flypath

While planning a holiday from the UK on Mallorca so I thought it would be good fun and extend my 400 hours PPL experience by renting a plane ... maybe see some of the nearby Islands .... at the very least get some more experience of flying in "foreign" airspace. Checked out local flying school on the internet ... there was only one that I could find. Their web site had a page for Plane Rental. It also confirmed that the planes that they rented were C172 and others ideal and I was familiar with them. So I phoned and spoke to someone at the school who confirmed that there was one (or more) C172 available. Great. I would need a check flight before going off on my own - I wouldn't expect anything less. Word or warning though ... the school was so busy that the schedule was set on the Thursday for the next week and after it was set that was it for the week. No changes or alterations allowed ... students you know. Which was a bugger as we arrived on Friday but Ok it is their school and their planes and planning and safety are important. Etc etc
Landed at Mallorca de Palma Friday morning and hightailed it round so Son Bonet to find a run down remnant of an airfield with a decaying gate guardian propped up on cans and an unmanned security office at the entrance ... but the offices of the flying school itself looked OK so in I went and introduced myself, explained who I was, spoke again to the pilot I'd spoken to on the phone. He spoke to the CFI sitting in his office ... I filled in forms : name , age, passport number, granny's inside leg measurement etc etc and arranged for check flight Monday 2nd June at 10.30. Great. There was a problem though with flying to other Islands ... planes were "so busy" that I could only have 1 hour rental. Hmmm. OK, check flight and one hour Monday and then one hour Tuesday. Agreed. Last words were ... don't forget your licence, medical certificate and passports...
We have a lovely villa in the hills above a little village called Campanet, glorious ... well worth a visit. As I lay by the pool I was surprised by how few light aircraft passed overhead . Two in 10 days. Little odd for such a busy flying school. I'd have thought that there would have been a few a day ... their red and white livery was, after all, quite striking.... TAFs monitored daily and although maybe a little gusty this morning it was nothing too much and so off I set. To be met with a total blank wall. The pilot I'd met 10 days earlier wasn't there. The pilot with four gold bars on his epaulettes who was there knew nothing about me and anyway "it was too gusty for students" so they'd cancelled all lessons (odd - surely some of the more advanced students could have done with a little cross wind practice at 10 - 12 knots ....). Anyway the schedules were set and my name was not there! Couldn't argue with that .. complete absence of my name ... but a quick look at these sacrosanct schedules showed that one of the C172s wasn't being used at all that day anyway ... and for only one hour the next day and not at all on Wednesday .... But no way was he going to go out with me (despite having no students). Long excited phone calls to, I presume, the CFI who still wasn't there at 10.30 but would be "in 10 minutes" .... maybe. I'm not sure what the Spanish for Foxtrot Oscar is - or even if that translates phonetically across languages - but the non-verbal communication was clear. I left my mobile number with the Four Gold Bar Man who promised that the CFI would call and discuss this "This morning". He, she or it has so far failed to do so.
So what is the purpose of this rant? I'm just saddened that what claims to be a professional organisation can be so incredibly disorganised and rude. If you don't want the hassle of renting planes to passing PPL's (especially on a holiday Island) then don't advertise that you do! Or have I missed something? If I want to rent a C172 next time I'm away from home how do I do things differently?? Advice please.
Or maybe this sad tale will serve as a "WARNING - TAKE CARE" for any other PPL planning a jolly in Mallorca this summer.
Oh well... worse things happen at sea ...... another beer per favor!

Trumpet_trousers

No, you've missed absolutely nothing....welcome to Spain, and the "can't be arsed" brigade.....having lived here for 6 years, it's cultural, it would appear.

Jan Olieslagers

My limited experience shows that life becomes much easier in Latin countries if one speaks even the slightest bit of local language. A matter of pride, perhaps, the locals resenting "those bloody foreigners who won't even try a single word of ours" but in many places in Spain the regrettable effect of low levels of teaching. I remember meeting (in Ireland, of all places) a Spanishman, a teacher of English - I had trouble understanding him in English, luckily his French was much better. Not an image of all people at all places, still it might be exemplary.

Ricardo72

Flypath, sorry to hear about your experience in that school in particular. That being said, let me tell you that spanish flight schools, not all but most of them have a very good reputation. I'm spanish guy, got my CPL license in Canada, to save some money I got involved with a school that instead of teaching was ripping people off, I realized a bit late though. I've never said and I won't that all Canada flight schools are bad because of my experience, what happend to me was bad luck. Your experience, unfortunately, was bad luck too.
Regarding to our language problems, it's not because we are proud of our own language and we want to preserve it, it has nothing to do with that. From my point of view, and just an opinion, it is the lack of interest of our politicians (who don't speak english either) to give us the right tools to learn English. Our english teachers are native spanish speakers, so we learn your language with a very strong accent, being very optimistic. And those english movies which are on own public tv didn't come with subtitles, so we don't have much ways to learn Shakespeare language other than go abroad to learn english and not everyone can afford it.

flypath

I agree wholeheartedly. I do have a smattering of Spanish - mainly hello, goodbye, please and thank you ... French is better .and I try to start conversations in local language .. But surely aviation -especially a commercial aviation school - is one place where a working knowledge of English can become expected.

miss magenta

Flypath, next time you are in Mallorca and want to fly, come to The Aviation Centre in Son Bonet. You will be plesantly surprised!

ThomasNL

WEll that C172 that wasn't used all day might have had their reasons though. Maybe it was in revision or it might have been inoperative. Plenty of reasons to ground a plane. Although I know how you feel about it as I've experienced it for more than two years. It seems to be typically Spanish.

LEVC

I recommend The Aviation Center, I know personally the CFI, a native english speaker, and you will be treated very well.

Sad to hear you had such a bad luck with that people.

LEVC