How To Choose A Flight School
Do you know what to look for in a flight school?
There are some important factors to weigh when choosing a flight training provider that you may not have thought of before!
Here’s 7 factors to consider:
#1 - Price
Price is super important and it might surprise you how much price can vary in the flight training industry!
Especially if you finance your tuition, an extra $10-20k could impact your loan payment quite a bit.
Make sure you know the exact cost and the details of what that cost includes before choosing a school.
#2 - Financing
If you are paying cash or on scholarship, skip this section.
For those of you that will need to finance flight school, there are almost no two schools that use the same exact lenders. So if you don’t find what you need at one school, there’s a good chance another school will have different options.
Things to look for with lenders:
What is the term?
What is the interest rate?
Is there a grace period?
Are there career/student services?
Will you need a co-signer?
#3 - Maintenance & Safety
It is imperative that you feel safe and taken care of by your flight school in this department.
Ask the prospective school to tell you about their maintenance operation and safety programs.
Also, ask them how a student would squawk a maintenance issue they found on their pre-flight walk-around and how the squawk would get resolved.
(A squawk is basically a no-fly status until the maintenance issue is resolved by the mechanics)
Your safety should be their top priority!
#4 - Community Involvement
This seems superficial but it can have a huge impact on your experience.
Are there community events? Fly-ins? Airline recruiter events? Tower tours?
These are all markers of a school that cares about its students and is actively working to give them a great experience.
#5 - Fleet
This is more of a preference, but there are quite a few different aircraft being used in primary flight training nowadays.
Do you have a preference for what you train in?
You can fly in a Cessna, Piper, Cirrus, Diamond, and more.
Cessna and Piper are tried and true, one is high wing and one is low wing. Cirrus and Diamond are newer to the scene, one has parachutes and the other offers Diesel engines.
There are many differences between them all and it is nice to know what you prefer, even if it is not the deciding factor for you.
#6 - Student/CFI Ratio
You want to make sure that you will get the attention you need when you’re a student.
A good rule of thumb is 1 Instructor per 4-8 students (mostly depending on whether the students are full-time or part-time).
If the school has 1 Instructor per 12 students, then you likely won’t get much attention from them.
You can ask the school what their student to CFI ratio is and they should have a number for you.
#7 - Career Pathway
If you want to fly for your job one day, it helps to choose a school with good career partners and recruiting events.
It is common for flight schools to host recruiters for their students, ask the school if they do this and with what airlines!
Comment what you would add to my list 👇🏻
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Thanks for reading!
Jack Parrish, CEO
