My advice is very simple...find a local flight school that is near you with good reviews and isn't expensive. Enjoy every step and have fun!

#1 Scam: Use a pretty girl in the thumbnail... (She is pretty, but just kidding about scamming, thanks for the tips.)

Another tip: Be very wary of a flight school that tries to make you pay everything up front, maybe in return for a discount on flight time. They may be in financial difficulties and one day you’ll turn up for your lesson and find the school closed and your money gone.

Threw my dream career away by falling for all of these from a fraudulent school (National Pilot Academy). Over a decade later I'm still paying the loans I lost to them and years of fighting to get it some back. I was over eager and tragically naive. I've not flown since, sadly, though I nearly had my commercial license. Thanks for putting this out there to help others learn what I didn't before it's too late.

Man, they were spot on about the scams. I was a flight instructor many years ago and saw these scams repeatedly at one place I worked at. The one that really stood out was using the “Show Pony” for introductory flights. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with learning to fly on a 30 year old plane, but making someone believe that they can have prime rib for the price of hamburger is unethical. We also had handouts with cost breakdowns based on the absolute bare-bone minimums for hours based on the 30 year old planes, and handed out these to prospective students who just completed their intro flight on the brand new “Show Pony”. I refused to lie and defraud students, which got me in trouble with my Chief Flight Instructor. I left instructing decades ago, sad to see that the old scams still work.

I've been a flight instructor for 20 years...and can fully agree with Nathan and Sarah...there's a lot of schools who are in it for the money. They talk ya into paying up front...and then try very hard to make you quit. Great video guys...keep up the good work!

Very nice video guys! Love to see some real people out here who are not just telling some paradisy expectations. In the end a flight school is a company with a service. It is not a regular ''school' without benefits.

DO NOT drop $20K+ up front to a flight school that requires up front payment for whatever programs they are offering. Even long time flight schools have gone bankrupt leaving dozens of students high and dry with no recourse to recover their training investment. I wouldn’t keep more than $1-2K on account at any school no matter what kind of a bargain they are offering you to pay in advance. If they are advertising that big of a discount to pay in advance there is likely a reason and it is because they are seriously cash strapped. Can they really offer $30k worth of training for $20k??? No way..they are desperate and playing a losing pyramid scheme scam. I had a first officer that had done this. Fortunately he had still managed to make it to an air carrier job at UA but the bad part was he had taken out a $30k loan and the school went belly up leaving him $30k in debt with no pilot training or ratings. He was still paying off the loan. This horror story has been repeated WAY too many times in the past.

I was victim to #3. The examiner for the flight school I attended was unavailable for my multi-engine checkride, and so we had to fly to another airfield. That examiner found some maintenance logbook discrepancies and refused to go through the checkride. The flight school then pressured me to pay for the flight to the airfield. I only agreed to pay for the fuel (I was already out the money for the checkride since the examiner collected the money and did not return it), and in retrospect I shouldn't have payed even for that. I should add, in another instance of having to fly to a different airfield (for my commercial checkride), I was not charged for the flight TO or FROM the airfield in that instance since the school was supposed to have provided for a local examiner.

No.11 any school that charges all the training up front should raise red flags.

I found an instructor who ran his own flight school, worked great for me, he blocked out a month every day for me

Can you guarantee training with Sarah? Haha

After seeing Batman, I had to go back and watch the video again to see what other background humor I missed lol

Ask what their policies are on cancellations. If you cancel at some schools they charge you the full cost of the planned flight or partial credit. Our school started charging students for personal cancellations.

From a personal experience, I can testify you guys have nailed it with those 10 points. Thank you for your tips and guidance.

You'll save money if you learn at a small airport with no control tower. Waiting to take off and land from a busy airport can be very expensive and totally unnecessary.

I think I agree with everything except for the need for many aircraft, many instructors, and in-house maintenance. In rural areas this would mean forget about training, because nobody can afford that when they only have 30 active students or less. The ratio of planes/instructors with number of students is more important, and maintenance doesn't have to be a 7 days a week operation on site to be effective for a small operation. The point about "let me see the schedule" is key though. If you can't book a plane with less than a week notice walk away.

