Hey Controlz,
I did my PPL here with Emirates Aviation Academy (EAS), which has no affiliation with the Emirates airline. Their head office is located at T2 at DXB next door to DHL.
So this my experience with them.
Ground school.
I had to do 105hrs of ground school covering all the topic areas, I got a slight dispensation as id already passed my PPL exams in the UK with a local flying school. To be fair the level of instruction I had was good and the depth of knowledge of the instructors was pretty high. You have a lot of hoops to jump through before you can take your PPL exams at the GCAA building near Festival city, the in house mock exams were way harder than my actual ones you do and I was more than ready to take them. Each exam is about AED200, ex VAT, so just the exams alone are pretty steep. You'll have to do your radio license test and an English proficiency test that's valid for 2 years (which I thought was a joke) which you'll have to pay extra for.
As I had to do adhoc lessons on weekends due to work, I paid a lot extra. But it meant I had the instructor or the whole weekend to myself, so we went at my pace. It Tok me near enough a full summer to crack ground school.
Flying
The flying portion takes place at DWC, which is bizarre. The planes are kept at the end of a taxiway surrounded by 747s and lots of 737 MAXs.
I had around 20hrs when I started here. I did get some credit for previous experience, but not much. After a hiccup with my first instructor, who I didn't gel with. I was paired up with the same people who did my ground school so we had continuity. I have to say the level of training is good, they teach you like you are a student doing CPL. So the standards were really high, it was commented on back in the UK on a check out flight with an senior instructor from CTC that id been taught the same as a commercial student (so take that as you will).
Flying out of DWC is a ball ache as you're paying to do a lot of taxing around the airfield to get to the runway. Then expect to be held at any time and duration for any big boy traffic coming in or out of DWC... which you pay for. The whole of the UAE is ATC controlled so you're always talking to someone (which is good practice), but bad for training as you can be denied at any time.
I spent alot of time navigating between DWC, Al Ain and RAK for my land aways.... but you can't stop, its all touch and goes.
The big bonus was doing my night rating as a bolt on to my PPL, flying at night around Dubai is fantastic. Ive spent many nights at 500ft up and down the coast of Dubai sight seeing.
Now the bad part, its very easy to mess up and infringe on airspace. Or over fly a palace, stable or anything, So to that end unless you were on a recognised course you were not allowed to just rent and go. An instructor has to be in the front of the plane with you, I believe this is due to an accident years ago, I think you go search it on here.
Overall. the training is good The planes are all glass Garmin 1000. But its eye wateringly expensive, you can do it way easier and cheaper back in the UK. Now I'm trying to transfer my license to a EASA/UK one at the moment. To do that I've got to pass a few exams again, and do a skills test with an examiner and get used to proper navigation. Nav here is way too easy.
Hope this helps?