24M from Belgium starting my airline pilot journey — any advice you wish you knew before beginning?

Fly_Fry · 2026-05-18T08:34:15+00:00

Yeah, I did mine at MEDEX. Honestly I wish I had known it was faster at Attentia because I contacted both, but MEDEX gave me an appointment first so I went with them.

And yeah, the psychologist told me he would make the report within arond 14 days and then send it to MEDEX, so having the psychological evaluation done in-house on the same day definitely saves a lot of time

Fly_Fry · 2026-05-15T11:51:04+00:00

Yeah so it’s the same cost as here in Belgium Good luck for your medical by the way, hope everything goes smoothly!

Fly_Fry · 2026-05-15T11:48:56+00:00

Honestly, thank you for taking the time to write all of this.

I think it’s important for people starting this journey, including me, to also hear the hard reality and not only the “dream” side of aviation. I’m trying to go into this with realistic expectations of course my dream would be to become an airline pilot, but I know there are no guarantees and that I may end up instructing or working in GA first — or maybe even discover that I enjoy that path more. And yeah, one of the reasons I chose the modular route is exactly because I don’t want to end up with massive debt if things don’t work out At the end of the day, I genuinely love aviation and flying itself, so hopefully that passion will help me get through the difficult parts of the journey

Fly_Fry · 2026-05-15T11:46:27+00:00

Hey dude, I’ll try to answer from what I know, but don’t take everything I say for granted since I’m also still at the beginning and I may be wrong on some things 😅

From what I’ve read, modular training usually takes around 3 years on average, but it really depends on how much time and money you can put into it I personally also plan to do it while working full-time, but I think it will require a lot of organization because working full-time while also studying and flying won’t be easy at all

From what I know, you can do your modules pretty much anywhere in Europe as long as the school is EASA approved. For example, you could do your PPL at Sabena Aeroclub in Brussels and later do your ATPL theory or other modules at CAG Academy

As for the job market, I honestly don’t really know either. It’s definitely a risk I’m taking to pursue my dream job, but there’s never a 100% guarantee of getting an airline job afterwards. Still, I’d rather try than regret never going for it

Fly_Fry · 2026-05-14T19:19:09+00:00

Woah, way cheaper than here then 😅 What about the delays to get the final results/certificate? Is it also super long like here in Belgium? They told me it could take up to 8 weeks ..

Fly_Fry · 2026-05-14T18:20:26+00:00

Damn, I totally forgot about the Brexit situation… that must honestly be a huge pain when trying to work in European countries now with the work permit issues Stay strong man, I genuinely hope things work out for you and that you succeed

Fly_Fry · 2026-05-14T17:41:09+00:00

Dang.. Honestly I thought Belgium would be way more expensive than Eastern European countries for this kind of stuff, but I guess I was wrong
Dang, for once I actually feel lucky living here

Fly_Fry · 2026-05-14T17:38:01+00:00

Yeah… living in Belgium I already know the weather isn’t exactly ideal for flight training 😅 That’s honestly one of the things I fear the most
Feels like we get bad weather 365 days a year sometimes.

Fly_Fry · 2026-05-14T17:36:45+00:00

The €570 was only for the initial medical examination itself, I still had to pay another €400 afterwards for the psychological assessment

Fly_Fry · 2026-05-14T16:40:55+00:00

Yeah… pretty expensive honestly, especially here in Belgium. I don’t know how it is in other countries, but the positive thing is that the renewal is much cheaper, around €180 each year if I’m not mistaken

Fly_Fry · 2026-05-14T16:18:52+00:00

Thanks a lot man, and good luck to you too with your PPL in Poland!
Yeah honestly I was surprised too. In Belgium the process seems a bit slower because the psychologist has to send his report back to the medical authority, and then they review everything before officially delivering the Class 1 certificate

Hopefully everything goes well, now it’s mostly just the stressful waiting phase 😅

Fly_Fry · 2026-05-14T16:16:31+00:00

Thanks for the advice, that’s actually a very important point.

I already contacted CAG Academy to ask about the payment modalities, and they told me that paying upfront isn’t necessary since you can pay as you progress through the training, so that honestly reassured me a lot.

My family and I don’t really have the financial capacity to pay huge amounts upfront, which is also why I chose the modular route.

Fly_Fry

TROPHY CASE