Nice Video! very informative. I like the goofy humor too :) keeps it light. my fav quote is 0:39 "students can be severely STALLED" perfect for a flight video!

I clicked for the girl

the fake smyling is unreal

who else saw Batman?

Here are a couple more: (a) starting the engine and then doing a bunch of stuff (e.g. tuning the radios/GPS) which could have been done BEFORE cranking the engine thus wasting 10 minutes (~$30) before taxiing. CFIs/flight schools do that since the Hobbs meter (recording the flight time) starts ticking once the engine is running so they can charge you the student (b) flying at a low speed to the practice area. Again Hobbs meter is clicking away and $$$ out of the student's pocket to flight school/CFI.

I go to Spartan school of Aeronoctics in Tulsa Oklahoma and I can say if you’re going to do a part 41 school you gotta have the passion for it. The planes are old and going down a lot but the instructors are willing to work with you a lot and are a lot of fun to be around. My personal instructor is only 20 starting the program when he was 18 like myself and is already CFII. So getting through quickly is possible.You have to pass a lot of “stages” before they give you off to the actual check ride. A lot of people drop out because of this. Problems happen and you can get delayed for weeks. That being said that happens anywhere in aviation. Also a lot of students are not prepared for the amount of studying you really gotta do. Though about the planes. We are getting brand new piper archers coming January so everyone here is pretty excited about that. I’m flying a lot and learning a lot. And that’s what I wanted when I came here so I’m not complaining.

Wow what an advertisement. That was genius 😂👌. I'm sold, I'll go learn to fly in tx.

The sad thing is that just about every one of these points is true

I felt like I got ripped off by ATP. You rack up the hours quick but the instruction was awful. Beware if you are considering them!

I like how y'all play while being serious. I have a few hours in my logbook from high school in the 1970s. Now I have a pilot's bag, an aluminum E6-B9 computer by Aero Products Research Inc, a Sigtronics Gold Wing headset, a Vertex Standard Pilot Air Band handheld transceiver, several books, and the complete King School DVD ground school course. All this is from fifteen years ago when I thought I would fly. It didn't work out at that time. Now the interest has returned. The mortgage and car will be paid off in four and half to five years. If I study the course diligently during that time, I may be able to take lessons, with a possibility of buying an old Cessna 150. One downside is the nearest CFI/school is almost sixty miles away from my small rural town in the South. Thanks for the video and the laughs.

Want to fly cheaper? 1. AVOID flight schools for ground training. If you live in (or near) a reasonably large city, you may find a local community college that gives ground school. They will be way cheaper, like $30-$50 per semester, let you buy your own materials, and often have better teachers in any case. My instructor there was an ex-astronaut. In addition, you will likely find they will hook you up with a free-lance instructor and perhaps even a good deal on an airplane rental as well. Our instructor would invite local free-lance instructors to come and visit the class and offer their services, and we did group airplane block hours. 2. Try a free-lance instructor. Many instructors are happy to instruct outside of an FBO, which lowers their costs since they are not paying the FBO, and thus lower your costs. I even know several instructors who teach at academies, but take freelance on the side. Even if the academies are not aware of it. 3. Join a flight club instead of a FBO or training academy. Lots of airplane owners want to recoup expenses by renting their airplanes while not in use. They join flight clubs as owners. FBOs or academies often also offer this service to owners, but usually it is on terrible terms, shifting most costs to the owner and pocketing most of the students money. Plus owners avoid renting to a training academy because they beat up airplanes. Finally, flight trainer outfits want the owner to reserve most of the airplane's time for their students, meaning the owner has trouble getting time in his own plane. 4. Get as much ground as you can stand before flying. If you haven't read up, you will have the instructor teaching you what you should have known in ground school, and charging you for that time. If you get most of your ground out of the way first, and even preferably pass the FAA written, you are ahead of the game. Take as much flight instruction as you need during this to keep your interests up. 5. Look at your total costs vs. purchasing an airplane. You aren't going to be a pilot in less than 60 hours or so. That's real flight hours, not ground time. Figure about $100/hr for the plane, and that's $6,000 MINIMUM. You might be able to by a beater Cessna 150, fly it to become a pilot, then sell it for about the same money and be out only the maintenance costs. If you go IFR, you can double those figures. You may decide at the end of it you like the cheap airplane and want to keep it, or you might decide you want a de-iced P210. Either way, at that point you will be a pilot and have a basis for a decision. 6. Don't get a whizz-bang plane to take lessons in. Getting a new or near new Cessna 172 with glass cockpit might be cool, but you don't need it to learn flying and it will, in fact, make you a worse pilot, since you won't know how to fly anything but glass airplanes. And that will push up your rental costs by $50 to $100 per hour.

