I have been asked a million times this question “How is sabena airline training center? I believe its one of the best schools in the world and every airline in india have sent their cadets there.” Well I am going to set the record straight.
Sabena is a great school with very very high standards. They are expected to bring out the best pilots and they deliver really good pilots. The instructors well they gradually improve. In the early stages you will get rookie instructors but as you advance to instruments they get more experienced and once you are in multi engine you have the best instructors of the school teaching you. There is absolutely no doubts about the quality that you get.
The planes aren’t that bad either. You start with the DA20 and you gradually go to the DA40 and finally do your multi on the DA42. The planes are very well maintained and undergo 50 hr inspections instead of 100 hr inspections as per regulation. The accomadation is not bad at all and over all it is a great school.
However there are lots of problems. Firstly in the beginning Sabena had got lots of students in the school. This created a huge overcrowding issue. There were more people coming in than going out. Due to this people would sit at home for days even weeks without flying.Sabena however has corrected that by bringing in smaller batches however this problem was soo severe that it will take them a good couple of months before things settle down. Secondly the DA42s have a major problem. Earlier this year Thielert, the engine manufacturer for this aircraft went bankrupt causing a huge problem for parts for this aircraft. This caused lots of planes to be grounded for weeks before they could get parts from some other source. Sabena however has been working round the clock to get this issue solved. I am not taking the credit away from sabena because it was absolutely not their fault. They are planning to make the multi engine part done on the seneca but its in the FAAs hands and until then there will be a problem.
That isn’t the problem in Sabena. The problem is the way Indians are treated in Sabena. Here however I must point the finger at the Indians themselves. The school trains students from Holland, Germany, Belgium and India and when you compare the Indians with the Europeans I feel sad to say this but Indians are without doubt horribly horribly unprofessional. Let me give you examples everyday there are atleast 2-3 Indians who either show up late or unprepared or untidy or unshaven. There have been students who cancelled checkrides because instead of preparing and sleeping the previous night they partied all night long despite being underage (Drinking age is 21 and there should not be anyone underage in a party but us desis don’t really care now do we).They listen to Ipods on the taxiway instead of focusing on flying and there have been cases where people do dangerous things like formation flying (which by the way is illegal in India). In the home front all the Indians frankly never cleaned their rooms and some places things have gone really out of hand.Students have made a mockery of us Indians there.
When I joined sabena (I was in the 5th batch by the way) things were absolutely great. The students even though they were all below 20 acted really mature. They would come home for dinner and take us out to play soccer and life was really fun. We were like a family back then. Then as batches became bigger and bigger came bigger problems. Everyone played loud music till 3 in the morning on a weekday and everyone became unruly and gradually Sabena had no other choice and started enforcing strict rules and later started kicking out people. I dont blame them at all for doing this. However my only regret was that everyone including the guys who were decent got the brunt of the punishment. Instead of individuals getting their butts kicked everyone got their butts kicked and that was where it was depressing.
Not only that the overcrowding caused a rat race for passing checks. You would have to sit at home for days before they would put you on a check and if god forbid you flunked it or cancelled it there was no guarantee that you would fly the next day. I was stuck for close to a month just for my PPL check. The days of sitting at home and not flying is horrible because you have nothing to do all day after sometime you will just not want to fly and that happened a lot of times to me. Just be positive and do something creative like I dunno write a blog.
Having said all this however I feel Sabena is a really great school. I learnt a lot and frankly I am proud to be a Sabena passout. Its just that if you go there you got to be professional. I have never seen a European come to school unshaven or untidy or unprepared. They never yell across corridors or speak loudly. They even party much more civilised unlike us who hardly work but have absolutely crazy parties. Sabena is very unforgiving to people who have come there to party and not study. If you dont perform dont expect to stay long in Sabena.
Bottomline if you want to be a professional then Sabena is the place to be but if you want to be in a frat house and party everyday then you should never even think about Sabena and frankly speaking there is nothing wrong about that but there are lots of other schools where you can do that. By the way the course in Sabena is tailormade for DGCA so chill cause you will fly the cessna and seneca.
