All About Flying

The process of teaching a student to fly is well established, highly structured, and very predictable. Or at least it should be. A good flight school will require its flight instructors to use a syllabus with each student they train. A list of the required elements of knowledge, a series of specific tasks, and an awareness of the thought processes that go along with each component…

Making the choice of where to learn to fly involves quite a few decisions. Not the least of which is, will I enjoy the environment I train in? That question was first posed by the United States Army in 1942 when they established the Naples Army Airfield. The military used the facility for several years to serve as a primary flight training base for fledgling pilots.…

Before you decide on whether you should train at the flight school in your town or travel to another flight school located hundreds of even thousands of miles away, there is a question you should ask yourself. It is an important question, the answer to which can have a profound effect on the quality, cost, and efficiency of your training.  Ironically, this question is one flight…

Reputation is a peculiar thing. While the reputation of the institutions we associate with says a lot about quality and desirability, reputation is a uniquely subjective term. To a point.  When planning for retirement most of us would prefer to find a highly regarded financial planner to advise us. When shopping for a home we tend to prefer builders with a history of doing quality work.…

The airplane is a lousy classroom. That is just as true for experienced flight crew members as it is for brand new student pilots. The airplane can be loud. While you are at the controls you may feel at least some pressure to perform well. Your attention is split between accomplishing tasks in the cockpit, making calls on the radio, and scanning the sky for collision hazards. Due to the workload…