Westair Flying School, resident at Blackpool Airport for over 70 years, has completed an intense, six month period of expansion that has seen us move our business to new premises and establish Commercial Flying Training once more at Blackpool Airport.
In January 2018 we acquired and relocated Westair Flying School into a large, modern premises on the western side of Blackpool Airport; Westair Hangar 8, whilst commencing Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) training from our new home. At the end of a busy six months we are celebrating our new home’s first CPL student success, Kudzi Chikohora, who passed his CPL skills test in June and is now looking forward to the next step in his aviation career.
Westair Flying School is an Approved Training Organisation (ATO) and we have the approval and capacity to take a student pilot from their Private Pilot Licence (PPL), through their night rating and restricted instrument rating (IR)R and progress through to gain their CPL.
John Westoby, owner and CFI is enthusiastic about the future of flying at Blackpool Airport.
“Blackpool Airport is easily accessible from anywhere in the North West and the future of the airport is secure now that it is owned by Blackpool Council. Westair are committed to providing quality flying training at Blackpool and delivering Commercial Pilot training is an exciting development.
We can now offer pilots who aspire to fly commercially a cost effective alternative to the large commercial schools. The modular route enables CPL students to continue working and financing their flying as they progress, rather than taking on large loans. Both routes have their benefits but we can now provide an alternative modular route for student pilots living in the North West.”
Kudzi Chikohora was very enthusiastic about his experience.
“Westair were a great choice for my modular CPL course. Working full time, they had excellent availability at the weekends which was important for me. Provided one booked sufficiently far in advance, there was never any issue getting training slots. Towards the end as I got closer to my skills test date, they were extremely flexible in arranging extra brush up sessions/making the aircraft available etc. They could not do enough!
I found Blackpool as an airfield excellent for training. They have all the facilities; controlled airfield, NDB, ILS etc so even on days were conditions were not great we generally didn’t get held back. In addition, the airfield has some jet traffic and with that all the formalities (ATIS etc) so one got the ‘proper experience’ but was not too constrained as to make training difficult. With Liverpool/Manchester to the South and Leeds to the East, there were always plenty of options for challenging NAV legs for practice in finding obscure places going in and out of controlled airspace.
I learnt a huge amount and they were able to get me to a standard to allow a clean pass CPL on first attempt. Thanks a lot all at Westair!”
If your ambition is to fly commercially and gain a Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL), Westair Flying School can give you a cost effective alternative to the integrated route.
Click on the link below or call 01253 342660
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