Nice job guys. A couple more: 141 vs 61 "advantages", and the need to present training cost vs. salary ratios so they have a reality check before diving into $100k++ student loans.

So much geeking the camera in the background of this video! Haha!

Exceptional video, well done. I LOVE the background 'stuff.'

Nothing wrong with flying an old bird.

This is a great insight into the flight schools..I have looked around and have experienced all of these.

Thank y'all for the good info you have put out. I always enjoy new videos from US Sport Aircraft when they come out. This is the second one I have seen that y'all have done on scams, and the info is very pertinent. When I started my training at the current flight school I attend, I went in there more prepared and was asking a lot of questions just based on the first video. After this one, I am still pleased with the school as they were completely honest with me. Again, thank you so much for the great videos and information!!!

love it when someone tells you all the secrets in one seating.

Thanks for the great tips Nathan and Sarah, p.s. thanks for the ice breaker, looks like you two had some fun making the video...

Those are all valid points in retrospective, but I don't see how a rookie could tell a good school from a bad one BEFORE he's been in. I've had my share with bad and unreputable places and I'm still continuing to do so, because even I don't know the people and the schemes until I've seen them (I have a commercial license which I earned over 9 years on 3 continents). Before you sign, everything seems always perfect. One time I thought I had a good school because they had statements from former students online, all confirming the quality of the place when surprise, they let the unhappy students behind (I would be one of them). I wouldn't trust schools who offer 4-weeks-PPL courses at all (the theory part takes 3 months alone and even with that completed, the timeframe is far too tight) and I agree that you have to check the fleet before you sign (but again, what does a rookie know about aircrafts before he starts flying?) They won't tell you whether they have their instructors on a paycheck or freelancing either and they surely won't tell you anything negative about their own maintenance. MANDATORY paying upfront is a huge red flag as well (they might be in financial trouble and once they close, the money is gone, check the contract for details). Promises regarding expected pilot shortages are shady as well. The only advise I can give is what steveo came up with already: Find something local because in that case you are less dependant on them and I personally had more luck with small schools, because they seemed to show more interest in their students (e.g., a club). Browsing forums like pprune can be helpful indeed as well. Chances might be low but if you are considering training at EFT/Florida, F-AIR /Czech Repub., Uniqueair /South Africa, Flugschule Marl /Germany or Southend Flying Club /UK, feel free to ask me for my opinion for I've been at these places :)

I love your accelerated program. Nice vid and keep up the creepy appearances. Lol. Funny guy.

Fantastic video! so many pitfalls for new aspiring pilots! thank you very helpful

Beware of advice from competitor companies that contain good looking girls with large breasts

Been there sadly but had the sense to bail out again when but only when my gut instinct was absolutely SCREAMING at me! Moved on to better after doing my homework but the false start I experienced was confidence-bashing and bad for undergoing a rigorously demanding learning experience such as flight training. The first place just did not feel right from the start and had I done my homework before going there / seen this but this was not around for me to learn from back in 1997 I may have experienced a better start to what is still my livelihood. So I condone this 100% as revelation of fact and not just mischievous whistle blowing or scare mongering: Nice work!

You guys are one of the many channels that are super encouraging and have recently found inspiration to go get my license.

