Flying Academy in Czech Republic...opinion !

[kalimdetanger]

Hi everyone :

I'm a Senior student and in few months I'll began my formation as a pilot in Europe...Since last summer I was searching cheap and good schools in Europe, and finnaly I found Flying School , a school very cheap and apparently good. I want some opinions, especially students or ex students in this school

Thanks

[ChickenHouse]

Had some time at FlyTeam in Hungary, then moved to Flying Academy. Nice place to learn. Neither Hungarian, nor Czech language are easy to understand in first place, but if you are on site, learning gets you quick on the bar with the fellows. It is good audio training to get used to the bit hard sounding languages, helped me a lot when starting to fly here.

[FlyingAcademy]

FlyingAcademy.com

Hi kalimdetanger,

We are happy that you are considering us for your pilot training. To expedite the process of getting first hand information from current trainees and alumni, we have sent you in a PM a list of students that you can talk to.

Always you have the possibility of visiting our facilities from either Prague or Brno, talking face to face to FIs and students, so that you can see for yourself what we have to offer.

On top, you can be reimbursed for your trip to visit us.

If we could be of any further assistance in the process, please let us know.

Best of luck,

Radim Olbrecht
Head of Training
Flying Academy

[labeo2011]

Flying academy

Hello, as a former student from FA Brno I can say that you did the biggest mistake to join this academy. The academy does not treat you like a student and you will not learn anything from your ATPL properly and with quality to pass the exams due to lack of adequate presentations. Normally according to regulations of EASA for the ATPL preparation is 6 months of 5 days per week in a row. Flying academy has an agreement with the CZ CAA to prepare you within 20 days of "distance training" for all 14 subjects. The preparation is very poor for ATPL theory and the ground instructors skip the most important information which the student MUST know. Therefore after ground classes you must go home and hit your head in order to understand what you are studying, the meaning of the question or the subjects and to find the answer, such as mathematical subjects. For example, general navigation, flight planning and so on. Many new students are getting into the trap as I got due to their aggressive advertisement on network and cheaper prices to attract international students. The point is you have to understand what you are studying with the proper help of the instructors which you wont have in FA. Don't look price when it concerns your proper knowledge and training. In other words Flying Academy gives cheap prices, poor preparation and understanding, and if you have doubts for anything you must pay extra hours for private lessons in class. You are on your own pal. Good luck.

[FlyingAcademy]

Flying Academy

Dear labeo2011,

Thank you for sharing your opinion about our distance-learning course ATPL(A)-650 theory.

I’ll start by making some things clear:

1. The distance-learning course, according to EASA regulations, has a minimum of 10%, which is 65 (sixty five) hours, of ground preparation with lectors. We, in Flying Academy, are doing 180 hours, that’s 3 times more than the minimum. There is no agreement with the Czech CAA other than the approved training manual from which we are teaching our trainees and is included in our EASA ATO license.

2. The 5 days a week for 6 months is not distance-learning. That type of education is received in the Integrated ATPL(A)/Full Residential and that’s a different story. It's 750 hours of ground preparation - including the PPL(A) - done on premises.

Now, I’m not sure how your expectations on a distance-learning course were so misaligned with the reality, but again, you enrolled in self-study approach for the ATPL(A) theory.

Regarding the additional help, our on-premises Ground Instructors are answering to the questions of any students and that’s not a charged service. Indeed, if you will need any one-to-one tutoring for any of the 14 subjects, this service is additional and it’s paid.

In the last couple of years we have been asking for written anonymous feedback from our ATPL(A) students and your type of feedback never came to us.

Still, just like in the airline world where your plane flies as expected and the instruments are showing everything OK, but we are constantly “en-garde”, we will take your feedback seriously and we will pay even more attention to making sure expectations are set properly.

We know that we can’t please everybody, especially when the pool of people being trained by Flying Academy is in a three-digit range, however, we really do give our best to making sure that people will not become frustrated.

In case you would like to talk to me, don’t hesitate to contact me via email or phone

Best of luck in your career!

Radim Olbrecht
Head of Training
Flying Academy

[Muhammed91]

After flying academy

Hi
Also looking at the flying academy I'm interested to know how many of your pilots have gone on to work for major airlines and there career history I was looking at Facebook pages fte Jerez put up pictures of there pilots when they get job something you don't seem to do or are your pilots not getting jobs after training
I'm looking at your zero to atpl which you are giving joc with my start date will be about October/November
Like everyone here this is the biggest decision of my life so any information you can give us all on this thread will be fantastic
Thanks

[Muhammed91]

After flying academy

Hi
Sorry I said 0 to atpl I'm actually looking at your integrated atpl course

[RedKing]

Hi, I see that FA's representative looks through this thread, so I will ask my question here directly. I have the Ukrainian (non-EASA) PPL and 48 flt hrs today. Now I'm thinking about continuing of my study. But due to many reasons I cannot do my timebuilding in Czech Republic. So I have the following mega-combination planned:
- ICAO PPL (already in hand).
- ATPL theory from Bristol GS.
- FULL TIMEBUILDING in my home town (on Tecnam 2002JF and Aquila A210).
- CPL/IR/ME from Flying Academy only.
- Medical with FA's assistance.

