This Review Overall Rating
I completed my CPL IR MEP training with Bartolini Air after summer 2020 during the pandemic and finished the training and the skill test under 3 months, but it can take up to 4 months. Training duration mainly depends on student availability, performance in flight and weather. They have a lot of instructors, if one is not available for an extended period of time, another can take over to not delay your training.
The school gave us access to an online account website where we can see our schedules, assigned instructor contact info, do our theoretical knowledge test, flight preparation, have access to IFR and VFR charts, SOP, checklists, and many other resources for flight preparation. Everything we needed for the training.
In total i flew around 45h and did 35h of sim. I paid 20500e in total for CPL IR ME training including skill test and exam fee with Irish authority in 2020.
Bear in mind, in order to make your progression as smooth and continuous as possible, you will need to learn and prepare as much as you can in advance before the flight as some instructors like students to perform in flight. But otherwise majority of them are great.
Lodz is equipped for IFR approaches (ILS, RNP, VOR) so you don't need to fly to another airport to practice IFR approches.
Fleet is amazing. They have 9 single engine aircraft available (p2008 mainly) and 4 multi engine p2006t. Fleet is really young, all garmin equipped (G3X for p2008 and G1000NXi for p2006t) and all maintenance is done on site just next to Bartolini hangar.
The sim is not at the school but inside the Lodz airport terminal. The simulator we used to fly is the redbird which is old and not very good. The school is currently in the process to certify a new simulator that is way better (cockpit replica of the p2006t) they also have an a320 and soon a 737ng sim for mcc.
Poland is a really cheap country if you come from western Europe. Everything is in average 20% cheaper. Lodz is a great city as well, not as modern as some other cities but nightlife is amazing and you will have an amazing experience with other Bartolini students and students from whole Europe in Lodz.
In conclusion, i do recommend Bartolini. After completing my training with them i understand why Ryanair chose them as an approved training partner. Well organized, amazing fleet, high quality SOP and instruction. Bartolini has one of the highest if not the highest quality&reputation/price ratio across the whole Europe.
Course(s) taken:
General
Aircraft
Simulators
Theoretical Training
Practical Training
