Can't find a decent flight school!

ActiveTrader7

ActiveTrader7

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Jan 26, 2008
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14
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moving to San Francisco
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Jeremy
I have 6-8 weeks before I move to San Francisco and thought I would consider getting my ppl with in that time frame.

The problem is, I can't find a decent flight school within a hour's drive. There are only two in Northern Colorado for that matter and neither of them have low-wing aircraft. Well, one does but its 40 something years old. (it really entices me to open up my own school!):D

I did find one about an hour away in Denver and is certified by Cirrus and has both the SR20 and SR22, ($165 an hour!). Another I liked at the same airport has all brand new Cessnas, they must get a block rate.

So should I wait till I get out to California? I'm not in that big of hurry.

http://www.westernairflightacademy.com/
http://www.mcairaviation.com/home.htm
 
if you can wait, do it. 6-8 weeks is possible for a PPC, but you would be pushing it with most instructors/schools. As long as maintenance, weather, schedules work out it would possible. But any one of those breaks down and you are looking at having to start over again in SF with a new instructor new airport new airplane and thats going to extend you time and moneywise. If you arent finding the dream school in CO, wait for the move and then get it done out west. When you get to SF I'd recommend looking up Jason and/or Anais from www.ontheflightline.com or www.thefinerpoints.net
 
Given that time frame I would wait until you move. If you start now it's likely you will not finish prior to your move for reasons that Tony has already mentioned.

When I took my primary training for my PPC I flew every day that weather and scheduling would allow. I completed my training and took the check ride in near minimum time of 43 hours. I started on May 10th and got my temporary airman's certificate near the end of July, the 26th as I recall. That's 11 weeks.

In a perfect world where you could fly every day it's possible to do it in an 8 week time frame but weather, aircraft and instructor schedules are almost certain to extend your time.

Good Luck!
 
Jermey: I'd wait till you get to California. As I said in my previous post to you check out Khareem Fahimi at California-Airways.

http://www.california-airways.com/

Khareem is a regular on AOPAs board and he has a good reputation and I think would make one hell of a great instructor.
 
If you can't find a flight school have you asked at the airports for a CFI? If I was in CO I would go up for some training just to get the mountain experience, high DA and different weather. It does not have to be to get your license, just every bit helps. Find a CFI at an airport near you if you can and just go up and fly. Some steep turns, stalls, slow flight. It all helps. Then when you do go for your license you will have a better understanding of the dynamics of flight. Things will fit together faster. In the end it may cost you a little more but you have the added advantage of mountain flying experience.

Dan
 
stingray said:
If you can't find a flight school have you asked at the airports for a CFI? If I was in CO I would go up for some training just to get the mountain experience, high DA and different weather. It does not have to be to get your license, just every bit helps. Find a CFI at an airport near you if you can and just go up and fly. Some steep turns, stalls, slow flight. It all helps. Then when you do go for your license you will have a better understanding of the dynamics of flight. Things will fit together faster. In the end it may cost you a little more but you have the added advantage of mountain flying experience.

Dan
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Well, it's just possible that he can get mountain-flying experience around San Francisco, too! :yes: They may not be quite as big, but they're still mountains! But yeah, you'll certainly have more DA experience around CO, and the weather WILL be totally different!:yes:
 
gprellwitz said:
Well, it's just possible that he can get mountain-flying experience around San Francisco, too! :yes: They may not be quite as big, but they're still mountains! But yeah, you'll certainly have more DA experience around CO, and the weather WILL be totally different!:yes:
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I lived in Sacramento valley, we called them hills.:goofy: My point was more, you don't have to find a school to go up flying a good CFI will do. You just log it as time.

Dan
 
stingray said:
I lived in Sacramento valley, we called them hills.:goofy: My point was more, you don't have to find a school to go up flying a good CFI will do. You just log it as time.

Dan
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I live in Chicago. We call anything over 500' a mountain! :yes::rofl:

And I agree on your point, though often having the association with a good school helps, as it can provide redundancy, and that is a good thing. Especially if one were actually trying to get the entire PPL done in 6 weeks.
 
Ron Levy said:
PPL in 6-8 weeks is virtually a full-time program. Is that what you're really looking for?
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I assumed I would fly 2 hrs a day, 4-5 times a week, comes out to about 6-8 weeks. I would rather get it done in as little time as possible. I assumed two months is plenty of time to get it done, being some schools offer accelerated training programs in 4 weeks time.
 
ActiveTrader7 said:
I assumed I would fly 2 hrs a day, 4-5 times a week, comes out to about 6-8 weeks. I would rather get it done in as little time as possible. I assumed two months is plenty of time to get it done, being some schools offer accelerated training programs in 4 weeks time.
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I think it took me two months, but some of the time was picking up my plane in OK. so I logged 8 hrs right there. I also did longer CC so I logged longer days than 2 hrs. You will start out 1 hr at a time until you solo. any more than that and you don't learn much. After you solo you practice until you get frustrated or just tired. At around 15 or 20 hrs you should be very comfortable in the plane then logging time is easier in bigger chunks. I did not like to practice in any one area so we flew all over (The best thing I ever did). My dual CC was from OK 1/2 of the time IFR. You will learn more faster by going into odd places. The thing you need to understand is that your final checkout is to see if you can safely takeoff and land a plane without getting lost. The learning has then just begun. I learned more about being a pilot from hrs 40 to 150. I learned more about being a safer pilot from 150 to 300. From 300 to 500 I'm learning what not to do!;). I travel all over though so it is a little different for me than say some one who just flys around home.

