Originally Posted by
n2sK
HIS WHOLE ESSAY
My mind set of "if I can pay, why not?" is context specific and based on the fact that if I wanted to do this same training in the UK, France or Spain I would be paying at least twice the amount I paid at Smart, at the very cheapest. The rationale behind not begrudging locals a cheaper cost at an ATO in their own country where I am a customer taking advantage of lower costs is a world away from accepting that I should pay a company for training when they want me to work for them, and that if I can't afford that then I can't have a job. To conflate the two is frankly disingenuous.
I have no idea of the cost breakdowns and am loathe to talk any more about issues I have absolutely no knowledge about, but I can imagine several scenarios to do with both training practicalities and airport services costs where arguments could be made for foreign students to pay more... use your imagination. I'm not saying that's super fair and equal in a perfect world, and the reason for that is because I can also use my imagination to see how difficult it must be on average Polish wages to save up the amount needed for training. I have no idea how the extra money I paid is allocated or where it goes to, but I think its a bit hypocritical to go on about "fairness fairness fairness" and not pay service to the fact that the cheaper price for Polish nationals probably allows more Poles to realistically undertake flight training, whilst the price for foreigners still allows the majority of the foreign trainees to complete their training at an incredibly reasonable price. And I'm not asking anyone from Smart to explain it for me because I was super happy with the price of my training, and its quality for that price, regardless.
You seem to have an axe to grind but most of your complaints could be leveled at many flight schools (re: expected completion timelines; tech issues with aircraft; maintenance scheduling)... honestly, the number of students that I know that are happy with their training and finished within the expected schedules outnumbers those who didn't. Of those that didn't, and I encountered two of these personally, some had particularly unrealistic expectations that were beyond being explained by "I was told x,y,z was possible" and more in the realm of "why can you not control the weather/random wear of mechanical parts/cancel other people's flying because I am here now and I can only make myself available on THIS day?"
I can only say that Smart could do better in terms of having a bit more of a robust bureaucracy in place, and perhaps this thread will prompt them to put in place some kind of a "checklist of stuff to get before you turn up" list. Fact remains though, I would recommend anyone who asked me about it to train at Smart, with the caveat that they may have to employ some adulting skills at some point.