Baltic Aviation Academy

[Idontlikeusername]

Guys is the situation so bad?
Do you know what happened to the cadet who they finished their traing? At least have they been hired?

[mikael777uae]

I do subscribe to all above complaints! But literally all. The greed and careless is of a big size in BAA.

There are some great instructors and people in management but the top, the one taking decisions are blinded by success and new kids coming just for the Wizz there.

They are so unprofessional to talk 30’ at the graduation that they both many new SIM-s for TR(millions of €) but they do not have 100k for a FNPT. People waiting for 4 months at home doing nothing because of it, it’s just a shame.

I’ll not repeat all that said above as I just subscribed to every word, I’ll just try to make a conclusion: BAA, you know that you messed up things, fix it!!! don’t just promise small things, COMPENSATE your students with some tickets home (not to Vilnius as it makes no sense) but HOME, because they have to travel home for waiting. Cover their expenses for the accommodation! You will loose a bit of money but you will show for real that you take responsibility for what you are doing.

Unfortunately for for now I have to advise all my friends and other wannabees to go somewhere else and to not together tricked even by cadet programs as it turns to be worse and more expensive than having a fast and cheap modular program and then enjoy a few month with your beloved ones or on an island with the saved money and do the application for the airline.

For the colleagues, try to stay positive and don’t forget that we are a power if we’re together! If they continue to bullsh!t us this way or God forbid we exceed contractual 2y then we ALL go friendly to court! and not just do bla bla in here. Not to say I'm sorry to that fools that don’t even have brains to see what’s going on and to write a line here so that sick bunch of people wake up and take the situation in control.

[SantaSanta]

TO THE GUYS THAT ARE IN SPAIN AT THE MOMENT

I am hearing many different stories about the current situation. I would be grateful if you could inform me about the following:

- How is the VFR part unfolding? How many times or hours do you guys fly? How many planes are in use?

What is the current state of these planes? Are they safe to fly at least? Are there enough flight instructors at the moment? How is the quality of these flight instructors? Is there a good communication between instructors and students? Are ​(de) briefings done properly? How is the atmosphere?

- How is the IFR part going? How long are the current delays for the FNTP? What about the Cessnas? How many are in use at the moment and in what state are they? Are there enough IFR instructors?

- What is the communication of BAA to you guys concerning this situation? What have they been telling since October? Are there any guys who did a part in Lithuania? How was the situation there concerning the above?

- For guys that are in the last stages of the training, how many months have you been in training? Are you completing the training within the terms stipulated in your contract? Are you satisfied with the flight training you had so far?

Do you personally know any cadets or students that graduated and that are actually working and being successful in their position?

- Do you guys have the impression that things are improving (maybe now, after the complaints on this forum)? Do you guys see any concrete measures being taken by BAA to resolve the situation?

Thank you very much for your objective reply!

A worried BAA student

[Dukaster]

@Idontlikeusername : to make it short => yes, the situation is that bad.

About the recruitment, it depends on airlines:

Some Wizzair cadets finished in July, they are already F/O. They belonged to the very first group, which didn't experience the problems of fleet, FI, management etc
Others are delayed because the lithuanian CAA is making troubles.

Only one Smartlynx cadet is doing his Type Rating now.

But most of them are still waiting to finish their training.
As a reminder, they were planned to start initally their type rating in July and September.
We are in december, and most of them are either waiting for their licences, or waiting for the Multi-Engine + MCC....

The group which finished VFR is now delayed to April.
Better and better. Bravo BAA for your counter-performance at any stage of the training

Avion Express cadets started much later. They are barely starting VFR.
Small Planet cadets are in an embarrassing situation, they don't belong to any airline anymore (Small planet went bankrupt).

Keep away from that chaos.
There are so many reliable schools out there.

[av8tor396]

Originally Posted by TheEdge

Hey av8tor, any feedback from this students meeting ?

Nothing happened!

[Idontlikeusername]

Do you also know what happenef to the guys who were Cadets with Small Planet now that the company has failed?
Did they offer to them an alternative solution or have they just been left on their own?

[cocoacompadre]

Baltic Aviation Academy - The Truth From Within

I have noticed in the previous few days a lot of activity on here regarding BAA Training, mainly from fellow colleagues at the school unhappy with the situation there. I have experenced the school for a while now and believe I can give good insight into how things are ……‘falling apart’.

