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?

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

@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.

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 :D, 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.:ugh:

- 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. :ok:

- 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:mad: 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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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

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! :)

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? :D Man, I really think you deserve to be there!

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..

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!

Hi everyone

Were there any improvements?

Do you think the Wizzair program is still worth going through the hassle of this school? If the situation is that bad, I wonder if Wizzair will really want to continue the partnership, and what will happen for current cadets if the company realizes that their future pilots' training was not as good as advertised by the school...

Does anyone know if this lady worked for BAA?
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6e49801f09.png

wow is she that tall in person? I guess BAA knows that a lot of us are shy or naieve and pretty people help put those feelings at ease, to our detriment lol!

Yes there are improvements. Waiting time is increased to 4 months from 3 months. And desperately some of the students are happy to fly 11 hours after 3 months of waiting.

The main problem is actually scheduling for now. And VFR delays caused by weather, but IFR is totally about planning. Because math is simple. For example they 4 IFR a/c with 5 IRI. They trying to give every student 3 slots per week.

A/C can operate 9 hours a day roughly. Because of ATC working times. And yet of course its impossible to get 9 hours because of refuel and so on... So in 6 working days (because one day off for instructor) if we calculate from 7 hour average, 168 hours. 3 slots per week for a student means between 9-12 hours (because of some flights 2 hours some of 3 hours and some 4 hours. But actually majority of flights 3-4 hours). So if we calculate from average 11 hours they need to operate 16 students in one time.

If you will look at amount of student they try to operate for now around 25-26 students at one time. And yet this is not only problem. Because of 100h-200h inspections most of the time they have 3 even sometimes they have 2 a/c. Even not talking about unexpected maintenance for a/c. And yet they doing all of this in other base with third part company.

The management is trying to improve the training. There's a new director, which is more attached to fix the issues.
The lack of investment is not directly their responsibility. Aviation solution group (the owner of BAA, aviationCV, BGS Baltic Ground Service) is responsible for that.
The instructors also do what they can, as well the managers the students are in contact with. The training managers usually do their maximum to help out.

Many students were sent home due to the delays. It's the best thing BAA could do. Let me remind you that last year, all those students waited everyday to fly, stuck at home, paying a rent. Now at least they have a date to move to Spain and start flying.

BAA is victim of its own success. There are still some internal issues, but the school is moving on the right direction.

Still some of students are waiting. Its not about being victim of their success. They was already knew that how much students they will have. Look dude most probably i'm started my education more early than you. And from the date we was started we try to warn school. We asked questions about how they will operate all this students whit such number A/C. They was saying don't worry it will be okey bla bla.... But at the end we saw what happened. And yes Martynas is good guy at least he trying to do something. But is it enough ? NO !!! I'm flying every week 2 times where is the improvement about this ? And that first in first out rule they was talking about its only a fairytale. By the way let me remind you one thing we are talking about IFR. There is a lot of students whom they are not finish their IFR or waiting MEP and already their contract finished or soon it will finish. And i dont know how you looking but for me management and school is same. If they not able to get investment which they want, they can change company or not deal with this thing. Training managers doing maximum help out ? LOL ! You know that there was a time even they didnt answer emails like one month. So dude as you can see at topic majority of students know and see what is going on really. So i will not discuss with such die hard fan like you about school. I dont know you but first promise which we was get NOVEMBER 2018 finish date. And guess what 2019 Feb and still waiting. You are assuming something only looking your situation. I suggest you talk with some students from February 2017 group which still trying to finish their education.

I don't know how you guys know whether BAA receive sufficient investment or not. Either some BAA employees blame them to cover their failure or you know someone in Avia Solution's management board. To start with if you consider employing enough FI is worth any money/investment, you are wrong. Maybe equipment cost money but often such investments financed with the mean of long term bank loans (often called leasing) so they don't need to pay lump sump money to manufacturer at once. So it is not all about budget they have but I believe it is mainly poor management.

About improvement in school, I see now improvement but at least they start to aim to the right direction. We will see if they will succeed or not. But this does not mean anything for current students. Most of us had already one of the worst experience/choice of our life and in the future I don't think many of us remember BAA as a good memory. Most of us still suffering, some of waiting for months and months, some of us having 1-2 flight per week, some of us waiting for months for flying MEP for 11 hours and others thinking what is next after graduation, especially for guys from Smartlynx and Avion. Because BAA still doesn't have career advice/help service before or after graduation to help their students (especially independent ones) to get a job.

