Good Flying School in South East Asia
 

I'm new to this forum, looks like a great source for help. I am weighing some options for my pilot's license and was hoping some user input here could help point me in the right direction.

I have been eyeing these few schools simply because they meet my price range and look to be fairly good flying schools.
1) Asian Academy of Aeronautics in Maldives
2) Open Skies Aviation in Sri Lanka
3) Rainbow Aviation Academy in India

Have you'll heard of any of these? Any idea what kind of things to look for in a flying school? Appreciate the help.

Hi! If you are considering schools in India, then i would recommend:

1) Chimes Aviation Academy - could be a little pricey though. Otherwise they have a modern glass cockpit fleet and good training standards.
2) IGRUA - very good training but you need to find out if they accept foreign nationals. Modern glass cockpit fleet.
3) Madhya Pradesh Flying Club(Bhopal) - Cheap and quick training.

Cost of living is much lower in India than other countries so even if your training gets delayed due to weather or maintenance issues, you won't loose much. Generally the weather in India is predictable and conducive for flight training except for the monsoon season(June-Aug). So you can plan to have theory classes in these months and conduct flight training during other months.

The Indian aviation regulatory authority is DGCA(Directorate General of Civil Aviation). DGCA licensing exams are known to be a little tough so i would suggest that if you train in India then you start studying before coming or come earlier than when your flight training starts and take ground classes here itself. Cost effective ground classes are available at many places.

Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Government of India

Good Luck buddy!

Billboard, what do you think of FlyTech Aviation in Hyderabad?

contractpilot69, the info i have on flytech is 3-4 years old and from only one or two sources so it would not be much useful to you. I remember a dude telling me that their multi(B-58) is rarely available for training. All i would say is that there are better options than flytech.

More info on AVIAIR Flying School
 

Thanks for all the info.

I have found some pretty disturbing information on schools in Phillipines. Apparently schools there have been famous for issuing CPL's with Instrument Ratings when students have flown less than 100 hours. What happens is that students actually fly 100 hours or less and log more than 180 hours (obviously the flying school is up on the deal too). Here's an article about this:
4 schools in fake pilot scam bared! | Top Stories

I have found with schools in India that their speed is extremely slow and students can take upto 2.5 or 3 years to complete. I am presently searching too, however I was wondering if anyone could suggest some good flying schools around India, where I can obtain good quality of training?

Thanks for your reply billboard.

What about quality of training and facilities?

why don't you enroll yourself to local flying school in malaysia.?
I'm guessing you are Malaysian based on your location.

Malaysia Unreliable for Pilot Training
 

Hi Fareez,

I have checked a few flight schools in Malaysia. As usual the schools, give promises stating the usual 12 month period, etc
However when I speak with past pupils, they all seem to have the same problem, which is that the quality of training and actual time taken to complete the course is a lot longer than specified. This has led to many students conducting their training overseas. Also the facilities of the school in Malaysia do not seem to be of a good standard, e.g. old classrooms, etc
A relatively new school which looks to have really good flight training facilities is Asian Academy of Aeronautics which is based in the Maldives. I sent in an enquiry and they had given me a few past pupils to contact and it seems that their speed and facilities are good. Their website is Asian Academy of Aeronautics - Home

Has anyone heard of them before? Your comments and suggestions would be much appreciated.

Madhya Pradesh Flying Club (Bhopal)
 

Hi contractpilot69

From the research that I have done, it seems that this flying school is not the best in terms of speed of training. They have been known to delay and their training infrastructure does not seem to be too good either.
They have 9 aircraft, but the problem is that with so many students enrolled it is quite difficult to be slotted into fly. Thats why I am considering flight schools other than in India or Malaysia.
Let me know what you think too please.

Thanks for the info synthia331. So far I have not thought much about anything...