To start with the things that are good with BAA…..

- The buildings in Vilnius are nice, clean and modern
- There is a foosball table and water machines
- The Head of Ground school (Peter) is one of the nicest people you will meet


As you can see, BAA have all the important aspects of running a flight school covered , so lets talk about things which are not so good.

- Instructors - I cannot say the same about every instructor but there are a large number of theoretical instructors who are not very good at what they teach or have very little experience in what they teach. BAA do not care, they pay instructors very little and refuse to get good permanent instructors as they come with additional cost. Do they care that the instructor cannot speak English, NO. Do they care that most of the instructors that come from Soviet backgrounds teach their old and inefficient methods, NO (I think all students know who I am meaning) We had one instructor who was ‘fired’ for being so bad (although he reappeared like some sort of magic trick as a flight instructor 6 months later), I believe another instructor was fired for being an alcoholic (something which I sympathise with, as I also need a lot of alcohol when dealing with BAA)

- Organisation & Planning – There is none, although according to management “this is how it will be in you’re airline jobs” a phrase all students have heard. Can you imagine it, getting told you are flying to Los Angeles, 7 hours before departure when you’re a captain at Lufthansa. According to BAA, this is how it is. There were days during our ground school, where we finished at 10PM and started at 7:30AM the next morning as they had to split the entire ground school students into Day (7 - 2:30) and Evening (3 - 10) classes as they didn’t have enough classrooms to satisfy their overcapacity. We also had 1.5 days to learn Flight Operations, but that did not matter as BAA gave us our school test based entirely on the introduction chapter of Ops (I think points may have been given for spelling our name correctly as nobody failed). Time off for CAA, in 9 months of groundschool, we had 1 week off, after our first 3 subjects. This meant a lot of other subjects were missed when students had to take additional time off for CAA. I missed an entire topic on Flight Planning, although taking CAA exams, wasn’t a good enough reason for missing school according to management. We were offered another week off between 22ndDecember – 4thJanuary. Offered a week off by BAA management, in time designated for our Christmas holidays. Merry Christmas, here are you´re presents and you can open them after you’ve gone to your Meteorology exam. Not that it mattered anyway as the CAA system was down for the entire Christmas period meaning anyone who did stay, couldn’t go to their exams.

- Flying Season - Spain base has been a total disaster for BAA so far. Flight Instructors are leaving almost instantly. IFR aircraft took nearly 5 weeks longer than planned to arrive, leaving many students just wasting money away. Spain was almost sold to everybody as though it was package holiday, all-inclusive to Spain…Sun, Sea, Good Weather all year round with nice beaches and that BAA was doing everyone a favour by sending people down there. What BAA failed to mention is that they chose Lleida as a base. A city in the Pyrenees where the most famous tourist attraction in the city, is fog. Literally permanent fog for the whole of winter, so it was a great idea to have a winter base for VFR and IFR where no one can actually fly. That will keep costs down. Although they left it until the last possible second to tell everyone where the winter base would be, keeping it a secret like it was early Christmas present to everybody. This meant that everyone had very little time to organise themselves down in Spain. I believe the situation for short-term renting in Spain is nothing short of a joke, with the school offering ZERO support. However they will tell you that living costs and standards are comparable to Lithuania. I can assure all, as a Spaniard, living costs are not on the same scale as Vilnius. But did BAA look into these things, well they will tell you they did. Rumours are they are closing Spain base and moving operations back to Lithuania in the Spring. Good going BAA.

- Aircraft – “We have invested in new VFR and IFR aircraft”. Yes, the old age BAA famous sentence is still going strong, along with 'we don't know', I think this was one of the things I heard management say the most and this was drilled into us weekly. People are still yet to see this investment. 1 LEASED washing machine with wings from Cyprus, does not count as serious investment into aircraft. Other aircraft are dangers, with seriously corroding structures, broken instruments and unreliable systems. It is a well known that there were a few moderately serious accidents in the last couple of years, but BAA will tell you that these were unforeseen and Force Majeure. Force Majeure excuses can only go on for so long, the school has had in some instances over a year and a half to put there aircraft problems right. Now for an even better tale, when the current aircraft (what's left of them) are flying in Spain, do they do the maintenance on base at Lleida...Of course not, this would be to common sensical for BAA, No they ferry the aircraft to and from Sabadell, a 250km round trip.

