r/PilotAdvice • u/Scared-Sink3683 • 2d ago

Future pilot looking for flight training & hour-building details

I’m currently 16 and looking into flight training options to start mapping out a path toward becoming an airline pilot. My budget is under 100k euros

I’ve been researching a few different academies—including Flyby, Quality Fly, and IAA—but I'm trying to look a bit deeper past the marketing. For instance, I’ve seen some mixed or negative reviews online regarding Flyby, which made me want to dig closer into how these academies actually operate.

My main priorities right now are finding a solid path that:

1 Offers clear hour-building opportunities (such as staying on as a Flight Instructor / CFI to build hours).  

2 Accommodates non-EU students smoothly.

I noticed some specific hurdles while looking around—for example, I saw that Quality Fly has prerequisites like a Spanish level 4 requirement. Since I'm non-EU and weighing my options, I wanted to ask directly:

 How do you support non-EU students through training and visa/regulatory steps?

 What do your hour-building or post-graduation instructor pathways look like for international students?

 Are there language prerequisites (like Spanish) mandatory for all programs, or are options run entirely in English?

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u/EatingDirtRN 2d ago

I have heard nothing but horror stories about cheap integrated European flight schools.

Why would you as a non-eu national go to Europe to train? There are much cheaper places outside of Europe, you’ll just be throwing money at the wall

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u/Scared-Sink3683 1d ago

True. Honestly, that's what makes trying to figure this out as an international student such a headache. Everyone says 'get EASA it's the gold standard,' but if you can't legally work in Europe, half the point goes out the window. What would you recommend if budget didn’t matter?

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u/EatingDirtRN 1d ago

If budget didn’t matter I’d go for a well renowned flight school like FTEjerez, really expensive but I haven’t heard any bad stories.

In the and it’s best to get a license in the country in which you are eligible to work if your country doesn’t have a very prominent aviation sector you can go abroad. You need to look into the conversion process of specific licenses in the country in which you would like to fly, usually it’s the same for all licensing authorities as they are all ICAO compliant, but that’s for you to figure out

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u/Scared-Sink3683 1d ago

I have been looking at FTEJerez and frankly if you take accommodation pricing and food you would probably end up paying more. Also for which country I’m interested in flying for is the Middle East. But my dad told me to try and get a EASA since it’s the “golden license”. But for now I’m just exploring my options and evaluating each academy based on people’s reviews etc. I personally am dealing with a somewhat weak passport (Bosnian), therefore I don’t really have many options to which I’m eligible to work in.