Baltic Aviation Academy
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Baltic Aviation Academy
Hi everyone,
I am new on this forum and since I'm starting my training soon,I wanted to ask if anyone has recent feedbacks on Baltic Aviation Academy?
Do you know which CAA are they related?
feel free to message me in case.
Thanks in advance
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I am new on this forum and since I'm starting my training soon,I wanted to ask if anyone has recent feedbacks on Baltic Aviation Academy?
Do you know which CAA are they related?
feel free to message me in case.
Thanks in advance
_____________________________________
You can’t use the Private Messaging system, add url links or images until you have an established posting history.
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Guys, simple question. Since I wasn't accepted to any of the Cadet programmes at BAA, is it worth picking up studies as 'independent pilot'? Is it real to find a decent job later on? I'm in fear to invest big money in the studies and later on have the best offer of 1.5k Euro/month netto salary (which I can make as an Uber driver without any special medical requirements, expensive licenses, etc) at some low-end airline with bad Terms & Conditions...
Thanks
Thanks
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Guys, simple question. Since I wasn't accepted to any of the Cadet programmes at BAA, is it worth picking up studies as 'independent pilot'? Is it real to find a decent job later on? I'm in fear to invest big money in the studies and later on have the best offer of 1.5k Euro/month netto salary (which I can make as an Uber driver without any special medical requirements, expensive licenses, etc) at some low-end airline with bad Terms & Conditions...
Thanks
Thanks
School reputation is the biggest scam in aviation industry all over the world and you don’t need to spend €40k extra for that. Try modular way in Hungary and Poland then you will be holding your ATPL in 7-10 months at a cost of €45k tops.
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Hi everyone,
I am new on this forum and since I'm starting my training soon,I wanted to ask if anyone has recent feedbacks on Baltic Aviation Academy?
Do you know which CAA are they related?
feel free to message me in case.
Thanks in advance
_____________________________________
You can’t use the Private Messaging system, add url links or images until you have an established posting history.
I am new on this forum and since I'm starting my training soon,I wanted to ask if anyone has recent feedbacks on Baltic Aviation Academy?
Do you know which CAA are they related?
feel free to message me in case.
Thanks in advance
_____________________________________
You can’t use the Private Messaging system, add url links or images until you have an established posting history.
They are the biggest scam in Europe. Plane accidents, angry employees, cursing students... Avoid it with your life.
Last edited by av8tor396; 24th Nov 2018 at 10:49.
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I must say that I agree. BAA is not the school you want to choose unless that is the only choice you have. I've been trying to stay positive but now when I am about to finish it, I feel it's time to admit to myself that this has been a bad choice. If I could go back in time, I wouldn't even consider it. There are many reasons for that. Most of the instructors are simply not good, the staff is terrible, I am talking about the management. It is obvious that they don't know what they are doing and in some cases they've been treating us with no respect. Now they have opened a new base for training in Spain. When you hear Spain, it sounds great, but it is clear that they have made a mistake since that produced massive delays, people were asked to return back home, etc. Some of the key people have decided to leave the academy, so you get the point. It is just not so good. You may think ''Yes but they will give me a job at the end''... If I would be in the same situation again, I would choose modular for 40ke and simply apply for various jobs. Don't make a decision based on some unjustified fear that you will not get a job unless you choose BAA. It is just stupid. Good luck!
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It is nice to read all positive/negative comments about BAA therefore prospect students can get a clear vision. The problem here is students can't find a person in charge to share their problems and frustrations. Once you start your training you are all left alone. There are many problems in BAA and students have difficulty to get explanation from first hand. Always some excuses from BAA side but never know the story behind therefore students talk within each other to understand the situation which leads often to a misinformation. There is lack of communication and transparency between school and students. In addition, I cant stop to mention there is significant lack of skills of office workers and management.
For instance, school can invest on new FFS but they can't hire enough number of Flight Instructors then training delay. Or another example of bad management; school acquired 4 new aircraft during this summer however all arrive at the end of the flying season therefore there was quite some delay due to lack of available A/C. Also, students send to new Spain base to start their training or finish the remaining part but without flying any hours they sent back to home for several weeks of waiting due to some reasons. The list can go longer.
It might worth to choose BAA if you are selected for Wizzair Scheme however for remaining 2 airline partner (where new admissions to third one is stopped) I would recommend you to try different training organization.
For instance, school can invest on new FFS but they can't hire enough number of Flight Instructors then training delay. Or another example of bad management; school acquired 4 new aircraft during this summer however all arrive at the end of the flying season therefore there was quite some delay due to lack of available A/C. Also, students send to new Spain base to start their training or finish the remaining part but without flying any hours they sent back to home for several weeks of waiting due to some reasons. The list can go longer.
