Gestair Flying Academy

[xCossie]

Hi guys,

Does anybody know anything about Gestair Flying Academy in Portugal.

Do you know of any pilots who trained here. I was told by a rep of their company they have trained over 4500 pilots but I have yet to hear of someone who has trained there.

Any information anybody know about this school would be helpful.

I'm finding it hard to get information online.

Thanks

[ccrruuzz]

Hello there.

I from Portugal and I took my pilot license on another school but my brother and some friends of mine went to Gestair Flying Academy.
What kind of information are you looking for?

[xCossie]

Hi,

Could you tell me if they provide a high quality of training? What their Fleet is like, instructors?

Do they take a lot of student in and then leave you there for day with getting flights etc.

What are they like with money, do they hound you for large sums of cash?

Just in general what was your brothers experience of training there?

I'm thinking of going here to do CPL an MEIR and MCC. Iv heard that pilots who do IR there arnt up to standard, which in only rumours so Im trying to get some real information about them.

Thanks

[Biggles Boyle]

Hi Cossie,
I recently visited Gestair in Portugal I was their for 5 days and took their assesments, i was very impressed and hope to start training with them later this year their facilities are excellent their aircraft are quite new c172s with g1000, they also have quite well maintained c152s and a bunch of sims. As for their instructors the ones I met they were experienced some were x TAP pilots. You can pay monthly for the integrated course which I think is very well structured. I think this best advice I can give is to visit them.
Hope this helps

[kells1]

Biggles,

I have being looking at Gestair myself, as of yet I have yet to hear of anyone around these shores training with the above. Do they have links with any such airlines?

[Scone190]

The college I am currently doing my degree in has a link with them they sound and look impressive and the lectures have nothing but praise for it but when I look for information on there graduates and how many of them actually get jobs that where I am left short with answers

[kells1]

Scone,

I am in the same boat as yourself, finding it hard to get in touch with a graduate from the above. Have yet to get any info on cadets who have got a job after training with the above. Any replies greatly welcomed.

[Scone190]

I recently was at a pilot training convention and Gestair were present .I have to say that they seemed very impressive and one of the better organisations at the show.I also met a guy who completed my degree and has since gone on to start hes training at Gestair and he had nothing but praise for them . He said its so professionally organised out there no messing about with training or anything and he also said they can provide accommodation for 300-350 a month and its excellent. He also mentioned that the aircraft are in good condition and that they are relatively new. I myself am planning on going out this summer to visit Gestair to see it for myself . But all I got was good news.

[RedBullGaveMeWings]

They are good.

[CS-DDO]

I know Gestair very well, so you can PM me if you want.

In general here's the picture:

Nice, well maintained aircrafts, beautifull facilities in Tires aerodrome, wich is situated in a high commercial traffic density TMA. So a Very nice picture for the potential students to see.

There's quite a large fleet, and at the moment not a lot of students, so you should get to fly as regularly as you're supposed to.

The aerodrome is in Tires, wich is not expensive to live in, and very close to Cascais wich is a beautifull village. Also about 30m from Lisbon, the capital.

The instructors in general dont have commercial flying experience and are very much underpaid, so forget the ex TAP pilot instructors as posted before.
But mostly are good profesionals!

The working conditions there are not good, so the people aren't happy...you can take your own conclusions from that...

I dont know about the prices, it used to be around 60.000€ with 150hrs, but they have new programs with different prices, so you should ask them about it.

They are a big pilot making machine, it works, some people are happy with it some aren't...

[justmaybe]

Guys, ask Gestair (or any other provider for that matter) the relevant questions:
How many people have you trained for and obtained a fATPL in,say, the last 2 or 3 years?
How many of those were Integrated and how many were Modular?
How many of those people have secured a piloting job in an Airline?
How many have as yet not secured such a job?
You can think of other relevant questions, but direct them to the provider. If you ain't getting the right answers, hang on to your dosh, or postpone your loan!

