Egnatia Aviation Greece

[irabdlatib]

Anybody had any knowledge or experience with Egantia Aviation schools in Greece. The course seems to be quite comprehensive which includes all modules required for a JAA fATPL licence such as PPL, Night Qualification, Hours Building, Multi-Engine Rating, ATPL Theory, CPL and IR and the cost quite affordable.

Advice me please!!!! Cos I've to make decision very soon

[Hookerbot 5000]

Hi, read the following threads:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=235814

http://www.pprune.org/forums/archive.../t-266377.html (http://www.pprune.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-266377.html)

Visit the school before making any decision ;)

:ok:

[bobster1]

Dont go anywhere near the place!! PM me for info..

[Lightheart]

I called them twice and left messages. Sent them emails but noone came back to me.

Enough said.

[gcolyer]

I had exactly the same experience. Zero response to voice mails and emails.

[Jetfive]

well that's expected, the school is a joke, i'm not a student there anymore but i keep in contact with some good friends i made there.

some info from the inside:
they are cutting corners on maintenence, some engineers came once from diamond and grounded all the planes because they had been playing with the numbers to illegaly get more time out the planes!

groundschool is a huge mess, no instructors, students only have groundschool on weekends and monday so someone who works elsewhere can come and teach them some subjects on his days off.

the directors of the company CAN NOT BE TRUSTED full stop. speak to any student there, they will confirm this.

it will be done next week, next week, tomorrow, this afternoon, tomorrow, yea dont worry its ok, tomorrow, sorry we cancelled it because just felt like it, next week, tomorrow, sorry no slot for you, yea we love english peoples money!

oh and there is STILL no internet in the accomodation, and i hear they've even taken it away from inside the school now!

my advice: stay clear of the place, i have spoken to other flight schools in the UK and i have heard many people say things about egnatias bad reputation.

i just hope the current students that are stuck there can get out as soon as they can, i hope that egnatia wont be a black mark on their job applications with its bad reputation.

[mrsizzler]

A rumour has reached my ears that all is not well at Egnatia, especially with their relationship with Diamond.

[wbryce]

Sounds like a shambles!! Can anyone confirm the current affairs at Egnatia?

[BHenderson]

Are VFR flights not restricted to following airways in Greece or is this a myth? If true, how does one train?

Bobby

[EpsilonVaz]

Are VFR flights not restricted to following airways in Greece or is this a myth? If true, how does one train?

This is a Myth, you can fly VFR normally in Greece.

EpsilonVaz

[HubiPilot]

Hi there,
Well, I am really surprised how bad things are being said about Egnatia Aviation. I have just come back from the school couple days ago. I did my tour, saw accommodation, talked to instructors, students and manager, flown one of their DA40's and I found it very good school for the price they offer.
With all honesty You will never get "heaven" for lower price, but look; they do have 5 planes as they mention on the website. There should be no worry about maintenance since the school is just setting up its own maintanance facility and they just had an inspection from Authorities couple days ago.
They provide You with Bristol Ground School which is one of the leading in Europe. Accomodation is really nice, furnished and neat; all that You need during Your studies. There are also negative sides about the school, but hey, it is never going to be perfect anywhere. It is the most important for You as a future pilot to get desired and proper pilot education and get ready to take off with Your career and I thing that this is the place which will help You achieve Your goal. As I said, I have just visited school. My first impression wasn't so good, but I stayed there for three days and gradually changed my mind and opinion up to the point that I will start training with them very soon. If You would like to get to know something more about the school, just PM me.

Take Care Pilot:D

[wbryce]

Well theres a man you could sell anything too! :}

[captain_rossco]

Sounds like you'll be merely 'putting up' with the place, not something I'd do when you see the quality available at some schools.

Regards

CR

[bobster1]

HubiPilot..dont be fooled, I was given a grand tour of Keramoti and shown all those wonderful apartments and told what facilities are on offer etc etc, and then we pulled up outside a sh1thole "and this is where your staying for a couple of days" turned out to be a week then I got moved to a smaller even worse apartment if you could call it that within the same block, no cooking facilities absolute dump of a place, again only for a day or 2, after 4 I packed my bags and went home, saw and heard enough in just over a week there to realise I had made a grave mistake. The accomodation was just the icing on the cake!!

[HubiPilot]

Then tell me guys what do You suggest with 50000Euro in my pocket? It is not easy to make my decision. I am not able to pay for Cabair or Jerez. I have talked to the a guy of my nationality who attends that school and was one of the first students at that school and he presented to me all pros and cons of Egnatia, but I can't go forever in looking for better school where I will be told that there are also negative things as everywhere else. I am confused.....
With all honesty guys I prefer to put all my power that I use for thinking about what school to choose, in my studies. But I understand and appreciate Your comments that make me think about my choice.

With Regards
HubiPilot

[yoda1]

^the choice is ultimately yours however i recommend reading the 2 threads linked to above!...

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=235814

http://www.pprune.org/forums/archive.../t-266377.html (http://www.pprune.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-266377.html)

[maxdrypower]

Hub, if you have that much money , do you have to go integrated ? you could certainly do the modular rouite with that amount at pretty much any provider and , all the arguments aside still come out with a fATPL ?

[wbryce]

Hub, like others in this thread I visited the school in question and could probably describe it like you did...to me, it was the little points that didn't add up and the school was still young with no past history so I would've been taking a huge risk in choosing them, thankfully, with their current affairs, my reasoning sort of paid off.

Would you like to train for your IR by flying the same route every day? doing your IR in a super easy aircraft which allows the use of an autopilot? To me, choosing a provider is about the quality of training. Remember, its the past and present students who offer a good indicator on how good the quality is, right now the current students at Egnatia are far from praising them. Its your choice but I would look at the other options available too and make a formed decision (spain, modular uk, america etc etc).

[captain_rossco]

I'd go with Merc 320 SL, Silver with red leather, you'll have change for some nice high octane fuel!

Kind Regards

Rossco

[captain_rossco]

SL not SLK!

Good banter though MP!

Regards

CR

[captain_rossco]

Ditto,

Egnatia started off with a great deal of praise from a number of people, again looking really rather decent on paper. A new fleet of aircraft that from what I've heard were very easy to fly and a dream to use for 'complex' skills tests.
Unfortunately it would appear they have fallen short at a somewhat trivial hurdle, general upkeep and accomodation (as well as teaching staff).
This could be a shame if thats all it is, as it probably wouldnt have taken alot to gain this school some reasonable kudos.

:confused:

Regards

CR

[2close]

Apparently, they are in need of instructors. I contacted them and didn't even get a reply.

Not the sort of people I would want to work for.

[gmac1977]

I did my PPL at Egnatia but decided not to continue my training there

[Jetfive]

a little birdie tells me that the last british instructor was sacked on friday for trivial reasons. only greek instructors now, you can seriously forget UK standards.

by the way as a warning to anyone there, if the management find out you said anything bad about egnatia, they take it personally, they will start treating you badly, everything will take a long, long time. oh and you can forget about getting your licence issued within 4 months.

good luck

[JABI]

It's not rocket science guys, if you don't like the place, if they don't treat you right, if they keep breaking promises.....LEAVE.

It's a shame really, looked ike they were really up to a good start.

[bobster1]

only greek instructors now, you can seriously forget UK standards.


There still advertising "UK Instructors" on there web site..as well as carefully selected accomodation!!

You get what you pay for!!

[smith]

I know the Head of training who is based here in the UK and he is horrifed about what is going on and cannot contact the management at Egnatia.


If he is head of training why is he based in the UK, if it was me I would have jumped on the first plane to Greece to sort it out.

[bobster1]

He is only head of training for a 5 guys..cranfield study material students..
Egnatia have changed over to an online system run by Bristol, therefore no instructors needed, the cranfield guys have been left on the shelf a bit, 1 part time instructor, who has nothing to do with the aviation industry, and no instructor for GNav, Flt Planning, RNav and Met, the guys are teaching themselves..

[Mercenary Pilot]

Egnatia have changed over to an online system run by Bristol

So that must mean the students now have to fly back to the UK for ground school then?

[bobster1]

not sure how it works, they all sit in a classroom glued to pc monitors..they take the exams in greece Athens I think and a new venue also in Greece, as far as I know they dont have to come to UK at all. Certainly never mentioned by the students anyway, the only thing they did mention was cost of sitting ATPL exam euro3.50!! a tad cheaper than Gatwick..

[Ayla]

Clearly things cannot be going well if they are having to use distance learning as their groundschool, I would imagine that this is not what the students were promised.
I would endorse what has been said already that there are a number of proven schools in the UK who do not cost the earth. Just for the record I am linked indirectly to one.

[shambles]

Speaking from personal experience and the experience of others I know have attended this school, I would stay well clear!!!
Several areas let this school down; In order; The Management, The Flight school Operations, Lack of Maintainance, The Poor Standard of Training, The treatment and attitude towards the students, and of course Accomodation.

The Management are responsible for all of the problems in the school as these problems are nearly all a result of their attitude.

D. Limberacus is meant to be the Operations Manager and yet couldn't give a flying **** about whats happening in operations. He seems to do as little as possible and is more concerned if students are wearing ties than anything else so the school looks nice to outsiders (meanwhile are toilets where left like a stinking pit for months!) He treats both staff and students like idiot children.

They dont pay instructors for anything other than flight time and expect them to do all the administration, scheduling and pre/ post flight briefs for free. Consequently the instructors are reluctant to give briefing and are not happy with the management.

There is only one MEIR instructor and he is also fed up and it becomes apparent in the training, as he will take you on the same route, same approaches all the way though your MEIR. No NDB holds or approaches and certainly no groundschool. (*for a school who claims UK Standards where NDB procedures are fundamental, this is a unacceptable) (The schools website still claims they have UK instructors, when they do not. They fired the last UK Instructor some weeks back for trivial reasons, he was apparently the only well liked instructor in the school.
You can forget about flying in the UK if you train in this school. How can you expect to pass a sim check after such poor training. Oh and once you complete your training you have to pass a mock test with the CFI who tests you on things you've never been trained on, fails you and tells you that you need another 5 hours (this is after 50hrs training!! at a cost of c.1700 euros!)
The flying schedule changes literally up to 20 times a day. You will have to spend from 07:30 until 20:00 most days hoping to get a flight, and besides, the one little minibus goes from the school to the accommodation when the owners feel like it and only once!
The aircraft are always in maintainance with never more than 2 single engines available at any one time, and the only multi available half of the time. Very often there is only one single engine.
Having done some flying out in greece and in the uk, the RT and procedures are so poor in Greece you would struggle immensely to fly in UK. The ATC simply haven't got a clue out there! Its unbelievabley bad.

