The fly schools in Seattl

[andyhung]

I know there are several fly schools in Seattle area.

I visited some of their web sites, but I could not decide which school is good.

Could anyone please give me some imformation about the school which has nice introducers, has not too bad enviroment, charges fair enough etc.

Thank you.

 

[Hogan]

Check out Wings Aloft and Galvin at Boeing Field. Galvin has a very good rep. Wings is more of a club. They have lots of actvities so you won't get bored, but they are really hard to understand when they send you the bill.

 

[silver02ex]

Stay away from Harvey field in Snohomish (S43). I've heard Regal at PAE is good too.

 

[milehye]

Hey Silver:

I agree with you re: Sno-flight, but what is your reason? Just curious.

 

[papanovember]

The schools at BFI are good but since they are on BFI they are very expensive. Galvin charges $130 to $163 an hour for a 172. Instructor rates are $50 hr.

The farther away you go from Seattle the lower the cost. Regal and Northway at PAE (30 miles north) are good.

To the south there is Auburn flight services about twenty minutes south of Seattle.

Over on the Kitsap penninsula there is Tacoma Narrows which has Pavco and ATP. Farther north in Port Orchard is Avian at Bremerton National.

I have personally flown out of Galvin, Avian and Pavco and had no problems at all three.

 

[Dustin H]

Cost-wise, I'd day Crest airpark would be a good way to go.

http://www.crestairpark.com/

 

[NW_Pilot]

I know there are several fly schools in Seattle area.

I visited some of their web sites, but I could not decide which school is good.

Could anyone please give me some imformation about the school which has nice introducers, has not too bad enviroment, charges fair enough etc.

Thank you.

I am hard to make happy and Regal is a great place Galvin is good also little bit high $ocity there! Cannot remember the place out of OLM I Believe it's Pearson Air but they where great also.

 

[silver02ex]

Hey Silver:

I agree with you re: Sno-flight, but what is your reason? Just curious.

I posted this on another thread but here it is:

Stay away from Snohomish flying Service (S43). I worked there for over a year. from 04 -05 My first thought (during the interview) was that it was a great 141 school. But after 3 days my mind changed. When I was hired. I was given a schedule to come in and "work" Mon and Tues day off and 9 hrs day for the rest of the week. The horrible part is that, lets say you have 2 students that day, you are paid for the ground and flight time, and are FORCED to sit there for the rest of the day answering phones, updating student files, answer any questions anyone has that walked into the flight school, call up the people who came in for an intro flight, and try to get them to sign up. You are doing all these things and are NOT paid for it. If you think that's bad, during the winter you may not have any students for 2-3 days and you are still FORCED to come in and sit. If the owner or manager see that you are sitting around not doing anything, they will tell you to call your students to come in and fly. Even when it's 1/4 mile vis and 100 ovc. If you tell them the weather is bad, they will then tell you to call your student's and do ground. I remember days sitting there 2 days and not getting paid for doing paper work, answer phone etc. Many test flights I have done that was not paid for, or the ferry flight to go pick up parts or a student that's stuck on a x-country 2 hrs away, and not get paid for that also. Their response to that is "We don't pay you for those things because, you are getting free hrs." Oh and another thing that made me real mad was, requesting a day off. I asked for a day off one time becuase my g/f was getting her wisdom teeth pulled, I had to be the one to take care of her, drive her from the doctor's office and stayed home with her. They would not give me the day off, so I had to get my dad to drive 3 hrs to take care of her, while I sat at work with no students and not getting paid for many things they asked me to do that day. If you like to work for free and get treated like crap, then Snohomish flying Service is a place for you. Most people might think why not just leave when you are not getting paid. all of the CFI tried that and they got called in one by one to the owner's office, and were told "if you did not come in when you are schedule to come in then quit" they still would not paid their CFI when they told them to be there.

I want to add that the place is a family business, the school manager is the sister of the owner. The shop manager is the owner's son who's in his mid 20's. Dispatch is also run by the owner's daughter. So if you had a problem with someone you can never get them to understand your problem, because they will back each other up and go against you. They will also try to to every penny out of each student all time. For example, if you use a debit card to pay for anything it's a 50 cents charge each time and a 3% charge on credit card. Another example was I always tell my students to go on sportys to take their practice test for free, that way they don't have to buy any software for the practice test. I got bitch out by the school's manager telling me that I had to tell them to buy the ASA test prep software that's on display. I think the overall view they have on their instructor's is that, they can treat us like crap whenever they want because we can be replace real easy.