Kingsky places emphasis on standardization

Kelmann is the chief executive officer of Kingsky Flight Academy in Lakeland, Florida. His father, Isaac, is the chief operating officer. Isaac retired from an airline career about eight years ago, while Mauricio now divides his time between the school and his own airline career. Flying professionally is what led them to open Kingsky in 2014, named the Best Flight School in the Southeast in AOPA’s 2019 Flight Training Experience Awards.

Isaac used to conduct type rating training, and he noticed how behind the students were who came from general aviation backgrounds. They struggled with advanced avionics and the speed of the airplane, sure. But what he really noticed was how they lacked standardization, cockpit procedures, and crew resource management.

Mauricio and Isaac started Kingsky to directly address those shortcomings. Although roughly 10 to 20 percent of their students are learning to fly for recreational reasons, the majority of the school’s clients are on the path to a flying career. Mauricio said the school doesn’t make a distinction in how they train the different groups. “We train everyone the same regardless of their goals. There’s no room for anything else in aviation.”

The school’s philosophy is easily distilled into three main priorities. Safety is first. “We don’t spare a dollar when it comes to safety,” Mauricio said. “My father and I looked at each and realized if we ever cut a corner it was time to shut the doors.” The second priority is standardization, and this is where most of the school’s mission is focused.

It starts with a syllabus for every course, whether the student is training Part 61 or 141, for private or CFII. The airplanes are standardized. Although the fleet is mixed, including five Cessna 150s, three 172s, three Piper Cherokees, and a Seneca, students can easily jump between airplanes of the same type. That would have been easy to accomplish with new airplanes, but for a relatively young school, the investment didn’t make sense. Instead Mauricio and Isaac buy airplanes and completely refurbish each one with the same paint scheme, interior, and panel layout. Radios are in the same position, and each has Garmin G5s. When students rated the school for AOPA’s Flight Training Experience Awards they noted the quality of the airplanes. Age didn’t matter, but quality and consistency were key factors.

Most important, the instructors are standardized. They are trained and retrained on everything from paperwork to how to teach individual maneuvers in order to maintain quality and continuity between the instructor corps. “When I transition a student to another instructor, both the student and instructor know what to expect,” Mauricio said.

Incorporating such rigorous standardization into the school took a monetary investment, mostly in the airplane refurbishments. But more than anything it took time and effort. The Kelmanns wrote a training supplement for each aircraft model that includes maneuvers guides detailing how each task is to be completed. They spend hours training CFIs, and they invest in the infrastructure to make sure the quality is maintained.

The third priority is professionalism—something that Mauricio believes is a by-product of training in a safe and standardized environment.

One thing that’s not on the list is customer service. That’s because Mauricio said it must be a given. Their reviews reflect good service, so there’s evidence that they have a high standard. But he thinks that if your only selling point is customer service you won’t succeed. It’s simply the basis from which you must grow.

Florida is a competitive flight training market, but Mauricio said he doesn’t feel a lot of direct competition. He sees smaller schools focused on flying for fun, and larger career programs with a less personal feel. What he doesn’t see are mid-sized schools offering a professional atmosphere. “The seriousness of what we’re doing is really important,” he said. “There’s a lack of that in the market.”

Students come from all over the country, primarily by word of mouth recommendations. Kingsky now offers the ATP CTP course; the flight school is VA approved and it has Liberty University as a degree partner. It has led to a growth rate that took the Kelmanns from a father-son duo with two airplanes to about 17 instructors and 12 airplanes just six years later.