Hi guys,

I finished my course with DFAS early 2018. I got a job with an airline 1 month after receiving my licenses (more of that later on btw). There were up's and down's but overall I was pleased with my stay in Kalmar and saved a considerable amount of time and money compared to other schools. To top it off your also flying a proper modern MEP with glass cockpit, similar to most of the instrumentation you will find in modern cockpits today.

DFAS philosophy is that everyone leaves flight schools with the same CPL IR/ME so their aim is to get you in and out of there as fast as possible. The course is only 2 months long (depending of course on weather). The school currently has 3 DA-42 g1000 and provides an excellent top of the line Diamond FNPTII simulator which is very nice. The method of operations is quite clever since DFAS courses only take in 4-5 persons per month so at most there is only 10 people at the school at one time, requiring fewer personnel and instructors and guarantees that at least two planes are operational at any time which of course saves costs and hense why the prices are so attractive (you cruise at 50% power btw). This is why you guys are seeing such a "busy" waiting list because well with 4-5 persons a slot per month, obviously they fill up fast.

Accommodations is nice, the school actually used to be a Hotel before it eventually went bankrupt and was replaced with the flight school. It's literally 5' away from ESMQ. Believe it or not the school has its own spa with jacuzzi, hammam, massage chairs...and is available to pilots once a week. The 402 bus takes you into town pretty quickly for groceries or hitting up the pub.

As far as instruction goes, well you learn to fly on the g1000 and become familiar with it however don't expect to fly straight out of flight school a Baron 58's with analogue/classic instrumentation in IMC. The DA-42 is a very easy airplane to fly, plus with the fadec, you just apply a percentage of power and voila, no fiddling with 3 levers...) You get an Ipad from the start with all of the required documentation + supplementary documentation to keep you busy and a cool g1000 sim app that actually works very well and can be quite handy. The instructors are good and knowledgeable however I personally felt that the school lacked "ground" schooling. In reality the briefs are generally only an hour long, you go to sim or fly and then realize that you have a considerable amount of free time. Make use of it, and that requires a lot of personal investment. I got to fly around Sweden and one flight to Germany (where the maintenance is). The CPL is well...just a formality.

NOTE: If you have a French CA license, get it converted BEFORE entering the course. I know one guy who had to re-take his IR skills test because the french authorities did not approve the way the examiner conducted the test. Another french dude they denied both CPL and IR/ME so that was a massive pain in the ass for both of them. However I was told that the school acted accordingly and the problem was eventually resolved. Both guys are airline pilots today btw. The reason why the french ca denied the test is still unclear, I think it had to do with the "en-route" portion of the test however it's nice to know that the french ca are on top of things as they have been accepting the same tests for 10 years or so and just now discovered issues...bureaucracy.

In conclusion is DFAS right for you? It all depends on timing, luck, and what type of job your looking for.

Ever since jobs starting opening up again, my strategy was to finish school as quickly as possible in order to be available on the market asap as no one can predict how long good times last. I got to fly DA-42's and complete school in 2 months without wearing an annoying uniform all the time, I paid considerably less than what others have paid and today I have a job so I guess it worked.

Could I have received better training elsewhere? Yeah possibly, but then again once you enter line operation and depending of category of your A/C its a whole new ball park with a whole set of rules so you'll end up forgetting your basic training anyway.

My point is at this present time we all receive the same CPL IR/ME regardless where you went or training you had and going to a specific flight school does not mean necessarily that you have a job in the long run (even if your school has partnerships). In addition weather is bad in Kalmar during the winter so all of my IR flights were in IMC and freezing conditions which is good for XP, Sweden is an awesome country and the school has a spa, how cool is that? You decide.

@AMcCutch972
Just want to say thank you for providing such a detailed response! Did you get to visit them before you went? I know flights out there are minimal in the long run but its a shame its around £200!

Hello all,

Anyone knows what are the criteria applied by them to choose the persons for each course? According to them, they told me that they choose 5 students for each course so I believe they should have some selection criteria no...?

Thanks!

I believe they are full until Q2 2019. 5-6 months before each course they chose 5 students per course. You need to provide few informations and fill up a form.

You should enter in contact with them for more information, they are quite responsive.

Good luck!

have you tried not looking into Bartolini, in Poland, i know they're booked out but theres always cancellations places available if you enquire beginning of the month, im also in a similar situation torn between going either Poland or Diamond, but theres not much review posted of recent candidates whom have passed and progressed which does not worry me but would reassure me and would give me chance to ask questions about the place and how good the general training is and the time frame of once finishing getting an airline job etc...

also in brief the cost of Diamond i was quoted £26,000 whereas Bartolini was £18,000, the difference in cost could go towards a MCC with APS/APC at Virtual Aviation, is another factor to consider...

Hi! Are you still able to do this?

What are these bad things? Trained in that place for almost two years and all went flawlessly.

I also trained there in 2017 and dont really have a bad thing to say about my experience. As someone above mentioned you do get what you pay for and in Poland 18k euros pays for all the hours you need on brand spanking new Technams, decent instructors and tests.

Out of the class i was in 6 out of the 7 of us are in the right hand seats of airliners now so you can either listen to hearsay or look at facts like that.

I am not saying its better than Diamond - i know 1 person who went there and they sing its praises- they are currently occupying the right seat for a business jet operator in the UK so clearly it turns out decent results to.

I would really like to see where you've "heard" about bad things regarding Bartolini?

The waiting list for Bartolini is 1 year +, not much more to say really.

I hear the sim instructor can be a bit cheeky, but sure it'll help you develop your CRM skills.

The waiting list would not be a "bad" thing, I would think! Quite the opposite!

Can anyone explain the pretty big difference in course times for Diamond vs Bartolini? Diamond quote 2 months for CPL ME IR whereas Bartolini recommend 12 weeks. As I'll have to take unpaid leave it's an important factor in choosing between the two (also difficult to get such a long stint off work).

At what point do Diamond require you to have the course prerequisites? With an approx 6 month wait time I don't want to wait until having the hours and ATPLs passed before starting the enrolment process. If I can get my name on the list now for say September, I'll have the hours and exams sorted by around July.

In Bartolini, it can be done in as little as 6 weeks but that would be an exceptional case. 2 from my course did it as they were smart enough to book the simulator in advance and weather was VMC for most of their time. Many variables come into play like unforeseen maintenance required and weather. I would account for 3 months.