Course evaluation parameters

It is important that everyone builds their own path through a series of personal and subjective evaluations that cannot concern other people … it concerns your life and not that of those who, even if certainly in good faith, want to direct you one way or another.

You will have had the opportunity to see that in all these lessons of ours, we have never allowed ourselves to say that one course or another is better, that one thing was forbidden or another was useless … we do not want to dictate the path to follow but to give indications so that everyone can have complete knowledge!

It is therefore necessary to divide the evaluations into two: the first on the path you want to attend and the second on the school you decide to rely on.

First evaluation parameter: costs

As for the path, it is inevitable to think about the costs, combined with the payment schedule.

Even if the costs are the same between modular and integrated (if you choose to do the instrument flight qualification, the costs remain almost the same) with the modular you will be able to spread them over several years, evaluating step-by-step how to plan the activity, while with the integrated you must be aware that in a maximum of 3 years you will have to have the entire amount available.

Second evaluation parameter: difficulty

The second parameter, as already discussed several times, concerns the difficulty of an integrated course compared to a modular course.

Starting with a PPL course, in Italian, where the 9 subjects are developed from scratch, offers the possibility of having a much more “friendly” and acceptable entry level. That said, starting an integrated course is not an impossible thing but a little preparation in advance will be very useful.

Third evaluation parameter: time

As for the timing, however, the issue becomes more complicated, because in addition to the payment schedule that we mentioned before, there is also a question of commitment that must be taken into account both didactically and physically.

Having a maximum of 36 months to complete the entire integrated ATP (or 24 for the CPL course without IR) the phases must be carried out without distractions: a job opportunity, a study holiday, a broken leg, can be occasions, or inconveniences in the latter case, that would compromise the path.

Choosing the school

Regarding the school you want to evaluate attending, there are objective and subjective issues.

OBJECTIVE PARAMETERS

Objective evaluations refer to certifications: if you want to attend a certain type of course, you must choose a school that has the appropriate certifications. This will allow you to screen the possibilities and get an idea of ​​the various estimates.

SUBJECTIVE PARAMETERS

In addition to this, there are subjective issues: you must take into account the distance from your usual residence.

Attending courses at a large Academy abroad can have advantages for the language, the experience, the undeniable job opportunities that they offer at the end of the courses, however you must consider living 3 years away from home and add the costs of food, accommodation and travel. Maybe you don’t know that near your home there is an aeroclub that, maybe will not offer you all the courses, but provides a very decent PPL course (the size of the structure is not proportional to the quality, on the contrary!) that can save you some money at least initially, introduce you to pilots from your country and give you a richer idea of ​​the aeronautical world, as well as being a pleasant way to find friends who share the same passion.

So even in this case, starting out with very expensive courses, far from home, in an Academy that churns out hundreds of pilots a year, has its pros and cons that everyone must try to evaluate by identifying themselves for a while in that context.

OTHER PARAMETERS

Other parameters that are to be considered fundamental for choosing the school are for example:

• the location (for airplanes, check if it is an area where you can fly all year round and if in some seasons the airport remains closed due to prohibitive weather conditions and if there are commercial airports nearby to gain some experience in managing missions; for helicopters instead, for example if the school is in a mountainous area where all types of specific rotary wing training can be carried out)
• the types of aircraft (single-engine, twin-engine, turbine, certified for night and instrument flight), how they are maintained, what instrumentation they have (obviously you will not be able to evaluate these technical measures in person, but I assure you that already when you go to visit the school: seeing a tidy hangar and clean vehicles, can already be a good sign of aircraft treated properly! A note: do not ask the year of construction of an aircraft because it is the last thing that is evaluated technically … there are airplanes that are 40 years old and fly better than new planes… just do maintenance and keep them well!remember that it is important to visit the school, meet the people and see the structure before deciding where to enroll… you have to feel as if you were at home!
• and then if they have flight simulators (owned or rented) that can be used for the basic instrument part.
  obviously there is always the reception to consider, if there is a guesthouse, a kitchen available to students, a study room, computers, a library.
• finally pay attention to the costs included or excluded: the theoretical exams, the fees to be paid to ENAC for the issuing of the license, the hours of theoretical lessons that you could ask the instructors to repeat some subjects, the pre-exams, the participation fee to the Aeroclub… there are many items, that however insignificant they may be, all added together, make you come up with a few thousand euros more if they are not specified. Some cannot be determined in advance, but at least get an estimate.

AGREEMENTS WITH AIRLINES

The last consideration is certainly in the agreements with airlines and here two paths open up:

• the first is to be careful about who guarantees you a job after the license because I would never put my hand in the fire;
• the second is that the market is very variable over the years, companies close, new ones open and it is really difficult to make 3-year estimates of what the future situation will be

You have to start somewhere

When you have quotes and information from different schools, in addition to the costs, try to compare the specifics related to all the other parameters, so as not to get carried away by the enthusiasm of low-cost and choose schools that are not suited to your needs.

In our platform you can find the contact form for “mentoring” to follow you step by step in your decisions, not so much to give you advice, which as we said are very subjective, but to try to resolve doubts, provide you with the questions you need to ask yourself and the schools, rather than giving you automatic pre-packaged answers.

Our experience is absolutely adequate to give you a hand…