I have been thinking for a while to post updated information about the school but i wanted to wait first and see what the directors' moves would be so that i would be as accurate as possible. Please bear in mind that this is based on my personal experience and i dont talk for anyone but myself, others who have been here at Egnatia might disagree although i believe i am covering with my views most students.
As with everything new, the school started out extremely positively, most of us thought when we were doing our research back in the end of 2006 that it was too good to be true... And it was... The downfall started in early 2007 when the planes were overbooked, swarms of students enrolled, the CGI left for England, maintenance had problems keeping the planes in the air mainly because of lack of spare parts and generally, the whole picture wasnt that bright. However, slowly yet steadily each problem was dealt with, some more succesfully than others. The problem you see was that Egnatia grew too fast, without being able to support that growth. Now things are turning once again. The have become an approved maintenance organization so they are able to order parts directly from Diamond and Thielert, minimizing ground time of the planes, they are expanding the fleet, they switched from Cranfield to Bristol material and they have formed a waiting list so that there is a proper slot allocation to current students. The remaining problem is (was) the groundschool. Mr Tzormpatzides, is a very able person but due to lack of ground instructors, he had his hands more than full. He was responsible for everything, from teaching to administrative work. That resulted to some very annoyed students leaving the school and rightfully so...
The most important thing of all is that the management changed attitude. Some problems would have been avoided if they had kept a closer relationship with the students but they didnt at the time. The new, "open door policy" is already starting to pay out.
From now on, 5 people will be involved in the groundschool, 4 ground instructors the CGI and a separate administration department supporting exclusively the groundschool needs.
I am almost finished with my IR training, now doing the final hours on the twin DA42, beautiful plane by the way (G1000 rules!) and in total i consider my experience to be positive. I had my clashes with the school mainly because of lack of plane availability and some were big ones but it all worked out well at the end, problems were resolved and it all happened way cheaper and faster than it would have been had i gone to the UK as i was initially planning. It took me 13 months and have scored 95% average. If anyone needs additional info, i am here to help.
P.S. Juseal, malaka, how u doing??? Done with the MCC?