What else, hmm, oh the ATPL is a complete rip off. Offering and charging for full time ground school and then sticking students in front of a computer every day with no instructor is a joke. The students haven't got anyone to explain anything to them. They aren't allowed to bring a drink into the room either, which again to me is treating them like children!

Accommodation is a crap hole, its as simple as that! I wouldn't want to stay there for a day, let alone a week or a YEAR!!!
There is No Internet. There was internet in the school but that went months ago. This to me is a total disregard for the students welfare and underlines the attitude of the management. Students have lives other than in Egnatia, accounts, bills, properties etc to keep up to date with. These days Internet is Essential, simple as that. and for about 20euros a month in total for the school, whats the problem...

Like I say, most of the problems i have mentioned come from the managements attitude. All they want is your £££££££. If you do for some crazy reason decide to go there, Pay as you GO!

I have painted a bleak picture here and that is because it is the way it is. Do I want to hurt the schools reputation? Yes and I want this to give them a wake up call, but it wont because they listen to NOBODY about ANYTHING.

Yes this place is cheap but at a MASSIVE cost.

[informativeone]

"They fired the last UK Instructor some weeks back for trivial reasons, he was apparently the only well liked instructor in the school."

someone does sound upset for being dismissed!

[bobster1]

someone does sound upset for being dismissed! i smell a rat!

rat or not, everything else is true..

[shambles]

re: uninformative one's comment - I am not the instructor mentioned. who cares who i am? do you? is that all you can say in the defence of egnatia from all that i have said? say no more :D

[I'm proud of you]

Hi all
I have a dear friend out there at the moment . all he has done is complain
about the school. They are now studying Bristol - 3 months later.:ugh::ugh:
One of the directors is a **** :mad: all mouth.
The students are all trying very hard to pass but are let down by the school. But the directors are letting them down. They got 2 nor 3 new instructors from Italy now - lets see how long they last

[pilottb200]

Hi guys and girls.
It's actually kind of funny (but sad as well) reading through these one year old posts and seeing that nothing has changed or improved at Egnatia. I just left this "nice" country one month ago and I can confirm that all said about this FTO and Greek ATC and HCAA is true and up to date.
Take care
May God be with you.

[nimpo]

shame they cant improve things in a year, but from what i have heard its not at all surprising. they did talk a good/cheap school at the flyer show this year.

anyone care to add their comments or experiences of late out there:eek:?

pilotb200, can you share your thought and observations?

[pilottb200]

nimpo, are you really thinking of going there?
The main problem at Egnatia is the management. The directors and the HoT and chief instructor are bunch of arrogent "I know everything the best" type of persons. With attitude like that you can never make friendly environment you need to have in schools. If you want some details, shoot questions on my private mail. But if you have already decided to go there, then here are some advices:
Before you go, fill your laptop with porn, movies, series, music or any entertainment you like, ´cause you will not get any in Keramoti (Mosquitotown).
Get ready to lick arses.
Accept and seek any advices and help you can get from older students, because you will not get it from the school.
Have ready some extra money.
Changes your nationality to Cypriot, if you can.
Good luck

[2close]

What is the current state of play there? Anyone studying there at the moment? I was thinking of looking at them for a JAA IR.

Any advice??

[skysiren]

Having first hand knowledge of the Egnatia Experience, I would strongly advice any and all student pilots to avoid this school like the plague. The school has a fleet of 5 DA40's of which only 2 work, also 1 DA42 which suffers an unusual amount of engine failures. The Head of Training is an over zealous control freak and will think nothing of humiliating students for not being able to answer a question, then ground you for a few days to a week. It really just depends on what mood he's in on any particular day. You are often booked for slots without being told and then charged a no show fee when you don't turn up for a lesson you didn't know you had. Also slots are cancelled last minute without you being notified and for what seams to be no good reson. Special treatment is often given to the Greek students and everyone else is pushed to the side and made to wait. None of the students at the school are happy as the environment you are in is very oppressive. You are investing alot of money throughout your training and you need to have a stable encouraging environment in which to study. This is sadly not the case at Egnatia. ATPL ground school is given by students who have only just passed the exams themselves, so your not really getting qualitiy experience and guidence there. Overall is an experience best avoided, be smart and spend your precious time and money elswhere. :ok:

[2close]

Not very nice reading, that. Best give it a miss then. AOPA's recent magazine had an article in it "Greece - Send us your GA" and went on about Greece becoming the centre for training in Europe (and even poaching the Florida market - given the collapse of the £ v $ the USA is looking less and less favourable). The article hinted at Egnatia being the flagship. Makes the above comments even more interesting.

[skysiren]

There is the usual glossy website and brochure, but you certainly don't get what you pay for here. If you read the previous comments it is clear that their problems are historical and they have done nothing to sort them out. My advice is to find a well known school with a fully operational large fleet, experienced and friendly instructors who are more than willing to help you and not humiliate you. It is worth paying a little extra for quality training.:)

[twins2]

Skysiren

Making false accusations about Egnatia Aviation was because you were SACKED !!!!!

To potential students reading this particular topic, our "Skysiren" was a PPL FI.

After having 7 yes 7 students complaining about your training methods why was their a need to keep you on as an instructor, as for ground school, pupils feed back was that they were not getting the maximum information that was expected from your lectures.

We have team building excursions with a variety of activities from canoeing to bbq's and feel that this is a good enviroment to build in-house relations between students and instructors.

As for the Head of Training with over 20 years of experience, as you well know!! He is looking out for the SAFETY and WELFARE of our students here at Egnatia. However, if you feel that this is not the correct procedure then this was not the correct working enviroment for you.
As a PPL FI with very few hours, Egnatia Aviation feels betrayed by the trust and opportunities that were offered to you, so that you could gain more flight experience and a step forward in your career,this form of low character from yourself is a let down only on your behalf.

The excellent standard here at Egnatia Aviation is second to none and we advise all perspective students to contact us direct and come and see the professional facilities that we have to offer.

We look forward to hearing from you.

[Pietro84]

Hello,
I'm a from Italy and following FAA conversion and the ATPL groundschool. I enjoy my time here, with good instructors and nice people that are working here. I have been in many flight schools and now in Egnatia Aviation, this is the best one till now!!! At the moment all the diamonds are flying (singles and twin) also the two AT-3. Every student is treated the same way, no matter where you come from.
It is an easy way to talk **** about the school if you just lost the job because all seven students complained about this instructor. Even the atpl students. Not really professional right??!! :=:=:=
If you want to know how everything is going on here? Come over, and take a look. :ok:

Regards,

Egnatia student

[skysiren]

Twins 2

Do your home work, I am not an ex instructor but an ex student, and everything I have written is true and factual. Can you really deny any of it when so many current and ex students feel the same way !!!!

Good luck to the instructor anyway he deserves better.

[twins2]

Firstly a siren is a female so its kind of obvious you didnt choose your name to well, and who said that the instructor was a he i didn't

[skysiren]

Again twins 2 do your homework.

Siren (noisemaker)

alerting an entire community of impending danger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger).

[long-finals16]

Once again the Egnatia aviation debate rises again.
It has to be said that this school does seem to get more negative press on PPRUNE than any other JAA school in Europe. Take from that what you will.

And yet again, Egnatia are ready with their response, rather badly thought out and bordering on what can only be described as 'un-professional'. You really should not point fingers at people, remember aviation is meant to be a no blame culture, and is a very small world (as you are experiencing).

Have a little bit more professionalism and don't respond to posts. i dont see many other schools responding like you do, or even responding at all.

give up on the BBQ's and canoeing, your teaching commercial flying, not social skills!! if you have poor instructor student relationships then look at why that is.
Grow up, get a life, and sort out your school.

[skysiren]

Good points made by Long final 16. Short and to the point.

[CB-LOVER]

Dear all and especially you SKYSIREN,

First of all i started worrying a lot about this school since the last posts. I said before that i have a very close friend studying there and because i worry and care about his future i contacted him advising to leave the school immediatelly.
Dont know why he ignored me. I dont think the management pay the students to make good comments... especially in a sector where the training is costly and intensive. That is PILOT TRAINING. I dont know the school as i will visit them shortly not about training but for a pleasure flight or a backseat and lets call it a long weekend rest with my friend. What i get though from my friend is that things are working perfectly and no problem exists. That is all i have to say about the school.
Now i see some sort of hate against this FTO and trying to understand why. I truly believe that the current students are right about skysiren. All of them have made it clear that she is the 'SACKED' ex-instructor. I dont want to agree with that as by being a profesional pilot myself i dont see skysiren's attitude as a professional one. It is a shame if it is true. To be honest my information sais that the instructor sacked end of October. Here i see a person joining pprune on the 28th of October and posting directly against this school.
I want to let people have their own conclusions about this person and the school too. If it was an airline sacking a not suitable or dangerous for the role Captain we would have been grateful. Why not now if skysiren is the ex instructor as it looks like it.
I am 100% sure that skysiren is trying to play a game here against others. SKYSIREN your siren only alerts me about the dangerous you and nothing else.
I wont say to anybody to join this school as i DO NOT know it. I do get very good comments from an insider who is spending his fortune to achieve his dream and he is happy about what he gets from them. Once again i would like to urge people to contact the schools directly or even vist them. DO NOT RELY 100% on forums. I wont post on this thread again as the reason i am a pprune member is obviously NOT this school.

Wish you all the best!!! :ok:

[skysiren]

Ok CB Lover,

You don't seam to have a very reliable source of information from your so called friend. Why don't you ask the school about the 15 + students that left the school in the past 12 months due to being unhappy. Or the unflyable DA40's sat on the ramp for months. Also all the previous students who have the same factual knowledge as I do regarding the schools problems. Maybe you should know what you're taking about before you post. When you visit your friend you should ask the few remaining students what they really think about the school.

So what if I only joined in October, seams like you getting 7 from 2+2 ???