About support from school. It is ''0''. Training managers were never good or know what they are doing since the first day I stepped into school. Very sad. In every internal mail which is shared with students they always mentioned 24 hours rule to answer students inquiries. But as it was mentioned one of the previous post some of the messages left without respond for days and weeks.Students never guided by BAA or training managers for the next steps or no information provided by them unless we ask them.

All in short, school is still missing professionalism. They should really look into schools out there to improve their service, transparency and the way they communicate with related parties.

Does anyone know if these issues are just confined to the piston training AC or are these issues across the board and affecting the A320 TR courses as well?

I just saw this thread and what I can really not believe is how it is possible they get so many students (especially after reading how many planes they got, even much smaller schools in Poland have 2 multi engine planes for ME/IR rating). The marketing must be the cause, since when I decided in 2017 I do not wish to be a lawyer and live in Norway for the rest of my life and instead realize my big dream the only schools that appeared were the Norwegian one in Sandefjord and BAA...... Happily I got the idea that there must be some flight schools in Poland (so I checked through Google) and happily found some schools and chose one that I am very satisfied with (right now not even all aircraft are in continuous use and there are already plans to get 3 more (before the season) on good weather days since people can book when they want to fly a week in advance, and you always get at least 3 slots per week (sometimes 5) if you are available all the time).

I just can not believe how so many people can pay 72 000 Euro for the integrated course if the only difference is some ground-school for the ATPL exams, its definitely cheaper to employ a private teacher if you need it for the subjects. As for guaranteed jobs, well if failing to get any job in the airlines its still cheaper to p2f than to pay for an integrated course.

I actually believe that any random school in Poland will be better than what is described in this thread so if you do not prefer Warszawa check Lodz or Poznan schools before paying 72 000 Euro or 100 000 Euro or even more at integrated schools. For the difference in price you can have 5 or even 10 teachers giving you private ATPL lessons until you pass and still have a lot of money left. And theory ground-school is the only difference between 0-ATPL+FI and integrated course (theory that is usable in practical flying is taught perfectly and examined before you are allowed to fly solo or to build hours after achieving PPL(A) ).

737 type
 

They are advertising 737 type course and if you dont get a job within a year they refund you 10 grand. Can anyone shed any light on this ad campaign ?

Are you looking for the catch? It comes in the definition of 'job'.

The catch is that they include 'line training programmes' as a job. So if when you finish your type rating you are approached by AviationCV (you will be) and they try to give you a placement of 500hrs for 40,000eu or whatever for a salary of 700eu a month, if you say no to this then they count it as you said no to a job and you will not get 10,000eu back.

I was also receiving those ad emails and thought the similar ideas as mentioned above ^^^^ which came to my mind. Most likely they will try to "make a great job offer" in one of their parent or sister companies for minimalistic salary & conditions and if you, the naughty boy with no experience, refuse this great offer, then it's purely your decision but you won't get the refund :)

Does anyone know/saw the B737 TR + first officer position ad on airBaltic Training facebook page? Self-sponsored 737 TR and a guaranteed FO job until November with possible contract renewal. Any thoughts on this deal?

Air Baltic will phase out their 737s this year so 'possible contract renewal' is not likely.
Plus they have their own training center Air Baltic Training with 737 simulator, it is not BAA's business apparently

KT 1988,
I have to give advice for a choice of ATO to a young friend that want to start training. You seem to be happy in Poland, much, much better than the ones in BAA. Could you kindly tell the name of this good school? Thaks in advance.

FBW 390

If something offered by BAA is too good to be true there is most probably P2F behind this or bad quality product. Be aware, don't fall into such traps. They are not Top 3 training aviation center, they are not even close. This title given to them by their sister company. Imagine I create an internet site, I put some information about myself and other competitors and then I called myself best of something, isn't it funny?

I heard from few former TR students that TR standarts are pretty low.

