after each flight). Aeros adapted well to the pandemic and made good decisions during the lockdown period and dealt with covid measures well. The multiple bases gave me a great opportunity and reason to explore more airfields and saved me lots of money during my hour building with positioning flights plus the advantage of Cardiff airport itself was a big boost. Aeros Cardiff was a 7 day a week operation which meant I was free to fly any time during the week. The lists of positives go on and on.
In conclusion; Aeros has been an incredibly supportive ATO with some fantastic positives and very insignificant downfalls so I would highly recommend Aeros to anyone looking to fit flight training around normal life or even just want to spread it over a longer period of time. However, the biggest thing that drew me to Aeros was the price, compared to its direct competitors the price of the Aeros 'Fastrack' course blows everything out of the water. I have saved tens of thousands of pounds with Aeros instead of going to one of the competitors.
Course(s) taken:
General
Aircraft
Simulators
Practical Training
