PPL offered in 2 weeks? Tailswheelsetc
 

Hi there,

A friend of mine was considering going down to Florida and checking out these folks (link removed). They claim its a 2 week course for a PPL for roughly $7,500.

I figured if any set of folks have an opinion and are not shy to express it, APC is the spot.

Any thoughts regarding this place?
-Is this a PPL/cert machine? Churn folks in & out?
-Any experience or rumors? Are they legit?
-Quality concerns?

Thanks.

I dunno anything specific about that particular training operation, but your private in two weeks is gonna take alot. Most of the book work will probably have to be taken care of before you show including the written if he/she can do it. I would personally recommend trying to space it out over some more time, a month at least. That gives you more time to actually absorb what you are learning and have a deeper understanding of what is happening and would leave you less dependent upon straight memorization. I always say to each his/her own, but I wouldn't go for the two week option, not for your first certificate.

PPL in two weeks???
How many flight hours would that be per day min (take national average). I don't know, but I thought it was 50-60+. On top of that - aircraft availability and the possibility of weather cancellations - especially down in FL this time of year! I'll be very interested to hear what more experienced people on APC have to say about this claim.

USMCFLYR

Though I didn't do the 2 week PPL over there or know anyone that did, I recently did my T/W endorsement over there. The owner did my T/W training, and he is a great guy. The people over there are great, and I wish it was closer to my house so I could fly out of there all the time. Though of course not everyone can do it in 2 weeks, they definitely have had people do it in 2 weeks. The thunderstorms this time of year are usually pretty isolated and only come at a certain time of the day, so there is still plenty of good flying weather down here (and you have to do ground at some point anyway).

Also, while flying with the owner he told me that the business is doing well and that they hadn't seen the effects of the economy on their business. In fact, they were discussing acquiring additional aircraft.

I disagree because it is not all about getting a certificate. There are so many things outside of finessing piloting skills and knowing the rules, regs, that goes into getting a PPL. For an example, making mistakes, learning from them, moving on, and also having fun, like taking a friend or 2 in a dual cross country before you do get your license (so that you know how weight affects take offs, and especially landings). How can you expect to learn about the complexities of weather, aircraft performance, Aeronautical decision making, and most of all being a safe pilot in 2 weeks? I cannot imagine a pilot who got his license in 2 weeks flying passengers around. That just makes me shudder. Again it's just me. Feel free to disagree.

Who would let their non-pilot family members hop into a light aircraft for a ride with a pilot who three weeks ago didn't have a private [or any] pilot license?

The zero to hero mentality is what Congress is addressing in the wake of the Colgen accident. One would hope that the attention on pilot mills would filter down to those who provide part 61 primary training, but these flight schools don't appear to be on the radar. My impression of a two week course is that while a student could see a task demonstrated and then duplicate it (monkey see, monkey do), there is so much more to being a competent pilot than passing a checkride. Two weeks is a ridiculously short period of time to expect any student develop the headwork and airmanship required to be a safe competent pilot.

Thank you HSLD. Well said. I think that most enthusiastic prospective pilots are very excited by that "happy thought" of flying a shiny jet, as depicted in those advertisements, that they don't realize (because they are ignorant) what it truly takes to become a good/safe pilot. It is a sad aspect of the American culture that values instant gratification, and the consequences can be dismal...

p.s. Is it really possible for one to finish through a Jepp text, study for the final exam, the oral, written, do all the flying in 2 weeks? Is it really possible? It took me well over 2 weeks for me to perfect on my landings :)

Do you happen to have a link to this, I would love to read a little more about it. Even if you have an actual name of what it is so I can google it, that's fine too, thank you.

As for the topic, the idea of sending someone for a license and thinking two weeks is feasible to do about 150 hours worth of work, IMO is ludicrous.

Now I say 150 being generous, the national average is 55-65, I have read sources as high as 81 and heard rumors as high as 90. Now take 60 since it is the mean of the lowest and most common I have read, now double that assuming an hour of ground for each hour of flight (30 min study time and 30 min ground with the CFI). This leaves you at 120 hours just for your flying. The other 30 I figured in to touch up on ground school work.

Even if you have taken the FAA knowledge exam you will still need some basic ground study on your own. Not to mention, a person doing a ground school without flight will likely be lost through most of it. This stuff isn't simple to the average person, in my ground school class the members who were not flying had to really bust their butts to keep up with the work.

Finally, even for the naturals that get it and do it in two weeks I still disagree with them doing it. Have you ever crammed for a test? What did you remember a week later? Enough said.

What about the psychology behind it?

I wanted to throw this in here for anyone reading to think about, this form of teaching, cramming, is a prime example of a course developed around rote memorization. Now there are four levels of learning: rote, understanding, application, and correlation. The higher the level reached when being taught, the more likely one will retain the information.

Here is a source to poke through about this: Rote versus meaningful learning - 1 | Theory Into Practice | Find Articles at BNET

It is only one of many, but I encourage anyone here who is a CFI to spend ample time reading through information on the levels of learning, learning styles, Maslow's hierarchy, defense mechanisms, and factors that effect perceptions. Of everything discussed in the FOI, note, learning styles is not covered and is also referred to as multiple intelligence theory, these are IMO the more important ones. This topic screams for review of the levels of learning, enjoy.