The whole situation has become so complex it makes you yearn for the days when a flight school consisted of one guy with a Piper Cub, a windsock, and a pasture. In order to sort it out, you need to think seriously about what you want and expect before jumping into the flight training pool.
One of the first items you should investigate is the person you see in the mirror. Decide why it is you want to fly in the first place, as that will have a lot to do with where, and how, you learn to fly.
These days, the reasons people decide to learn to fly seem to fall into two major categories and a couple of minor ones. Many of today's students are looking down the road at a seat in the airlines, which is a gigantic change from a decade ago when the jobs were so scarce that it wasn't even worth considering. The other major group of student pilots includes those who have reached, or passed, middle age and are finally getting to do what they've always wanted to do. The balance of the student population is made up of those who want to work an airplane into their existing business, those who simply can't live without the thrill and adventure of flying, and those who don't know for sure why they are doing it. Many of these people in all of these categories have jobs or careers that they can't or don't want to leave to pursue training. Others have families that require their presence on a daily basis. Still others have strict budget limitations. Each circumstance requires a different type of flight school.
The Academies
If you're looking at aviation as a career and you're fairly young - age 35 or younger - this is a golden age for you. Not since the late 1960s has it been so easy to get into the airlines, and never has the path been so clearly defined and so well attended to by dozens of flight academies. Note the term is academy, not school. Today, the new breed of flight academy can take your $25,000 to $30,000 (financial aid is usually available) and virtually guarantee you 1,500 hours, an airline transport pilot certificate, and an interview with at least a regional airline - all in three years or less.
This is serious, hard-core flight training in the great military tradition. Forget about having a life outside of aviation, because these are total immersion programs. Think of it as going back to college, complete with moving away from home, textbooks, homework, classes, and camaraderie. This is not something that will work for a midlife crisis where you want to replace your occasional golf game with flying. On the other end of the spectrum, it's also not a substitute for a college education. Most airlines require pilots to hold a four-year degree. While some of the flight training academies work with area colleges to help students get degrees, earning a degree is not always part of the program. That's why aviation academies are especially good for those who already have a degree and simply want career training. Those who don't have a degree may do better attending one of the many colleges and universities offering aviation-related degrees and flight training.
So, if you meet the general qualifications - you are able to move to the school's location, make training a full-time occupation for two to three years, and want an airline career - the path is pretty well mapped out for you. If that's not for you, you'll need to weigh your options against your priorities to find a way to make learning to fly work in your life. And you can find a way to make it work. Learning to fly takes a fairly serious commitment on two fronts, both of which will affect your choice of schools. The first and most serious commitment is time. The second is finances, but that can always be worked out.
Your Priorities
Learning to fly takes time and energy, both physically and mentally. It's not the type of thing you can do once in a while without giving it a thought in between. If you really want to learn to fly, you have to decide to dedicate the time required and promise yourself not to budge from that commitment. You need to find time to hit the books every week and plan on getting to the airport an absolute minimum of three times a month. The general rule is that, for optimum efficiency in your training, you should fly at least twice a week. But if finances dictate and you understand that it will take much longer and ultimately cost you more, then flying once or twice a month is better than nothing. At least it puts you on the road to reaching your goal. And, if you study and read regularly, you can keep learning even when you're away from the airport. A little "armchair flying" - closing your eyes and mentally running through the flight procedures and techniques you've learned - on a regular basis can also go a long way to helping you retain what you have been taught.
If you have a spouse and even children to consider, make certain that the family is OK with you putting this kind of time and money into flying. Learning to fly isn't always easy, and you will need the support of your loved ones. In too many families, there is an aura of animosity between the pilot and those who think he or she is goofing off. It's a good idea to spend some time sharing the experience with the family and making them feel a part of it. Most instructors don't mind if you bring a family member along to ride in the back during some of your lessons.
Assuming you are willing and able to make this commitment, where do you go and what kind of school should you look for? Excluding the specialized flight academies and aviation colleges and universities, you're left with three basic choices: a well established school, often part of a full-service FBO; a smaller mom-and-pop operation with a warm and fuzzy feeling to it; or an independent flight instructor who freelances. Before you get too deep into choosing a flight school, you'll want to think about airports. That may help to narrow your options.
Your Options
Airports come in three basic types, and all three don't necessarily exist in a given geographical area. This fact may make your decision easy. Assuming, however, that all three types of airports are available within a reasonable distance of your home, you'll want to consider the strong and weak points of each. Bigger airports are usually tower-controlled and often host the largest flight schools as well as the airline academies. A tower adds both good and bad things to flight training. (See "Turf for Training: The towered, nontowered debate," AOPA Flight Training, January 2001.) On the good side, a towered airport prepares a student for big airport operations and gets him or her comfortable with a microphone, air traffic controllers, and interfacing with a wide range of aircraft. On the down side, when a big-airport student goes to a nontowered field, he or she may not be as vigilant or comfortable in entering the pattern and in looking for and avoiding traffic without the help of guidance from the tower. The most common flight training situation is the medium-sized airport where the FBO also does flight training and is sometimes fairly serious about it.