[CB-LOVER]

not ok skysiren.

maths was never my favourite subject but i do get 4 out of 2+2 unless hypoxic.
Look, before you became a pilot you were not a pilot. That is a fact. I dont care about your past. Why should i care about the DA40s who went tech months ago. I do care about the current situation and all the planes fly like they should be. Whats the catch? A ZERO out of 2+2. Every person who has some knowledge about the aviation world knows that THIELERT was facing with some problems. Obviously under those circumstances some planes can be grounded. Imagine if Rolls Royce experiences something like Thielert. Will it be Qanta's lets say fault that all the RB211 powered 747s are grounded? I DONT THINK SO. Do you? As a student or instructor there have you ever refused a plane for technical reasons except normal servicing? That is what people care on this topic. My friend actually is ahead of his schedule flyingwise. Mind you he is not Greek. Be realistic and give us facts not your opinion. My opinion is that egnatia is SUPER. Do you care about my opinion or about my facts and experiences? If you care about my opinon you have already lost the battle, so there is no point continuing this converation. I DO NOT care about your opinion and i expect to read facts from current students in here. Tell us which school we should join and why.... with facts. It looks like you pushing yourself to be negative about them. My last point is a question to you. If they have lost 15+ plus students and there are many more willing to leave why and how are they still operating? Especially with the current worldwide financial problems? Why are they getting a simulator and replacing the SACKED instructor with 3 new ones? Those are facts from an insider but my role as an outsider is not to mention them. I will be checking this thread looking for facts from current students and only.
To be honest i dont like your attitude at all and i warn you to change it or else you will lose in your life as a pilot. Your attitude makes me stop replying to you at this moment. I wish you all the best for your future within a nice huge with a large fleet school or an airliner.

p.s: let the wannabes participate here and not us. we did it. :ok:

[skysiren]

CB Lover, you really have been fed a bunch of lies. Ah well you'll soon find out. They're actions speak for them, as many a previous student will agree. Yes people who have actually been to the school. Not you who quite clearly has not. Enjoy wasting your time and money.

Oh and as for the warning, hahahahahhaha you know where you can shove that !!!!

[MaxineZ]

There seems to be a slanging match going on here

Skysiren...... can i ask you a couple of things that you haven't mentioned.
How long were you at Egnatia ? and what course were you on?
were you one of the students that had the inexperienced instructor that everyone is talking about. Was she really that bad?
Did you finish your course on time and can you tell me about your training.

Don't you agree that it was a responsible decision made by Egnatia to sack an instructor who was incompetant and especially unsafe. After all, would you let a dentist or a doctor operate on you if they didn't know what they were doing. The students lives are in the instructors hands.
You metioned in a previous post that Egnatia is oppressive. Do you mean that you were treated harshly and cruelly, or do you mean the weather. It does get hot in Greece.

Looking forward to your response.
MZ

[G CEXO]

My view:

Greek CAA are one of the worst in customer service and license issue. I have heard of people waiting many months for license issue.

Greek ATC are not as compliant as UK ATC. This will cause you problems once you arrive back in the UK to fly.

PPL exams must all be taken at once. Thats all 7, now that is really bad.

The school has had problems with the JAR groundschool. Students have had to study themselves through distance learning even though they have paid for a residential course.

Even if all of these issues have been resolved which I seriously doubt , would you really want to pay a FTO who have no idea how to resolve basic operational issues?

It's your hard earned money, for a few extra hundred I would advise to train within the UK at a local school. You will atleast experience the least operational standards which Egnatia cannot provide.

G-XO

[SW1]

My view:

I have had nothing to do with Egnatia Aviation but I have had experience dealing with Greek ATC. To say they are not compliant compared to UK is not true. Have you ever flown in Greece? I would say they are overly cautious and not confident when there's a lot of traffic, Ive been made to orbit for 5 minutes, whilst on downwind when an aircraft conducting a VOR approach was on his outbound leg 8 Miles out!

Theres also is the small fact that you have to file flight plans even to do touch and go's- oh and the General declaration from the airport authority, just to do circuits!!

Beautiful country to fly around though, great food, nice looking women- Would highly recommend it. Just choose your school WISELY.

Also to the previous argumentative posts- Dont air your dirty laundry in public!!! Looks really bad to potential students- I was a propective student, but after looking at those kind of comments and general bickering := I chose to FAS Rhodes instead.

Thanks

[felisteto]

I'm an ex student of egnatia,i've completed there just a conversion last summer and this is my experience:

Great brand new planes
I did the course with the minimum flight time required
Most important they have excellent standard and they demand high level of commitment from their students.

I saw the discussion in the previous post about the chief pilot..
Well honestly he doesn't make you feel so good during the flight but it's just because he wants to show him the best you can and your skills.
I don't see anything wrong,that's the way to push the students.

Sometimes can happen that the planes goes tech,it's normal,in every schools happen!
In my case they provided to me another one straight after to complete my course;

At the end i'm happy that i chose egnatia.

[MaxineZ]

Hello again.

Skysiren,

You haven't answered my questions and it's been 7 days. You have been so fast with your responses to the other posts, why not mine?

Potential pilots are ready to make informed decisions based on comments from students who have experienced good and bad flight schools.

Please reply to my previous questions. I'm sure that many people are waiting.

MYZ

[long-finals16]

maxine z,

I can only assume you are not the marketing manager of Egnatia Aviation, since you have dragged this post up again, just when it had dropped off the bottom of the page! perhaps not a smart move.

Professionalism is very important in aviation, and since you work for the school you should perhaps show some.

I think it is fair to say that you antagonising people into responding (whether good or bad) may not help students make informed decisions. Indeed it just makes you and the school look rather pathetic.

I have taken the time to read the other threads today, which many other 'potential' students will also do. They do not paint a very good picture of the school, and the only positive responses seem rather fake, in my opinion. Indeed the director DL seems to get the most criticism, second only to the CFI. They both sound like real nice people!!! You do seem to have a core support of bad press, again from the same individuals who may (or may not be) be agreeved students or instructors.

Take some advice and drop the 'how dare you' approach. Business is business, some people get on, some dont.

you are only burning your bridges posting on here.
have a nice day.

:ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::=:=:=:=:=:=:=

[SilveR5]

hey guys...let's just forget about that Egnatia thing...

WHY??

Because simply we have 2 contradicting opinions...and considering the huge amount of money that a trainee wanna pay to be a future pilot, then IT IS EXTREMELY RISKY CHOICE to go for that Egnatia offer...

You'll never know...may be it's gonna be you who receive the bad treatment we heard about...or may be good treatment even...wanna find out?? ok..go to the famous Witch living next door to Egnatia and ask her about your future with them!!!:}:}:}

should you take the risk?? I don't think you really should!

cheers

[Bluestuff]

I 've a friend who is at the school right now. He's been sat around waiting due to lack of planes and bad organization. He said he hasn't received anything like good service and regrets going there.

[G-STAR]

What a waste of time that was. The place is like a ghost town, no new students in the past 6 months.
Customer service, none existant. Did not feel welcome there at all, more like I was causing them a problem by wanting to ask questions.

Only 2 DA40's and 1 DA42 for the whole school !!! (which was broken again, so I was told by some students)

Won't be spending my hard earned cash there.

[Capt. Spock]

Although feedback on the school seems really harsh I'm considering them for a MEIR conversion. I would like to hear from anyone who might have done their conversion training at Egnatia.

Thanks! :ok:

[G-STAR]

Capt. Spock

Don't waist your time or money. It may look good on paper, but it's not worth the risk.

The one and only twin they have breaks down ALOT.

PM me for more info.

[jeyjey]

Hi, I did CPL ME IR conversion in December last year, one week flight training, then the skill test, thats it, 23h total flying time, pretty quick and straightforward! Cheers

[SVoa]

Its really funny how people think that the flying schools who market themselves alot are the best ones. You lot saying how crap Egnatia is should really go back and look at your "oxfords"... Go there and pay your life off and sell a kidney while your there to get through pilot training. MANY flight schools all over the world have something called airplanes, and airplanes have complex machines that go tech sometimes, and sometimes more often (just how the big sophisticated airlines do). :ugh: What is wrong with some of you people? Do you not have anything better to do than sit here slagging off a flight school????:confused: Jesus!

[Airmanick]

oh my god...are you professional pilots...or cookers....i think there are many members , better many managers xaxa of egnatia and other schools here not posting but fighting!!oyaoy!!!the costs in egnatia is the minimum of world..then the service is very friendly n kindy...the airservice the best in greece n i think better than others academies of world as 4 students from there told me.BUT the ground school is not the best,,,,it needs to become better...but i think whenever you go without home study :ugh:!!!!the instructors are very strict as it needs (they are professionals most of them are not greek anyway!!).Which flight academy can promise job after finishing???they promise at starting thats the marketing!!!Only if you are good you ll find job!!Do you think that the name of the academy finds to you a job???:eek:... some links are here...this post opened when this academy was in start!!2006 but we are 2009:hmm: Egnatia Aviation Home Page (http://www.egnatia-aviation.com/index.htm) I thoght that the greek pilots were the best of world...arent they..??(the greek airforce :8)They started making academies to get into the civil aviation...trust them!! a new sim at the egnatia ALX: FNPT II MCC Flight Training Device (FTD) for MPL phase 3 - Alsim - Flight Trainers (http://www.alsim.com/ALX-FNPTII-MCC-MPL-Flight-Training-Device.php?spage=gallery)

[G-STAR]

""the costs in egnatia is the minimum of world..then the service is very friendly n kindy...the airservice the best in greece n i think better than others academies of world as 4 students from there told me ""


To Airmanik

Well if those 4 students have been to every school in the world then, we can't possibly argue with that !!

Sounds like you are an employee ???

Or may be I'm just a cooker ??

[Airmanick]

:)thank you but i m economist.I have finished the univercity of greece n the next step is to become a pilot!

[Airmanick]

hi....after the academy did you find job??What are you doing now?