To all aviation fanatics, like to give you short scenario of mine and ask your honest and experienced opinions. I am 50 years old, and due to lack of timing, job, etc. I starred the training urge very late in early 2014. I am from upstate NY, NYC to be exact which you can imagine, closes airfield is 1 hour drive and weather, and restriction on the air fields, my location is not suitable for training. I had my due delegacy research and went down Miami to see the existing training schools in 2015 spring. Needles to say, in 2015 they were charging $160 + 60 for instructor and some of them they even charging with fuel & insurance on top of that. They were the wolf of the aviation, waiting to hunt , from your pocket. I didn't feel comfortable with the schools, I reviewed almost 5 of them. Most desirable one was ATP which they were not allowing part 61 or private pilot training. In that visit to Miami, I passed the 3rd degree medical and got certificate in the time being. Following fall I had 3 heart stance implant which directly pushed back everything on the schedule. But I didn't stop ground study thru sporty and internet sources, I signed up to Aviation seminars weekend ground training school in MD. After the weekend training I took the exam and failed with 68. Until that time I had no flight time. Following spring I made another trip but this time I concentrated on Orlando and vicinity. Prices were anywhere between $150 with no glass cockpit to $185 with GS1000 instructor rates was from $50 to $85 the most. Major airline focused schools was located at Daytona area, I also visited them one by one. I have to admit, as you indicate in your post, they had great adds, mind blowing promising but once you showed up , most of them was totally messed up. I visited Aorism, which out of all the flight schools in the area they have the most fleet with offering only part 141. Next in the list I found out great deal of professionalism was Epic Flight academy which also focused on part 141. Next one on the list was Flight Training professionals which wasn't offering accelerated program, but They got high marks at AOPA school list 2 years in row. Most interesting flight school that I came across was Sun State Aviation. Great building, nice equipment, ands new fleet but milking your pocket attitude. With their rate $228 -with GS1000 cockpit + $79 CFI, they were the most expensive school in that entire Orlando area. That wasn't just the price, they were also forcing the training for you to stay in extended hours for their students which I found out after I had conversation with their 3 active student. Next stop was Tailwheels Etc. flight school which the only one which eagerly offering accelerated training in the area. I contacted with them couldn't even get definite answer to visit their facility neither they had enough plane for the training also their CFI's was on part time bases. After spending thousands $ and time, search was discouraging. I gave one more changes and targeted AOPA listings on 2014 and 2015 of best schools. I found another candidate at Ft Myers, Paragon flight school. They were the only one, didn't ask me upfront payment nor student pre-paid account. Back then they had $150 for the plane & $50 for the instructor. Young crew, and had several AOPA honor list instructors. The conclusion was the final approach for me to review the school. Their down sides, their CFI are very young and they were eagerly jumping to the airline by building hours at the schools. After these search and reviews I went back to NY and signed up accelerated weekend class at American Flyers weekend schools in NJ. Class was great and informative, but you have to study on the side though cannot rely on only their study. They are using experienced and old time pilots that have thousands of hour's experience. My unfortunate path stopped with FAA rejection on my cardiologic test. Then they required more test results such as additional stress test, full medical history etc. The they gave me 3 months to complete. After a year and half I had to stopped by FAA this time. I waited but couldn't take the test, due to unknown future on my flight path. I hope I could get repeat class from them, which I am was told could it be done. I recently passed the medical test which I have valid certificate until 2018 thank god. What happened in the mean time; I reviewed and felt the one thing : without dedicating least a month or so there will be no pilot certificate. Couple hours of flying every here and there, won't give me any boost. I decided to delicate my time and $ to take off from my work and life on up state and move to Florida sun shine state for training. Needles to say, I focused on Paragon flight school and visited them recently. The only change and down side that I noticed was the CFI crew got much younger with less flight hours. This detail made me worry, because young guys mostly focusing on their carrier path more than teaching ability. In the same token, many maneuver or case study is taking place while you and your CFI is on the control rather than playing the scenario with his/ her experience and learning the outcome in details. Learning as you fly , should be your target not your CFI's. The other issue was, I haven't got clear $ estimation nor average time and cost for the solo and the completion of the training from the previous pilots that they got their certificates from the school. But schools have good feedback and reputation and have well maintained fleet. I believe will be good fit. After all this short story of mine, would like to know if anyone out here read this has experience with the school , any suggestion or recommendation on CFI whom they had training previously. Anyone had solo with the school, how many hours it took for them, my main focus and aim is least 2 hours of flight time a day min. Of course depends on the weather. Also any recommendation for the area, airports , cross country flights, in that regards perhaps any lead that you might experienced on your flight training that you may direct/ suggest to newly starters as myself... Thank you ...

