Time building in MN Twin Cities area - Also IFR Ground School recommendations?

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Jason-B

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JasonB
Hey All,

Figure I'll get three things out of the way here and hopefully not derail my own post with too many topics in the replies.

Minnesota based Private Pilot here, currently building time toward my Instrument, Commercial, CFI. Started my journey as a kid living in Hawaii and spending my summers hanging out at Kona International (back when it was still Keahole), pushing carts for quarters, but mostly just chatting with pilots, getting tours of planes, and in general, being an aviation nerd. Long story short - Grew up, got married to my best cheerleader, who I accredit to me getting back into the pilot seat, and now here I am.

At this point in my flying career, there are two things I'm looking for:

1) Someone in the Twin Cities who is also time building or just wants to fly safety for a few mid to long cross countries. I fly a 172 out of Buffalo (CFE), but don't mind meeting up at other airports around the metro. I'm also open to flying safety for someone else, though I don't have my high-performance, multi, or complex yet, so that limits things for now.

2) Recommendations on a good instrument ground school in the area. I know there are a few like Inflight and I think T-Bird, but they don't really publish any info on their websites. I'd love to find one that is thorough enough that your last day concludes with a sign off to take the written, but you can't have everything right?
 
And... I also just noticed I got my Display Name and actual name reversed. Now to figure out how to fix that.
 
Welcome!

I know Thunderbird has a 141 school but I am not sure if they only do that for Private or Instrument as well. I believe the 141 school is only at their Crystal (KMIC) Location (which isn't bad coming from Buffalo). If you have a GI bill you could even use it for this I think.

On the southwest side there is also something like Air Truck (by Modern Avionics) with a location at FCM and a few other airports. And Hummingbird has been around FCM for years but not sure if they are doing Instrument ground training or not.

I don't think I have ever seen anyone training out of Premier (FCM).

There are so many students getting in/out of planes over at Elliot (FCM) that they must have something....or maybe that is where In-Flight is storing their planes.

Question: Is it worth it to just do a online version and then supplement with CFI hours when you do the flying part?
 
Thanks! (fixed the username, this is me now).

Yeah I did check out T-Bird, Inflight, and Air Trek some time ago since they were next to my work (I work at FCM by the way) but didn't run into much luck with a ground school, at least within the time frame I was looking for. I did hear of one at Anoka but I forgot the name of the flight school that ran it. Thinking more and more I might just end up going to the online route and home study. Did home study for private and it actually worked out pretty well. Leaning towards the Sportys course pending other recommendations.
 
I can't recommend this guy enough:

James Aarestad Flight Instructor
West Metro Aviation-Buffalo Airport

got my instrument rating from him, awesome instructor, professional pilot, he is the man. nice guy too, made the flying fun.
 
I did my ground school with thunderbird, good ground school, knowledgeable instructors.
 
Thanks for the great input! Twin City Aviation is the one I was thinking of, though it looks like they aren't doing an Instrument ground school for awhile. Oh well. I might have to give James a call. Currently trying to get all of my hours and ratings done by year end which isn't going to work with my current instructor's schedule.

Did one of the Thunderbird instructors sign you off to take the knowledge test at the conclusion of the ground school? Just curious.
 
JasonB said:
Thanks for the great input! I might have to give James a call. Currently trying to get all of my hours and ratings done by year end which isn't going to work with my current instructor's schedule.

Did one of the Thunderbird instructors sign you off to take the knowledge test at the conclusion of the ground school? Just curious.
Click to expand...
Yes. It was very fast-paced, I'm not sure if we agreed to the schedule as a group or what, but I remember having a lot to read/absorb from the Jeppesen Instrument/Commercial textbook.

They suggested we take the test immediately after the sign-off; I studied more on my own afterwards, because I wanted to get 100% on the written.

I didn't (get 100%), by the way... but it was 90-something, I was still happy.
 
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Nice. Yeah that's what I was hoping for. Ideally I'd like to take the test no later than a week after I've finished the course. I remember T/A-ing at a local EMS program back in my EMT days... Seemed like 95% of kids that took the test immediately after finishing the program passed, out of the ones that waited a month or two, maybe 70%, two to sixth months, 50%, and after that, who knows.
 
Yah I think that's the logic there, and I agree; I just had time on my side, and a strong desire to hit 100%.

:)
 
All done very close to home... ground was thunderbird at fcm, written I believe was at hummingbird...? not sure if they are still a testing center...
 
Cool. Even better if its at FCM.

Hummingbird is still open. Good place. Did my private written there. Came in on the day of my test only to find out I had my expired DL with me (I had been sent a replacement a few days earlier). Rather than making me reschedule my test for another day, Beverly, who was one of the owners there, kept the place open late while I ran all the way home to grab my new ID. I came back an hour later completely flustered, but with my ID in hand, she said "Don't worry about the time, just pass the test", which I did. I owed her a lot. Sadly, she passed away somewhat unexpectedly last year so its just her husband running the operation now.

I was told, you're allowed to come in and take unlimited free practice tests using the actual FAA exam. Worth noting for anyone else reading this.
 
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