This Review Overall Rating
I started my training at the very beginning of the first Covid lockdowns, so as you can probably imagine there were plenty of hiccups and delays due to legal lockdowns imposed by the Irish government, on the same topic the IAA did not make life easy with rule changes and delays in ATPL results and license issuing.
I was a student in AFTA for just over 2 years due to the above mentioned delays, the fact that I took 4 rounds (8 Months) to complete the ATPL exams, and that for financial reasons I hade to get a part time job for the tail end of my tenure with AFTA.
I lived in Cork City where public transport to and from the airport was unreliable at best, I would consider it non existent for practical purposes. At the time I had neither a driving license nor a car and was forced to spend a small fortune on taxis, for this reason I would highly discourage anyone from beginning there flight training unless you either have a car or money is simply no object.
The facilities are functional if nothing special, which just goes to show how much of the budget is spent on top quality engineers, instructors, maintenance, and most importantly, Aircraft.
I had many instructors with whom I loved to fly, I would not be able to pick just one or two favourites and it would be unfair to name names for the few I did not enjoy flying with.
If I had one piece of criticism above all others with AFTA it would be the location of the 737 simulator for APS MCC as it is quite a long distance from the other facilities, that however is a small issue easily gotten over.
I have successfully begun my type rating course with a major airline and the support from AFTA was top notch including extra time in the simulator and mock interview sessions.
My 3 positive points for AFTA in no particular order would be:
-The fleet, especially the twin engine aircraft.
-The instructors, their professionalism and friendliness.
-Sharon.
My negative points which I would love to stress are incredibly minor:
-The under use of the Ipad as a full EFB
- The da42 *simulator* physics.
- The length of time G reg aircraft are gone for maintenance.
In conclusion I would highly recommend AFTA as an ATO as I do not believe you will recieve a higher quality, better value for money airline training experience in Europe, and most the advantages of an IAA licence are phenomenal.
Course(s) taken:
General
Aircraft
Simulators
Theoretical Training
Practical Training
