CAE MPL Cadets in Granada - Ask Us Anything
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CAE MPL Cadets in Granada - Ask Us Anything
Before we begin:
- Everything said here is opinion, based on personal experiences from being here.
- There may be certain questions we can't answer. We cannot disclose certain operational/personal information, and have to abide by specified professional standards.
- We can only speak about experiences with CAE and Aerodynamics.
- We are happy to answer questions on living in Granada and day to day living.
- We will do out best to make it clear what is based on information received directly from CAE or AD, and what is based on information from other cadet's experience or unconfirmed.
- Our class has been here since October 2025
- We are very aware that CAE are actively reading and monitoring these posts.
- There are cadets from 2 different airlines here. All cadets are only here in Granada for their core flying phase. The UK based cadets will return to either the UK or travel to Italy for the sim/type rating phase. The other airline cadets will stay in Spain (at a different location) for their sim/type rating phase.
- There has been significantly bad weather over the winter, and that has been one of the factors that contributed to the significant delays we're experience here. But, it is also very clear (in our opinion) that there was no mitigation or contingencies in place to handle this. And as mentioned in a previous post, they still decided it was right to start more classes during the bad weather phase, only increasing the amount of students who weren't completing missions.
- We've seen a few posts recently about experiences here, and wanted to provide a single goto thread for anyone needing information.
- In our opinion, CAE are not being very transparant or forthcoming with information to us. So, we can only assume it is the same for those cadets still in ground school. If they can't get their questions answered, or want to hear from cadets who are actively here and experiencing it, we feel being able to answer those questions truthfully will allow them to make informed decisions.
- We're sure there will be a lot of negative things we need to discuss, but that doesn't mean we won't have some positive answers too. Hopefully this AMA will also aleviate some concerns or rumours as well!
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Joined: Jan 2026
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No problems!
Our class has a bit of a mix of students in it, so there wasn't a single date we were informed of going to Granada.
That being said, nothing is ever 'official' in CAE's eyes until you have been given your '4 week notice'. This is when they confirm your actual start date at a location.
We (and many other classes) have always challenged them on this, stating that 4 weeks is too late notice to arrange suitable accomdation and travel.
In particular, class mates who went to Pheonix definately had problems getting landlords to agree to hold properties until they got their 4 weeks notice. Because anything you do before that date (pay deposits, book non refundable plane tickets, etc) won't be reimbursed by CAE if things change.
It also means booking things kind of last minute, which guarantees you will pay more. We also pointed out that this is particularly unfair as they only reimburse a specific amount for travel.
Anyway, in terms of timeline. Yes, and no.
We're still about 5 weeks behind schedule at the moment, and even as of last week, CAE say they are unable to give us an 'ECD' (estimated completion date). Save for saying it might be end of April for some of the class, and into May for the rest of the class. They've said they aim to give us an ECD towards the end of this month once they have an idea of how the one class ahead of us (from the non UK based airline) do over the next couple of weeks.
They have said though that we will not be finishing by our original 27 week date. But beyond that, we're still in limbo.
Our class has a bit of a mix of students in it, so there wasn't a single date we were informed of going to Granada.
That being said, nothing is ever 'official' in CAE's eyes until you have been given your '4 week notice'. This is when they confirm your actual start date at a location.
We (and many other classes) have always challenged them on this, stating that 4 weeks is too late notice to arrange suitable accomdation and travel.
In particular, class mates who went to Pheonix definately had problems getting landlords to agree to hold properties until they got their 4 weeks notice. Because anything you do before that date (pay deposits, book non refundable plane tickets, etc) won't be reimbursed by CAE if things change.
It also means booking things kind of last minute, which guarantees you will pay more. We also pointed out that this is particularly unfair as they only reimburse a specific amount for travel.
Anyway, in terms of timeline. Yes, and no.
We're still about 5 weeks behind schedule at the moment, and even as of last week, CAE say they are unable to give us an 'ECD' (estimated completion date). Save for saying it might be end of April for some of the class, and into May for the rest of the class. They've said they aim to give us an ECD towards the end of this month once they have an idea of how the one class ahead of us (from the non UK based airline) do over the next couple of weeks.
They have said though that we will not be finishing by our original 27 week date. But beyond that, we're still in limbo.