Will it work? Will I get the EASA ATPL (frozen) after all this?
Thanks in advance!

[victorway]

i have a Canadian cpl/ir, no atpl.
i joined a long distance easa atpl theory program, which at a Greek school that has a branch in turkey Istanbul, i have finished all ground school requirements wrote all 14 SCHOOL exams for the recommendation letter.
now im set got my ground theory certificate and all required papers, unfortunately i cant write the official civil aviation exams in turkey because its a non-easa state, so i should write them in Greece. my question is
can i write the exams in any EASA member state, provided that the school agreed already?
is it possible, if yes, do i need a student visa to write the exams at the civil aviation center? provided that im not attending any learning center at the writing state? the reason im asking this, is because i have a valid schengen bussiness visa, and im thinking of going to CZ, flying academy.
thank you very much for your time, your help will be highly appreciated.

[Pilot Otto]

Hi FlyingAcademy,
There are certanly some issues with customer support/consulting in your school. I have a great interest in your modular CPL(fATPL) program: both theory and flight training, but each time I contact you through various email/website forms I have initial response very quickly, but then consultant just disappears...
What should I do? I really have a great interest, but what should I do? How can I reach you?

[FlyingAcademy]

FlyingAcademy.com

Dear Pilot Otto,

I apologise if our team of Flight Training Consultants did not follow up with you after your initial contact. Let me please assure you that we're treating each request with a high priority so I'm surprised that for some reason they fall short of your expectations.

Please write to me a PM so that I can answer your questions regarding the modular ATPL(A).

Thank you,
Radim Olbrecht
Head of Training
Flying Academy

[Transsonic2000]

I can confirm the post by "Pilot Otto".

There are certanly some issues with customer support/consulting in your school.

Yes, that's right! Been considering Flying Academy (CZ) as well and been in touch with customer support or "your personal flight training consultant" as they call it. It seems like the person doing this job has no idea about aviation, it appears like she's some sort of secretary with no aviation background, just providing standard information following some kind of routine checklist. I'm somewhat disappointed because communication is ineffective and time consuming. As already mentioned in the previous post, initial respond is fast but then communication slows down and it stops. This is not the way how to do any business folks! If you don't change this you'll miss out doing business with some prospective customers who will go somewhere else.

[FlyingAcademy]

FlyingAcademy.com

All, due to the very high amount of flight training requests we receive per day, indeed we have different levels of Consultancy. Please rest assured that the more you evolve the discussion regarding your training with us, the more experienced the person you are talking to is, the last level being CPL pilots.

As we are a flight school that is constantly listening to feedback from current and also prospect students, we'll be looking into our process to make sure we'll be able to serve you even better in the future.

Thank you,
Radim Olbrecht
Head of Training
Flying Academy

[Pilot Otto]

Thanks Radim. I've sent you a PM

[PilotinCommander]

I do not recommend any of you to go to this school! Cost will be higher than expected,quality of the training is not good, lots of scheduling problems, unprofessionalism etc!

If the cost is important for you, I can assure that at the end, the cost will be the same like other schools. - So dont get into the marketing trap!
If the training is important for you, dont expect too much here! The program is self study as mentioned by Radim. Dont expect anything from ATPL courses.
If scheduling and/or time building is important for you, absolutely no go there! - According to scheduling, if you are the 4th or the 5th one to fly at a certain day, you will go home for sure without flying.
And finally always be suspicious and check your balance at the end of each flight!

You should expect additional fees here:
- Arrival and Departure fees in each flight ( It is not written in their website as well )
- CTR fees ( If you stay in CTR, you have to pay a lot - and during your PPL, you will stay in CTR a lot for training purposes )
- Landing fees
- Communication fees in each flight
- Extra briefing/debriefing fees ( you should expect this a lot even if it is not needed, and normally briefing of 15 min before the flight and debriefing of 15 min after the flight should not be charged )

[flybywiree]

Flying Academy Experience

Hi guys,


Flying Academy has a good website and a good advertisement team in Prague, so it attracts some students. But they don’t reflect all the reality.


The school has a better facility comparing to some other schools in Czech Republic.


You can start the PPL any day you arrive. This is true. Because there are many instructors but with very less Flight Instructor (FI) hours. Except 1-2 instructors, the rest has completed their FI training over the last 1 year. So they have a little experience of teaching. Some of them have even just becomean FI. You may be their first student.


The aircrafts are really old and having problems. You can fly with no Turn Indicator, no Attitude Indicator, no Heading Indicator, broken radio, no GPS…The students are sent to flights in these conditions many times and this is normal for Flying Academy Management. I have many photos indicating this.


