I am one of the ATPL-integrated students at Quality Fly. I have started my course in May 2018 and have a few more months left (hopefully). I will try to be as impartial and objective as I can be regarding Quality Fly and conditions I have encountered while studying here.
- As Andrés mentioned, 8 students graduated in July 2019. Plus 4 last year, so total of 12 graduates. All 4 of the last years's graduates now fly for airlines (or are in training with an airline)
- Yes it is true that the school has had a lot of reliability issues with the fleet during 2018 and beginning of 2019. Myself personally I was hardly flying during the winter because poor old C152s simply would not start during cold mornings or had some other issues. Frustrating? You bet it was! Especially since I was done with all of my theoretical exams by then and only needed to build hours.
But, and it is a big but. The management did work really hard to replace the fleet with brand new Tecnams as well as C172s. Also we got a new glass-cockpit ME aircraft as well. Generally, there are no issues with the fleet at the moment.
- Yes, there was a fatal crash and it really shook the whole aviation community here in Cuatro Vientos. The investigation is still on-going, and until it is concluded I would refrain from speculating about it. All details are available on Aviation Safety website.
- Quality Fly rents three offices and conducts operations from the main airport building, right next to the apron and next door to the Air Traffic Services Reporting Office. Obviously this is very convenient and super handy, I believe it is (was?) the only school to do so. I am not sure how one can be under impression that they own the whole building since that building is huge!
- As Andrés mentioned, all classes are taught in English, which is great to get you prepared for that ICAO English exam if needed. On top of that Quality Fly students achieve the highest average for theoretical exams among the schools at the airport. Nope, no official backing source for this statement, but I have confirmed it verbally with people who do know (including those from other schools).
- Quality Fly invested heavily in automation and student experience. It is the only school with a dedicated 3-screen student flight simulator rig where all students can freely practice anything they feel like.
Of course, not all is rosy and there are lots of things to be improved:
- Scheduling is a mess. Everybody knows it and no point in hiding that fact. It could be due to the newly on-boarded scheduling software, so hopefully these are just teething problems
- Communications are lacking (especially in relation to #1), you better off coming to the office if you want to really get things moving, again management is aware and looking to improve it
- Lack of IFR instructors, but looks as more are coming in next month
- Punctuality and time keeping. Maybe it is a general Spain thing, especially for somebody coming from UK
I cannot comment much on financial side of things regarding refunds etc. as this is highly specific to individual cases, but my take is that once you have signed a contract you are agreeing to the conditions outlined in the contract. If you feel like you have been mistreated and Quality Fly did not honor their part of the contract I suggest you take legal advice to see if you have a case, but, of course it is a shame it had to come to this.
To sum it all up, I think Quality Fly is definitely not up there with the "big boys" yet, but I do see both a genuine desire and effort from management to improve how things are run here. They do care about the brand name and want to build something bigger and better out of it. Naturally there are many areas which are still in need of being taken care of, but the overall vision is definitely there and lots of progress has been made already. There are more than enough resources, opportunities and flexibility here for a successful ATPL course completion - it is all up to an individual and the effort put into it.
Regards,
-Stepan Kolesnik