[zerotohero]

i went there,,,,, one twin that does break as all aircraft do yes, so would be nice if thee was a back up plan in case of a lenghtly tech problem,,,, the airlines do go tech yes,,, i went tech a week ago,,, within 35mins we were in a new aircraft fueled and boarded ready to roll again!

o yea,,, there was only one pilot flying the twin,,, nice guy but seemed to be bored to tears and lost the will to live in there let alone teach, did the job but only cos he was there not cos he wanted to was my impression.

only flew once a day and not on weekends cos the one guy needed time off and had other students, so with a tech day flew 3 out of 7days 1st week and 4 out of 7 days 2nd week.

atc liked to talk greek and give local points for nav,, all good if you know them but there not charted so you have to ask for help from the instructor, ok it works but does not help you feel in command.

school had crap wifi when i was there and i hear now thats gone alltogether, so what do you do all day except look out the window? i was converting so not much study to do.

apartments had no A/C and no WIFI! they were clean enough and basic to live in,,,,, but come on,, WIFI is a must these days.

ground school students were treated like kids! some of them were to be fair, but no drinks in the classrooms,,, no instructor half the time i heard and so self study on a full time ATPL course!!!!!!!

free transfers once a day to and from the apartments,,, great deal,, but not if your doing one flight,,, your then expected to sit all day doing nothing with no entertainment or pay for a taxi back to apartment with again no entertainment or wifi

once you get your license you have to call and call and call to get it issued,,, if something comes back to the school wrong from the greek CAA they wont call you and tell you, it will sit in a folder until you call them and ask why the delay,,, then you submit the new info and wait again and again,,,,,,,, took just over 3months to get my license issued after the checkride!.

and blah blah blah there are other things but i am bored of writeing now.

to be fair all flight schoold are crap and money whores,,, these guys you may get it done, it might be cheaper,, your in the sun,,,, but for more than a conversion,,, i would look elsewhere as you may just decide sod it and fly the aircraft into the tower in frustration!

[georgez]

G-STAR – You are just spreading bull**** with no substance and with obvious intentions. ‘Only 2 DA40's and 1 DA42 for the whole school !!! (which was broken again, so I was told by some students)’ What a lie! You were told by some students? Rubish.

Yes there is only one Twin at present (there two others as backup options) which flies over 100 hours every month for training – pretty good for an aircraft that ‘is broken all the time’.

I think I remember your style of writing with a different nick.

Zerotohero – you said that you did a conversion at Egnatia and you made some comments. In the same order:

- Only one pilot flying the twin. That is strange as there always no less than 3 full time ME/CPL/IR instructors. Currently Yiannos, Stelios, Reizis, and if required Dimitris and the HoT. Total 5 available. You only saw one? Which one? And he was bored to tears? They all fly 80 or more hours a month in total with free weekends and they are bored to tears? Based on increasing number of the CVs we receive every week I am sure most instructors around Europe would like to have this kind of bordom.

- You only flew once a day. Some days yes. Did you finish your training on time? That is what matters. Flight scheduling is done with all students in mind.

- ATCs like to speak their own language all over the world. The ATC in Kavala Airport only speak Greek to Olympic Airways pilots (and maybe one or two of the Aegean pilots) and only when the pilots initiate the call. They always speak English to the Egnatia students with very very few exceptions when they request specific field or weather information in the training areas etc. They are a lot better than most non English speaking countries that I have flown such as France and Italy.

- Wifi – the students have their own ADSL connection at the school, which is ALWAYS on. How the students use it is up to them. Some download or streaming movies some do other things. I can not see why the school should spend any time regulating a not essential for the training service that it is offered for free – we should get a thank you. Reagrding the apartments, all have wifi on the same basis and no air conditioning (they all have central heating). All the apartments are new and basically equipped and the accommodation is free. If students want more, there are hotels available. Staying in the school’s accommodation is neither mandatory nor part of your aviation training.

- Yes, no food or drink is allowed in the classrooms. In addition the course is based on Bristol’s guiding CBT system which is a mixture of instructor and self study. It is a modern and very successful combination as the average pass rate and first pass stats show.

- There are at least two free transfers a day (three most days). It is impossible for us to have a car and driver ready for whenever each student decided to go home! Get real people. Again we do have to provide this service at all – most students appreciate it, do not criticise it.

- The license issue – do you know many schools that will undertake the issuing of your license? In ALL cases I know it is up to the student to do whatever is necessary for the license issue. Again another added service that most people appreciate but some would prefer a prefect service tailored to their own liking. By they way, licenses for conversions always take a bit longer due to the fact that the CAA needs to check ICAO documents from many countries and sometimes has to request copies records, ratings etc in order to include in the JAA license. There not always straightforward. Sometimes they can be waiting for the students to return their previous original licences etc.

Again zerotohero. Did we deliver what we said, in the agreed timescales and for the price we quoted? Was your training good? Was the aircraft new and modern? Were you treated properly?

The school is going from strength to strength at the time most other schools are shrinking or going bankrupt. It now has 8 new aircraft and a brand new Alsim ALX simulator. It will soon offer MCC, JOC and other courses, plus an integrated 0-ATPL course with type rating and airline line training.

The reasons are obvious.:ok:

[Airmanick]

again and again...all the time speaking people dont know anything about school...you dont help all the time you are confusing the people to their choice!!oh my god!who cares about the internet and videos at home you can pay 20euro per month to vod..ne or cosm..te or another company of mobile telephony in case having internet!!you are going to a school only to learn flying you have to be assembled to the study...i think better ll be all the time flying when you become an airliner pilot you may have the chance finding to f...k as you told...oh my god i wonder which are the criteria of choice of an academy at your opinion...the inernet and if there are are women to....f.....k there...oh my god!!!crazy!!

[mb737]

Hi There,
I have been reading over these posts about Egnatia and i really feel the negative posts are unjustified, but then people in this worl always look for somebody else to blame when things do not go well for them.
I was a student at Egnatia i did my PPL Hr build and ATPL theory there and i have done the rest of my training else where and i have seen what it is like out there, i did not see how good i had it at Egnatia untill i seen other places.
Egnatia is an excellent school and if your will to put in the work to achieve your goals 100% the staff in Egnatia will give you back 150% and bend over back wards to help you out.
When i was there i struggled at some theory, and i really felt like giving up. If it were not for the staff, the Directors, the head of training GG and the instructors who gave me their time at no extra cost i would not be were i am now.
In egnatia they have a great fleet of modern planes, excellent accomodation, students are looked after really well there, which you will not see in any other FTO.
In Greece you have great weather all year round, you can fly to beautifull islands it is a wonderfull experience. Your flight training is consistant because of this you do not sit on the ground waiting for the weather, which in my view is very important for a new student to keep consistant in there training.
When i was in Greece i learnt a lot, and not just flying but also my attitude towards flying which is something money can not buy.
The head of training is a wonderfull instructor with a lot of experience, and what he wants from his students is for them to try there best, he has an interest and cares about all his students, some people may not agree with his methods, but i think that is because they can not see what he is trying to do, which is the students best interest.
If i made a mistake about Egnatia, that would be not finishing my training there, i did not leave because i was unhappy but because after my ATPL, my employer was sponsoring the rest of my training and i had to go were i was told.
If any one is considering a flight school i would recomend Egnatia and besides the training can be done modular, so you can go do your PPL and see for yourself.
Thank you

[Pietro84]

Hi i just came back yesterday from my conversion!
I had the best experience ever!!!!
When i was busy with my training 4 more students were busy with the Multi engine......i expected a slightly delay but in 9 flying days (skill test included) i finished my conversion!
The first part (5 hours) i used the FNPT ALX a really nice simulator wich can help you a lot if u are not fresh anymore....
After that i start with G-EGNA a really super DA42 with 2 GREAT instructors REIZIS and YANNOS!!!
They were really good teachers and i had a lot of expirience with them.....plus they are really good friend in the weekend's nights :)

I expected a really Greek slow system for paperworks but look like that in less than 1 month i will get my licences ready!

The Head of training is one of the most professional guy ever......he is allways honest!! If you are not good enough he will tell you........he doesent care if school will lose money (and the school as well) if you are not good enough and you wont accept some extra training to reach the standards you are free to leave!
I had the same treatment.. i payed around 9000 euro for the full conversion....they tested me in the sim for the IFR part.....i flow my hours in the DA42 and i spend exacly what i expected....no one EURO MOREEEEE

So i really cannot understend (actually i know) why people just talk talk talk SHI*.... about EGNATIA....

There is a stupid guy inside that just like talk SHI*... and the funny thing that is a student as well.....so why a student inside talk SHI* about his flight school without leaving it????????

Because he know that he will have a really good training.......but i think is not good enough to have it! 100% sure

If you guys contact student inside (Dutchs, Cipriots, Italians, Greeks except the Irish guy) u will have the same info that i wrote here!!!

SO PEOPLE dont pay soooooooo much attention to PPRUNE.....go there.....take a look of the flight school.......try to fly Diamond.....check the simulator.........and u will see!

I went there and i never regret 1 day........actually i miss them allready and is been just 1 day i left!

[Egnatia-Instructor]

Dear Piedro/rocco

We all would like to thank you about the positive comments you made about us.
Me and on behalf of the rest of the Egnatia Instructors we would like to wish the best with your future and career!!! I hope one day you will be able to fly your beloved MD83 but if not the 777 is still ok!!
Take care matey and keep in touch:ok:!

Vangelis

[Pietro84]

Ahahaha Rocco Vangelis!!!
whats up??? is only 2 days i left and i allready miss Keramoti so much!!!!
U guys did a great job and is time that somebody start to open the eyes to this pprune addicted!!!!
The time there was not so easy because of the stupid ATPL but the enviroment was perfect so the hard job of the ATPL was less harder....and is only because of ur guys help!
I miss being around the school.......but really soon ill come back for a short vacation ahahahah im allready looking for tickets.....hope to come back as ID90 :P
but for a job something will start around September if we are lucky.....and unfortunatly will not be MD83 but CRJ900 or A320.....i knowwwwww dont complain ahahah is still a job of course we all love 777 (real plane) but job is a job......

By the time im thinking to come back before everything starts for the MCC i have to check it out...

Take care buddy and keep doing ur great job for the pour ATPL guys.....!!!

say hi to EVERYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!
ciao man

[MAXTHRUSTV1]

This school does not respond to any emails, phone calls or PM on PPRUNE:ugh: a total waste of time i dont even think anyone works there?????

[Egnatia Instructor]

Hi Vangelis

Im over in August to visit, I expect a beer!!
Looking forward to seeing you all soon

Im sure the school will respond soon to the above post, Call and ask for Dimitris or George, they'll be very apologetic that they have missed you.