[mark_c]

I was impressed by them at the Flyer Exhibition in Dublin and have enquired some more, but the sales man is very very slow to get back to me with any information. Im looking for a place to start my CPL and IR in Jan/Feb and this place is on the shortlist. I think i might head over towards the end of the summer to check the place out. Is there any current students on here that can share some info, positive or negative? Thanks

[maxgolstreet]

I am also looking towards doing my IR and MCC with them, but I emailed about 5 or 6 times to them on different adresses and I did't get any responses. Maybe you know any contacts I can use to communicate with them?

[fulminn]

what kind of advertising is this:sad:

i know 5-6 guys from gestair, no one is working...4 get invited by FR and rejected.....:\

please don' troll the forum!

[Klimax]

Would anybody have experience with the Flight Instructors Course at Gestair?

Also does the Cascais/Portugal facility do the instructors course?

[Klimax]

Wha a USELESS organization Gestair flight academy appears. Not reponding to email enquiries is not creating a good image of a place on would consider putting in money for education. I sent a email request for details, regarding FI course, and have not received any reply since one month.
Bad style Gestair. :yuk:

[Scone190]

Hi
I visited Gestair in the summer and I thought it was quite impressive ! They are moving to there own airport just a bit outside of lisbon . Could be open now I'm not sure but it was nearly ready to open when I was there . I am just wondering if anyone knows here why they rebranded recently from Gestair to GAir ( Flight School | GAir Training Centre (http://www.gairg.com/) )?

[OhNoCB]

I believe (might be wrong) that the FTO was sold away from the Gestair group to a new investor who is keen to inject when required to make it a leading European FTO.

[janrein]

G Air seem to be operating on Ponte de Sor, Cascais and Bergamo.
Gestair seem to be operating on Cuatro Vientos, Cascais and Bergamo.
(as per the respective websites)

Really?

[Scone190]

Yes Gestair / G Air when I was out there showed me the plans for the new place in Ponte de Sor and my god was it impressive !! Only they operate out of it because they own it and built it . Apparently they have big plans to become one of the leading fto's ....very ambitious if you ask me !

[OhNoCB]

Janrein, again this isn't insider info it's just what I understand of it, but I believe that the Gestair website may just be out of date somewhat as they way I understand it, when the dust settles the FTO section of Gestair will be no more having wholly been bought over.

[janrein]

Thanks OhNoCB

Split-off had been rumoured, so I wondered how the split had fallen, might also be a whole take-over indeed, we will see.

[Klimax]

Very unprofessional outfit. Was contacted recently by a Spanish sales person, who obviously did not bother to read the essence of of my enquiry. I've been almost twenty years in this business and whenever I encounter unprofessionalism like this it makes me sad. Gestair's flight school is a disgrace. My advise - by all means seek other venues!

[OhNoCB]

A shame if they have gone downhill. I had some dealings with them (albeit only the Portuguese lot) and they were extremely professional. I was very impressed by it actually.

[Klimax]

I'm certainly unimpressed with their level of correspondence and don't really see why I would spend further resources on them,
when they are incapable of simple tasks.

[Inlovewithflying]

Guys,

Gestair Flying Academy has been bought by G Air Training Centre, Both the Spanish and Portuguese part.

The Portuguese part will be operating soon from a brand new Airport (so Cascais will be over soon), which is owned by G air, providing them maintenance, cheap fuel, a couple of different IFR approaches and a less restricted area to train (might be an advantage, but could be a disadvantage too), although they main course is an integrated course withh about 150 flying hours (minimum requirement to pass) which is of course totally absurd.

The Madrid one however is more suitable to follow as they have their integrated course with 200 flying hours. (175 hrs C172 (Including 10hrs of RG) and 25hrs PA34 (seneca III)). You'll perform plenty of simulator hours on basic simulators, but as well 25 hrs on an Alsim FNPT I. The MCC is given on a A320 FNPT II full flight simulator. It is based on Madrid 'Cuatro-Vientos' Airport and you'll be able to reach all cities easily within 4 hours of flying.