It might worth to choose BAA if you are selected for Wizzair Scheme however for remaining 2 airline partner (where new admissions to third one is stopped) I would recommend you to try different training organization.
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Hi Guys, I'm a modular student ready for the MCC. I was wondering if someone can give me some feedback on their MCC courses being done on the 737CL?
They offer a course with 25h ground school and 20 hours SIM training. Anyone knows if it's good quality?
Greetings!
They offer a course with 25h ground school and 20 hours SIM training. Anyone knows if it's good quality?
Greetings!
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Hi Barmn
I did it there and I wasn't happy. There were some lacks during the theory (for example abbreviations DODAR/NITS were put on PowerPoint presentation but not explained at all, hopefully I saw that in RYR topic here) and there is an important lack of breifing before sim (you do your 20 hours of SIM, of course, but you are not properly prepared for an efficient session).
After BAA I went to another school for JOC certificate and saw there how MCC and JOC courses should be organized
Caution, it is 737CL Full FIXED simulator in BAA, not FFS.
I did it there and I wasn't happy. There were some lacks during the theory (for example abbreviations DODAR/NITS were put on PowerPoint presentation but not explained at all, hopefully I saw that in RYR topic here) and there is an important lack of breifing before sim (you do your 20 hours of SIM, of course, but you are not properly prepared for an efficient session).
After BAA I went to another school for JOC certificate and saw there how MCC and JOC courses should be organized
Caution, it is 737CL Full FIXED simulator in BAA, not FFS.
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feedback
Here is my feedback :
ATPL :
Probably the most standard part of the training. After all, you only need a classroom and an instructor. Nothing special.
There is an obvious large range of competency among the theory instructors. Some are efficient and will reply to all your questions. Others don't even know what they teach. But to be honest, the school reacted accordingly to the feedbacks and change of instructor if necessary.
Most of the work is done at home anyway, when you study on the atpl database for the CAA exams.
Now let's get straight to the main point, the flights: Run away from that school.
Run.
Away.
They have enrolled for those last 2 years too many students they are not able to train. Every 2 month comes a new class of students. The school has now around 240 guys to train.
Many of them are on « stand-by » because the school doesn't have enough instructors and planes to train the students. So many of them are waiting now at home.
There is currently a 5 months delay between the VFR phase, and the IFR phase.
And you will understand very soon why, if you read below.
The Fleet :
· 6x Tecnam P2002 currently (for VFR – 1st part)
· 4x Cessna 172 (for IFR – 2nd part)
· 1x Tecnam 2006 (for Multi-engine training, last part)
That fleet is clearly undersized for that school. Do the maths:
240 students. 11 planes.
Even small schools that nobody knows have more planes.
6 P2002 currently in Spain. Today only 2 are available.
Among the 4 C172, 2 are permanently on maintenance (1 is even new, but has already a Garmin fault. It's been on maintenance for weeks...).
Today there 2 C172 out of 4 are available... 2 C172 for the whole school...
Let’s compare with another big school:
4x C172 ==> FTE Jerez has 20 IFR aircrafts.
1x Tecnam 2006 (Multi-engine) ==> FTE Jerez has 6 Multi-Engine aircrafts –
Even Air Bartolini in Poland & F-Air in Czechia (2 other “tecnam eastern Europe schools”) own 2 P2006, and they are way smaller.
The school is very very greedy on investing in new airplanes.
Consequently: much much much waiting before you fly. And when you start flying, there will be a gap of 1 week, 10 days before the next flight.
Some students really rub elbows to get the slot instead of you. Some guys literally harassed the administration and the dispatcher to get the simulator/plane slots. It’s just clientelism, no planning. Such an attitude should be banned in a pilot school. That is not a quality we want to experience in a cockpit? Pushing the others under the train, to save his ass?
Instructors:
VFR instructors attribution is a lottery. You can get a serious one, or a young one who cares only about building up his hours and chat with his friends on his phone during flights. They all are just fresh out of their CPL.
Those poor FI are so low paid, that they resign and run away to see a greener grass somewhere else. They treat their FI like they treat their students: with no respect.
FNPT2 (IFR simulator):
Only one for the whole school.
Yes. You read correctly.
Only one old FNPT2 for all the students starting IFR.
Old, crappy. It sometimes reboots during an IFR session for no reason.
I told you. Greedy school.
Organisation :
The WORST point of BAA.
It's a total mess. Nobody knows what they do. They got no information. They don't communicate. They don't plan. They don't reply to serious emails, especially if it's an uncomfortable topic.
