Gestair Flying Academy
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: EU
Posts: 497
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
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again this isn't insider info it's just what I understand of it, but I believe that the Gestair website may just be out of date somewhat as they way I understand it, when the dust settles the FTO section of Gestair will be no more having wholly been bought over.
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!
Gestair Flying Academy
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.
when they are incapable of simple tasks.
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Bergambacht, the Netherlands
Age: 31
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
G air
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.
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.
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Bergambacht, the Netherlands
Age: 31
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
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
. 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.
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
. 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.
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: London
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I am looking for finishing my PPL in January in Portugal or Spain? Any ideas
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?
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Portugal
Age: 44
Posts: 44
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Go away from this school
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
, 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...
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
, 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...
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Brazil
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Gair assesment
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
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
Thank you so much
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: Europe
Posts: 14
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
@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.
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.
