Compare Flight Schools

.......Where pilots help prospective pilots.
 
 
How Each Flight School is Rated
 
 
Flight schools come in a variety of shapes and sizes.  Attempting to compare them is analgous to making an apple equal to an ostrich and in many cases proves difficult if not nigh unto impossible.  That being said, in an attempt to complete the afore mentioned task of rating any particular school, it is first necessary to create a standard or a benchmark of some sort by which each school is compared.  Ten broad categories are used, each of which has at least a subtil if not a profound effect on the outcome of a student's experience.  Because everyone's needs differ, I do not believe that there is any such thing as "The best darn flight school period."  I do feel, however, that there is such a thing as the school that will work best for you.  I want you, the customer, to gain as much insight as possible before choosing where you will attend flight school so that you can acquire the maximum benefit from the services rendered. 
 
My goals in doing this are twofold.  Firstly, I want to help prospective "Pro Course" pilots get the most bang for their buck.  By "Pro Course" I am refering to those people who want to go (in the most expeditious manner) from no flight experience to being employable by a flight school as a CFI (or perhaps an airline if the economy dictates it so).  Secondly, I want to help deserving flight schools, who offer a good product, find students who are a good fit for their programs. 
 
Each category is assigned a maximum value of 10 points. Thus a perfect score would be 100 points.  In an effort to make this grading process familiar to everybody I have made it similar to how we were graded in high school.
 
96 to 100 = Excellent
90 to 95   = Very Good
80 to 89   = Good
70 to 79   = Fair
60 to 69   = Poor
  0 to 59   = Bad
 
Without further ado, here are the ten categories along with a short explanation of why I feel they are important.
 

1. Facility:  The flight school should have their own building in which they can conduct business. They should also have their own maintenance facility or one on the field where immediate repairs can be made. They should also have classrooms and briefing rooms (a 141 requirement) as well as a dispatch center.  A flight planning area complete with a weather station is also a must. Having an FAA written facility on campus or nearby is also helpful.

 

2. Programs: Points in this category are awarded based on a school's committment towards several things:

  1. Multi-engine training.
  2. Part 141 and Part 61 programs available.
  3. The advantageousness of the 141 program, as not all 141 programs are equal.
  4. Flexibilty on the school's part to modify their programs in order to meet a student's individual needs.

Points are also earned based on the availability of various other options such as:

  1. How many multi-engine hours the pro course includes.
  2. If the school is VA approved.
  3. If it offers JAA ratings.

 

3. Price:  Because this is perhaps the most important category to prospective students, there are 12 points avialable here.  I am looking for transparency in a school's pricing structure.  Nobody likes to be lured in by a low price only to find that there are hidden fees that drive the price up significantly.

I am looking for the following:

  1. How is a student charged? Is it Hobbs time or Tach time, and are they up front with students about the difference?
  2. Is total price based on FAA minimums or on what students typically pay?
  3. How much comes off a student's account when s/he flies one hour?  Any extra fees tacked on for pre/post flight briefs, fuel surcharges etc.
  4. Is the price guaranteed once you hand over the money?
  5. Price per hour of Airplanes used in "pro-course" with fuel included.
  6. Instructor fees
  7. Simulator fees
  8. Do they have a payment plan or do you have to give all the money up front? 
  9. What is the withdrawal policy?  ie. can you get your money back if you choose to leave the school for any reason.
  10.  Are checkrides included in the cost?  Is housing?
  11.  What is not included in the cost?
  12.  Are loans available?  Are they accredited by the ACCSCT?

 

4.  Airplanes: When looking at a school's airplane fleet I am not looking at high vs. low wing, price, or even make and model. I want to make sure that a school has enough of the right sort of airplane to complete your training in a timely fashion.  Here I am looking at the following ratios:

  1. Student to airplane ratio.  More points are awarded the lower this number is. (ie. Low ratio = good plane availability = fewer delays waiting for a plane)
  2. Multi engine student to multi-engine airplane ratio.  Again, more points for a lower ratio.
  3. Average number of IFR students to IFR instrument equipped airplane ratio.  Again, more points are awarded for a lower ratio.
  4. Average number of IFR students to IFR GPS equipped airplanes ratio.  Instrument students must have access to flying GPS instrument approaches.