They created an email address connecting the students straight to the administration: don't bother, they choose to ignore if the topic is embarrassing.
There was absolutely no planning about the flights in Lithuania. You just go see the dispatcher, who barely knows about the next day. Come back at the end of the day to get some info for tomorrow.
The administration even told us: « you have to come directly to the briefing room to get information day by day »
Is it so hard to update a planning online of the upcoming flights?
They have apparently changed that in Spain, now there is a daily PDF about the flights for the day after.
But during 1 year, we got a message on whatsapp, sometimes in the evening at 10pm, that tomorrow morning at 6am you gotta be at the airport.
After the theory, they came to us with a very amateur excel file, about the upcoming months of our training.
No math about the number of FI & planes. They, as always, promised us that everything is gonna be okay, smooth and easy.
Bingo! Everything went wrong: lack of planes, lack of instructors, no back-up plans.
The last dirty trick they did to students: promising them to fly the multi on the 5th of November, so those guys went to Spain (paying transportation, finding an accommodation, etc at their own expenses of course)... When they arrived, they were said they would finally start the 8th. Then the 13th. Today is the 28th of November and they are still waiting.
Most of them came back home. 2 weeks in Spain for...nothing €€€
That’s a total of 2 months waiting for them.
Same story for the VFR students now, they arrived in Spain too early: flat rent, food, waiting… usual mess
They don’t even realize that students have no money.
The situation:
The current students at BAA are all delayed because of the school.
Students complain to the administration, but it’s useless. There’s not enough plane, and they don’t want to buy new ones. Period.
The school doesn't plan to buy new aircrafts, neither hire new instructors. So that mess will keep going on for 2019. Sorry about that.
They can put a lot of pressure on students to pay, but the global philosophy is clear: once you pay, they don't care about you. It’s all about marketing.
My opinion:
With that money, you can get a much better school. Especially now, the market is thriving, go for a quick modular course, save money and apply to airlines as soon as possible.
Do the maths. Minimum 9 months of living expenses, waiting to fly, etc. And I don’t even talk about the lack of organisation and respect to their students which will drive you crazy.
Their 24 months ATPL is 72,000€, compared to 40,000€ in a 15 months modular course.
Make the right choice.
Those « cadet » programs at BAA don't mean anything: you can get a job at each of them without being a cadet :
Smallplanet is falling apart.
Smartlynx deal is a huge scam. Their cadets had been betrayed by the airline during the training.
Wizzair is accessible from any random school, especially if you come from an Eastern Europe country. Wizzair also changed the conditions of employment during the training of their cadets…
Their marketing and communication is, in contrast, very professional: they make road shows all over Europe; they organize events for nice pictures of students with stripes on the shoulder watching airplanes, they are very active on all social networks...and ban any uncomfortable comments.
You see that picture on their main page of a blond nice girl and a male student, on their facebook events picture?
The girl is actually an administrative employee who put stripes, a tie and sunglasses for the photo-session. The guy was an atpl student with 0 flying hours. It's legal, sure. But it’s a metaphor of lies that school is expert in.
And I don't even talk about those YouTube videos; the actors showing an emergency procedure in an A320 don't even have their PPL or any commercial licence.
There are plenty of serious and competent schools out there. Have a look on German, Swedish, Spanish, French, Polish, Czech, Irish schools.
For 40,000€-60,000€ you can get a very serious training in a reasonable time, and being respected.
BAA is a very greedy and incompetent school.
I'm sorry the current students of that school, but there is no clear positive sign of evolution.
ATPL :
Probably the most standard part of the training. After all, you only need a classroom and an instructor. Nothing special.
There is an obvious large range of competency among the theory instructors. Some are efficient and will reply to all your questions. Others don't even know what they teach. But to be honest, the school reacted accordingly to the feedbacks and change of instructor if necessary.
Most of the work is done at home anyway, when you study on the atpl database for the CAA exams.
Now let's get straight to the main point, the flights: Run away from that school.
Run.
Away.
They have enrolled for those last 2 years too many students they are not able to train. Every 2 month comes a new class of students. The school has now around 240 guys to train.
Many of them are on « stand-by » because the school doesn't have enough instructors and planes to train the students. So many of them are waiting now at home.
There is currently a 5 months delay between the VFR phase, and the IFR phase.
And you will understand very soon why, if you read below.
The Fleet :
· 6x Tecnam P2002 currently (for VFR – 1st part)
· 4x Cessna 172 (for IFR – 2nd part)
· 1x Tecnam 2006 (for Multi-engine training, last part)
That fleet is clearly undersized for that school. Do the maths:
240 students. 11 planes.