Dave

[brs]

Hi

I have emailed Egnatia (George) for about 1.5 month now and they allways answer within 12-24 hours,even within 1 hour sometimes

I have had a very very good dialog with georg and I will probably choose them for my future training

best too you all

Brian from Denmark.

[Pace152]

Just out of curiosity, was this Skysiren an instructor from the UK? If so I think I know who it is and I'd take whatever she says with a big pinch of salt.

[Nearly There]

Yes, she was.

[pil0t79]

I think you are right an instructor from Ravenair :ok:
I heard that she is now at Hawarden

[r_alekos]

Hi all,

As I`m making a presentation of a large amount of flight schools over the world, of which Egnatia Aviation ia a part, I would like to ask you if someone could provide me with the following information:

- How many students per year start the ATPL training with Egnatia?
- How many classes does Egnatia start every year?

Thank you very much for your help.

Kind Regards,

[delmouzos]

Dear r_alekos

For accurate information why don't you get in touch diretly with Egnatia Aviation? [email protected]

[BALAMUK]

any opinions about the ATPL ground school at Egnatia?

[EGCC Wannabe]

The female UK Instructor is no longer working at Hawarden... or Ravenair.

[SVoa]

A bit of recent experience from this school for anyone interested:

I got here beginning of sept. for half my hour building, and CPL/ME/IR. Their aircraft are top notch, in very good condition and VERY well maintained. The onsight engineers that are hired by the school know the diamonds and the Aeros like the back of their hand and are always willing to do more work if you find something remotely wrong with the aircraft. I was very surprised by this. Instructors have quite a bit of experience and know the aircraft very well and are really nice guys. As for the school and the professional courses: The school supplies you with aircraft manuals for the aircraft youll be flying and you have to do a written technical test on the aircraft. They also supply you with very good training manuals for each course which analyticaly describe ever single lesson for every flight. The instructors conduct thorough briefings and debriefings before and after each flight which is very good and helpfull. They seem to be very organised and are very friendly with student. Good environment as well.

Having the experience of a good UK modular school where I did my ppl, i can easily say this place is a very good commercial flight school with a good standard of training. I know many bad things have been said about this flight school in the past, but they've cleaned up well. A friend who did the full course at Egnatia last year told me the same things as i am seeing now.. I highly recommend this school, and for those of you worried about reputation, i know from a mate who is involved in recruitment in a UK airline, that the school is building a good reputation in the UK as well.

SVoa

[GBB]

Any new info on CPL/ME/IR training at Egnatia? and school in general?

Thank you

[ReleasePT]

Hello guys,

Well, I really don't understand so many things that I read about this school. This is my first post at this forum, although I don't have any interest on posting this, I have the moral obligation to say a few words about this school.


Just to summarize what I've done before I went to Egnatia, I have completed in Portugal a integrated CPL with aptpl theory credits and with SEP and SE-IR ratings. I'm Portuguese and I'm 31 now.


I finished the CPL in 2009, as the situation was at the time and it still is, with thousands of pilots seeking for a job and also with my finances not very good I just decided to give up. As I'm a nurse I moved to Switzerland where salaries are interesting, but for these 2 years I always had in mind aviation and I just started to think that I couldn't just give up having come this far, at least I had to try and finish all.

So I saved some money, I renewed the ratings and I got a 1month non-paid license from the Swiss hospital I'm working for exclusively for this.


Before I chose the school I sent emails to every flight schools in Europe, until I came across Egnatia Aviation and Dimitris L. (Managing Director). I don't know for sure, but I think I sent him 30 emails or something like that, he was very patient with me I can tell you that. He always answered me very quickly and was always ready to assist in any doubts I could have.

I went there to do a MEP and ME/IR ratings. After being there I decided to do the MCC also. I can't find the exact words to describe them; I just can tell you that they are very very professional.



I paid 5500€ to do the MEP and ME/IR ratings. Very good price but it's even better when I tell you that it includes housing, transports, and final exam and examiner fees. To summarize, you only pay 5500€ for everything. Just tell me where in the world you can find this.

You have the chance to fly modern airplanes. They only have 4 years more or less. Even the Diamond's DA40 are now being replaced for Diamond's 40 NG equipped with Garmin 1000. The instructors are young but very experienced; my instructor has TR and experience on the citation and TR also on the Airbus. Other instructors have also TR on Boeing's, etc. The chief instructor is a former military pilot, a very experience pilot with thousands of hours in fighters like the mirage, etc etc (Respect).


I was anxious and nervous when I started because I only had 5 hours or so of flying in the last 2 years. I was going to a different country, different culture, different instructors, and different airports. Now I can conclude that it all went very well thanks to them. I can only recommend them. If it was now, I would do all my training with them.

Good luck for everyone at Egnatia Aviation. I hope I see you soon Dimitris but not for the revalidation. ;)


T.C.

[GradSolutions]

I am really surprised how bad things are being said about Egnatia Aviation. I have just come back from the school couple days ago. I did my tour, saw accommodation, talked to instructors, students and manager, flown one of their DA40's and I found it very good school for the price they offer. Despite the fact that Egnatia Aviation is based in Greece, the company is very much a European modern enterprise based in Greece due to the good weather, the lower costs and the country's geographic location. The Egnatia Aviation customers are from all over the world, 23 nationalities in the first 2 years. If you want more information you can search on any search engine.

[CY333]

I did my ME/IR and I have ONLY good words to say about them....

[pilot jack]

Hi guys,

I looked at Egnatia Aviation, but with a bit more research I found Hero Aviation based in Kalamata. Went to visit and was very impressed!!! Got my PPL done and was very happy. You should check them out, they are offering some good deals on all inclusive packages, which I was unable to find anywhere else. I think far too many people are heading state side with the promise of good weather etc, when the truth is you can find all this in Greece and it ends up been much cheaper.

[737-NG]

Question to you guys who have been to Egnatia. How are the ATPL theory courses? Are they taught by a native english speaker? Is there any CBT?

[SVoa]

The ATPL ground school is done by an ex British Airways pilot actually... His name is David. He started there about a year ago. They use Bristol books and CBT.

[Wassim.bk]

Hi everyone , i m applying for the IKAROS course at Egnatia , so please be free to share your experience with Egnatia , and any other useful information. thank you.

[SVoa]

As I have stated in my post above I did my CPL/ME/IR/MCC at Egantia from Sep-Dec 2010. I also did 60 hours of hour building there. Was a very pleasant surprise. They have experienced instructors, very friendly environment, fantastic accomodation facilities and overall GREAT value for money. I actually regreted not doing my training from the beginning there. If you want any specific details on the flight school, feel free to PM me.

SVoa

[AirbusLover]

well stated guys.now tell us how many of the cadets have been employed and the airlines they work for.

[delmouzos]

Hi All,

Here are some official Statistics of Egnatia Aviation:

As of 30th September 2011 (operation commenced July 2006)

Commercial Students Graduated: 534
Flying Hours: 38.500
Fleet: 7 Aircraft (2 AT3, 1 DV20 Katana, 2 DA40NG, 2 DA42NG)
Origin of Students: 48 countries
Graduates with Flying Jobs (known): 487
Graduates with Airline Jobs(known): 413
Airlines that recruited EA Students (known): 44

Examples: Aegean Airlines, Olympic Air, Qatar Airways, Emirates, BMI, Wissair, Astra, Easyjet, Ryanair, Royal Air Moroc, Air Arabia, Qatar Emiri Airforce (Boeing C17 Globematser), Sky Express, JetStar, Pegasus Airlines (Turkey) and many more.

Generaly we do not publish the names of the companies that our students are working for as the job is not taken only because of the quality of the training of the Organisation but mostly because of the high quality and high dedication of our students. It's mostly their achievement. We only supplied them with the necessary qualities and skills to get it.

If you need some more extensive info please contact the school. [email protected]

[SVoa]

AMS, You can see in my earlier posts that I mention how I conducted my PPL in the UK at a modular FTO and my initial plan was to conduct all my training there. However the standard of training I found to be NOT so good. It took me 4 months to finish my PPL in minimum hours, and took me 3 months to complete 60 hours of hour building, CPL/ME/IR at Egnatia... Do the maths...

The training does not depend on the country in which it is conducted but by the mentality and standard of the FTO.

I can guarantee you of a few things from Egnatia Aviation:

1. The standard of training is very high. This means, IN DEPTH breifings AND debriefings are conducted before and after every flight. Instructors make sure you understand what you did wrong and ALSO what you did well. They constantly ask you theoretical questions during every flight, not so much as a test, but more as a reminder of "if you dont know it, go read on it so you know it in the future". I personally learned alot from my instructors there, in addition to what the ATPL books said.

2. The area is GREAT for flying. Airspace is not restricted at all. Three airports in the immediate vicinity of LGKV offering very nice IR flights without waisting time in the cruising phase of flight. LGTS, LGAL, LGLM and just a bit further you have LGSK which has very interesting approaches.

3. The student to instructor ratio is very good. Your instructor will know you very well after 1-2 flights and they have time to answer questions and even some 1 on 1 talk about any questions you might have outside your "booked" slots. You wont get any of this, your slot is over so leave me alone! The instructors there LOVE their job.

4. You will be very comfortable. Accomodations is not only very nice, but actually way above normal standards you would expect from a flight school.

5. The environment is very friendly and the whole team there will make you feel right at home.

6. When you fly, they mean business.. They are very strict and demand a high standard from all of their students. You will never feel that ANY of your flights are boring or routine. Every flight has a specific purpose which you know in advance because they provide you with manuals which tell you exactly what you will do on each and every flight you fly there, and what is expected of you in every one of those flights.

7. Value for money...

[SVoa]

To answer your questions AMS:

Students per instructor - There are times when there are quite a few students.. However the head of training does a good job of spliting them up evenly. At the most busy time I was there my instructor had myself and 4 other students if i remember correctly. However 2 of them were conversion students so they didnt stay too long. You have your instructors complete attention.

ILS Approaches - LGTS is about a 40 minute flight in the DA42, which is where you do the ILS approaches. Its a busy airport so you get radar vectored in which is a nice experience. This airport has two runways, 16/34 and 10/28. 16/34 is used 99% of the time and it has an ILS on runway 16. 34 has a very interesting VOR/DME appraoch. I did 3 ILS's in my IR on the airplane.

