★★★★★
5 out of 5
a year ago
Dear FlyingAcademy and to whom reading this,
I am in Germany living EASA ATPL-A student pilot with a German(EASA) PPL.
For my ATPL Training I needed to do a 50h of timebuilding. I was thinking of doing it here in Germany first, but after searching and collecting information from other pilots, I got the recommendation to do it in the States. Reasons for that were, that the weather is mostly better there than in Germany.
Besides that, I calculated, how the prices were in the states and in Germany. And I must say, that there was a big difference. And you should consider every little difference in the prices between both countries. Because for 50h, there will be a big difference for sure. For example the flights are all „wet“, on small airports there are no landing fees, etc.
The only thing, which was keeping me back firstly was, that I didn’t have any accommodation. I searched through a lot of flightschools. I specifically searched around California - mostly Los Angeles, because the weather over there would be literally always great, when I searched between June and July.
Out of the sudden after searching a lot, I found the FlyingAcademy! The only school with such a great concept. And they had a free accommodation. The one at Corona is very nice. It is in a well qualitative neighbourhood with a small lake, nice view and a nice pool pass (thanks to me :~D).
Because I wanted to fly in the middle of June, I had only few weeks left. But the FlyingAcademy is very well organized and they proved greatly their professionalism. I needed to take few ground school lessons, because flying over there divert a little bit from Germany (for example the VFR map is different than ours), I had to go through the paperwork for the IACRA, so I can get my FAA foreign license based PPL and I needed to do the English proficiency check. The staff of FlyingAcademy were always very helpful with that. You could always reach out to them and every single worker is very helpful. They always have a solution for you.
Besides they have a offer including 50h for timebuilding, which is just great. They have different types of aircraft ranging from C152, C172 and PA28.
The maintenance is doing a very great job with repairing those planes. As a German, we are very punctilious and suspicious with everything. I was too at first, but the trust to the school was built very quick, because how I mentioned they are very helpful and always search for the best solution for the Pilot. I am still tremendously, in a positive manner, surprised by this service I experienced.
More over, I gained good friends through the school. With living at their accommodation with other pilots and through the flightschool, where they spontaneously do BBQs, I had good people spending my time with.
Furthermore I forgot to mention, that the most important reason for me doing the timebuilding in Corona was, that I could connect the timebuilding with vacation. At Corona, you have the chance to see different landscapes, different states, different locations, from islands, deserts to nice cities, lakes and beaches you can see everything. At my attendance, I flew through Arizona, Nevada, Mostly all of California. I flew to Los Angeles, San Diego, Catalina Island, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Modesto, Santa Ynez, Palm Springs, San Bernadino, French Valley, Salton Sea, Van Nuys, San Luis and…Banning. You can see so many new places and there are a lot around Corona. I was amazed and happy that I did it. And it was the best decision of my life.
At last I want to state: I always say, a company with its staff can only be good as the CEO. The staff represent the CEO, because I like to think, a CEO will hire the type of personalities according to him. And I had the chance to have contact with him. Very good person. Thank you to every single one of you (Filip, Theary, Riley, Doug, Radim, Clayton, Radek)
TA D