- Customer Service – BAA treat you as though you are about to buy a 30.000 euro Rolex from them, right up until the moment you give them you’re money and are a student. Then it turns from being the Rolex shop, to a Gulag. There is no customer service, no respect and any ideas you may have to help are simply put down with the thought ‘he’s just a student, we’re managers’ Yes ladies and gentlemen, it is ran as though managers are part of the Politburo. Soviet style aristocracy, which probably explains why BAA are in so much deep water, they’re currently drowning. Once they have, your money, its game over. You’re tied into a contract which is very shady, blames the customer for all problems, charges you 60% of the full course fee if you die….you get the picture.

Now all of these little things pale into insignificance when compared to the BIGGEST problem of all at BAA. A problem which has ultimately caused the mess to students and their wallets in the last 2 years. A problem which led to instructors resigning, poor organisation, poor standards, no customer service, no aircraft, problems in Spain. Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you BAA Senior Management.

In the words of their own employees, ‘they have managers for everything but one thing they don’t have a manager for, is common sense’. Senior Management are young…very young and lack simple management fundamentals. The Chief Operating Officer must only be 5 years older than me at most. I left High School 3 years ago. But with youth and ambition comes a negative aspect. GREED and oh yes, BAA are certainly guilty of it. They are way over capacity at the moment with no signs of slowing down, there wasn’t enough aircraft for people back when I started in 2016. Apparently the student numbers have doubled now, and there are even less aircraft. But let’s keep bringing people through the front door with their money, without reinvesting it in areas that are in desperate need for investment. Rather lets focus our investment on marketing and social media posts.

I have personally seen one person go from Receptionist/Admin Assistant, to a full Project Training Manager in under 6 months, in charge of around 50 students. That’s how desperate they are to get employees in because employees relaise the conditions of work quickly and leave soon after.


Did low level management get a new office that they didn’t need – Yes
Did Senior Management get new facilities, , complete with pool table & bean bags – Yes
Did BAA get more money for their management parties that they seem to have monthly - Yes

Did Students get investment into anything for them such as instructors or new planes or did anyone with a modicum of common sense resolve any of the students problems or worries over the last 12 months – No

Although the price of ATPL Integrated has gone from 62,799 when I started, to I believe a figure around 73,000 euros now. What does someone get for their extra money I hear you ask. Well a student can expect to receive an iPad Mini and err…..uhmmmm. Yeah not very much. A 9000 euro iPad. Nice

So to finish. Prospective students. DO NOT FALL FOR THE FANCY MARKETING AND THE SMILING FACES I promise you from the bottom of my heart, this will change the second you give them your money. They will entice you with the words ‘a magazine says we are rated 4.8/5 in customer satisfaction by our students’, I beg for BAA to show me those students. They were rated 4.8/5 by a magazine. BAA’s parent company OWNS that magazine, it is like saying ‘who rated you 4.8/5’ and getting the answer ‘well it was us’.

Fancy marketing and YouTube videos of students who are still in ground school flying full motion simulators. I’d love for one of those YouTube students to give me a Q&A about certain procedures on that Airbus simulator, considering that these are people still learning about Lift and Drag formulas then I doubt the Q&A would go on for too long. Just more false advertising, believe me, if you don’t have the face for fancy marketing, then you’ve got no chance of smelling that simulator until your MCC/JOC.

I attended one of BAA’s open days in London earlier this year and was shocked to see how much inaccurate information they sell to prospective students. Please people, do not fall for it.

I bid for everybody to read the other BAA thread and scroll down to comments made in the last few weeks, I cannot link it as I have less than 10 posts on here under this username, however its quite active so should be close to the top of the list. Honestly, I know people can sit at home and go, ‘unhappy students they will say anything’, honestly, I have read every single comment and cannot find one that I would say is inaccurate. Dukaster, Tecnamflyer, GreenYoda and others make some very good points and even though I don’t know who they are on PPrune, I am sure we will know each other from school, so I can confidently say, none of them are lying.

Hopefully BAA Marketing team read this and maybe give some of us some answers, although they’re probably preparing for another night out. To those senior managers I can only repeat what other people have said – reputation of a flight school is built up over years of hard work and labour and it can come crashing down overnight….DO NOT THINK YOU ARE BIG ENOUGH TO AVOID THE SAME HAPPENING TO YOU.