Additional points are awarded based on the maintenance and whether or not the airplanes are weather radar equipped.  Since it is hard to determine over the phone the quality of the maintenance I ask them this question: Would you send your daughter solo over alligator infested swamps in any of your airplanes?  The best course of action is to visit the maintenance facility in person, but it isn't practical for me to do so.

 

 5. Instructors: The school provides the framework and tools for learning but the instructor is where the rubber meets the road.  He or she should be available without undue delay.  That is why I award points for a low student to instructor ratio.  Having experienced instructors who oversee junior instructors is also important.  Points are awarded for a low student to full-time career instructors ratio.  In addition to this the school earns points if a high percentage of course graduates are hired as instructors.  This means more opportunity for you once you complete their course.  I also feel it is important that multi-engine students be distributed evenly so that each qualified MEI has an equal opportunity at getting multi engine time.  By "qualified" I don't mean anybody who has an MEI rating.  I mean any MEI who is very competent and comfortable instructing in that multi-engine airplane.  This occurs primarily in schools that emphasize multi-engine training and don't add it on as an after thought.

 

6. Airports: Some airports are more suitable for flight training than others based on a number of things.  Points are awarded if the school is located at an airport where the following services are available:

  1. The more runways that can be used simultaneously the better.
  2. Close proximity to an uncontrolled field if the home field is controlled and vice versa.  (Students should be very comfortable at both)
  3. Close proximity to an ILS approach and two non-precision approaches.  Less than 15 miles.
  4. The distance to the practice area should be within 10 to 15 miles.
  5. The number of competing flight school airplanes should be at a minimum. Remember, if 10 airplanes are in front of you waiting to take off, that's 15 minutes wasted waiting for them to take off and an additional 15 minutes wasted waiting for them to land.  This includes your own flight school's airplanes.  ie. Some large schools have over 40 airplanes.  Even if there are two runways, that's 20 airplanes per runway.  That involves a lot of wasted time. 
  6. A few commercial operators on the field can be a good thing for the experience sake, but too many commercial departures only cause you and them extra head aches.

 

7. Airspace: I'm all for students getting experience in busy airspace but too much too soon can be distracting.  Thus, I award the most points for schools that are located at an airport with either class G (uncontrolled) surface area surrounded by class E, or Class D (controlled) with class E surrounding it.

Class C that is not too busy is acceptable as long as it is surrounded by class E.  I also award points for a class C airport within 50 miles and a class B within 100 miles so that students can experience them at their leisure without going clear across the country to reach them.

 

8. Weather: Most of your training will be conducted in visual conditions.  Therefore, the more VFR days per year that occur on average, the higher the score.  When conducting instrument training it is very nice to have bad visibility.  So I also award points for number of days that have "flyable" IFR weather.  That is, days with IFR conditions not caused by thunderstorms and not subject to icing.

 

9. Housing: When you come to do flight training, you might find it convenient to have affordable and suitable housing nearby.  Because of this I award points for schools that offer housing, especially if they included it in their base price and are still competitive with other school's prices who do not.  Even if a school does not provide housing, they can still earn points if they have agreements with apartments nearby where lodging can be found without too much hassle.

 

10. Job Placement: This category has only 8 points.  Upon course completion, does the school help you find emploment?  At the very least they should offer you a job as an instructor.  After all, you just gave them about $50,000 of business, when you could have taken your money elsewhere.  I award points based on the number of agreements they have with companies who hire pilots.  Be advised though that hiring is cyclical.  I only rate whether or not agreements exist.  You must decipher whether or not those companies they have agreements with will be hiring once you complete the course.  Next, does the school have a person on staff whose primary function is to place graduates?  Or do they leave you to figure it out for yourself?  Airline Human Resource people are looking for specific traits and characteristics.  It is very helpful then, if the school employs somebody who knows what those things are and can show you how to prepare for these "guaranteed" interviews. 

Lastly, I ask the school representative to give me a sales pitch.  I ask them, "Why should I choose your school over schools X, Y, and Z?"  If they do a convincing job I reserve the right to give them the benefit of the doubt on areas above where I had a question mark.  That is, my overall impression is favorable but their score is lower than I think it should be I will reevaluate each category above in an attempt to reconcile the two.  In any case I will only add a couple of points at most.

 

If you have questions or comments feel free to email me at CFS7@live.com