Even small schools that nobody knows have more planes.
6 P2002 currently in Spain. Today only 2 are available.
Among the 4 C172, 2 are permanently on maintenance (1 is even new, but has already a Garmin fault. It's been on maintenance for weeks...).
Today there 2 C172 out of 4 are available... 2 C172 for the whole school...
Let’s compare with another big school:
4x C172 ==> FTE Jerez has 20 IFR aircrafts.
1x Tecnam 2006 (Multi-engine) ==> FTE Jerez has 6 Multi-Engine aircrafts –
Even Air Bartolini in Poland & F-Air in Czechia (2 other “tecnam eastern Europe schools”) own 2 P2006, and they are way smaller.
The school is very very greedy on investing in new airplanes.
Consequently: much much much waiting before you fly. And when you start flying, there will be a gap of 1 week, 10 days before the next flight.
Some students really rub elbows to get the slot instead of you. Some guys literally harassed the administration and the dispatcher to get the simulator/plane slots. It’s just clientelism, no planning. Such an attitude should be banned in a pilot school. That is not a quality we want to experience in a cockpit? Pushing the others under the train, to save his ass?
Instructors:
VFR instructors attribution is a lottery. You can get a serious one, or a young one who cares only about building up his hours and chat with his friends on his phone during flights. They all are just fresh out of their CPL.
Those poor FI are so low paid, that they resign and run away to see a greener grass somewhere else. They treat their FI like they treat their students: with no respect.
FNPT2 (IFR simulator):
Only one for the whole school.
Yes. You read correctly.
Only one old FNPT2 for all the students starting IFR.
Old, crappy. It sometimes reboots during an IFR session for no reason.
I told you. Greedy school.
Organisation :
The WORST point of BAA.
It's a total mess. Nobody knows what they do. They got no information. They don't communicate. They don't plan. They don't reply to serious emails, especially if it's an uncomfortable topic.
They created an email address connecting the students straight to the administration: don't bother, they choose to ignore if the topic is embarrassing.
There was absolutely no planning about the flights in Lithuania. You just go see the dispatcher, who barely knows about the next day. Come back at the end of the day to get some info for tomorrow.
The administration even told us: « you have to come directly to the briefing room to get information day by day »
Is it so hard to update a planning online of the upcoming flights?
They have apparently changed that in Spain, now there is a daily PDF about the flights for the day after.
But during 1 year, we got a message on whatsapp, sometimes in the evening at 10pm, that tomorrow morning at 6am you gotta be at the airport.
After the theory, they came to us with a very amateur excel file, about the upcoming months of our training.
No math about the number of FI & planes. They, as always, promised us that everything is gonna be okay, smooth and easy.
Bingo! Everything went wrong: lack of planes, lack of instructors, no back-up plans.
The last dirty trick they did to students: promising them to fly the multi on the 5th of November, so those guys went to Spain (paying transportation, finding an accommodation, etc at their own expenses of course)... When they arrived, they were said they would finally start the 8th. Then the 13th. Today is the 28th of November and they are still waiting.
Most of them came back home. 2 weeks in Spain for...nothing €€€
That’s a total of 2 months waiting for them.
Same story for the VFR students now, they arrived in Spain too early: flat rent, food, waiting… usual mess
They don’t even realize that students have no money.
The situation:
The current students at BAA are all delayed because of the school.
Students complain to the administration, but it’s useless. There’s not enough plane, and they don’t want to buy new ones. Period.
The school doesn't plan to buy new aircrafts, neither hire new instructors. So that mess will keep going on for 2019. Sorry about that.
They can put a lot of pressure on students to pay, but the global philosophy is clear: once you pay, they don't care about you. It’s all about marketing.
My opinion:
With that money, you can get a much better school. Especially now, the market is thriving, go for a quick modular course, save money and apply to airlines as soon as possible.
Do the maths. Minimum 9 months of living expenses, waiting to fly, etc. And I don’t even talk about the lack of organisation and respect to their students which will drive you crazy.
Their 24 months ATPL is 72,000€, compared to 40,000€ in a 15 months modular course.
Make the right choice.
Those « cadet » programs at BAA don't mean anything: you can get a job at each of them without being a cadet :
Smallplanet is falling apart.
Smartlynx deal is a huge scam. Their cadets had been betrayed by the airline during the training.
Wizzair is accessible from any random school, especially if you come from an Eastern Europe country. Wizzair also changed the conditions of employment during the training of their cadets…
Their marketing and communication is, in contrast, very professional: they make road shows all over Europe; they organize events for nice pictures of students with stripes on the shoulder watching airplanes, they are very active on all social networks...and ban any uncomfortable comments.