As one student said, he has told 7 people to avoid BAA, I myself have told 4 or 5 people. This in itself is nearly 900,000 euros of lost revenue, based on your greed and the way you are treating people. I imagine we are not the only people doing so. You’re reputation is slowly starting to diminish amongst Western Europeans, who are tired of your Soviet methods and mindsets, which is such a shame as the potential for BAA to be one of the best schools in Europe is vast. With the right investment in key areas, I would predict BAA could go far. Already, some of the deadwood middle managers who have been the cause of the majority of the problems in the last year have been removed (Agata & Edita B) and new managers instated, only time will tell if this was a good decision.

Prospective Students, look at other schools. There are a lot of quality schools out there for the same price these days. Do not fall for the, 'we will secure you a job with our partner airlines' or the 'we will have you in the right hand seat in 18 months'. This is a school which still endorses P2F schemes, has lied multiple times to students, creates fake LinkedIn profiles to make them seem bigger and more international than they are, has managers who oversee important aspects of running an academy with little more than high school diplomas and zero experience in an aviation environment, has limited resources, is way overcapacity and more recently 'relationship scandals' between managers and students. Welcome to the house of fun.

Maybe the situation is different for TR courses, which BAA Ab-initio is not affiliated with, so it would be unfair for me to criticise that part of the business as I believe TR at BAA is ran quite effectively and well but Please for ATPL if I haven’t said it already, LOOK ELSEWHERE

Please ask any questions, I have missed a lot of things out as this post would go on all day.

[uberfly]

Originally Posted by Idontlikeusername

Do you also know what happenef to the guys who were Cadets with Small Planet now that the company has failed?
Did they offer to them an alternative solution or have they just been left on their own?

They are left alone for now with some fanciful promises. Can you believe SP bankrupt after 1 year BAA established the cadet program. This is how they investigate and check their business partners before they sell dreams to prospect students. In reality, two company is somehow affiliated and I am pretty sure BAA has all means to get clear insight about SP before they offer the cadet program. In addition, personally I believe SP was not in need of cadets however BAA push them (or use its connection) to established that cadet scheme to lure more students into academy under job guarantee.

As you all know SP was one of the most well know Pay2Fly provider in the world and BAA was biggest advocator of Pay2Fly as well. Just after BAA start to get well-known, they decide to shift this business to their sister company to AviationCV.com to avoid bad publicity as they are being training organization. Now they present Pay2Fly as hour building program and they don't forget to mention ''salary included'' in their hour building programmes . Yes, you pay 40-50 K for 500 hours and you get 1,000 Euro salary per month. It is pretty sad that affiliated company of BAA has Pay2Fly as core business. Pay2Fly is cancer of the sector and BAA is company responsible of training future pilots, there is big dilemma here.

It is not much different for Smartlynx Cadets when you consider 30K type rating, 3 years obligatory working period and unlimited unpaid leaves and ponzi terms and conditions. It is not far beyond being P2F.

About Avion, I hope some of you can enlighten us but I heard pretty low Terms and Conditions.

As conclusion, best for former SP cadets is to find a job themselves after graduation since it is not even worth to try Avion (?) or Smartlynx. By the way, BAA doesn't even have career service to provide its students after graduation in such cases.

[hid3]

BAA and Small Planets are owned by the same owner. When I was not selected to Wizz cadet programme, I received a very firm push to choose SP cadet program, despite the fact that I was interested in all others (Avion and SmartLynx). They didn't offer any others until I haven't tried applying to SP. In fact I felt pressure like "either you choose SP or have nothing". I refused the SP offer (even before they went bankrupt in Germany & etc) and was planning to start as independent. Up until reading this thread...

[flytodie]

I can add more information all of this. Actually there is some students that already their contract finishing end of February 2019. But still school doesn't care about it. They forcing the students for sign a extension. Even some students already sign extension and school wants from them second extension. There is a lot to write here. But even this thing will be enough to understand what is going on in the school i guess.

[av8tor396]

Originally Posted by flytodie

They forcing the students for sign a extension. Even some students already sign extension and school wants from them second extension.