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It's very strange how some professionals already in the industry behave.
This thread is aimed to provide information to those cadets who have questions about the program here, and our experiences here. This may include some negative factors, sure. But we did also make it clear we would be able to answer other things too. Perhaps things like, "what accomdation options are there", "how is the public transport system", "do we really need to bring our own headsets", "how long did your visa take", etc...
But instead the thread gets hijacked by people who just want to argue amongst each other. Then quite reasonably we ask to keep it on topic, as this type of conversation might put off some cadets from asking questions. There are plenty of other threads you can go and have this conversation on, if not in DM's.
You're entitled to your opinion, of course. But you don't actually know us.
This thread is aimed to provide information to those cadets who have questions about the program here, and our experiences here. This may include some negative factors, sure. But we did also make it clear we would be able to answer other things too. Perhaps things like, "what accomdation options are there", "how is the public transport system", "do we really need to bring our own headsets", "how long did your visa take", etc...
But instead the thread gets hijacked by people who just want to argue amongst each other. Then quite reasonably we ask to keep it on topic, as this type of conversation might put off some cadets from asking questions. There are plenty of other threads you can go and have this conversation on, if not in DM's.
You're entitled to your opinion, of course. But you don't actually know us.
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All CAE students are based in Granada.
There has been the odd occasion when we are asked to goto La Axarquia for a sim session, but they put on a shuttle bus for this now.
As far as we've been told, no CAE students are allowed to fly there - only sim sessions.
They did ask us to make our own way there to begin with, and travel would be reimbursed. Two people in our class did that, and they're still waiting to be reimbursed. So, now they have a shuttle bus, this shouldn't be an issue going forward.
We haven't had to go there for a little while now though.
There has been the odd occasion when we are asked to goto La Axarquia for a sim session, but they put on a shuttle bus for this now.
As far as we've been told, no CAE students are allowed to fly there - only sim sessions.
They did ask us to make our own way there to begin with, and travel would be reimbursed. Two people in our class did that, and they're still waiting to be reimbursed. So, now they have a shuttle bus, this shouldn't be an issue going forward.
We haven't had to go there for a little while now though.
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All of the practical flying phase (except the UPRT) is here in Granada, yes.
The UPRT is done back in the UK after the core phase is completed.
In terms of instructors available to us, we have actually asked on many occasions for them to tell us exactly how many are available to be scheduled with us, and they have refused to tell us everytime we've asked.
So, we can only work off the instructors we're actually seeing. In the first phase, which is all VFR, there are more instructors available than in the second phase which is IFR. The issue we've been told is that in order to teach UK cadets, each instructor must have a UK CAA accreditation, and then a second UK CAA accreditation to teach IFR. Where as the non UK based cadets don't seem to have that restriction from their national aviation authority.
So, for us, not every instructor is able to actually teach us, even if they hold their own IR rating.
It's our personal opinion that there is not enough instructors, especially for the IFR phase. Although we've been told for months that "more instructors are coming", we've actually seen more instructors leave than arrive.
But on a positive note, the instructors we do have here are actually very good. We're not just saying that because it's public facing here, they really are good and do give their best to each cadet. As is with anything these days, the problems come from management and HOW things are operated. The instructors get a tough time of it just as much as we do to be honest.
The UPRT is done back in the UK after the core phase is completed.
In terms of instructors available to us, we have actually asked on many occasions for them to tell us exactly how many are available to be scheduled with us, and they have refused to tell us everytime we've asked.
So, we can only work off the instructors we're actually seeing. In the first phase, which is all VFR, there are more instructors available than in the second phase which is IFR. The issue we've been told is that in order to teach UK cadets, each instructor must have a UK CAA accreditation, and then a second UK CAA accreditation to teach IFR. Where as the non UK based cadets don't seem to have that restriction from their national aviation authority.
So, for us, not every instructor is able to actually teach us, even if they hold their own IR rating.
It's our personal opinion that there is not enough instructors, especially for the IFR phase. Although we've been told for months that "more instructors are coming", we've actually seen more instructors leave than arrive.
But on a positive note, the instructors we do have here are actually very good. We're not just saying that because it's public facing here, they really are good and do give their best to each cadet. As is with anything these days, the problems come from management and HOW things are operated. The instructors get a tough time of it just as much as we do to be honest.
