How do you pick a good flight school?

[FlyingToIST]

What makes you to decide to take lessons from flight school A, vs. flight school B?

Is it newer airplanes? Or do you prefer a bit beat up but cheap?
Do you prefer online scheduling, or good old paper and pencil?
Does the office, teaching environment have an impact on your decision? Do you prefer "accelerated" training?

Do block rates mean anything to you? Can you live without them or are they a must?

Is taking flight lessons an alternative to , say, golf, or just a simple past time thing that can be easly replaced?

Any ideas, any thought, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[stillaboo]

What makes you to decide to take lessons from flight school A, vs. flight school B?

Is it newer airplanes? Or do you prefer a bit beat up but cheap?

New planes, new paint jobs, now anything is pointless. Safety is the point! Most trainers haven’t changed in the past 30 years, so new ones are just old ones with new interiors and avionics. New paint jobs look nice, but don’t contribute to flying safely, nor do new interiors. New avionics are good, but when getting your private, you should be looking out the windows to fly, not at the fancy LCD displays inside. Make sure the airplane is well maintained. The engine compartment should be clean, the interior of the aircraft should be clean. Newer is

Do you prefer online scheduling, or good old paper and pencil?

On-line scheduling is nice, but don’t pay a penny extra for it.

Does the office, teaching environment have an impact on your decision?

It should be clean and professional. The environment should be conducive to learning, nothing more. Every $ they spend on their lobby is a extra $ you pay for training.

Do you prefer "accelerated" training?

I do. See the 61 vs. 141 thread for more info on the differences. I’ve done both, and I think 141 pilots are more knowledgeable pilots. More knowledgeable pilots are safer pilots. Safer pilots are better pilots. It’s that simple. 141 training is also similar to military flight training, which is the best in the world. My personal opinion only. Good pilots can and do come from either side. You’ll get out of it what you put into it.

Do block rates mean anything to you? Can you live without them or are they a must?

Block rates are cheaper prices for the same hours. If you’re gonna’ need 60 hours to get your private, you might as well save some $. Anywhere that doesn’t offer block would have to explain to me why they don’t, b/c I don’t get it.

Is taking flight lessons an alternative to , say, golf, or just a simple past time thing that can be easly replaced?

Uhh . . . most pilots on this board are either professional pilots, or are aspiring to be pros, and could never equate one as an alternative to the other. I don’t think golf and flight training are even in the same league, personally. Golf, worst case you screw up, ball goes in the drink, mulligan. Flying, well, there are no mulligans in flying. You screw up, you could die, and take passengers and people on the ground with you. Flying requires the kind of dedication professional golfers devote to their sport, whether you fly professionally or recreationally. Fly safe, or don’t fly.
I hope I just misinterpreted what you were asking there.

Any ideas, any thought, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Find a couple schools you like, then talk to the students currently enrolled. They are the best gauge of a particular school. When you choose a school, insist on flying with multiple instructors at first, so that you can see the variety of teaching styles they bring to the cockpit, and you can choose which ones you like best. Part 61 programs give you more flexibility in your choice here, usually. Choose the school that you feel most comfortable with, the one that you feel is most concerned about flying safely. That is the school you want.

-Boo!

 

[bobbysamd]

Training

Is taking flight lessons an alternative to , say, golf, or just a simple past time thing that can be easly replaced?

It depends on your goal in flying. If all you want to do is earn your Private certificate now and Instrument later, and only fly on Sunday mornings for the $100 breakfast, you can learn at a leisurely pace under Part 61. However, if you think that you might be the least bit serious in pursuing professional aviation, you have to approach your training in a serious manner.

I know. I started flying twenty-one years ago for fun. I had always wanted to learn how to fly, ever since I discovered airplanes. For several reasons, I would not, did not, or could not consider an aviation career when I should have, as a teenager. I finally started to fly and learned under Part 61 with an instructor who owned his own airplane. I earned all but one of my single-engine ratings with him. I decided to change careers. I had everything but my multi ratings, which I earned with another instructor who owned his own Baron. I figured a Commercial-CFI was a Commercial-CFI. I found out how little I really knew when I got my first full-time job at ERAU. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I feel I was held back because I didn't receive real, formal training. After making my decision I should have backtracked and went to someplace like Riddle or Oklahoma State, worked on my additional ratings there and/or take remedial training, and earned a second degree in Aeronautical Science. That's why I encourage serious flight students to consider 141 schools.

Finally, there is accelerated and there is accelerated. These programs are very intensive. FlightSafety Academy's course is six months, from zero time to Commercial-Instrument-Multi. I instructed there. The program works, but you have to keep up. Also, you receive quite a bit of learning in a short period of time, and unless you can keep flying after graduation you might lose some of it as quickly as you received it. I know there are other programs in which you arrive with your Private and leave ninety days later with your Commercial-Multi-Instrument-CFI-A-I-ME. There are people who swear by these programs, but you have to be extremely motivated and able to really soak up learning. Sometimes you hit learning plateaus, during which you can't absorb any learning for the moment. That kind of situation concerns me with these programs.

Best thing you can do is determine your priorities for learning. As Stillaboo wrote above, most people here are current professional pilots, aspiring professional pilots, or former professional pilots. You have to figure out where you fit in. Then, you can choose the right school. If there are schools about which you have questions, post their names and, guaranteed, you'll receive more feedback than you'll ever need.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your training.

 

[FlyingToIST]

The reason I asked these questions is because, call me nuts, I am in the process of opening a flight school from scratch. Unlike most other ones I am trying to get as much information as possible from people who have been on the other side of the checkout desk.

I for one have seen how a flight school should not be run in most cases, vs. how should be run..

Thanks..

 

[bobbysamd]

You should have said so in the first place . . . .

In that case, I would say that people choose training providers based on how well they enable and facilitate a career. In other words, few people would be interested in Joe's Flight School if the regionals never hired its graduates. We all know of plenty of schools who brag about how they are "the only way to the airlines. (The mixed nouns and verbs were intentional. It seems that most every flight school sells itself as "the only way" to the airlines.)

Therefore, in my $0.02 opinion, another factor might be honesty. I.e. telling prospective students the truth about building a career after school. Not selling them pie-in-the sky and/or using Kit Darby pilot shortage sales tactics while in the midst of an airline recession. Creating and developing a training course that will prepare new pilots for real, professional flying as opposed to checkrides only, and then selling them on the quality and value of your program and not because your school "is the only way and shortcut" to the airlines.

More power to you if you can make a go of opening a flight school in these times, or any times.