Choosing a Flight School
A top tip when choosing a flight school is to visit the school! It will enable you to get to know some of the staff. How do you feel about the flight instructors and their approach to training? Organisations will often allow you to ride along on some of the training sorties so you can get a close up view of how they operate. You will potentially spend some time with them so it is important to get this in depth view of them. Besides, you wouldn’t buy a car for a couple of thousand without taking a close look, so make sure you take an even closer look at a flight school. Asses the aircraft and whether you feel they are of adequate standard for you and also look at the simulator. Some schools will allow you to use the simulators for free when they are not being used for training while others will expect you to pay if you want to use them ‘solo’ or without an instructor present. Looking at several different schools is key. Choose at least 3 or 4 you are considering training with and compare them. This way you can see the difference in attitudes and training equipment and technology. You may decide you want a training facility that will enable you to gain all the modules of your pilot’s licence without having to change schools so you have continuity in your training, right from PPL, hour building through to CPL, Multi Engine Instrument rating. Consider these variables carefully. It is often wise to create a checklist of questions and what you want. This way you can choose somewhere that most closely matches your needs. Never forget the golden rule… Make sure they do not want ALL of the money or large portions of the money up front. Any flight school who expects this is suspect, are they struggling financially and need your cash to save them? Find out why not to pay large sums of money up front. |
