“What about the Belgian weather?” The question comes up at every open day, and it is a fair one: does starting pilot training in autumn mean months of waiting between two fronts? Rather than answer with an impression, we measured. The verdict from our own data: no — and for some courses, winter is actually the best time to start.
What our figures show
We took all of our completed courses and looked at their duration by starting month. Among 2021-2025 starts, MEP and IR-ME courses begun between October and March completed in a median of 5.4 months, against 5.8 for April-to-September starts; October and December are actually the best months in the series. The CPL takes a little over two months at the median whatever the starting month. The observed durations of every course, updated monthly, are published on this site.
The result is surprising — until you look at what these courses are made of.
The simulator does not look out of the window
Of the 55 hours of an IR-ME rating, 40 take place in the simulator. Our two FNPT IIs run all year round, indoors, on stable slots that weather never cancels — and instrument flying is precisely something you learn in conditions you choose, failure by failure, procedure by procedure. A student who starts the IR-ME in November flies simulator sessions all winter without depending on the sky, and keeps the fifteen aircraft hours for hand-picked slots.
Theory follows the same logic: evening classes and ATPL blocks could not care less about drizzle. Winter is the natural season for the studious phases of a course.
And night falls early — all the better
A detail easily forgotten: the night rating is far more convenient to prepare in winter, when aeronautical night begins in the late afternoon rather than at 11 pm. Our students complete the NVFR in a median of three months, and it is the winter rating par excellence.
As for winter VFR flying, it has its remarkable days: cold, dense, calm air and superb post-frontal visibility. There are fewer VFR slots than in June, true — but a piston engine and a student both learn better in the stable air of January than in the thermal turbulence of an August afternoon.
Plan the phases, don’t avoid the seasons
The practical conclusion is not “start in December”: it is that the starting season matters far less than regularity. Our data repeats it course after course: what sets the final duration is the rhythm — two to three sessions a week — not the month of the first flight. A well-built course simply puts each phase in its natural season: theory and simulator when the days are short, weather-sensitive VFR phases in the fair months, night flying when night is within reach.
Yes, weather cancellations happen — in every season, and more in winter than in summer on the aircraft phases. The school absorbs them by rescheduling quickly, and that is also why the simulator fills the winter so effectively.
Start when you are ready
If your project is ripe in October, do not postpone it to spring: you would lose six months to avoid an obstacle our figures cannot find. Tell us about your project: we will build a calendar that puts every phase at the right time of year.