You see that picture on their main page of a blond nice girl and a male student, on their facebook events picture?
The girl is actually an administrative employee who put stripes, a tie and sunglasses for the photo-session. The guy was an atpl student with 0 flying hours. It's legal, sure. But it’s a metaphor of lies that school is expert in.
And I don't even talk about those YouTube videos; the actors showing an emergency procedure in an A320 don't even have their PPL or any commercial licence.
There are plenty of serious and competent schools out there. Have a look on German, Swedish, Spanish, French, Polish, Czech, Irish schools.
For 40,000€-60,000€ you can get a very serious training in a reasonable time, and being respected.
BAA is a very greedy and incompetent school.
I'm sorry the current students of that school, but there is no clear positive sign of evolution.
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Hi Dukaster,
Thanks for the extensive opinion about BAA. I wasn't anywhere close to thinking it would be this bad. I'm in contact with Simtech and will most likely follow an MCC there, they seem to have a good reputation, good reviews and are quite renowned in the aviation industry. After all, as you mentioned earlier, it's probably the most standard part of the training but having good instructors makes the training in the end.
Thanks for the extensive opinion about BAA. I wasn't anywhere close to thinking it would be this bad. I'm in contact with Simtech and will most likely follow an MCC there, they seem to have a good reputation, good reviews and are quite renowned in the aviation industry. After all, as you mentioned earlier, it's probably the most standard part of the training but having good instructors makes the training in the end.
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@Dukaster thanks for sharing your opinion. All the things you mentioned is not more or not less, it is very precise evaluation and information.
Only thing I want to add is that they should have 11 Tecnam 2002 maybe only 6 of them actively used or ferried to Spain. As you mentioned currently 5 months delay in flight training which is expected to be even longer because school policy is to give a dates to students which can't be materialized, just to absorb the pressure on management. However, closer to that dates, students often receives a mail or sometimes they hear via via from other students that the given date is postponed even further date.
Only thing I want to add is that they should have 11 Tecnam 2002 maybe only 6 of them actively used or ferried to Spain. As you mentioned currently 5 months delay in flight training which is expected to be even longer because school policy is to give a dates to students which can't be materialized, just to absorb the pressure on management. However, closer to that dates, students often receives a mail or sometimes they hear via via from other students that the given date is postponed even further date.
Last edited by uberfly; 29th Nov 2018 at 13:50. Reason: additional info
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It was a fact not a positive vibe towards BAA, just a coincidence with the timing. I'm upset about this school as much as everyone here.
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tecnamflyer;
I mentioned nowhere that it was solving something. I just stated what I saw on eurocontrol today. I would be the happiest if it was solving something. We're all in the same basket !
I mentioned nowhere that it was solving something. I just stated what I saw on eurocontrol today. I would be the happiest if it was solving something. We're all in the same basket !
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I agree with Dukaster. The "managers" (mainly training but also sales) provide very bad support. They will most certainly always reply with "I don't know". The funny thing is that they apparently have a "2h" policy by which they mean that they have to send you an email back within 2 hours. Not necessarily with a solution but at least so that you know they have received it. I can say that this 2h policy is 2 weeks in reality, if you are lucky.
The training managers focus more on posting pictures and videos from the office on facebook and instagram instead of trying to solve problems which students have. This is mainly because people with 0 or close to 0 experience in aviation and organization are assigned to such positions. Best example is when a girl from the front desk got promoted to a training manager (a training manager of a flight school).... Such things happen only in BAA..... I mean maybe she is a nice person, but totally not for such position considering the fact that she doesn't know to say hello when you enter the office and starts laughing in your face as soon as you ask more than 1 question.
Question for the Dukster:
Could you please explain more what do you mean by " Wizzair also changed the conditions of employment during the training of their cadets… "?
Thanks
The training managers focus more on posting pictures and videos from the office on facebook and instagram instead of trying to solve problems which students have. This is mainly because people with 0 or close to 0 experience in aviation and organization are assigned to such positions. Best example is when a girl from the front desk got promoted to a training manager (a training manager of a flight school).... Such things happen only in BAA..... I mean maybe she is a nice person, but totally not for such position considering the fact that she doesn't know to say hello when you enter the office and starts laughing in your face as soon as you ask more than 1 question.
Question for the Dukster:
Could you please explain more what do you mean by " Wizzair also changed the conditions of employment during the training of their cadets… "?
Thanks
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I would strongly suggest to voice your opinion under the recommendation/review section of their Facebook page. Even if it is under an “assumed” name.