Leading Edge Aviation Omdömen 7

I joined Leading Edge Aviation as a modular student to complete my MEP, CPL, AUPRT, MEIR and APS MCC after L3 stopped accepting modular trainees. I was told the course would take around 6 months, and that modular students were not eligible for accommodation, so I had to arrange and fund my own. In reality, the training took 15 months due to extensive delays, increasing my living costs by over £10,000 beyond what had been budgeted. To add to the inconsistency, the other modular student in my intake was provided accommodation.

During my induction in early August, I was told I would not be placed on the schedule until September, meaning I had pointlessly paid a full month of rent and bills before starting training. When I did start, my first 5 flights were with contractors, and when I introduced myself to my assigned instructor, he was unaware I had even been allocated to him.

Throughout the course, scheduling was the single biggest issue. Instructors appeared to have significantly more students than they could manage, and flying frequency was often around once per week if fortunate. The limited multi-engine fleet was frequently unavailable due to maintenance, with multiple cancellations due to basic technical issues where engineering delays meant the lesson slot was missed.

Raising concerns was extremely difficult. Discussions had to go through instructors who had little control over scheduling, and engagement from management was minimal, with concerns regularly dismissed. In practice, dialogue only seemed to occur when the possibility of withholding instalments due to a lack of progress was raised.

Operational policies also added unnecessary complexity, as approaches/ circuits could only be requested the day before, often leaving very limited availability. A particularly negative experience occurred with the operations manager, Mike Craig. After unsuccessfully trying to secure approach slots at five airports the previous day, I was advised by another operations assistant that ops would call again in the morning. When I approached him to request an ILS at Oxford as instructed, he became aggressive and began shouting, despite me simply following prior guidance.

The training timeline between students was also notable, as despite widespread delays, students on the Leading Edge funded instructor pathway progressed far more rapidly, with integrated courses completed within 18 months and at least one student competing their MEIR in a week, which took me 6 months.

There are also crippling administrative issues as 5 months after leaving the school I am still waiting for my end-of-training report required for airline applications despite repeated assurances. Modular students are also excluded from graduate services unless paying a substantial additional fee, preventing access to airline tagging schemes despite already self-funding accommodation.

Excluding this my primary instructor delivered a high standard of instruction, and some instructors were clearly doing their best within a constrained system. However, communication was non-existent, and instructional quality varied significantly.

The APS MCC course is strong, however the simulator had frequent technical issues and for the entire course we had no usable left-side projection and during one session only the centre projector was functioning.

Finally, as a modular student who completed ground school elsewhere, the lack of accommodation and infrequent flying made it difficult to build friendships or integrate with other students, adding to what was already a prolonged and stressful experience.

Overall, I felt Leading Edge has enrolled more students than its operational capacity can effectively support. Which has resulted in extreme delays, increased costs, and significant frustration. While there are capable instructors and some strong course elements, my modular experience left a lot to be desired.

Terrible unorganised flight school in debt. Marketing is great, however misleading information. Oxford and Alhama Campus is terrible. No one communicates aggressive instructors and directors. Highly not recommended. Unprofessional.

Truely awful company, they owe our son over 35k after miselling thier training contract. We have been chasing the refund since September, looks like we'll end up in court. Do not part with you money, do not use this flight school.

All fur coat - I'd run a credit report before handing any money over to this company. They are currently proposing 19 students vacate accommodation part way through ATPLs course as they have ran out of accommodation. Remote learning although Face-to- face has been paid for and accommodation pre-paid in full - disgraceful organisation.

Do not give your money to this shower is s##t
They want your money upfront which is the 1st mistake,
When you get to Spain your be fobbed off with 1 flight a week if your lucky, they laugh in your face with your concerns and mental wellbeing.
They don’t answer calls proper bunch of amateurs,
PLEASE don’t fall into the trap do not give them your Money.

They state it will take 18 months - add at least another 36 months onto that! Such a disorganised company that keep taking on students but don’t have the instructors to train them. Average one training flight every 3 weeks (if you are lucky!) and there’s no one to complain to about this. There is no system to how they share the flight training out fairly. I would 100% NOT recommend this flight school.

On the face of it, the marketing and look of this place is great. I attended ground school and flight training here in early 2024.

Let's start with ground school. The instructors were knowledgeable and helpful, but are only there because they have medical issues or have been forced to retire as real pilots. When we came to be ready for our exams, we were told that we would have to wait TWO MONTHS before we could sit exams, and would have to start the next module anyway. When we challenged this and said we could get exam slots at other centres next week, we were told that we could not do this and if we did, we would be subject to a training review and they would give us a bad end of course report for our airlines. This is effective blackmail. This happened twice more when it came to our other exams, more delays as there aren't enough sittings available in their in-house exam room!

Then we got to flying - we were sent to Alhama in Spain, the fair weather base and I managed to fly 10 hours in 3 months due to the sheer amount of students they had there. Accommodation was nice but we never flew, we got bored and when we raised it with management, were told to "suck it up and enjoy the sun". Aircraft tech, too many students, too few flying slots. It took me a further 8 weeks to finish another 10 hours.

I wouldn't recommend LEAL to anybody for the reasons above.