Ab Initio flight schools EASA

[dmaxmarsh]

Hi all!

I'm an 18 year old UK citizen trying to go from zero to commercial pilot by any means possible - it is a life-long aspiration of mine and has my full commitment. I have been looking at flight schools to get me to my dream and I would love some opinions on my plans.

I have effectively ruled out most UK academies due to budgeting and weather purposes and have resorted to getting an EASA CPL instead. This decision is also made as many of my father's colleagues in a certain middle-east-based airline have utilized this route in order to get an easy license conversion into GCAA, a path I could definitely see myself following.

The flight schools I have found are:

• -Egnatia Aviation (Quite expensive, great weather, Greek work ethic (which is not the best from reviews i have heard))
• -FlyBy (Also upper end of budget, great fleet, short course length so may have to pay more should be necessary, fair weather (ish))
• -Bartolini Air (Affordable, great fleet, comes with a TR through the Ryanair Mentored Program, Polish weather? not the best I have heard)

These flight schools do appear to accept UK Citizenship.

If anyone has any reviews or experience with any of these flights schools, please let me know! I would love to narrow down my decisions. Alternatively, any other suggestions for flight schools would be wonderful too.

Many thanks!

[Speed_Trim_Fail]

Originally Posted by dmaxmarsh

Hi all!

I'm an 18 year old UK citizen trying to go from zero to commercial pilot by any means possible - it is a life-long aspiration of mine and has my full commitment. I have been looking at flight schools to get me to my dream and I would love some opinions on my plans.

I have effectively ruled out most UK academies due to budgeting and weather purposes and have resorted to getting an EASA CPL instead. This decision is also made as many of my father's colleagues in a certain middle-east-based airline have utilized this route in order to get an easy license conversion into GCAA, a path I could definitely see myself following.

The flight schools I have found are:

• -Egnatia Aviation (Quite expensive, great weather, Greek work ethic (which is not the best from reviews i have heard))
• -FlyBy (Also upper end of budget, great fleet, short course length so may have to pay more should be necessary, fair weather (ish))
• -Bartolini Air (Affordable, great fleet, comes with a TR through the Ryanair Mentored Program, Polish weather? not the best I have heard)

These flight schools do appear to accept UK Citizenship.

If anyone has any reviews or experience with any of these flights schools, please let me know! I would love to narrow down my decisions. Alternatively, any other suggestions for flight schools would be wonderful too.

Many thanks!

An EASA licence with UK citizenship isn’t a great start - most EASA jobs require EU citizenship, and most jobs for UK citizens require a UK licence. Schools will gladly take your money regardless of your citizenship, frankly they don’t care if you want to throw money away. Budget to convert your licence (and hold both) or just go UKCAA to begin with.

Middle Eastern jobs as you state simply require an ICAO licence suitable to be converted to their authority, but they generally are not for wet CPLs but for experienced pilots with a decent amount of jet time.

Go modular, hour build in the US or Eastern Europe, get a back up trade or a degree that will allow you to earn if and when the industry dumps us into another slump - if nothing else it will bring something different to your CV and add life experience to what you bring to the RHS. Multiple decent UK schools offer modular training. There are huge numbers of threads on here on integrated vs modular. Have a read, do your research - look at British Airway’s fully sponsored and self funded schemes as well; the latter can be modular.

There has been a huge amount written on this forum about how to go about getting your licence in the most cost effective way. Have a look through, ignore shiny marketing and try and be realistic; everyone thinks “ah but I’LL get a job and be okay” until they’re 11 months out of flight school with an almost expired IR and it’s all looking bleak without a fall back career.

[rudestuff]

The previous answer covers it all. You won't start your career in the ME as they generally require 2000 jet hours. That means your first FO job will likely be in the UK or Ireland so keep your options open and go dual CAA/EASA for the ATPL exams. The US is also a viable option if you go there as an instructor and meet the right girl but you're probably not THAT committed.

The advice I would give my younger self is work out how much a modular course will cost, get the best paying Mon-Fri job I can and the best Sat-Sun job I can, live at home as long as possible and don't smoke, drink or impregnate anything. Save for a few years until you have at least 50% of what you need, while building a credit history to potentially borrow the rest. If one of those jobs can be a ground/office role with a cadet-hiring airline then you already have a foot in the door. If I was a Chief Pilot and some kid came up to me and told me he wanted to be a pilot (and would I interview him if he got his licence?) AND THEN ACTUALLY DID IT - he'd definitely get the interview. And if nothing else, you still need a job so why not that?

I don't suggest borrowing all of the money (if you have the means to) but I don't suggest saving it all up either - 50% seems a good compromise - effectively only borrowing the last 3 months training when you're closer to the goal and can judge the market better.
You'll learn a lot about yourself, hard work, sacrifice and perseverance during those few years, as well as picking up your PPL/IR and ATPL exams debt free.

Think of this in terms of a 5 year plan and it's definitely achievable. But don't do a thing until you have a class one medical in your hand.

[paco]

The GCAA have their own unique set of dodgy questions ......