New GA and RA Flight School in Goulburn YGLB

[mnewbery]

Hello Folks,

 

First, a disclaimer. I have no affilliations or investment in the organisations named below. Secondly, I have been trying to progress a PPL(A) licence for over a year now and its been a bit of a rollercoaster. Not the good kind either.

 

On Friday a fellow flyer based in Canberra advised me that there was a new training provider in Goulburn and sent me the link http://www.gftc.com.au . If anyone sent me the link before then, I ignored it thinking that it was Goulburn Aviation. If that was the case I stuffed up because Goulburn Flight Training Centre (GFTC) isn't Goulburn Aviation, there was a BBQ and there were $50 flights on offer in November. My loss but I was probably still getting over my honeymoon.

 

So on Saturday 8 January I cashed in all of my brownie points and went to Goulburn Airport. I like to turn up un-announced and see how the place rolls for the first visit. I've done this with other training providers and sometimes you really do get to see them at their worst (or best).

 

Pleasantly, the proprietors of GFTC didn't complain when I arrived after an hour of riding in the rain and made a puddle on their floor. Did I mention it was 'low overcast with occasional rain'? Perfect weather for hangar flying. Also pleasantly the CFI is Malcolm Poulton who was or may still be the CFI at Brindabella Airlines. I did my TIF and some flying at Brindabella Airlines Flight Training School prior to it shutting. So we chatted...

 

My fellow flyer turned up and pleasantly for me, didn't leave a puddle on the floor because he travelled by car. He was doing a currency thingy in a C182 and we had a while to wait before the weather cleared. Malcolm said that the weather was coming from the North East, it was getting less cloudy and in a while it would have passed the southern edge of the training area. He was right and by the time the aircraft was pre-flighted there was blue sky in abundance above us.

 

Side note: As we walked airside, someone was having a play in a Kawasaki 369HS helicopter, mostly practising hovering on selected bits of grass. This thing looked like it belonged on a poster on a teenagers bedroom wall to me, clean and shiny and menacing in its carbon fibre grey paint. It was a bit noisy idling on the ground but once it was up to speed and hovering a hundred metres away it was no problem to us. I wish the aircraft commonly used for TIFs looked this good, but then again I don't wish. A lack of traffic in the circuit can be re-assuring to new students and having shiny toys to play with just encourages people. I only felt a tiny bit sorry for them when they hand filled the 369 with jerry cans. Either there is no JET-A at Goulburn or at least not conveniently near where they landed.

 

So the C182 whisked the flyers away leaving me to kick the weeds, look into aircraft cabins and chat some more with people at GFTC. That was my choice.

 

Goulburn Airport is a pretty laid back sort of place. Its a place where kids can come and ask to have a close-up look at the 'real thing' of flying without the cyclone wire and 'too-busy-to-answer-questions' attitude often present in even some of the smaller coastal airfields. You know the ones I'm talking about...

 

I chatted to a guy for a while after he asked to perch himself in one of the GFTC trainers. No problem, said the people at GFTC. It was a type I have most of my hours in so I was happy to talk about what I knew and did. He had an ultralight in a hangar around the corner and professed to knowing one of the previous owners of the trainer he sat in. He sounded like he wanted to try this one out. His ultralight was probably quite simple so if he was like me it would have been like sitting in the cockpit of the starship enterprise this day. All those mysterious knobs and gauges! It was refreshing to see someone quite a bit older than me (and the plane) gazing upon the console with a combination of wonder and curiosity. I guess in his mind he had just discovered something new to him and he was pondering whether or not to take an interest. I have no idea how long he stayed there, long after the windscreen was cleaned with him still in the cockpit and after the C182 returned un-eventfully. He looked like he didn't want to leave the cockpit and I don't blame him. I remember feeling the same way once upon a time.

 

We all wandered inside and chatted more about the future of GFTC. A couple of TIFs were due later that day so I made some bookings for myself and aimed for a hot meat pie at Trapper's bakery across the street from the Big Merino on the way home.

 

The pie was everything I hoped it would be. The weather back to Caberraaaaa was mild and warm so I dried out and returned feeling refreshed and enthused. I stopped off at the international airport (still makes me chuckle when I say that out loud). The skydiving company took off no doubt with a paying load and then nothing for the rest of the time I was there. Not even the usual security patrol coming to check me out.

 

GFTC isn't Goulburn Aviation as I noted earlier. They are right next door to eachother. It is interesting to compare them and I can't avoid doing it. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to do the same.

 

The thing I remember most about that day (yesterday) was the pie. It was a simple but high expectation I had and it was met. I wanted that pie. It was going to be my reward for getting all my chores done, getting up early, getting through the weather and getting closer to the end of my training, even if only a little. Now I have the same expectation about my choice of training provider and in particular the instructor as every student does. I've been through a few training organisations and more than a few instructors. What I have to show for it is a lot of dissapointment but I'm not alone there (See the jetwhine post - Aviation has the CFIs it deserves).

 

More than anything I want to avoid (e.g. not risk) that deep sense of disappointment that seems to be frequently and prodigiously served by certain flight schools. Sometimes its the only thing they are good at. These horror stories are not for here. Today (actually yesterday) I chose to be optimistic, enthusiastic and committed to furthering my goals in private aviation.

 

Things are looking up for the first time since April last year. I think I chose my training provider well but only experience can validate my judgement now.

 

Matthew Newbery

 

 

[Guest Chainsaw]

Nice post Matthew :)

 

 

[robinsm]

And the problem with Goulburn Aviation is???

 

 

[mnewbery]

If there is a problem with any training organisation it will mostly be because the service provided doesn't meet the customer needs. Further, training at its most basic is a team sport and both sides need to agree on the rules. I don't need to say anything bad about Goulburn Aviation and I won't. In my first draft of the post below I made the factual comparison of what each organisation appeared to provide but I deleted it. Its not my desire to publicly judge and I wish both schools the greatest of success. They are fundamentally different in so many ways, not better or worse. Just different. Finally everything I saw points to both schools benefitting from their relative proximity and their continued prosperity.

 

 

[Guest David C]

Thanks Matthew .... I must say a very well balanced and factual post . I look forward to reading more of your flight training forays in the future.. Once again thanks , and best of luck ..

 

Dave C