Seeking EASA/ICAO Modular Flight Schools for Non-EU Citizen (Kazakhstan passport) after failing airline cadet final stage
Posted by ImaginationDue8928@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 5 comments
Hey everyone,
I am a citizen of Kazakhstan, currently working remotely in the IT sector. My ultimate goal is to become an airline pilot and apply for Air Astana (our national carrier) as a low-hour First Officer. Their requirements are the standard 200 hours, ICAO CPL, ME/IR, MCC, and ATPL theory credit.
A quick background: I recently applied for Air Astana's fully funded Ab-Initio cadet program. I passed all the grueling tests (psychomotor, physics, English, compass tests), but unfortunately failed at the very last step—the final board interview. I’m not giving up and want to self-fund my modular training.
Since I need to maintain my remote IT job to pay for my training piece-by-piece, I strictly need a modular route.
Here is my dilemma:
**Flying at home (Kazakhstan):** Flight training options here are extremely limited. On top of that, the weather where I live doesn't allow for year-round flying (we have very long, harsh winters and unpredictable conditions), which means completing 200 hours would take forever. I definitely need to do the bulk of my flying abroad.**EU Schools:** Many reputable EASA schools I contacted refuse modular training for non-EU citizens due to student visa restrictions**Turkey:** I’m highly considering Turkish flight schools (like AYJET or ERAH) since Turkey is visa-free for citizens of Kazakhstan, and they offer ICAO/EASA compliant training. But I’m wondering if airlines back home value these licenses equally.
I would love your input on:
Are there any specific EASA modular schools in Southern/Eastern Europe (Greece, Spain, Hungary, etc.) that are genuinely friendly toward non-EU citizens regarding visas and flexible modular schedules?Has anyone here completed their training in Turkey as an international student? How was the quality and schedule?Would it be better to just do my PPL at home in Kazakhstan first just to get started, or should I do 100% of the training abroad in a place with better weather and infrastructure?
Thank you so much in advance for your help!
Bunslow@reddit
Post is formatted wrong, and is illegible on oldreddit
mduell@reddit
It's also AI slop.
ImaginationDue8928@reddit (OP)
Hey guys, my bad! I used an LLM to clean up my messy draft because I was worried my English wasn't clear enough for a massive post, and it clearly over-formatted it and it fixed it
.
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
Hey everyone,I am a citizen of Kazakhstan, currently working remotely in the IT sector. My ultimate goal is to become an airline pilot and apply for Air Astana (our national carrier) as a low-hour First Officer. Their requirements are the standard 200 hours, ICAO CPL, ME/IR, MCC, and ATPL theory credit.A quick background: I recently applied for Air Astana's fully funded Ab-Initio cadet program. I passed all the grueling tests (psychomotor, physics, English, compass tests), but unfortunately failed at the very last step—the final board interview. I’m not giving up and want to self-fund my modular training.Since I need to maintain my remote IT job to pay for my training piece-by-piece, I strictly need a modular route.Here is my dilemma:**Flying at home (Kazakhstan):** Flight training options here are extremely limited. On top of that, the weather where I live doesn't allow for year-round flying (we have very long, harsh winters and unpredictable conditions), which means completing 200 hours would take forever. I definitely need to do the bulk of my flying abroad.**EU Schools:** Many reputable EASA schools I contacted refuse modular training for non-EU citizens due to student visa restrictions**Turkey:** I’m highly considering Turkish flight schools (like AYJET or ERAH) since Turkey is visa-free for citizens of Kazakhstan, and they offer ICAO/EASA compliant training. But I’m wondering if airlines back home value these licenses equally.I would love your input on:Are there any specific EASA modular schools in Southern/Eastern Europe (Greece, Spain, Hungary, etc.) that are genuinely friendly toward non-EU citizens regarding visas and flexible modular schedules?Has anyone here completed their training in Turkey as an international student? How was the quality and schedule?Would it be better to just do my PPL at home in Kazakhstan first just to get started, or should I do 100% of the training abroad in a place with better weather and infrastructure?Thank you so much in advance for your help!Please downvote this comment until it collapses.
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Hi, I'm a bot and it looks like you're asking a question about medical issues: psych.
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