I came to Poznan solely for the practical part of the PPL, not for the other modules. I have flown 52 hours including the skill test. In the end it cost me €8873 of which €855 were landing fees. The advertised costs of the PPL practical (as listed on their pricelist at the time) were met, even in times of significant increase of energy prices - which was very fair. Your expenses are transparently registered on flight-by-flight basis based on your off- and on blocktime (the moment you start taxi till engine shutdown). You can always trace back if a mistake was made and it will be rectified by your instructor(s). Landing fees are very inconsistent for airports outside of EPPO, some instructors calculate the fees in PLN, some in EUR - some just don’t know how much it should be and calculate the EPPO fees on most fields. It would benefit them if there was more clarity on landing fees and agreements made between flightschool & other fields.
The timeframe in which you can finish your module simply depends on the instructor(s) you are assigned to and your availability. I was available 24/7, and I was lucky to have an instructor which was available 24/7 as well. I started flying in 2022 in the beginning of May and I was practically done by the end of June. Do not expect to finish your PPL practical in 8 weeks, but rather 10 weeks. There will always be ****ery with the weather, maintenance or if you’re unlucky, the availability of your instructor - but in general (speaking for PPL) the instructors are very active and ready to fly.
The location is unique. You should feel very privileged to fly on an airport such as EPPO for the price you pay. Often you will be inbetween commercial traffic: airbuses, boeings, embraers and whatnot. At first it might seem intimidating but soon enough you will realize they make **** landings as well, and you can even see it up close. I hope Smart Aviation can maintain their strong foothold in EPPO because it is a major selling point. Mostly you will be conducting your airwork north (towards EPPI) and west (towards EPLS/EPZG). My impression of aviation in Poland is that it is very alive: there are many fields in the surroundings where there is glider/general aviation activity, events and gatherings and such. In general the uncontrolled fields in Poznan are a lot of fun, but also a place to be on your toes; i.e it is not uncommon to see a car crossing the runway when you are about to touch down or people not responding on the radio - its part of the culture.
The fleet for PPL consists of Tecnam p2008s and p2002s. I would recommend you to fly both to get a feeling for low and high wing aeroplanes - they are vastly different in terms of responsiveness & ground effect. Benefits of flying both is that you get to fly more within a shorter timeframe. Maintenance of the fleet is done in EPZG, and since rotax engines require maintenance every 50- and 100 hour intervals, they need to be flown quite regularly to EPZG. Often your instructor (and thus you indirectly) will be asked to fly the airplane forth and back, and it will not always be in your favor. If it does not fit your syllabus, then simply refuse. It would be a nice gesture if Smart Aviation would offer a certain discount on maintenance flights - it would also stimulate a quicker turnaround on maintenance.
Some of the p2008s did have certain peculiarities but I have personally never experienced an unpleasant/unsafe situation. When you fly these planes a lot, with differing people and habits, it is to be expected. Maintenance checks should be anticipated better though, and instructors and students should be given the heads up if an airplane is about to breach the 50/100hr maintenance interval. I understand there are some challenges realizing that because you will have to digitize and sync the paper logbook but it would open up so many opportunities for improvements in planning.
As far as administration and planning I can only comment on what I have heard and seen, as a PPL student I did not have that much interaction with the office. If you want your planning to go right, you need to be proactive and monitor your own progress. The school does not do it for you, they clearly lack in that department. If you are behind your schedule, it is up to you to make yourself available and pull the office/instructors by the pants. I could not agree more with richpea.
My first contact with the person responsible for international intake was very pleasant. Sent an e-mail outlining my needs, scheduled a call and my questions were answered. When first arriving in Poznan he welcomed me, showed me around, and we had a chat. I did not experience any lying or arrogance - perhaps it is a clash of cultures when you experience the latter. I did not expect any other services from him, but I can understand that when you latch onto him as your ‘main’ guy to solve all your problems that you will be disappointed - but frankly there are other people for that. When it comes to landing fees, those are clearly written as separate from module costs in the contract I was sent.
Some other miscellaneous things:
- printing is a mess, alot of times there is no toner available because none was ordered, or someone printed the bible or, whatever. They should implement account based printing, supply everyone with a card & top up your own balance. Problem solved.
⁃ the school runs on Google Sheets. The open accessibility of (most) the logs is very prone to errors and manipulation. A move to a proprietary system where there are more checks and restrictions would eradicate most of the errors.
In the end I did not have much interaction with the flight school. The majority of your experience will be determined by your instructor, and luckily I had a very active & capable one that was able to get hit by a car and still fly a few days after.
Last edited by thetubeman; 19th Aug 2022 at 14:20.