Before you choose the flying school in the UK, you may have to consider these:
Location: Most of them are rural area and you need to rent a car to get there. Some instructors might be kind enough to drive you around but you might have to ask first, and you need to stay at the school for the time being. Also whether you are going to live in an airBnB or a hotel near the airfield would be a very important question as it will cost you almost two-third of your total spending. Also bear in mind living in a hotel you will be unable to cook in the room.
How many planes do they have? As CAA has a rigorous maintenance requirement which requires every check for 50 hours, there might be shortage of planes in that school. 3 planes of the same type are barely minimum. Also consider how many students are taking full time.
How many instructors are available? We need is full-time instructor. Most of the inestructors do not earn much so they would only come back during weekends. If they are not free your training could be delayed.
What type of training organisation is it?ATOs vs RTF. Approved Training Organisations generally are under stricter control from the CAA and eventually all RTF will either pack up or become ATO sooner or later. Flying club type vs a Flight Training School. Flying clubs usually are friendlier and are able to spend more time helping you if there is any problem. Flight Training School have more experience in training students in a short time but you are merely their customers only. As we always say you are in first name term in a flying club but only a number (perhaps a £ sign) in a flight training school. Both have their pros and cons.
Flying in the UK is not bad at all. It does not cost really a fortune to get a licence. I spent around £5500-6000 in 2015 (around 70k HKD) to get a LAPL(A) excluding travel and accommodation cost. Now it is even cheaper with the lower exchange rate. Also the weather is more suitable for secondary school pupils as we can spend great weather in the UK during Summer Holiday. Better find someone who knows about the UK to help you with it and also - Cockpit and Ground School is very costly. Do not go to a lesson empty-handed. Start learning in Hong Kong and train yourself through flight sim before going there and try to aim at achieving it with minimal hours. Every hour you spend in the ground school or in the cockpit will cost you thousands, if not ten thousand of dollars.
Before you choose the flying school in the UK, you may have to consider these:
Location: Most of them are rural area and you need to rent a car to get there. Some instructors might be kind enough to drive you around but you might have to ask first, and you need to stay at the school for the time being. Also whether you are going to live in an airBnB or a hotel near the airfield would be a very important question as it will cost you almost two-third of your total spending. Also bear in mind living in a hotel you will be unable to cook in the room.
How many planes do they have? As CAA has a rigorous maintenance requirement which requires every check for 50 hours, there might be shortage of planes in that school. 3 planes of the same type are barely minimum. Also consider how many students are taking full time.
How many instructors are available? We need is full-time instructor. Most of the inestructors do not earn much so they would only come back during weekends. If they are not free your training could be delayed.
What type of training organisation is it? ATOs vs RTF. Approved Training Organisations generally are under stricter control from the CAA and eventually all RTF will either pack up or become ATO sooner or later. Flying club type vs a Flight Training School. Flying clubs usually are friendlier and are able to spend more time helping you if there is any problem. Flight Training School have more experience in training students in a short time but you are merely their customers only. As we always say you are in first name term in a flying club but only a number (perhaps a £ sign) in a flight training school. Both have their pros and cons.
Flying in the UK is not bad at all. It does not cost really a fortune to get a licence. I spent around £5500-6000 in 2015 (around 70k HKD) to get a LAPL(A) excluding travel and accommodation cost. Now it is even cheaper with the lower exchange rate. Also the weather is more suitable for secondary school pupils as we can spend great weather in the UK during Summer Holiday. Better find someone who knows about the UK to help you with it and also - Cockpit and Ground School is very costly. Do not go to a lesson empty-handed. Start learning in Hong Kong and train yourself through flight sim before going there and try to aim at achieving it with minimal hours. Every hour you spend in the ground school or in the cockpit will cost you thousands, if not ten thousand of dollars.