This Review Overall Rating
Firstly, I would not recommend L3, please look at all other options before handing your money over. And do not get sucked into their fancy marketing. Once you're in, your're financially committed to staying, so it's practically impossible to leave unless you have a very large financial backing to.
During my very long time at L3. The training was fantasitc (I hear ground school has gone downhill since the departure of some of the senior TKIs at Coventry, now closed). Particularly in Bournemouth the experienced instructors are outstanding in preparing you for your CPL and MEIR. They will push you to your limits and get the best out of you as a pilot.
However, the delays are extortionate. Despite passing every ATPL exam, every lesson, and my CPL and MEIR skill tests first time, it took me nearly 3 YEARS to drag through this school. An 18 month course. That's double the time. After groundschool, we had our start of flight training bounce around almost as much as our change of flight training location did. After groundschool it took 5 months before I saw a plane. Portugal was fun, great for your solo navs and to visit Lisbon with your mates. I didn't fly very often which was quite frustrating. In the time I was in Portugal (6 months), I was supposed to get my CPL, I only got to the end of my SE VFR stage (not including the night flights), primarily due to a lack of aircraft. Towards the end of being in Portugal, we were told we would be doing home at Christmas and not coming back for another 15 weeks (again, lack of aircraft and qualified instructors for IFR). 15 weeks turned to 6 months. Assuming I was only going to be home for a few months before going back to Portugal, I left most of my possessions there, in my room. We were told whilst at home that we were no longer going back to Portugal but to Bournemouth. So L3 refused to pay for my ticket to come and collect my belongings from Portugal. Instead they would only arrange for my stuff to be sent to me. Obviously not happy as it means they are rummaging through my personal belongings, I reluctantly agreed. As suspected stuff never returned, and some minor breakages, but whatever. So after 6 months of not seeing a plane, we were expected to transition straight to IFR and perform, with no extra time given to re-orientate ourselves. Once past the SE IFR stage we were given an extra hour (maybe 1.5 hours) on ME VFR to get ready for the CPL, not sufficient, but luckily I did fine. But before my CPL, one particular instructor regularly never showed up for my, and many other's flights, claiming weather, despite CAVOK light winds, sometimes it seemed as if they didn't like flying. Anyway, after my last lesson before my CPL, said instructor didn't even realise it was my CPL sign off. As a result he signed me off for the flight. I did not feel ready considering I had only flown 3 VFR flights in the UK prior to my CPL (not ideal!). I consulted L3 and they said that they wouldn't give me an extra flight, fair enough, if the instructor says I was fine, I understand them not being willing. However, I was booked into for my CPL a few days later, they booked the examiner for myself and a colleague. The examiner wasn't available for my exam, as like he told L3, he was only able to do one flight due to him needing to fly home and the closure time of his home airport, so my prep for this CPL was a big waste of time. After this I was not booked for my CPL for another 3 weeks. As a result they gave me an extra 0.5 hours after 2 weeks. Yeah try and get anything done to practice for your CPL with 0.3 hours in the air. You can just about leave the circuit with a few minutes to practice your steep turns and an engine failure. Anyway, I did my CPL, it went well, I passed first time, there was some problems with the aircraft on the exam but it flew! After my CPL my MEIR was outsourced to LE in Oxford, they were amazing and just showed my what an absolutely atrocious place L3 is.
Overall, the instruction at L3 was fantastic and they have great aircraft. However with how much they charge, practically 0 customer service, practically nothing in apology for how long mine and my colleagues training took. Please bare in mind my training took 35 months over the stated 18 months, and the only thing I have received for this is a measly and insulting amount of money (as low as £25) a week above a certain amount of weeks being delayed.
As a note, my AQC after my MEIR and AUPRT was 2 months late because of COVID, obviously this is understandable.
Course(s) taken:
General
Aircraft
Simulators
Theoretical Training
Practical Training
