fly-in-spain jerez

[paulryan1990]

hi all

really thinking of booking my ppl with fly-in-spain in jerez spain.

has anyone any recent experiences from there.
air the aircraft reliable?
did you complete on time and on budget?
how much did you spend in landing fees?
what is the company like in general?
what accommodation did you choose?


from searching the last review as from 2009.


paul

[paulryan1990]

hi Socal app.
thanks for the reply.

i have now completed all my ground school exams, have logged 10 hours. my medical flight test for my CAA medical can be done by any caa instructor prior to solo. once they are happy they complete a form and this is returned to the caa on successful completion of the ppl course.

to be honest i completely forgot i asked that question. :\

thanks again for your reply

[paulryan1990]

sorry i may have explained that wrong.
i have a simple form to be completed pre solo by any caa instructor
and
i also have a medical flight test form to be completed during my flight test to be completed by a CAA examiner.

:ok:

[paulryan1990]

just been looking into the landing fees. this can make a serious impact on the cost. it says on the site between €11 and €22 per landing. is the average about 150 landings?


this could add up to 3k in landing fees:eek:

[JimA_UK]

I used them about 11 years ago in an attempt to complete my PPL(A) training. The experience was not a good one - at that time.

I had pre-booked 4 hours per day for two weeks. On arrival the British Instructor was just leaving for two weeks holiday and the remaining instructor had far too many students requiring training. I had occasions where pilots were taken up in the rear on the plane so that they didn't feel they were being abandoned.

In the middle of the period there was a strike by the fuellers and trips to Seville were needed to refuel the aircraft.

You need a security pass to access the apron and that takes several days, and when you get it it doesn't work properly.

There are also some interesting differences in flying practice in Spain. For example they don't use QFE so you need to know airport elevation and adjust the QNH. Every flight out if Jerrez requires a flight plan to be faxed to both ATC and Security with a departure time. You have a 30 minute slot - miss it and you have to file another plan.

I did not get my training as booked and I did not complete my PPL. Returned to the UK and completed it here.

[paulryan1990]

hi jim

thanks for the in depth reply. im in two minds about using them. there are some good reviews and some poor ones. its hard to know:oh:

[IO540]

I looked at them recently re doing a FAA IR to JAA IR conversion there.

I got two very good references from recent customers, and I had very satisfactory communications with a Brit who is an instructor there. That's more than I have had for/from most FTOs :) But that's all I can say myself. My impression is that they are well organised.

[paulryan1990]

thanks for your reply. i have to decide between them or a school in the uk

[172driver]

The Brit instructor there has a good reputation. Re the landing fees - I would check with them directly. AENA (the people running most Spanish airports) have recently hiked their landing fees by a huge amount, BUT training flights are exempt and have a different - cheaper - price schedule. Call and ask, they must be able to provide a clear answer to that.

If you really are in two minds, why don't you just get yourself on an el-cheapo RYR to Jerez and check it out yourself?

Disclaimer: I have flown extensively in Spain, but never with them, so no first-hand experience.

[paulryan1990]

i rang them today and the landing fees are €5.50. so for 100 landings would be €550 plus a few landings at different airfields €600 or so in landing fees
i have also shortlisted a school in the uk to start in 2 weeks time, so im going to spend the next couple of days researching before i commit
school in uk is the same price, one on one tuition no landing fees but poorer weather potentially. hard to decide

[IO540]

It is a fair bet that if you start a PPL in the UK at this time of the year, you will throw away a lot of lessons.

I started in August and in Oct Nov Dec booked 7 lessons a week i.e. ~ 90 lessons and got just 3 lessons in during all those 3 months. It just rained the whole time - or strong winds.

Spain is not vastly better but it is better.

[paulryan1990]

thats was my major worry about the uk. i have some thinking to do. i will post back on what i decide

[172driver]

IO540 has a point. If you have/want to start within the next two weeks Spain is probably your better bet, simply for the weather. October is - usually - one of the nicest months down there.

[paulryan1990]

172driver; you are probably right. Spain will have better weather. the only thing putting me off Spain is there are some poor reviews but on the other hand there also is some good ones.

[dublinpilot]

i have now completed all my ground school exams

Do you end up with a UK issued JAR PPL or a Spanish issued one? If it's Spanish, then I take it that the UK exams can't be used.

[vanHorck]

When my wife learned (4 to 5 years ago) the instructors and the CFI were good and friendly (British), the owner (German) was hopeless and opinionated although he's not the CFI, just the owner and the planes were old and tired.

If you go there well prepared in terms of theory, have some buffer spare time (planes do go u/s, especially old ones) and providing you've agreed in writing what plane you will be learning on, how often etc then you can go there.

But be prepared to stand your ground, and make sure you have everything on paper to back your moral agreement up.

I had agreed for my wife to learn on a PA28 only to find on arrival someone had rented it for 2 weeks so she had to go on the Cessna, not as per agreement.

[paulryan1990]

DublinPilot: It is a CAA approved school so you end up with a UK CAA JAR ppl. i did my ground-school exams in the UK

VanHorck. thanks for your reply. I have heard from quite a few people who have been there and they all say exactly what you said.

Did your wife get finished in 4 weeks?

i am really torn on what to choose. the Uk is one to one instruction, a modern aircraft, mature instructor with nothing but fantastic reviews, no landing fees, as cheap as spain but the weather is the stumbling block. i only have 4 weeks off work to get it done and i cant afford to take any more time off. :ugh:

[IO540]

I think most planes in Spain are old and tired.... most of the privately owned GA fleet there is rotting with flat tyres.

This is the flight training business after all. It's the same everywhere, usually.

For PPL training this doesn't matter.

[paulryan1990]

io540 thanks for your reply. does anyone who has been there previously have a contact number for the CFI or one of the brit instructors. would be nice to have a chat with them first.

