Info about GA flying in Malta
 

I'm on Malta for two weeks end of August - Sept and would like to get in some flying while rest of family bakes by the pool. Why fry when you can fly??
I see there are a couple of flying schools but these are apparently for professional training only ... no obvious GA plane hire options.


Anyone have any advice ... info?

There are 3 schools at Luqa - Diamond Flight Training, European Pilot Academy and Malta School of flying; all do training for PPL. I don't know what their membership and checkout requirements are, but the ATC environment there can be "challenging" so they may be reluctant to let you solo hire.

Having a holiday home in Malta, I'm a frequent visitor and know a few locals. One has advised me that he uses Diamond for aircraft hire. Since I'm only in the early stages of my PPL, I haven't had any experience flying in Malta yet.

The chap who uses Diamond has offered to take me for a flight next time I'm there (possibly September time) but this will probably too late to offer you any better advice. I could ask him for some more information for you?

There are a few topics on this forum from a few years back regarding flying in Malta but I'm not sure how relevant they are now.

Best way is to e-mail a few of them: Malta School of Flying, European Pilot Academy and Diamond Aviation.

You should be able to get checked out and then permitted to fly solo at any of these schools. Diamond Aviation only operates a single DA40 and so availability can be poor (unless you fancy hiring a DA42 at 400 EUR+ per hour!) and is of course a bit more expensive than your typical spam can.

I believe that European Pilot Academy have a Tecnam P2002 which is probably the cheapest on offer (around 150 EUR per hour Dual off the top of my head...) and Malta School of Flying have a C150 and C172. You'll need to e-mail them for prices as they don't advertise them online.

A few other things to consider:

ATC is ok - they speak fluent English and clearances are easy to understand. The only problem is that during peak periods (i.e. 5 arrivals per hour!) they consider themselves a bit like Heathrow and so VFR traffic is often stuck orbiting out to sea for 10 minutes at a time waiting for a chance to land. There is a cross-runway 05/23 so provided that the cross-wind isn't out of limits then using this instead of the main runway can speed things up.

Forced landing - let's hope it doesn't happen but places to put down are sparse. Agricultural fields here average around 150m long and so it's either that or the sea.

Weather - typically CAVOK from June-September. Early morning mist and sea fog can occur. Mediterranean can get quite strong winds from time to time, including in the summer months it's not uncommon to have a 15 cross-wind. Flying after 10am or before 5pm can be unbearably hot inside the aircraft whilst on the ground!

Sightseeing - Let's face it, Malta is tiny. You could lap the entire island, including Gozo, in around 1 hour. Consider flying a couple of hours Dual with an instructor rather than trying to get signed off? After you've seen all of Malta and Gozo, your next nearest land is Sicily (100 miles) and don't even get me started on the ATC over there..

I think that's all but let me know if I can be of any more help.

Source: I'm an expat and did my MEIR out here.

European pilot academy
 

I have had some business dealings with the Falcon group who run the European pilot academy.

These dealings were positive and I see no reasons why the EPA should be otherwise.

I would recommend getting something sorted by email because whoever you use it takes a bit of time to get airside passes sorted with the airport authorities.

Anyone flying in Malta able to give updates on this dated info

I will be there in April and would like to meetup/fly some

Rob

Professional Aviation Training Academy/Malta School of Flying recently updated their website and it no longer refers to hiring. However, hiring is still available and their Facebook page ( www.facebook.com/maltaflying ) mentions the availability of a Tecnam P2002, Tecnam P92, and Cessna 172 for hire.

I'm told there is a microlight strip and club on Gozo nowadays.
There was an airfield built on Gozo during WW2 in the build up to the invasion of Sicily but it was bulldozed soon after the invasion and no trace of it remains.

Not that it matters much, but as I read the media http://gozonews.com/1454/those-magni...jor-mark-said/ it is rather that they managed to get authorisation to use the helistrip of the local fire brigade. The article is 10 years old, though.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/36.02745/14.27198

The strip is still present, however it is not in use for GA. It's a glorified helipad; really short. Most flight schools use it as a spot for PFLs.

I'd recommend Diamond Aviation. Nice, new aircraft however slightly more expensive than the competition.