Flight Schools In NYC Area???

[turpentyine]

Hello, everyone. I am a 19 yr old college student that lives in NYC and I want to start what will hopefully become a career as an airline pilot by taking my private lessons. I am wondering if any of you fine people know of any GOOD flight schools in the NYC area? Anything you could recommend or maybe some websites that have ratings of flight schools would be great. Thnx a lot!!!

 

[CUEBOAT]

Turpentyine,

I did the training for my private at Republic airport when I was living in Brooklyn, It was about an hour drive with all the traffic. I was using a school called Nassua Flyers. It was a great time, very professional and very excellent training. The only thing about living in NYC and flying is that the weather really isn't ideal, so it may take some time.

Side note: what school do you go to? Did you grow up in NYC?

Quinn
a misplaced yankee in the sunshine state

 

[turpentyine]

I go to Baruch College in Manhatten and plan on majoring in marketing, but hopefully I'll never ever have a career in it.

I was not born in NYC. I ve lived here for 3 years. Ye I've looked at nassau flyers, and all the other flite schools there, but i cant decide which one ot use.

 

[dondk]

As a "former" Ny'er who trained and taught out of LI...

It is VERY pricey, most of the schools are good but the bottom line may end your career before it even starts... FRG is a good starting place but I remember many times being #10 for t/o and waiting better than 45 minutes just to get airborne. You are paying for that time and while it fills the logbook your only learning how to hold the brakes!

LI averages about 70 hours to get your private. There are "other" area's in the tri state that can do it in less time. Look around to the north and northeast, for about the same driving time you can find an alternate location with just as good airplanes, schools and environment and get your certificate in the 50-60 hour range. NJ has a few places that are comparable.

I am not knocking Nassau Flyers or any other facility at FRG, ISP or even HWV. They are ALL good, but they have a price tag that can be quite large attached....

 

[turpentyine]

Ye but isnt it also good because you also get to operate in a very busy airspace?

 

[dondk]

Probably one of the BEST airspaces to learn in.. High Density, congested, and with many restrictions...

I would not give up my training for anything. In hindsight though, I paid for it as well. As an instructor I saw plenty of students "drop out" becasue of the cost. People who should have completed and who were good pilots.

IF (and that is the big IF), you really want to go into this as a career. I do not think one person on this board would tell you to go and throw money away if you can save some. Once you start as a CFI, freight dog, or regional pilot you will WISH you had kept that extra money...

 

[turpentyine]

Would you agree with some of the stuff this guy told me on this on jetcareers.com?


"I did a lot of research on this in June when I came home from school to finish up my PPL. I finally ended up training at AirFleet at Linden where I am now. I checked out pretty much all the schools at Farmingdale, ISLIP, Caldwell, Morristown and Linden. I can give you a run down of what I saw:

ISLIP. Pretty far out on the Island if you are coming from the city (especially with LIE traffic). There were two schools worth checking out there. Mid-Island had a large fleet and seeemed to be a well run place. They have another branch in Brookhaven which is about 20 miles east of ISLIP. Maintenance was good (I always check the ac logs when checking out a school). The planes were well kept. The prices for the planes were decent but there was something like a $250 training fee. FOR WHAT???? Fees like these are pointless in my eyes especially on top of already inflated NY prices. No thank you, I will look elsewhere!!!!
I also checked out American Flyers. This school has branches all over the place, even in Morristown if you live in Jersey. It is well run and very expensive. I did not get the chance to speak with any instructors or students as they will send a salesmen instead of a CFI to get you to sign up. The planes and the program seemed top notch though.

Farmingdale. I checked out almost all the schools on the field and there are many. I wasn't too impressed by any which was partly due to the ridiculously high cost of training on that field. Select seemed to be ok, they had all new planes and training was discouraged in the 152 since no instructors wanted to teach in it. Another JC user told me that they reallly shaft you moneywise by making you take extra flights that you don't need and charging bs fees and the like.
BK and Caleum seemed to be pretty run down. The CFI that gave me the tour of BK had absolutely no faith in the company although their Warriors did rent for $70 (which was the cheapest on the field). I had been warned by different people to avoid these places
Aviate Right is a joke. The guy running the place lied about everything, he claimed planes on the field belonged to the school when they clearly weren't. AVOID at all costs!!!
LIFT- I was impressed by this school's curriculum, maintenace and instructors, but the price was extremely steep (even for FRG).
Nassau Flyers- I heard good things about this school, they have a large fleet and have good maintenance, but there are so many fees here and there that it was clearly not worth it.
I may have checked out more, but this is all that comes to mind at FRG. I was not particularly impressed by any school so I took my quest across the river to Jersey.

Linden: Air Fleet was the only school on the field, it is small, uncontrolled and right below the Newark Class B. Air Fleet has a few instructors here, but its big base is at Teterboro. I chose to train here becauseat Teterboro you *WILL* spend a half hour on the ground waiting to take off and spend $6.50 on a landing fee. The planes seem to be in good shape (I checked out the maintenace at TEB and was impressed). I also found a more than decent instructor. The airport is on Rt1/9 a few miles off of the Goethals.

Caldwell (Essex Co.): Is not that far off of the GWB. They have a bunch of schools on the field.
Caldwell Flight- very good prices, but I heard some sketchy things about maintenace there. Was not too impressed by the facilities or the instructors.
Century Flight- run by a retired airline pilot/DE, this school is no BS. The planes are immaculate and the place is very organized. I took an intro flight with one of the instructors and was not too happy with him. I DEFINITELY would have gone here if I had not found a better instructor at Linden. Eagle went here for some training and recomended the place to me. I spoke to a few students there who spoke very highly of the place.
There is another FBO on the field (Air Dan or something like that). Nobody was there when I visited so I can not give an opinion. The prices seemed decent though.

Monmouth County is a little farther west of Caldwell. Thre were two schools there. American Flyers (see above) and Certified. Certified Flyers had fair prices and seemed to be a decent place.

I hope this helps, because it is a mess out there and I spent a lot of time researching all these schools. I would recommend Century at Morristown or Airfleet at Linden. Check out these places and see where you feel comfortable. But most importantly, prepareto pay. I did most of my training at OSU in Columbus and I pay about 1.5 times what I am used to for the same service. Remember to leave money for crossing the bridges too ( this is about $15 per trip plus gas for me).
If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.
Good Luck !!!

Steven"

 

[dondk]

I trained on LI several years ago... Ironically most of the LI stuff appears to be the same as when I was there.

Most of the others I "know of", I NEVER personally flew there so I cannot say from first hand experience how true the statements actually are. Although... yes, it is close to the same I have heard and know of.

NY metro is a tough market... Some good schools, good equipment, but the backside will set you back some serious change.

Best way for me to put this...

In NY metro plan on your Private being about $7K and upwards.

Look at other area's and a Private can be had for about $3K.

Look at some of those mentioned in that post and I think you will find you will be in the $4K range.

I would still suggest CT, there are a few fields up there that have some FBO/schools that are reasonable.

Best of luck, and save the bucks if you are really bent on doing your time at FRG or ISP...

 

[CUEBOAT]

Dondk makes an excellent point. I spent way too much on my PVT. He is also 100% correct about saving the money once you start instructing. The money issue is why I ended up in Florida at ari-ben aviator ended up saving heaps of money doing this. Also check out Lincoln Park in New Jersey It has very cheap training aircraft from what a buddy says.

 

[superrav]

NYC flight schools

Hey,

Don't forget Million Air Flight Center!! Still kicking strong. TEB is a great airport to learn at if your instructor is good. Million Air has been there since the 50's.