Yes you do fly in the airways. On every single IR flight.

I did my training there from september until december 2010.

Some additional information that I found very important at Egnatia. There are no hidden costs what so ever. What they quote is what you pay. Daily expenses (food, drink...) are very cheap, so you wont be using up alot of money. Aircraft are brand new, with all instruments working at all times. Maintenance guys are very kind and professional and wont hesitate to help you out if you need anything, or to answer a question you may have.

[Alzandor]

I know that Egnatia is still a relatively young school but I was wondering if in the past 5 years it has managed to make any close relationships with airlines. Im guessing it must be getting better known now in Europe and I would like to know if you guys can help your Atpl students with finding jobs once they are done. Appreciate any feedback I can get on this guys.

[delmouzos]

Dear Alzandor,

As I mentioned earlier, Generally we do not publish the names of the companies that our students are working for as the job is not taken only because of the quality of the training of the Organisation but mostly because of the high quality and high dedication of our students. It's mostly their achievement. We only supplied them with the necessary qualities and skills to get it.

In addition to the above I would like to mention that aviation is a very small world. Everyone knows everyone. Egnatia is trusted by very important people of various airlines for their own children. For example we are currently training the son of the recruitment manager of a very well known company of the Middle East and the son of the Flight Operations Manager of another very well known European airline. For obvious reasons I cannot mention the names of the companies. However, I will mention again that we do not scream that we offer students job because we do not. I don't know anybody that REALLY does. What we do (and I can safely say that we do it well) is to prepare student with the necessary skills and values to get a job by THEMSELVES.

I am just being honest.

[alphajet01]

hi everyone ,

im planning to do atpl in house in egnatia , i know that school have some solid feedback about flying part but i never heard about the atpl ground school part , so if someone can give me any feedback about intructors teaching the ground and the quality i will appreciate

tks for help guys

[alphajet01]

no news guys for the ground school there :rolleyes:

[piper88]

Hi guys some information about instructor for atpl full time, flight instructors, accomodations and life at egnatia? thanks

[Pilotlv3]

Hello to everyone who read it. :)
As already you can understand i am planing to start training at egnatia. I am planing to take IKAROS package . I have read alot of testimonials about this school and want to say that what they offer for 54.400 Euros + additional 2.250 for MCC that's realy sounds very attractive for me. But one thing what frighten me is licence wich i will get after graduation. As i heard Greece licence isn't very quoted in EU countries.

If anybody can give some advice will be very appreciated.
P.S.
Apologize for my bad english.

[Jerry Lee]

You can easily convert it to CAA UK because you live in the UK.

[gornet]

Never heard of this school before, but sounds great to me! What about those conversion ? It is that easy to get through for all EU citizens? (I am polish)

Can you recommend some other flight schools from zero to fATPL worth considering in southern part of Europe? Spain ? Italy? Croatia?

[Jerry Lee]

If you are a EU citizen no problem, you can go anyhwere in Europe!

[9FLYJET9]

anyone did any kind of course from this school recently ?

[aviofreek]

Hey Gornet,

There is a school in Croatia worth mentioning. It's Panonnia Pilot School. relatively new in professional training, but had trained quite a bit of PPLs around here. I was there a year and a half ago finishing off my PPL. Done all the training, but due to ignorant pricks and gob****es in Croatian Civil Aviation Authority didn't do Skill Test.
The school also had a few issues with Cro CAA, so they moved their office to Slovenia and been working under Slo CAA ever since (which is full EASA, unlike Croatia). The whole flight training and everything is done in Croatia (which makes it cheaper), but the license is Slovenian which makes it full JAA/EASA.

[9FLYJET9]

How much will it cost to get a jaa cpl at this place?
I hold a faa cpl..
And roughly how much time ?

[AfricanStormrider]

Hi guys

I've been reading the threads about Egnatia and it all sounds very promising (as I'm considering going there). Does anyone have any current views on how flying in Greece (and Egnatia) compares to somewhere in Spain (like Jerez)?

The reason why I ask is both schools have been recommended to me and I'd like to make an educated decision.

I know both countries are struggling financially - any idea how that could affect the flying schools (i.e. any way to check how they are doing financially). I'm just concerned about losing money if they close while I'm in training.

Thanks :ok:

[zigandzag]

If you go, watch the exchange rate, as we are all aware, they have now been bailed out twice - maybe next time they might not be so lucky!

[AfricanStormrider]

Hi Zigandzag

Do you mean Greece or Egnatia was bailed out twice?

Thanks

[CY333]

Bulls...., they just had some issues a few years ago after they bought a sim.

Did my IR/MEP and MCC there and recently they got a heavy contract from the middle east.

I recommend them more than any other school I have seen.

Amazing location, great DA 42NG and Katana , friendly staff and examiners and the rice includes accommodation.

Downside is the mosquitoes that drive you nuts.

[Anunaki]

Africanstormrider;
I think he meant the country,Greece,as we all know it,are facing the biggest financial crisis in its history and they were pretty much 'bought' by Germany,through a couple of bailouts. Egnatia Aviation isn't struggling financially due to UAE cash injected to it,they just signed a deal with Qatar airways and they are a private company anyway.
The only issue you might have is the HCAA once you pass your skills test,they will take their time to issue the licences but that's not the schools fault,although the admin lady does her best to sort the issue out.
I was very happy with the school,only just finished there and I had points of comparison(my ex school was a joke).I know you'll read a lot of negatives from 2007 but the school changed,the people,the planes,etc. For that price,which by the way there's no hidden extras,I would recommend the school:ok:

[Anunaki]

More expensive?I'm surprised as when I looked at schools I didn't manage to find any cheaper...don't forget prices are in euros which is falling and has the potential to devalue even further if Greece defaults again.Plus their prices include accommodation,internet,transport to/from school,books,uniforms,etc...you only need money for food,while in UK you would have to add that up,which isn't cheap...!:ok:

[ZuluZuluAlpha]

Sorry you are right it does work out cheaper than doing it in the UK. I hadn't looked carefully on their website & didn't really take into account the exchange rate, test fees & hire etc being included. They have modern aircraft for training i.e the DA42 & I haven't heard a good word about these in terms of reliability etc, can anyone shed any light please!?:confused:

[Anunaki]

Zulu...the planes are awesome,comparing to the PA28's I've flown in US these diamonds were like porsches,never being grounded due to technical reasons,the only negatives I can point out is the fact that there isn't many planes,although their fleet will double by the end of june I was told!It took me 3 months to do what I had to do but to me it was ok as there isn't any jobs anyway :}
Another negative (if you see it that way,debatable)regarding the school is that the town is reaaaaally boring mate,but it won't cause many distractions when you need it most,and you'll need to put a lot of study into it.:ok:

[Juzir]

Hey guys,

I'm going to Egnatia Aviation on July to start my 0-fATPL training. Would be nice to know if somebody else is going there also. I've heard only good about the school, looking forward to go there.

Greece situation in general might be bad but at least everything is cheap :} I just wonder am I going to like living there, I've heard that the town is really small.

[Anunaki]

Zulu..it took me 3 months but they have more planes now and have been recruiting instructors for the past month!so you should get it done quicker,plus the summers in Greece actually include sunny days comparing to ours,so you'll be alright :)

[ZuluZuluAlpha]

I don't think so Anunaki, says on their site you need 150 hours to start CPL, 100 as PIC whereas UK FTO's want 70 hours PIC to start, maybe it's false economy after all....!?:confused:

[Anunaki]

I think you misunderstood what's on the site,I went there with less P1 time but I had 150 hours,I just had to pay for the hour building left.You can go but then they will charge you more than what it's quoted,reason it says you'll need the 100 PIC before you go(if you want THAT price)got it?this other place probably will tell you to go with less hours but along the course you'll need to get those hours done,so they'll sell it,or over-sell it,so be careful.From the 200tt you'll need the 100PIC and 150 to start right,so what's the point go through with the CPL,then when you're ready for the skills test you won't have the hours done?unless most of their students don't finish with minimums..or they work that way so the instructor can maximise his/her earnings(like in Florida,where the instructors and the school would ALWAYS find a way to make you fly more).Don't know mate,I can only share what I experienced..

[Juzir]

Hi guys,

I posted earlier here about my plans going to Egnatia Aviation for starting my 0-fATPL training. Well, it seems that local politicians are still arguing about everything and can't get anything done. Now they're going to have a new election on June and it will be the turning point, are they going to stay in euro or fall out to economical chaos. I don't have any idea what such situation could do for flight training there etc.

What you guys think? Should I just keep waiting and see what will happen or should I just start looking other school. I've found Intercockpit in Germany, they look really good so maybe I have to change there if inevitable is going to happen :hmm:

[Anunaki]

From what I understood,they haven't got a choice,stay in the Eurozone and face the measures or leave and face similar measures to get back to competitiveness, Drachma would devalue at least 30% and the country would struggle to reinstate confidence from investors. After all, they have failed dramatically to meet their promises to their people and their financial commitments to EU/investors,so who trusts a Greek politician?

Mate,I feel sorry for them but I can see why they are in that mess and you'll see when you go there(NOT EGNATIA) I meant the country,their productivity levels are low(at least up north) e.g the HCAA only opens in the morning(state job he?!)and they are very hard to reach as they can't be bothered to pick up the phone.There are other fields in Greece under the government umbrella that people get paid alright to do nothing,the old case of unfair distribution of wealth,people thinking they are "the great nation bla bla.." and end up milking the system not caring where the money comes from.You'll go to the beach and their beautiful girls well dressed,guys in nice cars etc,when they earn so little...We all had a share of spending recklessly but they are up to another level.But in fairness to them,Their high and political class are the culprits,quite ironic that the land of Democracy had little say when, for example, the minister of defence was buying defective Helicopters and Submarines at half price and declaring them as new,keeping the cash to himself,or when the Olympics in 2004 turned out to be a financial fiasco,and goes on...
This is not an attack on the Greeks, I like the place and the people but they had to face reality now,the EU is not after them,we are all struggling and who wrote the austerity measures they are facing was the government,Sarko and Merkel just agreed to what they had to pay back.
If it's going to affect the school?off course...how?I can't tell you exactly,but assume they would fix prices according to their new/old currency, if it happens like it happened when Argentina went bust,expect the prices to soar over there and a lot of civil unrest.I believe Egnatia is owned by a group of foreign and greek investors,I think they will be OK tho,but take it with a pinch of salt as I am not a insider nor a economist :ok:

[Alex Whittingham]

I was discussing this today. The general view was that if Greece go out of the Euro the drachma will devalue, making Greek products cheap to outsiders paid in euros and imported goods expensive for Greeks. That may give Greek FTOs a competitive advantage overall.

