I’ve just returned from a wasted trip care of these guys which should be of interest to those thinking of using FIS. I had booked an intensive program of hours building directly with Hans the owner of FIS two weeks before, but on arrival it became clear that the aircraft had been overbooked and that it would not be possible to make my planned target. I raised this with the office manager and Hans, who both shrugged it off and assured me it would be no problem. After 4 days I had achieved only 10 hours (waiting for instructors, aircraft in for 100 hr check, other customers booked onto the aircraft) and decided to go home as it was no longer possible to get close to the hours I had intended to do. As I work for myself, I don’t have the option of changing my leave dates and every day costs me income. Up until this point I was just irritated at having my time wasted, but when I came to leave Hans had increased the hourly rate I was charged at, above the rate we had agreed and he proposed to hold onto the balance of my account (in my own interests of course) so that I could return and fly the balance of the hours. A heated discussion followed where Hans refused to take any responsibility for overbooking the aircraft, refused to compromise in any way and blamed the lack of hours solely on me. In essence he had expected two pilots to achieve 10 hours per day every day for five days which speaks for itself (note that there is no VFR night flying in Spain). It took 3 weeks to get the balance of my money back and I will never give this organisation any money again.
I had no problem with any of the instructors there, or Claudio the office manager who were all friendly and competent, although I clearly got the impression from them that I was not the first unhappy customer in recent memory..... I have no reason to doubt that Brian the CAA examiner, is anything but a gentleman as previous posters have described him. However, if you search the threads here at pprune you will see a pattern where those customers who have some kind of a problem with FIS all point towards the owner.
FIS Jerez has a lot going for it for PPLs – there is plenty of open airspace, good weather and interesting places to visit. I would recommend that anyone planning a trip there budgets for the 3% credit card surcharge to pay as you go in order to minimise the cash up front and if there is a problem, do not expect the management to be reasonable or remotely care if you leave satisfied.