So you want to start flight training. What do you do? First of all you should research all the flight schools in your local area. By just browsing the local flight schools web site you can get a good idea of what that flight school has to offer. Check out what type of airplanes they use for flight training. Are they new or old airplanes? How many airplanes do they have? It's up to you if you want to spend the extra cash flying a new airplane. Remember an airplane is an airplane. They might not look good but they all fly. To make it easy for you to locate all the flight schools in your area, just go to flightschoollist.com. Flight School List.Com has one of the largest aviation school lists on the internet. Once you're done browsing all the flight school web sites you're going to want to call and talk to a flight instructor at each flight school. I suggest that you talk to one of the flight instructors at the flight school and not the secretary. The flight instructor will be able to answer your questions in detail; the secretary will only have a general knowledge about flight training. What should you ask the flight instructor?
How many flight instructors work here?
How busy is the flight school?
Will I be able to schedule a flight instructor and airplane any time I want?
How many of the same airplane do you have? It's nice to have two of the same airplane just in case one of them is down for maintenance.
How many hours do the flight instructors have? Remember that hours don't automatically translate into teaching ability.
What kind of airplanes do you use for training?
What kind of maintenance do you perform on your rental aircraft?
How much does the aircraft cost per hour?
Is fuel included in the price?
Are there any fuel surcharges? Most flight school will add a fuel surcharge when fuel goes up.
How much does flight instruction cost per hour?
How much is ground instruction?
Are there any other aircraft rental fees or taxes?
Do you have any discounts for purchasing a block of time?
Usually when you purchase a block of time, you purchase it in 10 hour increments or whatever the school offers. You put the money down right away and you get a certain percentage off per hour of flight time. It depends on the flight school, they are all different.
In general how many hours does it take to get your pilots certificate at this school? The national average is about 60 to 70 hours of flight time.
What type of training materials do you use?
What am I expected to buy?
Typically how long is a flight lesson?
When can I schedule a tour of your flight school and aircraft?
Once you get done talking to the flight instructors at all the flight schools in your area, you should go pay a visit to the schools that best answered your questions. Try to talk to all the flight instructors at the flight school. Sit down with them and ask them a few questions.
Here are a few examples:
? How long have you been flying?
? How many hours do you have?
? Do you like flying?
? How do you like teaching?
? How long are you planning on teaching here?
? How many students do you have?
? Do you want to work for the airlines?
? Are you a career flight instructor?
As you're asking the flight instructors your questions, see how they react. Are they happy to answer all your questions or do they look like your bothering them? If they act like you're bothering them you probably want to stay away from that instructor. Once you're done with the flight instructors, try to talk to a few students. Ask the students how they like flying at the school. Do they like the flight instructors? How hard is it to schedule an airplane and instructor?
Checkout how the office looks. Is it neat? Are the airplanes in good shape or are they all beat up? Hang around the flight school for a couple hours if you can. You'll be able to see how they run the operation. As long as your there ask one of the flight instructors if you can rid along on a training flight to observe. Ok, know your done researching all the schools. Sit down and decide which one of the flight schools you liked best. Which one of the instructors did you like talking to? Who had the cheapest rates? Remember just with anything, you get what you pay for! Cheap is not always better. Now call the flight school that you think is the best and schedule your first lesson. Remember this article is for reference only. There are a thousands of questions you can ask a flight instructor about flight training, I just can't cover them all right know. If you have any other question about flight training please visit flighttrainingforum.com. Here you can ask all the flight training question you want for free. I hope this article will help you decide which flight school is right for you.
Some of the more common problems one might run into include crosswinds, short runways, and poor visibility. Now, if you haven't encountered any of these in the course of your normal training you will undoubtedly feel apprehensive about flying in these kinds of conditions unless you are complete idiot.
Fortunately there is a relatively easy fix to this problem. All you have to do is just take stock of those things you are not comfortable with and then schedule some specialized intensive training focused on those areas.
Regarding crosswinds, you should definitely plan on spending at least three or four hours training on this area alone. You want to be instructed on how to handle the worst crosswinds your instructor is willing to teach you in. Aim for at least twelve knots. Do not settle for less than this and don't skimp on the training time, this is one of the most crucial areas for a pilot to be sharp on.
Next, you should schedule some training on how to handle shorter runways. While training you have probably gotten used to the standard longer runways of 3,500 feet or more but if you are like many you will definitely encounter shorter runways, especially if you fly into some of the smaller islands in the Bahamas. You don't have to necessarily learn to stop on dime sized 1200 footer but you should be comfortable landing on a runway of 2,000 feet or so.
When training to land on short runways two things are absolutely crucial to your success, the instructor and a true short runway. Believe me it makes a real difference when you only have 2,000 feet before you run into trees as opposed to just a 2,000 foot mark on a 5,000 foot runway. Many instructors may not be comfortable with this, find one that is.
The third area we are looking at here is weather conditions and visibility. Depending upon where you had your training you may or may not have experienced much limited visibility. If you received your training on the upper East Coast of the United States you have probably seen some pretty overcast conditions but if you trained in the Southwestern U.S. you probably had virtually unlimited conditions most of the time. Regardless, you should schedule some specific training in conditions that are barely above the minimum allowable flying situations so you will be comfortable with it and know how to use your instruments properly.
There are other areas you should have specific training in as well not the least of which is flying a loaded plane. You probably only flew with you and your instructor while training so you definitely want to take an intensified course of at least ten hours with a loaded down plane. Believe me, it is a huge difference taking off and landing with a loaded plane.
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