FBW390 Tried to write a private message to you but the system did not want to send it. So I will write here instead:

Since you asked for a advice, there are many good schools in Poland. The most known one is Bartolini, but they got some waiting time to begin the training (I do not know if students have to wait long for slots or not after the training start) and cost a bit more than the other schools in Poland. The school I am attending is Goldwings Flight Academy and I am very satisfied with the school. The only unsatisfied person I saw during my stay was a foreign student who did not put a big effort in his PPL(A) training (did not pass exams at ULC for the first license which can be passed all 9 in one sitting in 2 hours (at least I did it that way)) and he demanded to fly solo cross country after flying with the best and most patient instructor (who lets you do really many mistakes and never gets angry no matter how much you fail, and instructing is a passion for him since he keeps doing it part time after he became FO in Sprint Air) and almost landing outside the runway at a grass airport in Kikity (the instructor had to save it and really waited until the last moment. I saw it from an AT-3 waiting to line up, others saw it from the terrace of the hotel) where we went on a 5 day trip when EPBC was closed. The school did what it could to help him like giving him the best (according to me the best) instructor and taking him in a small group that went to Kikity for those 5 days since he wanted intensive training. After the episode the student went almost mad that the school does not let him fly alone and the instructor corrects him.... "sadly" for him the school did not let him fly alone on the more demanding grass airfield (EPBC got much traffic but its much more easy airfield) and crash the plane.

Everyone else as far as I know was very satisfied with the school even those few students who were a little unhappy after questioning from our CFI before solo flights or after failing internal flight exam before solo flight. The owner and CFI of the school does practical theory checks on the students who fly on their first solo pattern and first solo cross country to be sure that they have the basic knowledge. Its not a school where you can just know nothing and pass the exercises.

As for the prices a naked 0-fATPL with CPL and IR/ME can be done for like 37000 - 38000 Euro and if you want it with MCC/JOC and FI rating then it cost about 48000 Euro with job guarantee as a FI (including a salary per block hour, the salary have to be negotiated personally with the school.) (ofc. you have to pass the exercises, exams etc. itd.) The school is also waiting for a program with Nordica job guarantee in the airlines, in the beginning the program is planned to be available to students at the school who already got PPL(A). I do not know more about it yet but I am very curious about it myself. (Prices are subject to change, what I tell are the prices I got, since more and more people wish to do the training in Poland they can rise)

Feel free to contact me on facebook (Krzysztof Thor) and I can also give you contact to the owner of the school if your friend plan to visit the place and see if he like it.

PS. The price is for standard hours it means that if your friend does not ace the PPL(A) then he will have to use more than the 45 hours of mandatory training. Most people use like 50 up to 60 hours (I did 52 including mandatory solo flights before PPL(A) exam). Those extra hours cost extra 125 euro per hour since its with instructor. The same apply if you fail the exercises in MEP(L) or IR/ME its most costly since DA-42 is like 1500 PLN per hour (about 345 Euro). But its better to learn the stuff well at the school than fail at the official exam or at airline interview I believe.

P.PS: Just so you know I own a Cessna 172 that fly for the school since October 2018. So just tell your friend to also ask other students at the school. As for me I have such a strong belief in the school and its future that after getting my first PPL(A) licence I decided to invest in my own aircraft to be part of it not only as a student and future FI.

My personal story with BAA begins in September 2016. I signed a contract with BAA for ATPL integrated course. The sum of the training services was 59 900 EUR.

Today this same contract costs MUCH more (around 75 000).

- During that period I paid more than 24 000EUR and got 36 !!! flight hours.
- During that period I`ve completed my ATPL integrated course in BAA and passed almost all my exams in CAA.
- In 2017 BAA terminated my contract with no refund.

My story began in June - August 2017 flight season.

On 27.10.2017 after the 2017 flight season ended BAA terminated my contract and it was the hardest hit I took in my life. The "reasons" are shown down below.

Okay, so in the contract that BAA provided me, was a statement that BAA has the right to terminate the contract prior 5 day notice if the student violates the "code of conduct".

As a "violation of the code of conduct" BAA refereed to:

CLAIM: I was twice (2) LATE for 10 - 15 minutes for my flight training at the aerodrome.
ANSWER: Theory takes place in Vilnius, practice flying - in Kaunas. 17.06.2017 Due to NEW CITY bus time schedule, I was late for my first flight with my friend. Second one - at 10.08.2017 was due to my car simply won`t start. All this 2 times I was late for 10 - 15 minutes. What a slack!