The school is located at an international airport. Before you start your training, it sounds like an advantage. You can experience the aviation phraseology in a better way. You may take off after RyanAir or WizAir with your small aircraft. Brno is a D Class Controlled Airspace (CTR), so your every movement in the CTR is controlled by the Tower like you will experience in an Airliner. However this comes with a major cost. The full stop landing and Touch&Go cost for Cessna 152 is 120 CZK (for C-172 it’s 160 CZK) and communication fee is 160 CZK in Brno. If you start your training in an ATZ (uncontrolled airspace), there will be NO communication fee and the landing fee will be 10 CZK, maybe 30 CZK at the most. You will be able to enter any CTR whenever you want during your flights and you will have the same experience with much lesser cost. In Flying Academy you will pay 1,500 USD extra after 150 flights due to landing and communicationc osts! They are hiding these costs in their web-site and offers.


By the way, in Brno Airport, there are discounts for minimum hours spent within 1 month. If you exceed these minimum flight hours within 1 month, your costs are reduced up to 65%. However Flying Academy does not reflect this discount to the students. I leave it at your judgment.


There are delays frequently for the flights due to lack of management and disorganization. If you are scheduled as the last flight of the day or the one before, all students know that they will not fly due to delays. Your day will be wasted with waiting. With the disorganization, they can put you on a flight after sunset even if you don’t have the night rating J


This disorganization applies for serious issues as well and get worse. In the last summer, some university students came to school to complete their PPL in summer. But the school forgot to sign them up for the theoretical exams. Imagine the next exam is in 1 month, and the time that these students lost. These students had to go back to university with 1 month delay in order to complete their PPL.


Also the school forgot to sign up Instrument Rating students for English Exam of CAA.They had to wait for a whole month with doing nothing and spending money for accommodation and food.


Another thing.. After you complete your PPL, or Night Rating or CPL; they need to issue the license for you and this process requires just a couple of documents. They always miss some documents and may call you to come to school for each document. Your medical, next time for your Power of Attorney, next time for your License.. If you go back to your country and you think meanwhile your license is being issued, you may receive a call/e-mail which tells you that they forgot to take a document from you and you can’t give this document because you are hundreds of kms away. So enjoy your time off J


The school lost Medical License, PPL/CPL License, Logbook of students during license issue as well J


For all the important things, you need to communicate with a guy named Peter and you can be sure that not even 1 student in the school likes him; not even the instructors. He basically doesn’t care about any of your problems and he even gives you even more. His life achievement is unknown J


The school doesn’t have a good relation with the CAA and consequently they are having problems to arrange checkrides. IR students waited 1 month for checkride in the summer of 2015.


CPL students waited approximately 2 months for the fix of Piper (for MEP).


The school has only 2 aircraft and 1 full-time instructor for the IR Training J It is the biggest obstacle here, amongthe others. All the students are stucked on this stage.


Even though it wasn’t in the contract, the school charged the IR students, as a surprise J, with briefing and de-briefing costs (10.000 CZK) after they completed their training. The students already paid for the Instructor Fee. When you are paying to an instructor, you expect from him to teach you. And in order to teach, the instructor needs to open his mouth J But basically the school charged the students for having the instructors to speak! There were many arguments after this and the management’s final word was “We don’t care, even it’s not inthe agreement”. Now I see that they started to put this cost in the contracts of new students which is ridiculous.


The school is also charging the students with IR English Training (50 hours). You don’t need this training and they don’t give you even 1 hour of this training but they charge you with 10.000 CZK. Maybe the new cost is more now..


They also charged the students for the Pilot Insurance with 5.000 CZK. It wasn't in the contract. They didn’t give anybody certificates. We assume that they made a profit from here.


At the end of the training, the whole training cost will be more than the other schools.


Finally ,the accommodation facilities of the school are exactly 1 hour away from the school. It is stated as half an hour in advertisement which is not true. Everyday round-trip will be 2 hours which is very long for a city like Brno.


It is really hard to embrace Flying Academy as your training center. Unfortunately it is more like a commercial center.


Make your research carefully and decide wisely.


Wish you best of luck…

[jamesgrainge]

Thankyou for your review. It is very helpful to separate the good from the bad using the likes of this site to inform people. Great job. Good luck with the rest of your training.

[Sameer Aryan]

Dear Flybywiree,

Thank very much for sharing your experience about Flying Academy with us. You don't know how much money you have saved me by doing this. I was like 95% sure to go and join FA for my hour building and IR/MEP. But now no chance that i will even think of it.

By the way I m in UK. So will try to find something better here now. But thank you once again and wish you best of luck for your future training.

[RedBullGaveMeWings]

Sameer, give a look at Bartolini Air in Poland. That's the place to go in Eastern Europe if you ask me. That's not quite Eastern Europe, but they're worth every penny.

[Sameer Aryan]

Hi RedBullGaveMeWings,

Bartolini Air in Poland has two websites when you enter in google. which one is legitimate? BTW thankx for advice.