I experienced 9 out of 10 of these at a crappy flight “school” called ATP. It was literally the worst experience of my life and drove me out of aviation and killed my dream to become an airline pilot. I suffered from depression for years until I got professional help YEARS later. I bombed my first instrument rating check ride not even close. The chief flight instructor ignored my lack of progress and insufficiently handled an issue I had with one of the instructors. NEVER GO TO ATP especially any accelerated flight school

I agree except for the lie that you need late model airplanes. A plane from the 60s flies just as well as a late model plane. One of the scams not included in this list is the scam being implied: that you have to fly a shiny new model plane with a color screen if you want your license to count for something. That is a scam.

Looking back on it, I think I saved about $3000 because my schedule permitted taking lessons 3x per week. I credit this as the reason why I was able to take my checkride at 55 hours, less than the 65-75 hour national average. I was far from a prodigy at learning to fly. If you schedule and pocketbook allow, take lessons 2-3 x / week.

For any student pilot watching this, when they went over things a student pilot should buy, I would highly recommend buying and electronic version of the FAR/AIM. 9.99 in the App Store and you always get the new version free every year they release it

my school was honest just expensive they quoted me at 64 hours to completion for private pilot average. They also said that it’s better to do it in a chunk because it’ll end up costing more in the long run if you spread it out and by instructor made me get a medical right away to make sure his students did not wast money if they cannot qualify fly.

I ran the maintenance at a couple of flight schools for approx a decade. I could make a list a mile long on how students get ripped off. Lol. We referred to new pilots as fresh meat and it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Hahahahahaha

I was seconded from the U.K. to an American flight school affiliated to an American university looking to train international students for European issued certificates. My first surprise was that FAA certified flight instructors were expected to prepare their own lesson plan. All British flight training follows a set syllabus based on the RAF training syllabus. My second surprise was that the average number of hours to solo in America was 25. the average number of hours to solo in Britain was 15. My third surprise was that on obtaining a private certificate an FAA pilot could proceed almost immediately for a Certified flight instructors certificate. Currently in Britain certified flying instructors certificates are not issued before 200 hours of which 150 must be P1. My fourth surprise was that many FAA certified flight instructors appeared to regard their students as a source of income. It appeared perfectly acceptable that if the students flew more hours than they would generate more income. I regarded that to be open to abuse and questionably ethical. Finally I had to adjust to CFI meaning Certified Flight Instructor. Up until this point CFI to me, had always been Chief Flying Instructor. Flight Instructors were FI's. The big problem is that students are not in a position to differentiate between good and bad instructors. Hence my use of the word ethical.

As an instructor I approach number one on this list this way: I let the student do their own math. Here is what I tell prospect students. 1) Here is the cost of the airplane per hour. 2) here is the cost of the instructor per hour. 3) Here is the minimum (dual/solo/total) hours the FAA requires to get done. 4) here is the national average of hours most students ACTUALLY get done. 5) Here are extra expenses beyond the airplane/instructor i.e. I have a minimum pilots supply list.... required books, E6B computer, headsets, etc... I then have an fancy optional list, if the student wants to go the extra mile on purchases. I then explain all the variables that contribute to the national average of hours for completion being higher than the FAA minimum. I NEVER give them a set number of hours for completion. instead I explain to them how its possible to get done near the minimum, but what is actually more realistic for completion. I just tell them the FAA minimum and the national avg. hours. From there the student can figure out what is best for them.

Also research the school's name and how long they have used it. Some flight schools will go through a name change or "re-branding" to hide their safety records or other undignified events. I would argue the point about "new" aircraft. One of the most vulnerable times for an aircraft is when it is new during a "break in" period. If it has been pushed too hard, then it will have more maintenance issues and may be less reliable than a well seasoned airplane. Every airplane must go through an annual inspection (basically stripped down, inspected and put back together again) and every airplane used for hire must be on a strict maintenance schedule per FAA guidelines. So the older airplane theory really doesn't add up. How well the school holds up to those standards would be a different issue but has little to do with the airplane itself.

