Training Excellence at Aerodynamics Academy, Velez Malaga

A few weeks ago, I went to Aerodynamics Academy in Velez Malaga on the Costa del Sol coast of Spain to renew my MCCI certificate. MCCI stands for Multi-Crew Cooperation Instructor, which means it gives you the right to train pilots for flying multi-pilot airplanes or in operations that require two pilots.

Aerodynamics Academy’s location is fantastic for flight training for any license. The school is located next to the runway, giving you an up-close view of all the aircraft movements. You can even sit outside and have a cup of coffee while looking at the action going on.

Aerodynamics has a fleet of Cessna 172s, which is my favorite airplane for recreational flying. The wings are above you, providing a great lookout at the ground from the air. This is the airplane I took my PPL on many years ago. They have other airplanes too, so check their website.

Fantastic Training Facilities

The facilities at Aerodynamics are impeccable. They moved into a brand new building in Velez Malaga in 2019, and everything is new, nice, and clean. When you come into the main entrance, you come to the reception, and on the right, there is a recreational area with a small library and some nice sofas where you can chill out. Further in, there is the ops center where flight planning and preflight briefings are done.

Upstairs the have offices and classrooms, and on the third floor they even have a small restaurant with access to a terrace where you get a really great view of the surrroundings.

On the left side inside from the main entrance, they have the pride of the school, a big hall where they have located their simulators, two Alsim simulators, one fire fighting simulator, one Airbus 320 simulator, and a brand new CJ2/3 simulator. Technically, they are not actually simulators, but flight and navigation procedure trainers, FNPT.

I did my training in the A320 FNPT, and that was a great experience. They are all fixed to the floor, without any motion, but you don’t notice because everything else is so real, and you forget about it. I fly full motion full-flight simulators twice a year, and more than once, the instructor has forgotten to put the motion on, and you really don’t notice.

Excellent Training Location

The airport Axarquia, LEAX, is free from airline traffic as it is a small runway of about 1000 meters of asphalt. However, the traffic pattern is full of training aircraft. The lack of airline traffic is great for training and improves the effective training since there are no waiting for large airplanes to operate. This is a huge advantage.

If you decide to take your flight training at this operator, I believe you could do that very effectively because of the close proximity of the school to the airport and the number of airplanes available. However, I do not know how the ratio of students to instructors is, which is also something to consider. In this moment, this school, as well as many schools in Spain, is looking for flight instructors. This could mean there are too many students per instructor and could mean reduced availability for getting your flying training done on time. However, this probably goes for all the schools at this moment and depends on airlines hiring pilots for the summer or the general demand for new hire pilots is high.

If this school seems interesting to you, plan to visit them. Be sure to have prepared a plan for how you want to progress with your flight training and see how they can adapt to that. Southern Spain is fantastic for flight training, but you may want to avoid coming in mid-summer as temperature rises, and availability of accommodation can be more expensive.

Anyway, my initial experience with Aerodynamics was great, and I do recommend you check them out. Thank you.