My first flight school was a dark and dirty place. The building seemed as if it had been around since the first foot of concrete was poured for the runway. The Cessna 152s were tired and beaten. The maintenance technicians had contempt for students, and I had no idea who the owner or manager was. My only human connections to the place were through my flight instructor and the woman with the charming British accent behind the desk.
Despite that, I wouldn’t say it was a bad school. In fact, I thought the airplanes were wonderfully inexpensive and I idolized my flight instructor.
All of my training was through smaller Part 61 flight schools, and I can honestly say I was more or less happy at each. Yet if I take my experience and expand it to the broader flight training market across the United States, my experience was unusual. Roughly 70 to 80 percent of people are dropping out of flight training.
I think the answer is that the flight school was good for me. I was an invincible college kid. I didn’t care about customer service or a clean facility, or even particularly safe airplanes. But I have no doubt that business professionals from the community felt differently. Many probably believed they were getting ripped off by the place.
In flight training, as in any business, one size does not fit all. What works for one student doesn’t necessarily work for another. If I’m learning to fly for pleasure, CFIs who wear Hawaiian shirts could be a fun and welcome sight every lesson. But if I’m trying to learn how to fly to advance my business, maybe that approach isn’t appropriate. Running a flight school, then, is hard work. Walmart and Ferrari both have great success targeting a specific customer base, albeit at opposite ends of the spectrum, because the pool of potential customers for each is measured in the many millions, or billions in Walmart’s case. Flight schools don’t have that luxury. The market for flight training is small, and schools have to try and be all things to all students.
Unfortunately the result is that at least a few students fall through the cracks. The good news is that the guts of what makes a great school are consistent, and it’s not about Hawaiian shirts or epaulettes. AOPA studied the attributes a few years ago, and published the results on its website. The next step was to shine a light on the country’s best schools, which is why we launched the AOPA Flight Training Excellence Awards. A school that wins an award will exemplify what it means to be a great flight school, as defined by the criteria in the research.
We’re asking for your help to nominate the school or instructor you believe embodies the best in flight training. The deadline is August 24, and the awards will be given at AOPA Aviation Summit in Palm Springs in October. Go to this link and fill out a short nominating form. If you do, we’ll send you the challenge coin pictured here. And don’t worry if the lights are a little low and the walls a little dingy. Your school could be a gem.
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