Scam #11 - Beware of a beautiful woman that you find on a dating website who is also a pilot. She's looking for students; not dates. I went on one date, bought dinner and she complained about how hard it is to make ends meet being a instructor and wanted to know if I'd be interested in being one of her students; for a fee, of course; I politely made it clear that I had no interest in learning how to be a pilot and I never heard from her again.

#1 Flight schools take make videos about flight school scams to seem trustworthy

My favorite is the looooong circuits I see nowadays; almost out of sight from the airport. I'm not quite sure what's happening during the 7 or 8 minutes per circuit (other than someone's building time). And this is in 150's! (172's are bigger.) Start final 2 miles back, flap down and drag it in, shoot for 1/3 down the runway...I dunno.

I had a good experience at American Flyers. Big school but planes and instructors were available whenever I wanted. A couple of times I complained about a charge, they took it off. I also think it is good advice to get your instrument rating ASAP. If you get in the clouds you will be happy you did!

i love the way you sneak up in the back sometimes! thanks for the information :-) i wanna be a glider Pilot, and in a couple of months i wanna start my flight training. im 13 now, and i wanna start when im 14!

Very good points. I Instructed at both Part 61 and Part 141. If the CFI isn't giving a break down of the FAR hour requirements or the FAR Flight School approved requirements, then that's a red flag. Through these requirements, the CFI should break down the financial, time and realistic goals of the student. The unpredictable variable is the student's progression, where as it's both on the STUDENT and INSTRUCTOR to make progression happen. I see a lot of students blame the CFI for everything. If it's not working out, get a new CFI. It's not going to hurt the CFI's feelings and it's your money/time.

The flight schools should provide housing/residential living (probably either apartments or dorms with a common kitchen) for students who don't live nearby. At least that's what I would want to do if I were running a flight school.

Love that I searched “(my home town) Flight School” in KZfaq, and this was the video that appeared 2nd 🙄

Yes, Illinois Aviation Academy is one of those schools you talking about. Piper Aztec N6823Y, the instructor made the student fly with No brakes in the wintertime, students have to pay for a checklist. After each day of ground class instructor makes a student sing a paper so they teach him all ground oral info.

Keep doing what your doing with your vids, info and humor works.

One more scam. My flight school sold me "block time" on their Cessna 172. I bought in for $1000. I started to use it and the flight school went out of business in just a couple of weeks. Bankrupt. I lost $688. Now, if you're a reputable flight school (or just a reputable person) you know you're in financial hardship. How can an honest person do that to a flight student?

Remember if the flight school has a ZTA program and they have a designated prehire CFI candidates, they will prioritize those people by scheduling their checkride earlier than non ZTA students. Normally flight schools such as this one will be over saturated with candidates therefore they will bring examiners from out of town to conduct checkrides. As a non ZTA student you will be on your own whether you pass or fail. If you fail your checkride there will be no follow up by the school. (They already have your money) There was a case where they brought an examiner from the Salt Lake City FSDO where they scheduled all non ZTA CFI candidates with him, no one passed their initial CFI with him. This guy will require a flight school check or a cashiers check or cash. They quote $1500 for the examiner but some they bring in will charge much more than that! Where I teach we choose the examiner. if we suspect that the examiner issued a notice of disapproval for something that wasn’t in the ACS or unfair we will appeal that NOD on the student’s behalf and never use that examiner again.

Awesome video and great information! Thanks

Love the humour in this educational video :)

I sent this video to so many people. WATCH THE WHOLE THING, especially if you’re new.

I graduating college with no debt to quickly find myself being bled dry at a pilot factory in the early 2000s after being given a low quote for the program. They said they it was because they "do everything to airline standards." Felt like a scam because it was a scam -one that I never fully financially recovered from. I know quite a few others in my same shoes who took out six times the total debt I had.

Been there. Overtrained like crazy. Seriously, how many hours of touch and go does anyone need? Finally switched instructors and found myself scheduled for my check ride in short order. I remember my examiner's last words to me: "When you get back there, you pass along my message that I don't want to see another check ride candidate in a piece of crap like this!!". I apologized, but had to tell him the bad news - this was the best plane they had.