[Dogfactory]

I was serching for clues about Egnatia and immediately jumped over the 2007 posts, as I believe that in five years the school had its chance to improve.
My first contact with them has been good enough. They responded within reasonable time and cleared my mind of doubts other schools were not able (or not willing) to clear. So far, from my research with other schools, Egnatia is the only one that includes EVERYTHING, except meals (though they can arrange that as well).
Concerning the country's recession, I believe if they come out of EU it would just be better and we'll save some money. I speak from Italy and we wish so much, oh yes we do, to go back to the old currency. However, I don't believe the school's service would suffer if the country bails out... training might become cheaper!
The only thing that concerns me is their English. I would prefer to learn in an English-speaking country, but it's also true that they have instructors of different countries... and the English on their emails was perfect :)
By the way, Tessaloniki is not Athens, it's a more "rural" part of Greece... so it may be better.:cool:

[AirbusLover]

as a greek,i second what anunaki said about the greek situation.people are so greedy for everything,they spend their money on expensive clothes,cars etc which are far higher than their bugdet.Most of the times,they lend money from the banks for new houses and every other thing that will get them a step closer to the "higher" class.

the good thing is that since the crisis,we 've changed lifestyle and have continuously been decreasing our personal outcome.i have to clarify though that this is the way we raised up.we know that is not the right one,but this is it.This current economic situation is due to politicians promises and lies that "there is money" and many more which made us this way after 80s when greece joined the eurozone.Did i mention what a greek politician life consists of?
Houses,cars,no taxes,chicks,ships,planes and so on.And for these reasons,we will never ever stop blaming them.

Dogfactory,
as far as egnatia goes,there s nothing to worry about.the level of english,at least inside the school,is quite good.all lectures are of course in english and everyday conversations between instructors and students(even if they are both greeks) are in english as well at a very acceptable level.there is no radar in Kavala,so tower may be confusing some times.The only negative is HCAA who will reprint your licence after 3 months!!

[Dogfactory]

Thank you Airbuslover for the assurance that english wont be a problem at Egnatia. Though, can I ask you why it takes so long to issue the licence? Is it only burocracy? Will they solve the problem, say, one year from now?

[Juzir]

Hi,

I just called to Egnatia Aviation to ask about their situation. They said that they don't have any assets in Greece nor any transactions with the local banks. They, or he said me that if Greece will fall out from euro they will keep everything same as usually. The school will only use euros and the tuition will remain same.

Also he advertised how great everything is and they are expanding the school all the time. Well, you can't say if you haven't seen it yourself, I'm going there on July so I can give some feedback then ;)

[ZuluZuluAlpha]

Cheers Juzir, look forward to your feedback...

[Foppa]

Juzir, I'm really looking forward to what you've got to say about Egnatia.
I've been bombarding them with emails to get a clear picture and I must say it sure looks good. I haven't confirmed a spot yet but I'm aiming on starting in November.

[Olivez]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to pass on my personal feedback regarding the services offered by Egnatia Aviation as I did my IR conversion from FAA to JAA in March 2012.

First of all, this is an excellent school: the planes are clean and well maintained, mainly DA-40s and DA-42s. Although their number is relatively small compared to other bigger European schools it didn't pose any problems of availability.

The staff is excellent and helpful. The overall administration in terms of paperwork and diligence was far above the level one can see in most schools.

The CFI and the HOT are amazingly available and friendly yet serious and professional when required. The instructors were also nice and professional on average. I had a limited time commitment to complete my conversion and was given at least two hours every day between sim and flights. The examiner was also fair and attentive to the fact that students aren't full time pilots per se (and as such are subject to errors) and, rather than partially punishing for a non sense issue, he would provide advice and guidance towards to the right action to do, which I felt would put anyone in confidence.

All in one, the prices are extremely competitive if one takes into account the full package inclusive of the accommodation, which I must say was very comfortable (free wifi). If you drive, rent a car as it is a must have. For the rest, the region isn't the best party place ever and is probably more enjoyable in summer.

I have no problem recommending the school to anyone and provide more details if requested. I will definitely go back there for my rating renewal.

I just hope Egnatia will not become the victim of its own success with too many students for a limited number of aircraft, which could lead to longer waiting time to fly.

[Alex Chatzirafailidi]

Thank you very much for your good words Olivier. This is the reward we strive for everyday. Our ex-students being happy for the choice they made to train with us.

I want to assure you that what you fear won't happen. We have a fleet of 9 aircraft currently and we are expecting another 4 the next 2 months. We will do our best to continue delivering the high standards training you talked about always with the student in the focus.

Thank you very much again

Alexandros Chatzirafailidis
Course Coordinator
Egnatia Aviation

[FrodoSK]

Is somebody starting the ikaros course in September?

[peterh337]

I have never trained at Egnatia but have visited them twice (2009, 2011) on the GA fly-ins held at LGKV every so often, and spoke to them regarding the FAA IR to JAA IR (http://www.peter2000.co.uk/aviation/jaa-ir/index.html) conversion (which as the URL shows I eventually did here in the UK, so I could use my own aircraft).

My impression was that of a well organised school which ran smoothly. I also got the impression they would not spend countless hours on the UK's anal obscession with NDB holds and NDB approaches :)

So based on what I know I would concur with Olivez' post above, and I recommend Egnatia for someone wanting to do an intensive away-from-home piece of training.

The area is truly lovely and is the best place I have ever been to for hanging out for X weeks. Yes, do hire a car...

On the minus side, their email comms have been poor to nonexistent so if this has improved that's a big plus, because few people will part with 4+ figures without getting stuff in writing. For example I never got a written confirmation that they would accept the 7 UK IR exams. The 14 UK ATPL exams were no problem but I wasn't doing that. The other minus was that they absolutely required the wearing of the full pilot uniform, which in the heat.... :)

[Khozai737]

Does anyone have any experience with icao-jaa distance learning conversion course? I need to do cpl/ir conversion. Can I do both in single skill test?

Any answer would be higly appreciated.

[uberwang]

Try Dexe air at LOAN in Austria. They wont have maintenance issues with their location and flying in Austria is great. No idea about prices etc but as someone mentioned above, go with the modular route.

[RedBullGaveMeWings]

What's the name of this flight school in Austria? I cannot find anything on Google...

[portos8]

Just a thought on flight training in Greece.

Greece is at the heart of the Euro crisis, and even though things at the moment look calm, last summer the country was on fire with violent demonstrations and strikes. Nothing fundamentally has changed in this situation and there is still a real threat that Greece will be forced out of the eurozone, defaulding on its gigantic foreign debt if it refuses to make reforms and pay its financial obligations.
What will happen when it is kicked out of the Euro zone? The country will descent into chaos , not able to import fuell, with long lasting general strikes that will shut down airports, CAA and ATC. Flightschools will not be able to pay their €€€ financed aircraft, which will be confiscated by the leasing companies, banks will go bust with any funds paid into the accounts of the flightschool, not being recoverable. Riots, violence , possibly even civil war.
As most of the flightschools ask for big parts of the training to be paid up front you can get seriously burned financially, with your career in disarray.
The FTO's might look fine on the surface, but you will be investing in Greece as well. This brings with it incredible risks of loosing all your money.
I strongly suggest that you consider these risks when deciding where to start your flighttraining. There are many places in Europe where you will be able to get the same deal (all EASA approved training) without the potential hazards of a complete economical and social meltdown of the country where you are doing your training.

[RedBullGaveMeWings]

The key is never pay up front. NEVER!

[B2N2]

Correction, never pay large amounts
Obviously 500-1500 deposit is normal in the industry.
But correct, do not be tempted by any additional discounts if you pay 50% or 100% upfront.

[500 above]

Egnatia are not answering e-mails at the moment, or for the last few weeks.

[SuperAce]

I finished my 0-Hero training a couple months ago at Egnatia Aviation and I am still in contact with pilots who train there now. During my time there I met many students who complained about how there were no proper reviews of the school, so here it is:

Originally Egnatia was quite a small scale flight school which only did Modular training and for the most part had its issues but nothing major. However many things have changed over the course of the past year including its attitude towards its students/paying customers. Also they have raised their prices a lot on everything recently.

PPL: A lot of students are not flying as often as they should be and this was going on the entire time I was there due to bad scheduling. In turn where a lot of students over a year ago were finishing in 2-3 months max are now finishing in 5-6 (regardless of the students performance) due to the lack of organisation and general lack of regard for wasting your time and money.

Ground School: This I would say is one of the biggest draw backs as their ground school has no real structure or organisation again and has no one with real experience running or instructing in it, if your looking for a quality ground school you need to look elsewhere.

Hour Building: Their new prices are very high for the kinds of planes you are flying and once again due to the bad scheduling it can take much longer then it should, they also dont have many planes available due to all the new students they have. You wont be able to use your hours you paid for to go on long trips and actually enjoy all that money your spending. There are a lot of places in the states and Europe where you could get better rates and have the plane to yourself so you can finish up your hrs quickly.

CPL/IR/ME: This is actually pretty good and is probably the only part of your course I would recommend Egnatia for. The training is decent and its usually done within the predicted time frame.

Integrated Course: First of all as I said they don't have a real ground school and its seems like something that was thrown together last minute by amateurs that goes for the integrated course to.

Transportation: This was also a huge issue as they had a tiny bus made for eight people so a lot of times you would find no space left to get to school or back home when you needed to.

Location: The accommodation is decent the internet has some major issues was very slow and sometimes wouldn't work at all, just be warned Keramoti is a village in the middle of nowhere and has nothing to do except in the summer. Learn Greek because hardly anyone can speak English.

HCAA (Helenic Civil Aviation Authority): These guys are extremely slow at processing licenses and you could wait from minimum of 3 months up to 6 months for your license to be issued.