Some students are already talking to a local lawyer to take BAA to court

[flytodie]

Originally Posted by av8tor396

Some students are already talking to a local lawyer to take BAA to court

Yeah i heard about that. But they are making it because of another reason. Not because of extensions i guess. But if they are taking legal actions because of extensions than we might do it like a group action law case. Actually another problem in the school is this one among the students. Mostly people have such a point of view ' i will save myself and don't care others'. Already most of students know each others current situation. We should help each other too.

[Warlock1]

Originally Posted by Jurow

It is partially wrong,

The entire fleet was grounded for 1 day due to the crash (for a check I presumed).
All the SEP operations have resumed the following day.
The P2006T Tecnam is due to be grounded for scheduled maintenance in the next weeks but still flying.
BAA is looking for new aircrafts to lease/rent following this incident and the development of the Ab initio department.

ATCs have summer holidays like anybody. They have hired new staff recently so they are not fully competent at the moment, that's right.
I do complain myself about the organisation but still have the feeling that it's worth the money, assuming you're in a cadet program.

The contract specified that the training takes place for a period no more than 2 years so, you already know what to except before signing.
Some people finished earlier, and that leads to the common expectation that it will be the same for them.

If you pass the selections for a cadet program, I think it is still a valuable opportunity.
The groundschool is OK, they changed the CBT recently (Bristol > PadPilot).

More informations for the new base are supposed to be released next week.

WarLock is no more an employee of BAA despite what he said. Fact.

Amazing how these 'die hard fans of the school' are opting to shut the hell up now, instead of defending the place

[Duchess_Driver]

Amazing how these 'die hard fans of the school' are opting to shut the hell up now, instead of defending the place

Maybe they’re just tired of fighting a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent?

[av8tor396]

Originally Posted by Duchess_Driver

Maybe they’re just tired of fighting a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent?

Why don’t you enlighten us with your great wisdom O’ Great One?

[Duchess_Driver]

I have never proclaimed to be a fan of the place but have some knowledge of the situation. Regardless of what’s gone on in the past, I know that there are some good people there working very hard to try and rectify the problems and make progress in putting them right.

What i get ‘frustrated’ at is the constant negativity and dwelling on the past. Yes, there were problems, yes, there are challenges but continued bleeding about them isn’t conducive. Focus on the future, the investment and fixes that are being put in place then perhaps things will move on. The BAA management may well have ‘gone quiet’ to focus on where their attention is needed rather than engaging in dialogue that, as far as moving forwards is concerned, isn’t that helpful.

[caravel]

I will be having a final interview with SmartLynx next month, and of course I read this whole thread. I still would like to go and check it for myself. Anybody there who would be ok sharing some info on how it goes about, since it is Christmas and I cannot contact anybody from the school?

Is it a full day screening, or just an individual 1h interview, or how is it like? I am just trying to prepare and plan the trip, but cant really find anything specific online. X) thanks in advance guys, any help will be welcome!

[av8tor396]

Originally Posted by Duchess_Driver

What i get ‘frustrated’ at is the constant negativity and dwelling on the past.

Dwelling on the past? Up until last week the problems were ongoing with no solution. Just the same old promises. And now, the holidays.

Originally Posted by Duchess_Driver

Yes, there were problems, yes, there are challenges but continued bleeding about them isn’t conducive.

There ARE problems and there is still no laid out operational plan as to how to fix it. Management has given the famous speech of hiring new instructors and planes that they have been given since the ages.

Originally Posted by Duchess_Driver

......perhaps things will move on. The BAA management may well have ‘gone quiet’ to focus on where their attention is needed rather than engaging in dialogue that, as far as moving forwards is concerned, isn’t that helpful.

So, let me get this straight: You have paid thousands of euros for an education (that you or most of the others are not receiving properly). You know that there are problems that almost ALL students are experiencing. And your only glimpse of hope is 'PERHAPS things will move on' or 'MAY have gone quiet to focus on a plan of action'? And you think YOU are the armed person in the battle of wits? Man, I really think you deserve to be there!

[Maverick00]

I'm passed my Wizz Air Assessment in Vilnius... and I'm waiting for the Interview with the airline...but after I read all this post about the school all my happiness went away..

[Nurse2Pilot]

Just got an email from them for a career day in Milan and Rome. Wow! BAA was one of the schools I was considering before, maybe because of the YT videos I found. Glad to have this thread as an eye opener!