First flight school I went through pulled all these on every student.. after a year and 80 hours left without my private. Great advice!!

3:50 “you could be a total freak “ 😂😂

Got my PPL in 40.1 hours back, in the 90s. Can't imagine it taking 65 hours!? That seems ridiculous.

Thanks Sara and Nathan great suggestions

Thanks Nathan and Sarah. The video can save a lot of people so much . I love the Batman photobomb. Kept repeating number 3 lol.

Thank you very much !!! For this video I just visualized. Excellent service! Bravo Congratulations.

Thank you for the information, would you happen to know a qualified school that meet these requirements in NYC or Long Island, NY area?

Why does this presentation leave me feeling like I just went through a timeshare offer?

This was really helpful. Thank you.

Thank you for the smiles in the video; very trustworthy because of it. :D

If I was in the US, I'd love to work for a company like yours! Judging by this video, you folks look like you have a lot of fun! I can't stop laughing at 4:10. Cheers, from a Canadian flight instructor :)

My flight instructor is the best. "Waves to flight instructor on the ground giving a thumbs up".

I love this so much. I am so glad my bird is part of your fleet!

I am Batman! too funny. It is true, I was ready for my checkride in about 60 hours.

Priceless information!!!

Thank you for the information.

Thanks. . .Just what I need I'm a SEA Captain who also love to fly. Planning to take a PPL this vacation in the Philippines I have "fins" and already sailed around the globe. . . Now, I need wings to enjoy limitless freedom not only in the sea but also in the sky before I retire.

Are there any scholarship or grant programs available for high school seniors that want to go straight into flight school after graduation?

I was all set to go to flight school in Florida through ComAir back in '99, had about 17 hours in the air and ground school done. Navy transferred me. I went down to check it out, was legit. They said that every student gets an interview for a shot at becoming an instructor. Then instructors get interviews with ComAir. Then I thought about it. One of my relatives was GM or a hotel and they used to have the regional crews. Sat down with a regional first officer (had to buy him dinner) and he told me what they pay new pilots.

Most people do not realize how hard it can be to get good flight training. MANY MANY people take a lot longer to get the training they need than they think it will. It is just part of the nature of flight training. I am not sure these are really scams per se, but common business practices that flight schools do to take advantage of junior, inexperienced students. Also, most people train on an old Cessna and not a gleaming new aircraft, so not sure that is a red flag.