WTF!!
How much were u paid to write all this bullshit!!
FYI let me tell you abt Europeans……the r flying every single day as such they do not hv much tym for any other crazy stuff and wen they do, they go to vegas and pee on the escalators!!
On the contrary the indian guys just fly once or twice in a month….how do u expect them to release their frustration?
Breaking the rules is not a habit that the indians have before joining sabena, but something they become like due to so much pressure by sabena itself.
Further, the training syllabus of sabena is entirely fucked up…..all the DGCA requirements have to be met after completion of their syllabus which is of 190-200hrs……Do you know any passout who completed in that many hrs??? Every one has to fly at least 240-250hrs.
Then why not join a school which is as good or better than sabena which will at least not trat you so miserably as in sabena.
By: sabena passout on July 24, 2008
at 9:16 am
Well FYI sabena is not the only school where you have this flying problem. Every single school in america has a flying problem. Wings aloft ppl too had got stuck without instructors in their multis and god forbid if you were there in the winters.
Dont compare us with the europeans cause they pay roughly a 100,000 euros for their training while you aren’t even paying a lousy 40,000 $ so don’t compare our flying with theirs. They have paid for the services they get. If we paid that amount we would get the same treatment. Why they would have 1 plane for every indian if you paid them that much. Any other program which guarentees quick training is much much more expensive than what we are paying.
I know there have been times where we fly 2 times a month. I was stuck forever in multis but the fact of the matter is so were lots of my friends in different schools. Despite that people still come unprepared. What you dont know is sabena will push you hard in the end and then you will start complaining that you have been pushed like crazy. I flew 8 hrs of duel in less than 16 hours and so have lots of people in the end so don’t say sabena is all fucked up.I used to buy into the crap you just put up once upon a time.
I know the program in and out cause I have been there and done it completely and yes I have overflown but what a lousy 15 hours despite flunking all my vfr stage checks. Despite flunking only 1 check in instruments i dont have any extra time on the 40’s and no extra time on the 42’s.
Thats just what 2k extra including fuel surcharge. Here you are complaining about not getting the same treatment as the europeans and you cant give just 2k extra. And dont complain about the training not being dgca approved when it was your god damn airline that had asked for 30-35 hours multi. Other schools only give 15-20 hrs on the seneca and some ppl fly the semenol which isnt registered in india and they ll get screwed in the end.
I know how frustrating it gets but the fact of the matter is its as frustrating in any other school. The only difference is we have lots of checks and they dont.Well dont blame sabena if you cant handle the pressure cause in case you didnt know every flight you fly in the airline is a check ride with you captain and if you cant handle a lousy hold within + or – 100 ft on a 40 or a 42 at 100-120 kts think about how you will do it in a 737 with 100 passengers on board and holding at speeds of 300 kts. And FYI you will fly only 40-50 hrs a month if you are lucky and in that time you have to perform flawlessly for hours or the capt will report you and you will be screwed. Just wait until you start your sim training then you will think sabena was heaven. Then you will know what pressure is all about when you have 4 hours of non stop failures and you cannot make a single mistake.
And please dont be a chicken shit and hide using melody’s email. If you don’t have the balls to speak out using your own name why in god’s name do you speak out. For all those who are reading its this kind of unprofessional attitude that I was talking about. Atleast have the courtesy to put your name. And no I dont get paid to write this blog from anyone just so you know. I write what i see is true.Its guys like you whose bullshit has made lives of good pilots in sabena miserable. Go ahead and reply if you think anything I said is not true.But this time prove me wrong and be professional enough to leave your name. I dare you.
By: spiceking on July 24, 2008
at 12:44 pm
get a boat… do they teach u to row one there too? LOL!
By: Piquet on July 24, 2008
at 12:55 pm
Hey Pokimon!
Good Job! I second you.
By: Nikx on August 14, 2008
at 2:03 pm