The school also gave priority to QAC (Qatar Aviation College) students over their own students which led to major delays for hour builders as they were not being scheduled in order to please students who were not even from Egnatia. Also just in case people were wondering: Egnatia does not have any affiliation with any airlines and fATPL from it makes no difference then if you were to get your license from another JAA school

The general attitude of the school to myself and everyone else I knew was that whenever you had serious issues such as not being scheduled to fly/ problems with your instructor/ ground school etc was one of disregard and a lack of respect. Instead of taking you seriously as a paying customer they would almost come across as if they were doing you a favor by even talking to you.
This goes especially for the Head of Training, Chief Flight Instructor and Chief Ground Instructor as well as the Board of Directors.

Conclusion: The world is flooded with aviation schools competing with each other for paying customer, if you are interested in becoming a pilot do your research talk to the students of the school even visit the place if possible so that you don't regret your choice after all you are paying a lot of money.
Best of Luck!

[appfo09]

SuperAce, i know the school, i was there and everything you say is absolutely true and still remains the same.

I had and have many friends there and all are saying exactly the same think.

Your post includes everything good and bad points and nothing is missing !!

[peterh337]

Greece is at the heart of the Euro crisis, and even though things at the moment look calm, last summer the country was on fire with violent demonstrations and strikes. Nothing fundamentally has changed in this situation and there is still a real threat that Greece will be forced out of the eurozone, defaulding on its gigantic foreign debt if it refuses to make reforms and pay its financial obligations.
What will happen when it is kicked out of the Euro zone? The country will descent into chaosI don't think so.

Greece has never been "on fire". Only the business in bits of Athens. Outside, there is nothing happening.

Businesses who get paid in Euros will just carry on operating in Euros, should Greece revert to the Drachma.

That is how the "EU but not Euro" zone runs. Czech Rep for example. Croatia too, and that's not even in the EU.

Greece is never likely to do what the communist bloc did which was to actually criminalise the possession of foreign currency.

Transportation: This was also a huge issue as they had a tiny bus made for eight people so a lot of times you would find no space left to get to school or back home when you needed to.That may well be but you can hire a car for next to nothing, and then you have transport, which means you can pop down to the bars in Kavala and with your uniform loaded with gold braid you will be pulling the local birds ;) Oh must also have a proper poser watch, but in Greece you find fake 2" diameter watch shops on every corner :)

Location: The accommodation is decent the internet has some major issues was very slow and sometimes wouldn't work at all, just be warned Keramoti is a village in the middle of nowhere and has nothing to do except in the summer. Learn Greek because hardly anyone can speak English.Not my experience, having been there a few times, and to Greece many times. English is spoken well - much more so than in e.g. Spain where a lot of people (outside the immediate tourism trade) are quite often plain rude.

Re internet - probably true because the other students are downloading movies ;) For €20 you can pick up a COSMOTE 3G data SIM which gives you about 2GB. Forget WIFI; it's a waste of time.

I am not suprised Egnatia are not so good for PPL training but one wouldn't go there for that. One would go there for a concentrated IR package, where you fly until you are done. Same as people go to Arizona, but you cannot do a JAA IR in Arizona :)

And if doing an IR or IR conversion, the HCAA is not involved. The examiner just signs the papers which are presented to the UK CAA. I have some notes here (http://www.peter2000.co.uk/aviation/jaa-ir/index.html).

[Bdavide]

Hello
I'm intentioned to go to Egnatia Aviation for convert my FAA CPL with IR and ME.
I would like to know your opinion about this school.
Have you been there for convert your licence, if yes what can you tell to me about it?:) How many hours did the conversion take?

Thank you

[mike_3]

Iwould go to Skies in Thessaloniki, at least you will finish on time!

[Mintheskies]

Hi,

I've got a friend who's looking for a place where to convert his FAA licence, anyone has any update about how is the flying school doing, and what type of training they provide for a conversion ?

Mike_3, what do you mean by finishing on time ?

[FlyingDoc7]

Greetings !

I currently live in Kavala and in January i will be starting modular ATPL with Egnatia. I have many friends in the aviation industry of Greece that consider Egnatia the Top school in Greece and one of the best in Europe hands down, especially Pilots that fly for Greek Airlines. I also happen to know personally people from inside the school, that also tell me only good words. I cant understand all the malignant comments posted herein. When a new business starts there are always problems till it catches a regular rhythm. As far as i am concerned Egnatia aviation is truly one of the best schools in Europe. Not to mention that it does have direct affiliation with flight schools in the middle east that pool pilots to major airlines. Many of the graduates of Egnatia are already F/O's in Greek and European airlines. Of course before you go on and decide, do your research and ALWAYS visit a school, and talk thoroughly and in depth with the CEO about everything you expect from them. If they do not meet your expectations you will know. Its common sense

[vasili88]

Hello guys, I am considering starting my 0-ATPL training very soon and egnatia is one my choices high on the list. I have some very simple questions. This thread is 7 years old, with some really dissapointing posts in the earlies (back to 2006,2007 etc). Has anything changed since then? I know they have an integrated course now, Jet Orientation Course included, MCC, and their training has gone up to 15 months, seems like thery trying to make their course like the UK Big 3's ones.

Here you can see what I have read about them:
http://www.pprune.org/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=8785851
http://www.pprune.org/professional-pilot-training-includes-ground-studies/235814-egnatia-flight-college.html
Egnatia hour building to ATPL [Archive] - PPRuNe Forums (http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-266377.html)

The most serious thing that I can not tolerate is the attitude. I've heard about bad behavior etc etc. In addition, on the downside I've heard about not responding on emails etc. But let's be honest, I've already sent an email to CTC 4 days ago and I have no responce neither.

So, all these bad comments is back at 2007 etc. Is there any recent ex-student to ensure they have changed? And what about mr Leberacus? Someone wrote about bad attitude and behaving to students and instructors, like children. Well this is so abstract characterization, and I would like to hear some examples.

Hey FlyingDoc7, I will visit the place anyway :cool:

[appfo09]

The best thing to do is visit the school, speak with other students, come back home and make up your decision. That's what i did back in 2012 and finally it was my best option.

All the best !

[Dodidi]

I am currently a student at Egnatia and having been here for over 10 months I can honestly say it is a fantastic school. The Ground School has a proper schedule and four dedicated ground instructors allowing the school to run three ATPL Ground School groups at any one time. The instructors always go the extra mile and will always give extra help out of class to anybody that needs it. The schedule itself is planned to best fit the HCAA exam sitting schedule which is only released two months in advance however Egnatia does make necessary amendments such as having Saturday classes to give students the option to go to a sooner exam sitting. The actual flight departtment and dispatch is very smooth and efficient with students being scheduled pretty much everyday to fly and there is more than enough instructors to cope with the increasing amount of students the school is getting. The aircraft are very well maintained by the in-house Maintenance team. I am on the Integrated Package and overall I feel it is fantastic value for money compared with other FTO's as the school provides students with free Accommodation and Transportation which is a big bonus as well as internet and pretty much all the necessities you need apart from food. As for anyone interested in Egnatia I would advise to visit the school before making any decisions but overall I feel this is definitely the best flight school in Greece and one of the best in Southern Europe.

[bugsmasher79]

Any recent updates on Egnatia?

[Arena_33]

Does anyone have an opinion or any experience with the full time ATPL theory at egnatia?

[Rohanbomb]

I shave spoken to a lot of students in Egnatia and I am happy to say that they are all employed with an airliner and were extremely happy with their training . In fact, I have just applied for Egnatia and will be joining somewhere around September.

[TheSkiingPilot]

I shave spoken to a lot of students in Egnatia and I am happy to say that they are all employed with an airliner and were extremely happy with their training . In fact, I have just applied for Egnatia and will be joining somewhere around September.

Egnatia provides very good training and ground school classes. The instructors are all very helpful. The package they offer is very attractive. But Egnatia has one big fault, which is very important. As soon as you have finished your training with them, they don't want anything to do with you. They give no professional advice with finding jobs, what the current situation is, what to do after training...they don't help you at all. That's because they are very business-oriented, and once you have finished training, it's bye bye from them. They care more about the money than the students. I have spoken to a few people who dropped out of Egnatia to go to other flight schools because the company was very persistent with making excuses to take more money from them. One of the people is still in a legal battle against the flight school about trying to get back some of his wasted money. The only way Egnatia's training package is of good value would be if you completed all the training first attempt with no delays. They perceive themselves as the best flight school in greece and one of the best in Europe, but in all honesty i don't think that's true.

[georgez]

The forum, like in this case, is full of untrue speculation by suspect sources aiming to discredit one school or another with lies. This needs to finally stop! Anybody seriously considering a school should contact the school directly and listen to the advice or comments of students that completed a similar course recently. Any other ‘advice’ is in my opinion bull**** that needs to be ignored and discouraged. In case of a large, well established school like Egnatia there are plenty of ex-students working around the world (1,500 in Egnatia’s case), so it should not be too difficult find one to talk to. :)

[parkfell]

Georgez has raised the usual issues when those who can afford a full time course decide they want to learn to fly.
On one hand they are the customers, and yet the ATOs are there to train them for the big bad world of aviation.

The customer must visit the establishments, speak not only to the staff, but to the customers(students) unfettered by management in hover mode.
The customers must recognise that they need sufficient grey matter to cope with the learning process, and be fully prepared for the aptitude testing.

The ATOs need to be fully transparent and open with the potential customer as to their potential to succeed. If the customer is assessed in the grades of "training risk", then the customer really needs to make an informed decision whether this style of course, or perhaps modular is the better option.
The ATOs also needs the courage to say NO, which all reputable establishments of course do, and not take money for what might be regarded as false pretences.
Regular progress checks are necessary to give additional support, as required, to those who are struggling.
Honesty is the key to success together with mutual respect.
Whilst all parties want a smooth passage throughout the course, it is critically important that the customer reads the legally binding contract very carefully. SIGN IN HASTE AND REGRET AS YOUR LEISURE.
Invariably it will be gently weighted in favour of the ATOs, in particular with regard contract termination, and what the customer will get back as a refund should STOP be called.
Go into any such relationship with your eyes fully open.

[monviso]

I would suggest to look around, there are really good options out there. At least, you will not end with someone hitting the window of the classroom and whoever has to understand got the message!

[Flyingdog84]

Hello everybody, anyone here that did or is doing the atpl exams in greece? I would like to have some feedback..... thank you