Here is another point of view. What kind of people like to go flying? People that like to go flying right? People that actually enjoy flying right? Let's say I want to drive a car three thousand miles across the country. And then someone says "you were training for this but made a mistake when you turned at this point in this city on this map. I need you to drive to this one point of the route again before you can drive by yourself 3,000 miles across the country." Then the person gets really upset. Then the person teaching the drive gets really upset. To a person that really likes driving it's like "oh well what's another hour of driving I love to drive I'm going to drive by myself all over the place what is one more hour?" Is it really any different for flying? Should people that are like so totally upset that something didn't happen within a certain amount of time be continuing to fly? I have to go one more flight before they can go do one more flight? And they're upset? You would almost think they don't really like flying right? Like they hate it or something? Take a million people statistically speaking how many of those people are pilots? I bet you maybe a hundred or so can fly a plane. How many can fly a helicopter out of a million people? Probably an amount of people that you can count on two hands. If it was easy everyone would be doing it. If your 50 hours in 100 hours in 200 hours in and you've been doing all the flying you haven't died you're doing something right. It's not easy. regardless of how easy it gets. Regardless of how many people say "you did that last part really well I don't know why you're messing up on this part. You know this isn't that hard I mean it's pretty easy if you think about it you should be able to do this by now blah blah blah." Bruh? Like were the caveman doing this? Aviation has barely been around for 115 years. Whatever fly school you go to I would just stay away from people that have an extremely competitive attitude. If you have an instructor this brand-new while then he barely has more time than you he probably has like 200 hours. If you're going to be with a guy that has like 1500 and he's pissed because he couldn't get some other job and he's constantly mad your "not as intuitive as him" well remember he has like 1500 hours on you. Minus the hours you have. My best suggestion is just to stay away from angry people I just don't believe they have any place in aviation. Maybe I haven't been doing this for like 6 years but I will just stay in the few years I've been doing this I would just take this advice I would just stay away from angry people I repeat I do not believe they have any place in aviation. Let me repeat myself I would stay away from angry people I just don't believe they have any place in aviation. If Aviation is always about aviate navigate communicate situational awareness being aware of things being consistent being safe and aware being consistent using acronyms like "IMSAFE" then people that are angry in aviation have no place in aviation. That "how many hours until you did this and got to private. Oh I did it in less than 50 hours so you're not very smart." To me is kiddy stuff. These are not people that get very far. When you have 3000 hours if you ever get the 3,000 hours who's going to give a crap about less than 50 hours to Private Pilot. You want to know statistic? You know most people to go out flying with their friends and end up dying in the mountains in IMC have no IFR training and it wouldn't matter anyway because their aircraft isn't equipped IFR and they go out and fly really cocky and die in the mountains? Those are usually people that got their private pilot in less than 50 hours. I got there with a low amount of hours and don't think consistency and practice is important and just basically go out hurt themselves. Does the FAA make sense? Having different rules for different aircraft and type? Needing a lot more time for commercial but needing a little amount of time for private? Maybe the FAA should just get rid of that 35 hours to Private Pilot thing make it 125 hours to Private Pilot which is just short of 150 hours to commercial. I mean its nonsense. The 150 hours is supposed to create a buffer anyway for people who want to hire commercial pilots so the person has a little more time and experience. 😂 Who's going to hire you though at 150 hours for commercial? Nobody. It's more like 1500 hours. But you can be a certified flight instructor at 200 hours. Cmon time competitions are for children man. For children. Honestly if a person is mad they fit going another flight to fix to fix something they did wrong in their last play on instructors mad they have to go on another flight to fix something the student did wrong in their last night it means "THEY PROBABLY DON'T LIKE FLYING." Who doesn't like flying? You don't like flying? THEN WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE A PILOT??? Those people should do something else and stop ruining it for everyone else. What a waste of time and energy to deal with angry people in aviation I'm telling you. Nowhere in aviate navigate communicate does it say "first you get mad then you aviate navigate communicate." Find it for me in any type of advisory or Federal Aviation rule or notice to airmen. 😂 it doesn't exist my friend.

Check check check, i just did a video on this. Alarming how much new students get taken for a ride. Good info.

I'm currently doing my pilots license at the age of 15 and it's going great although there may not be a lot of staff they are very professional and my instructor is the examiner and chief instructor

I'm 14. I'm coming to you guys after completing school and university

My mom scheduled me for a airplane joyride in the cockpit and the flight school delayed it for almost 6 months. She changes flight schools.

You're telling me not to take the dogfighting package add-on!? Ha jokes on you....

Flying is second greatest thrill known,landing is the first.

Great video guys, everything you mention is spot on! Was hoping you can answer a question for me on a very confusing topic? My CFI's (3) all had a different method for charging me "ground time". One guy charged me .75 hrs every time I went up with him. During these flights there was NO class room time, just right to the plane for our local (practice area) flight. The next guy charged me .5 hrs "ground time" every flight, again, NO class room. The last guy charged me NO ground time unless we were doing real "ground training" in the class room. I mentioned this to the owner of the school and he refunded me $700.00 ground time and informed the CFIs they should all be charging a flat rate of .3 ground time for every flight (no class time). Needless to say, this was all a big red flag for me but I was already 50 hours into it, and decided to just stay the course. Could you please enlighten me on how "ground time" is supposed to be calculated. Just FYI, their flight time is $170.00/hr for a 1960 piper cherokee 140, and ground time is $55.00/hr. phil North Carolina

One thing, I don’t think it’s terrible to have older planes such as 152’s, you get to learn how all the old stuff works so by the time you get to more modern aircraft you know how it all works. But definitely make sure they are properly maintained

I did my flight training at Hub City Aviation in Lubbock, Texas. They were fair and square and went out of their way to help me get my PPL.

Perfect video. I'm very happy you made this.