OstBer, but we are discussing here the bestfly and do you know "better the enemy of the good". I do now the final stage of my PPL in best fly and, as Just_A_Plane_Girl mentioned, me too, can't recommend them enough. They are small family school and everybody cares of you VERY MUCH. Instructors are good, I heard recently they finally got some CLP (wtf) guy airborne while he struggled with turns landings and similar easy stuff after his previous school.
Kalocsa I learned to love. It's a NOT in a middle of nowhere, the middle of Nowhere is Norilsk, normal beautiful regional center city, small cute town with all what you need for living, Penny, SPAR, Lidl and Aldi, another stuff you get from the school: cool apartments where you will even able to find leftovers from previous students, so a morning tea or coffee and some pasta you will find at your flat, a bike is also provided. The airfield is 10-15 min go by bike.
The school HAD some issue with their training stuff they gave originally, but ME I have suggested them to change to another books they shall give as a learning material to students. They used CAE crap, now it will be Pooley's.
Do Austrocontrol as theory exam but keep in mind the exam centers are full and you have to book well in advance, begin to look for a place at least 1 month before. Vienna headquarter of Autrocontrol is spectacular (21. storey exam room over Vienna) and they can put you into some day quite quickly after 11h while some ATPL exam begin to finish, just take BlaBlaCar even from Kalocsa, but maybe better 1 night sleep in Vienna before the exam, is quite expensive (50-70) but with the timing and the view from the floor-ceiling window of a examination room and a free coffee there worth it well.
And better don't count on doing all the subjects on 1 sitting. The Austrocontrol questions are not ideal, sometimes it is clearly seen they simply machine translated it from German (large sentence with dependent sentences inside of it with a verb on the end of this word pile concerning the first part of the sentence). And sometimes they expect an exact answer while not doing the question precise enough, and then you answer wrong. It is quite a lottery which questions you will get and thus if you will pass. The probability among 10 subject to get "good" questions on all is small. Appeals they don't really look on, just come next time. You will need a new recommendation from your ATO (Flight School, in our case Best Fly) after you failed some subjects, for these subject, so you can't book a 2nd sitting in advance, now you'll wait again for 3 weeks. This is unfortunately my case, too, as I am sitting that long on PPL, 3 month soon. Was 1 block of time 2 weeks, done 30 hrs of flying, now is the 2nd block, hope to finish it within 7-8 days. And don't forget you HAVE to have an ICAO english exam level 4 at least, now I will loose maybe 5 days more on it. This exam is NOT an option!
But even with all that delays, which are not at all bound with the school but with how the things go in the examination industry, the school gives far more than what you pay. The PPL cost all incl. 6750, I don't know another place less that 8500, and I researched very well, and even if you are convinces their full-online theory learning system was the fault of your unluck in the exam, a second sitting will not cost you that 1750 difference, not even one fifth, so it is in any case worth it.
The owner, Csaba T๓th, is a man about 60 obsessed with planes and flying, he is also an instructor for higher courses. He cares a lot you get good flying skills and choses good instructor for his school. He is also very serious, keeps the word, Hersheybar say bull****, maybe just a competitor from another HU school. His phone is publishes on their "main" web page skytaxi hu, just wa him and he will organize everything. He's a busy man, so if he doesn't answer 2-3 days just repeat the question or simply call. For organizational purposes he will rather give you Csilla's email, is a manager of the school, she knows everything.
The school does NOT owns the field. It is in the property of even three local counties and the school rent it from them. This is also why someone told the runway is not in an ideal state. Nobody cares, just want money from the school. But the airfield is sure not a crap! It's a concrete runway and if you can take off within 10 meters bright and don't need a 40 meters bright runway, it's way better than another neighbor schools with grass runways. And this runway with 2.5 km length gives you much flexibility and safe feeling. Of course it's not an international airport concrete runway but old soviet military airfiled for heavy aircrafts which is anyway better than grass.
About the english in the school: it's not ideal, but I felt it is much better than in some schools in France I visited.
So, again: I can't recommend this school enough, Just go and become a pilot there. They do FLY and don't waste your time.
Last edited by RUHUCH; 28th June 2024 at 19:11.