From my personal point of view, I think delay is the common problem faced by most school.. But I cant get to understand why you are looking outside of Malaysia since u are a local? Unless u really planning to work overseas, u need to pay a lot more extra to convert your foreign-acquired license into Malaysian license.. Yes the school here may not be the fastest in the world but they do deliver good quality.. All flying school have problem, choose the one least f*** up..

Hi synthia331,

no flying school can promise u that u gonna graduate in 12 month period. Its all based on weather,aircraft slot, ground school progress, atpl exam etc. My advise is if you plan to work here in Malaysia in future, u should better do all your training here in Malaysia. It is because later on if u did your training overseas u need to convert back to Malaysian licence and it will cost you a BOMB!. My suggestion is u can check MFA, APFT or HM Aerospace. And i totally agree with syukri statement "All flying school have problem, choose the one least f*** up".

:\:hmm::8

@synthia331

If you are a Malaysian Citizen / Permanent Resident why dont you apply to the Air Asia Cadet Pilot Program ?

I know of many Malaysians training in the Philippines.. Well, there are good schools and bad schools in Philippines. Most are bad, real bad.. But some are good.

If you are planning to do training in India.Then you can consider AAA.Their training quality is Ok....

Hi,


I recently did my PPL from Chimes Aviation Academy, It took me nearly 7 years of research on flying school ranging from USA, Canada, Australia to India.

And finally came down on Chimes Aviation Academy. Advantage over other flying Academy in India and other countries are ;

1) Independent Airfield ( So the advantage is you dont have to go through ATC red tape system every time you want to make a sortie)

2) 11 New C172R NAV III G1000 aircraft ( I can tell you each and every aircraft is well maintained)

3) Good Infrastructure including nice Class rooms for Ground study and a good Library

4) Fixed based Simulator for C172 with huge projector screen

5) Good Instructor team

6) They will send you on Solo flights, not like some of other academy which sends Dolo's

On the part of price, I think if you consider the time in which they will complete your flying you will actually save lot of money on your other expenses.

Also work culture there is very good, they are very much oriented and aggressive towards flying. So you will not face scenarios where you have to beg your CFI and FI to put you on for flying. They recently also got into Limca Book of Records on Max number of flying done in a Single day.

The Maintenance staff there are awesome, I believe that would stand good with other academy too.

Do good research and select academy which have really good fleet of Aircrafts with them, dont even think of any academy which has just 2 or 3 aircrafts, as your flying will get effected very badly.

Good Luck on your Flying carrier


Regards
Abhay

@syukri & @fareez36
 

In Malaysia the quality of the training maybe good however the speed is much slower. I have judged the speed by speaking to past cadets who have completed their flying training in Malaysia and Maldives. Most students in the Maldives finish their training within a 11 to 12 month period. The students who completed their CPL licenses took 19-20 months on average to complete their training. For this reason I feel that it would be a better idea to complete your CPL training in a country such as Maldives and then come back to Malaysia for the conversion process. This entire process of learning to fly overseas and then come back to Malaysia will not only be quicker but also cost near the same amount as obtaining my entire CPL course in Malaysia. Therefore from a cost analysis as well, going overseas or staying in Malaysia would be roughly the same.

@cyrilroy21
 

Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in applying to the air asia cadet program and from our pool of candidates, I was not chosen.

@ ankit kotecha
 

most of the schools in the Philippines have been blacklisted by the Indian DGCA. I think it is too risky for Indians to undergo their flying training in Philippines. If a school which is not blacklisted presently, is blacklisted within the next year then the entire training that the student has undergone will go to waste. It would be better for students to consider countries such as Maldives where quality and speed of training is quick. Also conversion to Indian DGCA after completion of training is quick and simple too because they are a Commonwealth state and can issue the Radio Telephony License for Indian CPL holders as well.

@indian flyer
 

this school does have good reviews but once again speed is very slow. it would be much faster for me to complete my training overseas and then come back to Malaysia for the conversion process only. I am an Indian citizen too and can look for job opportunities in India as well.