Less common, but sometimes worth ferreting out, is the tiny country strip, maybe grass, with one operator who has been teaching flying for years. These are not always the most efficient situations, but if building a personal relationship with your instructor, keeping one instructor for the duration of the training, learning to operate out of tight spaces, and focusing on old-fashioned stick-and-rudder skills is important to you, this may be the best choice.
Big Airports, Big Schools
To a significant extent, the size of an airport dictates the type of flight schools you will find there. The bigger the airport, the greater the likelihood that the flight school will be shouldering big operating expenses. This often means that the school must do a large volume of business and charge fairly high rates to make ends meet. While big schools are not necessarily the most professional, they are more likely to follow the model of the aviation training academies by emphasizing standardization among instructors, sched- uling, and quality of aircraft. They can't afford to let the schedule slide, so these schools work hard to get students, instructors, and airplanes in and out on time. This can be very efficient, but it can also be limiting if you need a few extra minutes to talk to your instructor when he or she is scheduled to meet another student. Big schools may also be less flexible than smaller ones, making it more difficult to work with any special problems or requirements you may have. The big schools also see high instructor turnover as the CFIs hit the magic 1,500-hour mark and leave for the airlines.
Middle Of The Road
The medium-sized flight training operations that are often part of a full-service FBO have good and bad points. It is difficult to judge what kind of emphasis the FBO is placing on its flight training. For some, it may be a time filler between fueling large aircraft, while others may consider it to be a primary part of their business.
In investigating any school, you need to determine how seriously the business takes its flight training program and how professional the approach is. The best way to answer these questions, and others, is to talk to people who are taking flight instruction there. Don't ask just one person. Ask for the names of at least five current or past students and contact all of them. When you talk to these students, get a sense of how satisfied they have been with their training experience and ask some specific questions:
- Were the instructors prompt?
- Did they do both preflight and postflight briefings?
- Were they good communicators?
- Were the aircraft well-maintained?
- Were the instructors honest in evaluating their students' progress?
- Did the instructor leave the school before the student earned the rating?
Small Scale
The tiny airports with one instructor seem to have several things in common: The instructor has been at it a long time, the operation is doing its best to hang on, and the aircraft may be safe but well-worn. Many of these operations offer terrific training because the instructor is there to teach, not to build time. You don't have to worry about your instructor leaving midway through your training. This will also probably be the cheapest flying you'll ever do and, hopefully, you'll master the basics of airmanship. You may be weak on radio work and big airports may make you nervous, but your fundamental skills should get a lot of attention.
Of course, there are exceptions. As with larger schools, it doesn't hurt to get references. Ask the same kinds of questions you would at a larger school, but add one: How would you describe the instructor's teaching style? Because there is just one instructor, it's important that your personalities mesh. If you are incompatible, there is no one to step in and mediate as a manager may do at a larger school.
The last type of flight school isn't a school at all, but a freelance instructor. The instructor may teach you in your own airplane, his airplane, or an airplane you rent. Freelancers come in all types but, like the operators of one-instructor flight schools, generally teach because they enjoy it, not to build time. These individuals can offer good options in terms of price and scheduling, but be sure to ask. Freelancers who instruct part-time while holding down another job may not be able to adjust to the schedule you need.
These instructors also vary widely in quality and experience. You don't want to learn from a CFI who just got his ticket and can't find a job. You may also want to avoid the instructor who only teaches occasionally and may not have put a student up for a certificate in a long while. Ask the instructor how many students he has recommended for checkrides in the past year and how many of his students are earning their first certificate. If he hasn't had at least one student take a checkride in the past year or if he usually teaches only advanced or specialty ratings, you might want to look elsewhere. Again, get a list of references. Be especially careful to determine that the freelancer keeps a tight schedule.
One potential problem with freelancers is that there is no guaranteed continuity. Situations change, and you may find yourself looking for another instructor halfway through your rating. If you're flying with an established school, at least they'll have another instructor ready to take you on. Where freelancers really shine is for short-term work like instrument recurrency or endorsements for tailwheel, complex, or high-performance aircraft. Since these take only a few hours, there's little chance of being left in the lurch.
The bottom line is that quality comes down to the individual instructor. Good CFIs can be found in any school, regardless of size, and so can rotten ones. It's your money and your time. You have the obligation to yourself make certain the CFI in the right seat is the best you can find.
Schools Online
Now that you know what you're looking for in a flight school, let AOPA Flight Training help you find the perfect place to train anywhere in the country. Our online searchable database includes information on more than 3,000 flight schools nationwide. Get contact information, link to school Web sites, and learn what types of training each school offers with our online flight school directory. Visit us ( www.aopaflighttraining.org/school/index.cfm ) and get your flight training off the ground.
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