I went to the Madrid one, when it used to be Gestair Flying Academy, but in my last remaining months it became G air Training Centre with some nice changes. They finally put a Dutch instructor in charge of their flight operations (Definitely a big improvement, telling you it of my experiences), but they do have some contracts with Volotea airlines and request your CV after graduation sometimes to be sent to Volotea (instead of doing it via CAE)

Although It might not be the best flying school in Europe. It provides you with a good quality with the amount you have to pay them. It is definitely the best choice after FTE Jerez in Spain.

[Inlovewithflying]

Ricko020,

Took them years to finish? Well I guess it is mainly their own faults as any student will be finished in around 2 years. I've been flying with G air for two years and I can tell you that those aircrafts might be a bit old, but they perform as they should perform. Having a mix of Garmin display's and basic instruments is the best way to achieve with nice instructors.

The Mentality of Spanish/Portuguese people might not suit you, but people need to learn to handle to deal with them.

Although being grounded in winter for months is completely :mad: . The weather is almost 48 weeks good to fly, although their might be a pain in the ass in the Madrid one with those mountains as wind could be out of limits.

Of course it might take longer to graduate, but that's mostly due to a loss of many experienced instructors. It happens everywhere and a flying school can't just replace them within a day as it is hard to find experienced flying instructors!

There are so many factors that even could delay your flight training, even with CTC or Oxford/CAE.

At least G air treats you as a person and not like a factory number like CAE does, because they have way too many students.

[SabrinaG]

I want to finish my PPL in January in Portugal or Spain and am looking for reliable weather as well as price and good training? Anyone got any ideas?

[LPVL]

Hello everyone,

My intention is to share my recent experience with GAir.

I have approached GAir for a modular ATPL, since I already hold a PPL license.

Did my E-learning ATPL based on BGS with them. They left the tutoring role to a subcontracted company, and yet in the end everything ran smoothly and did it sucessfully.

Proceeding to next module - Night Rating - this started to go completely off track.
- First flight scheduled (Aug15), the instructor didn't know the sylabus, neither what was my aviation knowledge or background - During the briefing he asked me "so what we are going to do in this flight?"
In the debriefing they didn't even had my folder ready, so they wrote in a paper some notes...

- Then, since August they would never schedule a single flight until November :ugh:, despite my insistence to perform the flights in a row as most as possible.
They kept telling me that they already sent the request to the operations and soon I would be contacted by them! Never happened during 3 months!

- I finally got one flight scheduled for mid November.
I took then the opportunity to ask them if the course is still valid (normally the course is open and has a specific validity and then closed by the aviation autority).
Their answer was: Sorry we forgot to submit the papers to the authority so your course is not even open!

At the end of the day, I lost 3 months of my life with that damm school.

I told them to forget that I will be leaving. I left and now enrolling in another school.

My understand is that they keep their focus on the MPL students coming from the Gulf, not caring about the remaining ones...

[CL215]

PANAMEDIA flight school, in Valencia, Spain. Highly recommended

[Misterhey13]

Hi Cossie,
I recently visited Gestair in Portugal I was their for 5 days and took their assesments, i was very impressed and hope to start training with them later this year their facilities are excellent their aircraft are quite new c172s with g1000, they also have quite well maintained c152s and a bunch of sims. As for their instructors the ones I met they were experienced some were x TAP pilots. You can pay monthly for the integrated course which I think is very well structured. I think this best advice I can give is to visit them.
Hope this helps

Hey! How are u doing? I would like to know how hard Is Gair's entrance assesment? How is the math and physics? What do we need to know about maths and physics?
Thank you so much

[Phantom12]

@misterhey13

I know a couple students that went to G air for their practical phase. They said that the Compass test was pretty easy. I could probably give you a very accurate idea of what it looked like if you're interested.