C: I was absent ONCE for flight training on 21.08.2017 (end of flying season).
A: I was in Vilnius doing my VISA.

C: Two (2) safety reports while flight training
A: Brilliant. "safety report 1" - 27.06.2017 while I was doing touch-and-goes in Aleksotas aerodrome, while turning downwind my instructor started shouting at me, told me to land and on the ground said that from his words I lead the plane into "spiral dive". Until this day, after getting my CPL license in other flight school, I know that it is not truth. I do not recall ANY abnormal attitudes of the plane that day. Nevertheless, the INSTRUCTOR is responsible for the safety of student and himself.This is simply nonsense.

Next "safety report" - on 11 of August after waiting for my flight for 5-7 hours in the briefing room (normal period for BAA 2017), while taxing to park the plane I slightly TOUCHED a small bush 20 cm with my left wing, living absolutely NO NOTICEABLE MARK on the wing surface. That`s it. Do you realise that BAA regarded to my learning mistakes as one of the REASONS TO TERMINATE MY CONTRACT WITH NO REFUND? All pilots that I`ve told this about confirmed that it is complete nonsense.

C: Lack of discipline and not preparing for classes
A: This is the best one. Look, being an ISRAELI citizen (which was obviously known to BAA), BAA gave me an instructor that was (from his words) FORMER IRANIAN MILITARY PILOT! Our nations are in a state of war for the last 50 years. From the first day I had a feeling that he treats me unlike my groupies. He often let me stay on the ground for 5-6 hours waiting for my flight or not flying with me at all. He told me so many times that if I don`t like something - I can change the instructor. I did not do that because I believed that our conflict could be settled. I was wrong.

===At the attached document "FLIGHTS" you can see my flying progress compared to the progress of my gropmates:
Red boxes - me not flying that specific day while at least one student of my group was flying.===

That is right - at the end of the flying season I got 2 times LESS (36) flight hours than my gropmates.

That is absolutely insane. I could not and can not believe what happened! My family was investing in me all this time and were in a serious financial situation paying for my studies. I payed almost 25 000 EUR (DEAR GOD!!), and got ONLY 36 (THIRTY_SIX) flight hours and got my contract terminated!!!

It was so INSAINLY STRESSING situation that until this very day my family doesn`t know that I had to sign a NEW CONTRACT with a NEW FLIGHT SCHOOL that was cheaper and , as I saw it, more honest with students - it will be unbelievably stressful for my family to know that all the money they were working so hard to earn, giving all what they got to pay for me ended up in 36 instead of almost 220 (!!!) flight hours and a terminated contract!. I feel anger and disbelief that such a thing can happen in Europe today. Each time I think about what happened with me keeps me awake at night. Makes my heart go faster in pain after I recall my experience with BAA.

In my new school my contract was 4 pages and the cost was about 30% LESS (not 60K) from the very beginning.

To end my story I want you to understand, that no mater how well-marketed, good looking, polished and hyped the company is, you ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS have to double check and verify all the information you are given. More money you pay does not guarantee anything. The smile they met me with for the first time, was the same smile they terminated my contract. Understand one thing: any flight school that is legally registered will NOT GIVE YOU A LICENSE - only CAA (Civil Aviation Administration) will give you a license. Only purpose of a flight school - to prepare you to meet the requirements to obtain the license. And I can tell you one thing - the next week our group found out there is no difference, some of us wanted to change BAA for a cheaper one, but we could not - the contract does not let you do that without paying "fines".

In the newest contract BAA provides you, from my friends in BAA told me, you are NOT ALLOWED TO SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT BAA, otherwise - you can find yourself in my position.

I told you my story how I DID NOT became a pilot in Baltic Aviation Academy and regret the day when I heard about them for the first time in my life. I do know a lot of people who have the same feeling about BAA and share my pain and regret.

Please, be smart and don`t make our mistake.

Thank you.

PS
BAA have send me an official letter demanding deleting my previous comment in Google maps where I described all this in more emotional way.

Be smart.

KT1988,

Thanks very much for your answer and all the information. I really appreciate. I xill consider it of course...

Best Regards,

FBW390