Dan
 
ActiveTrader7 said:
I assumed I would fly 2 hrs a day, 4-5 times a week, comes out to about 6-8 weeks. I would rather get it done in as little time as possible. I assumed two months is plenty of time to get it done, being some schools offer accelerated training programs in 4 weeks time.
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Flying 4-5 times a week during February and March in Colorado. I don't know what the winter weather patterns are like there, but I can tell you that there's a snowball's chance in heck that you'd find that much flyable time around Chicago. You'd probably be sharing what flyable time there is with the instructors' other students, too. Now, if you were to head to one of the accelerated schools in a fair weather locale, maybe...
 
ActiveTrader7 said:
I assumed I would fly 2 hrs a day, 4-5 times a week, comes out to about 6-8 weeks.
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Add in ground school and pre/postflight briefings, and you're pretty much talking all day, five days a week over that period if you're getting quality training.
I assumed two months is plenty of time to get it done, being some schools offer accelerated training programs in 4 weeks time.
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That's four weeks of training 7 days/week, 8 hours a day, plus several hours study at night, and even then, I'll bet their 28 day successful completion rate is not something they advertise. I'd be surprised if most folks don't burn out halfway through.

BTW, I speak as an instructor whose primary business is 10-day instrument courses, at the end of which the client is usually whipped.
 
A (one, there are others) problem in developing such an accelerated syllabus is having the CFI up to speed. More than likely there wouldn't be a CFI available to fly every day. The facilities, ie, school has to support this as well as have the fleet to make it happen. I think you'd need 2 or three planes (same M&M are preferable) to facilitate the student's desire to complete the cert at an accelerated pace.

BTW: I accomplished my Pvt in 28 days. I lived and breathed flying. Having that logbook at hand I see I flew 6 different planes on 29 flights. I finished in 42.5 hours.

Two of those planes were flown only once when ALL the others were coincidentally down for mx. How do you plan for such an unlikely occurrence? Yet such events will occur. There was one 4 day hiatus due to wx; and two 2 day periods of no flying due to CFI unavailability. Otherwise I flew everyday with up to 3 flights per day. The DPE was scheduled by the start of the 2nd week.
 
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Richard said:
A (one, there are others) problem in developing such an accelerated syllabus is having the CFI up to speed. More than likely there wouldn't be a CFI available to fly every day. The facilities, ie, school has to support this as well as have the fleet to make it happen. I think you'd need 2 or three planes (same M&M are preferable) to facilitate the student's desire to complete the cert at an accelerated pace.

BTW: I accomplished my Pvt in 28 days. I lived and breathed flying. Having that logbook at hand I see I flew 6 different planes on 29 flights. I finished in 42.5 hours.

Two of those planes were flown only once when ALL the others were coincidentally down for mx. How do you plan for such an unlikely occurrence? Yet such events will occur. There was one 4 day hiatus due to wx; and two 2 day periods of no flying due to CFI unavailability. Otherwise I flew everyday with up to 3 flights per day. The DPE was scheduled by the start of the 2nd week.
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Where (geographically) and when (time of year) was this? That would certainly have an effect on the Wx question.
 
AdamZ said:
Khareem is a regular on AOPAs board and he has a good reputation and I think would make one hell of a great instructor.
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Nope. Decent pilot != good instructor. Ego gets in the way, in this particular case. Since you asked for opinions, I'd stay away from them.

In any case, I'd encourage you to check out all the flight schools around here. There's a lot to choose from. Palo Alto seems to have a lot of flight instruction and it's fairly easy to get to from SF. I haven't had a chance to do so, but you also might want to check out Petaluma and Santa Rosa. STS in particular seems to have some good schools, and the airspace is less busy. It's an hour drive from SF, but you'll find that Palo Alto and the other airports here aren't any faster to get to.

As an aside, the other aspect to consider is that it's virtually impossible to rent a decent X/C plane once you're done with training around here. You can find some (like here, for example), but they're generally on the very expensive side.

-Felix
 
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Grant, this was January in Fresno, CA. I don't consider it luck that I wasn't cancelled due to the infamous Tule fog, I think the fog is overrated as far as how long it lingers to create 0/0 or LIFR for weeks at a time. Sure, that happens but not as common as the conventional wisdom dictates. However, I do remember several lessons when my CFI climbed IFR on top. One benefit of the fog was a perfect horizon in all quadrants once on top at around 4,000 msl. :)

Speaking of FG. Our man will get to experience an almost daily occurrence of at least wide spread patchy fog. His CFI should be able to formulate various strategies to overcome local conditions.
 
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