Flight School Spotlight

The school recently completed a property expansion to accommodate the staff, aircraft, and student growth Paragon has been experiencing. It’s equally exciting and challenging for the flight school owners. “A lot of it came down to staying the course and really believing in the product,” said Chris Schoensee, one of the owners of Paragon Flight Training. The new building, a 9,000-square-foot expansion of office space, gives the flight school staff and students a bit more room, though they are already running out of space.

A business that Schoensee describes as “small, but boutique,” Paragon Flight Training opened in 2006. Schoensee and fellow owners Jeffrey Wolf and Sarah Schoensee (Chris’ wife) took ownership of the operation in 2010 and have executed big changes since. Though the aircraft have always been top notch—never having operated with analog instruments since the school’s inception—the owners were looking to grow. Chris Shoensee spoke about how this growth needs to be careful and methodical. “It’s tedious,” he said. “We want to make sure the things we’re doing aren’t impeding on student experience.”

Part of the way the school mitigates that risk is by spacing out acquisitions. The school acquired 10 Piper P100i aircraft in 2022, and currently, Paragon has 40 aircraft on order from Piper. It would be unrealistic to acquire all of those at once, so the plan is to take on eight to 10 airplanes a year, or an airplane once every two to three months. This slow and steady growth follows one of the business plan’s most important questions, “How do we scale while maintaining an exceptional customer experience?”

This plan has been in the works for a decade, and the owners manage the volume of work by keeping in separate and strict lanes. Chris Schoensee focuses on sales, marketing, strategic vision, and culture; Sarah Schoensee focuses on office administration, accounting, human resources, dispatching, and reception; and Wolf is the chief instructor and handles dealings with the FAA, TSA, instructor standardization, and student curriculum. “By doing that it allows us all to really focus on what we do well and that’s been a huge part of our success,” said Chris Schoensee. “I think it would be very difficult for a school to grow past where we’re at if there was one owner trying to do all that.”

The owners lean on each other—but also lean on help from others in the industry. Schoensee said that other flight school owners are some of the most helpful resources. “We all bounce things off each other because it’s a very niche business,” he said. “They’re so passionate about it because they’re doing what they love…you’ve just got to break down the barrier and go talk to them.”

A reoccurring theme among flight school owners is their commitment to their students, and Paragon is no different in that respect. Schoensee describes the relationship between student and flight school as a complicated balance between holding students accountable and holding their hand. “This kind of business, it’s really relational,” he said. “We’re not selling widgets, we’re not manufacturing things. This is a relationship-based business.”

“Our goal for with our students is for them to be confident, competent, and safe pilots,” Schoensee said. “It’s tough when you have to hold them accountable, but in the end it’s what makes them great pilots.”