Flight Insructor Schools in Florida

[Francis A]

Hi,
Does anyone have any advice as to which flight school in Florida may offer the best Flight instructor training at a reasonable cost and once having successfully completed of the CFI course, can either offer employment for a few months to gain experience or help find employment.

There are a huge number of flight schools all with the same adverts saying they are the best, and many who offer accelerated training, which I don't think is much good when turning to Instructing as a full time profession.

Looking for a school which will actually spend time teaching me how to teach rather than just passing the tests as fast as possible.

Appreciate any help, advice or links.

 

[Xscaliber]

I can suggest two schools in Central Florida which I have personal knowledge and experience of them both.

1. Tailwheels ECT, based at Lakeland (KLAL)
2. Sunstate Aviation based at Kissimmee Gateway (KISM)

Both schools offer accelerated training but it certainly isn't compulsary.

Tailwheels is family owned and operated and there is certainly a family feel around the place with both staff and students alike.

 

[Francis A]

Hi,

Thanks for that I will check them out.

 

[Shawn]

I did my PPL at Tailwheels and they were doing plenty of PPL, IFR, COM, and CFI's also when I was there. Would recommend them. Good outfit.

No firsthand knowledge of Sunstate but everyone talked like they were the other major player and a good place.

 

[Henning]

AMERICAN Flyers at PMP Pompono here in South Florida has a CFI 'academy' program that gets you all 3, A, I, and ME, in a multi student 'class' setting.

 

[asechrest]

AMERICAN Flyers at PMP Pompono here in South Florida has a CFI 'academy' program that gets you all 3, A, I, and ME, in a multi student 'class' setting.

Got a nice BBQ event every now and then, too.

 

[Francis A]

Thanks everyone for your comments, thats a good start. Had a look at tailwheels etc, very expensive !

Anyone have any more information about American Flyers, they came back to me quite quickly with a long email, also saying that contrary to popular belief 80% of CFI tests are failed but that they have an excellent pass rate.

Is this PR or the truth ?

Trouble is I am on the other side of the pond so cant drive around Florida to see for myself.

thanks

 

[jordane93]

80% of CFI tests are failed but that they have an excellent pass rate.

The 80% failure rate is complete nonsense. If you go on the FAA website and search airmen statisitcs you'll see that 66.5% of initial CFI pass on the first try with DPEs and 68.4% pass with an Inspector. I don't know where everyone gets this 80% fail on the first try. Of course if you look at it by region or FSDO the numbers might be a little different but overall around 70% pass on the first try which is pretty good.

https://www.faa.gov/data_research/aviation_data_statistics/civil_airmen_statistics/2013/

 

[Francis A]

Many thank for the info and link.

logging off now late of here in the Canary islands !

 

[Henning]

Thanks everyone for your comments, thats a good start. Had a look at tailwheels etc, very expensive !

Anyone have any more information about American Flyers, they came back to me quite quickly with a long email, also saying that contrary to popular belief 80% of CFI tests are failed but that they have an excellent pass rate.

Is this PR or the truth ?

Trouble is I am on the other side of the pond so cant drive around Florida to see for myself.

thanks

They have to maintain more like a 80% pass rate or better to keep their 141 certification most likely. American Flyiers has been in the business the entire time I have been around it, and that is going on 30 years. I did use them for their weekend courses to do my IR written and FEX written and was satisfied with the service. You don't stay in this business doing what they do at the level they do it unless they had an excellent success rate. The other advantage to American Fliers is you do your ME work in a 310, not a lame Seminole, you get to have some experience with much stronger OEI capabilities and the handling requirements of actually making them climb on one.

 

[Francis A]

Henning, thanks for that, I will be looking into this school a bit more, you sound convincing. How long have you been flying ' I did my original CPL/IR/ME in Las Vegas in 1982. it was a small school which I liked, and great place to learn to fly. High elevation airports, very high temperatures affecting performance, high mountains and the fog and rain of doing IFR traing for real in California. Dont know the Cessna 310, did my USA IR on a BE-76 and the biggest piston twin I flew a few hours was the Navajo, yes that had the power to climb out on one. most of my multi time is on B737-200. that is supposed to climb out on one engine, but there are times when taking off fully loaded with temperatures of 45 degrees that you spend 3 minutes with your adrenalin at peak.