Flight School Spotlight: Spencer Aviation

Owner Mike Spencer started Spencer Aviation in 2005 with just himself and a Cessna 150. Today the school has 15 instructors and nine airplanes spread over two locations. Spencer said that six or seven airports in the region have asked him to expand to their location over the years. He finally expanded from Delaware Municipal Airport in Delaware, Ohio, to the Union County Airport in Marysville, Ohio, when Delaware was going to be closed for the summer for repaving. Union County had just started a flight school but had lost interest in running it, so Spencer saw the opportunity to quickly expand.

Spencer Aviation focuses on training. That may be an obvious statement for a flight school, but Spencer said he thinks it’s one reason students feel taken care of. The flight school don’t sell fuel, perform maintenance, or even rent airplanes. If someone comes looking to rent, Spencer Aviation will recommend other schools with better access to aircraft. For Spencer, it’s all about making sure flight training is the schools’ sole focus. “We’re not selling fuel, and we’re not doing maintenance. We’re focused on teaching people to fly,” he said. Many flight schools struggle to survive, or their owners consistently seek to squeak out more profit. With that perspective, pulling back on revenue sources to focus on the core business is somewhat revolutionary.

Traditionally Spencer Aviation’s students were professionals who were learning to fly for fun, or to fulfill a lifelong dream. But Spencer said that in the past few years that has transitioned to an even split of recreational and career students. And Spencer knows this because he makes it a priority to understand the student’s motivations.

Spencer stresses to all his new instructors that not everyone has the same goals they do. “I give them the example of a student who wanted to learn to fly only to get over his fear,” he said. “I realized after his first solo when he never flew again that he had met his goal.” Everyone has different motivations in learning to fly, and Spencer Aviation stresses to its new instructors that these are important to understand. “Sometimes we [instructors] push our goals on them rather than meeting their goals.”

The school also remains flexible to the student’s needs. Spencer said that has always been the case as they have had to accommodate the schedules of busy professionals. He’s been teaching ground school for 20 years, and although they use Gleim materials as a base, students are allowed to use any materials they may have already purchased. That continues to the flight training process. Although flexible, the school is disciplined, and uses a syllabus for each student.

In the Flight Training Experience Award feedback, students say that Spencer Aviation has great customer service and professionalism. Part of that could be Spencer’s philosophy of no surprises in the training process. Spencer said that “a few of us who have been around for awhile” will sit down with each new student to explain the flight training process in detail. This discussion gets out of the way all the potential pitfalls of training, and sets expectations early. Topics such as managing the 40-hour checkride expectation and other issues are covered, and many students tell Spencer how invaluable those meetings have been to their happiness with the school.

Clearly this focus on the student’s priorities, and solely on teaching people to fly, has served Spencer Aviation well. Sure, the flight school has been successful in AOPA’s award program, but what speaks louder is the business success. The school pulls students from Columbus, all of Ohio, and even from out of state. There are approximately 30 people on a waiting list ready to start training. Not bad for a rural school that started with one Cessna 150.