Nationwide Aviation brings flight training to students

Fort Worth, Texas-based Nationwide Aviation was created as a way to bring flight training directly to students. The school offers private, instrument, commercial, certificated flight instructor, certificated flight instructor-instruments, and multiengine training.

Owner and Chief Pilot Trevor Hall, an AOPA member since 2008, came up with the idea a couple years ago. “I had a couple students that had requested that I travel to them and train them at their location. One student was a private pilot student and the other was an instrument student,” he recalled. “With the private student, I flew into his ranch and landed on a grass strip he had built. Three days later he was soloed, and by the end of the week he was to PTS standards on all of his maneuvers and we had also completed his dual cross-country.” Hall holds instructor, instructor-instruments, and multiengine instructor certificates.

Hall met his instrument student at his home airport, mapped out a game plan and jumped in his airplane and took off. “Eight days later we returned to his airport after flying more than 30 hours together, crossing multiple states, and successfully completing his Instrument Practical Test,” he said.

These were some of the most enjoyable training experiences Hall said he ever had as an instructor, and both students stated that they had learned more in these short periods of time than they had ever before. “It was real world, in and out of where they will operate and also beyond,” he said. “Seeing these busy men accomplish their goals that they thought they never had the time for was extremely self-rewarding and I decided that this is how flight training should be and Nationwide Aviation was born.”

Hall officially started Nationwide Aviation about a year ago, where he also started selling Clarity Aloft aviation headsets under the same name.

"Nationwide Aviation’s immersion-based training is the best way to learn,” said Hall. “We have a 100 percent pass rating, a 100 percent retention rating, our students get through their training in a shorter amount of time, and save money,” he said. “Typically students would go to a flight school and do a two-hour lesson and then go home. When they return the next week they spend the first hour reviewing things they have forgot and it really hard for an instructor to give the best quality instruction this way.”

By having an instructor for an entire day, the student can learn at their pace, fast or slow, said Hall. “Students can choose between three different lengths of time for training sessions: half-day, full-day, and extended-day training,” he said. “Respectively, they are four-hour, eight-hour, and 12-hour training sessions that include your instructor for the allotted time to do any combination of ground and flight training.”

Nationwide Aviation works with students in their offices, in their living rooms, and in their trucks as they travel between jobs, said Hall. “We essentially become our customer’s full-time personal flight instructor. We have aircraft that students can rent and we frequently work with FBOs and rent locally were our student is based to reduce travel costs to the student and bring rental business to local airports,” he said. “We are willing to go anywhere, anytime.”

The majority of customers are business owners and individuals who have varying schedules that do not allow them to be the traditional flight school student, said Hall. “At our base location in Fort Worth, we serve students from high schoolers to professional students seeking a career to individuals that want to fly themselves and their family for fun,” he said. “We’re currently working with about 30 students and counting daily as the word spreads about the style of training.”

The average cost of training is between $8,000 and $10,000, said Hall, and the instructor’s travel cost and expenses on multi-day/overnight training are reimbursed by the customer. The half-day rate (four hours) is $175; the full-day rate (eight hours) is $325; and extended-day rate (12 hours/overnight) is $475.

“There are varying times from finishing at the minimum, from 40 hours to about 55 hours,” he said. “It largely depending on the student and their learning style. We rarely see our students pass the 55 hour mark without a rating.” Nationwide does lots of "finish up" training for students that have not finished with their previous training for many reasons. "But those students are taking about 3-5 days to finish up," said Hall.

Nationwide Aviation also offers aircraft brokerage to help students purchase an aircraft and train them in their personal airplane, said Hall. “This only adds to our full-service approach, because we know everyone's mission is different and it is very important to learn in the aircraft you will be flying,” he said. “The relocation service naturally comes along with aircraft brokerage. We can help you purchase your aircraft and deliver it to you with your personal flight instructor.”

While the company does not offer charter services, it  can easily save customers looking to charter a larger aircraft time and money by brokering a trip for them at no additional cost to them through connections with various companies nationwide, said Hall.

The company currently has three pilots on staff, including Hall. “Our future goal is to become a nationwide network of Nationwide Aviation instructors that serve their respective areas regionally,” he said. “This will reduce travel costs for the student's instructor to get to their location, and also provide greater availability and coverage throughout the country.”