[paulryan1990]

in addition to fly-in-spain can anyone else recommend any other CAA Jar ppl schools in Europe?

[IO540]

I have looked into this recently; not for the PPL but for the JAA IR.

The "general drift" seems to be that while every JAA country has a number of flying schools (and FTOs which you need for the IR), most of them are not geared up for processing "foreigners".

One thing is that the majority of Europe is simply not English-speaking. The N Europeans tend to be better in this respect, but e.g. the French are not keen on people who don't want to speak French (even if they can speak English).

The bottom line is that there are just a few outfits, mostly set up and run by Brits, Germans, or similar, which specialise in English speaking customers, and they tend to be in the warmer climates. No point in PPL training in say Germany as the weather will be just as crap as here.

FIS in Spain is one I had good reports on. Another is Egnatia in Greece (at Kavala airport) which I have visited in 2009 and 2011. If I was going to hang out abroad for some weeks I would prefer Kavala in Greece everytime over anywhere I have been to in Spain, but the impression I get (not having been to FIS) is that FIS is better organised of those two.

There are also schools in places like Cyprus.

[vanHorck]

Hi Paul,

My wife did not finish in 4 weeks. She went solo but had not finished all theory on beforehand, so it was certainly not all the school's fault! It is a very hard way to do a ppl from scratch in 4 weeks, I would say virtually impossible.

[paulryan1990]

thanks everyone more food for thought.

Vanhorck. how did your wife find it? did she get to fly every day? were the instructors helpful. sorry for all the questions i just want to make sure the place is good before i decide

[LH2]

Hi love it how everyone ends up repeating himself on these threads--mostly because it's the same questions being asked over and over. Anyway, to keep with the habit...

As I have written on the other threads, I did my PPL there from scratch in two and a half weeks--that's theory, medical, flying, skills test, and acquiring a passing interest in aviation which up to that point I didn't particularly have; and no, it wasn't overly taxing. So it's far from "impossible" if you half put your mind into it. Funnily enough, I seem to find that building a cordial relation with people you have to deal with in whichever capacity--even as customer--makes things so much easier for everyone involved. Let's put it this way: businesses want decent customers as much as customers want decent businesses.

It's all horses for courses though. If you are prepared to put the effort you can get this out of the way in no time, but if you want your hand held and somebody else to do the hard work for you, that's not going to (ahem) fly. The fact that the OP is asking for a telephone number when on their website (easily found via Google or this forum) there is all the contact info you need, leads me to think that training closer to home at a leisurely pace might be a better option.

[172driver]

Tend to agree with LH2 here. Why don't you just get on a RYR down there and check it out? Going to cost you perhaps 50/100 quid return and you may be able to do it in a day (at least ex STN RYR used to run two flights to LEJR/day).

[cambridge]

Fly in Spain, Jerez, are now now doing Sea Plane Ratings in addition to Night Ratings. :D:D:D

Pilot rescued after ditching plane off Big Island - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL Home.mp4 - YouTube

[chrisbl]

As one of those referred to by IO540 who had a good experience, its fair to say I was doing the IR not the PPL.

However before I made my mind up, I jumped on a plane and spent a couple of days there taking in the operation, hired an aircraft with safety pilot and got a feel of flying in Spain and also suss out Jerez for when I was not flying.

If you are trying to minimise the cost of learning to fly to the minimum possible, I can understand why you might focus on the cost of landings.

A personal visit may may cost a couple of hundred quid could be a couple of hundred quid well spent in terms of peace of mind.

Trying to do things on the cheap often leads to it becoming more expensive in the long run. Frankly if you cannot afford to visit, then I suggest you cannot afford to learn to fly.

If things dont work out it is not always the school's fault. Some students think they just have to turn up and they will pass. Some students are unrealistic in their expectations, and some students are just not mature enough to do it.

Making a visit says , you are really serious not just a pie in the sky wannabe, it also gives the school the opportunity to see you and get a feel about whether you would fit in.

If you do go, prepare a list of all the questions you have, it would be a shame to arrive home wishing you had asked this or that.

At the end of the day, you need to make your own mind up.

[Bobhaugh]

Hi Paul

Did you end up going to Jerez after all and if so pls share your experiences with us.

thanks

b

[Cardio66]

I have just finished spending a week in Jerez. Instructors are great. The owner Hans is a bit like Basil Fawlty. After I returned to the uk I wanted to keep my skills up and asked FIS to send my ground school exam results to the uk flight school so that I could fly solo. Hans told me that I could not split my training and would have to either stay with them or move everything to the uk. I still had money on account with them and was planning to finish off with them but asked Hans to move my training to the UK given that appeared to be the only option other than stop training until I returned to Spain. I has already paid 250 euros admin fees and then Hans created a 250 euro cancellation fee which he used to hang on to the 95 euros in my account (I hadn't asked for it back as I was planning to go back and continue training with them at some point). Then followed a series of increasingly bizarre email exchanges with Hans telling me that he didn't see why I couldn't understand the situation. In summary FIS is very expensive and Hans is both disorganised and good at getting cash from you. Don't go unless he sells the business because everyone else there is great but Hans is not. Alternatively if you want that genuine Fawlty towers experience, start an email exchange with Hans. If he replies then you won't be disappointed.

[pablo]

Hans is both disorganised and good at getting cash from you.

Germans seem to veer of the right path when they reside in Spain. Know a couple of cases.

[Amblikai]

Interestingly, i'm looking at going to FIS next year to do my PPL, sans ground exams/medical which i want to get out of the way first in the UK.

I've emailed Hans and he's been very helpful so far and has given me plenty of info. I'm heading out there end of July though to check it out in person before i decide. The problem is i can't commit to the time for the training until next year.