good area in Florida to learn to fly ?

bugsiegel

bugsiegel

Pre-Flight
Joined
Jan 8, 2015
Messages
73
Display Name
Bugsiegel
I have heard of students/pilots relocating down to Florida so they can advance their flying careers.
Is there an area or region of Florida that is better for this e.g., east coast, west coast, gulf of Mexico?
 
Southern Florida is littered with student pilots. Boca down - it's everywhere. Personally I would avoid it. Northeastern Florida has it's fair share but not nearly as bad as southern.
 
Daytona, Fort Pierce, and others have big programs, they are also located at an airport that has a runway dedicated to train. Florida is a nice to hang out when you’re not flying. The further south you go, more expensive and generally better weather. I think most are on the eastern side.
 
Wherever you go, don't pre-pay for any substantial portion of your instruction. Any legit flight school will be fine with 'pay as you go', any FL flight school that pressures you into pre-paying is suspect. If after you solo you can save some money by buying a block of 10 hrs, it may make sense to do so, but at that point you have an idea whether they are legit.
 
Very good point! There have been several organizations over time here in Florida that have taken students money and folded. Recourse is almost non-existent in those circumstances. Pay as you go, even if it cost a few dollars more.
 
mscard88 said:
View attachment 60466
Click to expand...

That’s a nice damned toaster. What are all those buttons for?

Mine has two and a dial. And the second one is kinda fufu, it says “Bagel” on it.

My old one didn’t have that. It just had a lever.

No kidding, I actually saw someone complain that their coffee maker wasn’t available in a version that was Apple HomeKit enabled this weekend on FB.

I gave them crap for it.

Walking across the room and pressing a single button is too much work, now? For effffffffs sake man. Haha.

I (barely) can see remote control lights, especially if they change colors... hard to make a good UI for that in a wall switch...

But the coffee pot? Come on. You’re going to have to get you lazy butt up off of the couch and go get the coffee anyway... Jeebus people. It’s a bit much.

Thus, your multi-button toaster has me a bit worried. Haha.
 
The Daytona area on the east coast,plenty of flight training,and a good social life,not going to be cheap.
 
Florida is much too crowded already, and getting worse every day. Please, please go somewhere else. North Dakota, maybe. Or Idaho. And tell all your friends to do the same.
 
denverpilot said:
That’s a nice damned toaster. What are all those buttons for?

Mine has two and a dial. And the second one is kinda fufu, it says “Bagel” on it.

My old one didn’t have that. It just had a lever.

No kidding, I actually saw someone complain that their coffee maker wasn’t available in a version that was Apple HomeKit enabled this weekend on FB.

I gave them crap for it.

Walking across the room and pressing a single button is too much work, now? For effffffffs sake man. Haha.

I (barely) can see remote control lights, especially if they change colors... hard to make a good UI for that in a wall switch...

But the coffee pot? Come on. You’re going to have to get you lazy butt up off of the couch and go get the coffee anyway... Jeebus people. It’s a bit much.

Thus, your multi-button toaster has me a bit worried. Haha.
Click to expand...

One button just has to be a special eggo function. Just has to be. Right?
 
Half Fast said:
Florida is much too crowded already, and getting worse every day. Please, please go somewhere else. North Dakota, maybe. Or Idaho. And tell all your friends to do the same.
Click to expand...

Ahhh... good ol' southern hospitality. ;)
 
Half Fast said:
Florida is much too crowded already, and getting worse every day. Please, please go somewhere else. North Dakota, maybe. Or Idaho. And tell all your friends to do the same.
Click to expand...

Don’t send anyone to ND you don’t trust with nuclear missiles or becoming an airline pilot at UND. That’s all there is up there.

If we ever **** off ND, the entire planet is gone.

And if you check your W2, you’ll notice half of your salary went to paying just the interest on those missiles.
 
teejayevans said:
Florida is not the south, it probably has more northerners(including Canadians) than Massachusetts, at least during the winter months,
Click to expand...


Sadly true about central and south Florida. Northern Florida is still quite southern, but damn carpetbaggers have ruined much of the rest of the state.
 
weilke said:
Florida is full of New Yorkers.
Click to expand...

The locals here in NC complain about those folks as well. They also tend to lump all of us relocated northerners into the same category. What they don't understand that growing up in rural Indiana, I'm as much of a hick as they are.
 
SkyDog58 said:
The locals here in NC complain about those folks as well. They also tend to lump all of us relocated northerners into the same category. What they don't understand that growing up in rural Indiana, I'm as much of a hick as they are.
Click to expand...

Yankee...
We’re not hicks, we’re southern gentleman.
 
I have a fri nd that is flying out of leesburg, he says he loves it. It’s not too busy.
 
TommyG said:
I have a fri nd that is flying out of leesburg, he says he loves it. It’s not too busy.
Click to expand...

I trained out of Apopka but flew in and out of Leesburg (KLEE) quite a bit, especially to work on landings and tower communications. It's a nice airport and the tower guys seem very accustomed to working with students. Sometimes when there was no traffic they'd put me into a figure 8 pattern using the intersecting runways so I could get different crosswinds on each landing, or they'd alternate throwing "make right traffic" or "make left traffic" at me.

From KLEE it's a very short hop to Ocala (KOCF), Apopka (X04), or Orlando North (FA83) so you can practice at other airports to get differing runways and winds.

Only complaint I have about KLEE is that their AWOS weather reporting is optimistic to the point of silliness, especially regarding cloud cover.
 
http://www.bartowflyingservice.com at KBOW

Great bunch of guys, well maintained aircraft, CFI's are "career" CFI's not hour building before running away to the airlines.
And it's a City run facility so your money is safe.
Far enough away from the Central Florida Tourist Belt, so accomodation costs are reasonable.
 
How about this?
Although it may take some force to push the handle, and the toast might have a dark side.



vader-toaster.jpg
 
Last edited:
SkyDog58 said:
Around Disney World due to the risk of midair collisions with fairies and flying elephants.
Click to expand...

I’d worry more about being shot down by the military since they have their nice little bought and paid for TFR that no other private business gets. Pretty impressive lobbying skill really. Couldn’t have cost them all that much. No terrorists allowed over the Mouse House!
 
Xscaliber said:
http://www.bartowflyingservice.com at KBOW

Great bunch of guys, well maintained aircraft, CFI's are "career" CFI's not hour building before running away to the airlines.
And it's a City run facility so your money is safe.
Far enough away from the Central Florida Tourist Belt, so accomodation costs are reasonable.
Click to expand...

Those are great rates for rental airplanes. Looks like a good school.
 
Last edited:
I’m partial to the west coast,getting to be an expert on airport restaurants.
 
Tailwheels is now known as International Aero Academy, now under new management, but I believe the previous owner John Amundsen is still there as an instructor.
 
I flew at Kingsky in Lakeland for my training to get the ATP MULTIENGINE, that was a good choice, I liked the airport, there are a lot of airports near Lakeland and Lakeland itself for IFR training. Not too busy airport and not too desert.
 
Jason Schappert has a great website (https://www.m0a.com/) and YouTube channel and has a flight school in Ocala (http://schappaviation.com/) - website for flight school isn't that great though. Another flight school on the field as well that seems to be more oriented to professional training programs (http://www.usflighttraining.com). Ocala is less crowded (airspace-wise) than Daytona and Jacksonville area and lots of great "practice" airports nearby. I fly out of Craig in Jacksonville (KCRG) and have gotten some training/BFRs from Holladay aviation - nice family style flight school. North Florida weather is generally very good but in some seasons (late fall especially) we can get multi-day Nor'easters that cause low ceilings and fairly high winds.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top