The first student pilot to go through the Commercial Pilot’s Licence course with Blackpool-based Westair Flying School has just passed his CPL Skills Test, and is about to start the next step in his professional pilot career.
Kudzi Chikohora said, “Westair was 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,” continued Kudzi. “It has 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.
“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!”
Westair has been resident at Blackpool Airport for over 70 years. It recently completed an intense, six-month period of expansion that saw it move to new modern premises and re-establish commercial flying training at Blackpool Airport.
Westair is an Approved Training Organisation (ATO). It has the approvals and capacity to take a student pilot from a Private Pilot Licence (PPL), through the 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,” he said.
“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.”
