When you decide to purchase anything, the first thing on your mind is to check it's quality, it's worth, past reviews and track records. It's the exact same with a flight school! And I'll explain how.
Everyone loves to be trained by the best of the best. Everyone wants the best of what can be achieved in a given time and the quoted cost.
Choosing a flight school can be a challenge when there are tons of options available all around the world. Although many of these flight schools are good enough, they may or may not be appropriate to suit your needs.
Choosing a flight school that meets your needs will bring you one step closer to your goal. Please read the 7 factors below that will help you make a better decision or at least make it easier for you to choose the best flight school.
1. Cost
Generally, the most prominent and common hurdle to tackle when planning for and during your flight training is Vitamin M (money). A flight school that quotes the cheapest cost doesn't necessarily mean it's the best.
Do not choose a flight school because it's cheaper than the other one.
Do not choose it because it is expensive than the others.
Choose the one that provides facilities and course content worth the cost.
Every country's aviation authority will have a list of respective flight schools on its website. For example, in the US, you could find schools here or in India, here.
2. Airport Weather
Location of the flight school is crucial not only during your initial phases of training but also throughout the course. Two main factors will influence the adequacy of the location: weather and traffic at the airport.
Analyze how the seasonal weather varies in the city where the airport is and also in surrounding areas, where the flying lessons will be conducted. You are looking for the most days of flyable weather. Take into account weather conditions like fog, rainfall, hot and cold temperature, snowfall, cyclones, and typhoons, etc.
Since the weather is a natural phenomenon, there is no place on earth with perfect weather conditions for the entire year. So what you must look for are the places with the most available flyable days.
3. Traffic
People have mixed opinions about an airport being busy from a training point of view. If the airport where you'll be based out of is busy, you'll probably spend a few minutes more on the ground compared to an airport with less traffic. More the time on the ground, the more the engines run, so more is the money spent! I agree with the argument partially.
However, my point of view is slightly different. If you are operating at a busy airport, you will learn how to handle situations in a busy environment. Situations like communication with ATC, completing appropriate checklists, and situational awareness, etc.
If you intend to fly as an airline pilot someday, what type of airports would you be flying to? An idle airport or a hustling one?
4. Fleet
Know what training aircraft are used by the flight school for training. (Only for license conversion and if you choose to take flight lessons in a different country, check if they are also available in your country of origin).
The most widely used single-engine trainers are Cessna 150/152, Cessna 172, Piper Arrow or Cherokee, and recently Diamond DA40. On the multi-engine side, Piper Apache, Seneca, Seminole, or Diamond Twinstar DA42 would be the popular ones.
All modern airliners that are manufactured now have flat-screen instrument displays termed as glass cockpits. Naturally, most of the flight schools are now slowly switching to trainers with a glass cockpit. During your initial phases of training, you could use conventional type, i.e., gauge type flight instruments. But for your advanced training such as instrument rating, I recommend flying glass cockpit aircraft. It will help for a smoother transition when you start flying for an airline.
An equally important factor concerning fleet is the size. Having 50 students enrolled in one course with 2 aircrafts available will not be productive. It will add time and consequently cost to your training. A flight school should have a proportional number of airplanes compared to the number of students.
5. Maintenance
An area that's often missed is to check past records of the flight school. Search on the internet if any aircraft from the flight school was involved in an incident or accident.
An aircraft involved in an incident or accident does not merely imply that the flight school or the maintenance department was at fault. There could have been several other reasons for the mishap. However, it will give you a good understanding of the operations at the flight school.
6. Quality
"Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort."
John Ruskin.
An effort not just from the flight school or the instructor but, more importantly, from the student. The quality of a flight school can only be judged by the quality of its products, the students.
Nonetheless, factors like instruction techniques used, course syllabus, and content, the study material provided is dependant on the school. As long as the flight school is approved by the governing aviation authority, the course syllabus and content should be appropriate to match the needs.
To know the quality of its students, ask the flight school about their course pass rates. How many students pass when they appear for the check/exam for the first time? Ask if they have maintained records of their students who got an airline pilot job. Talk to students present at the flight training academy about their training and progress to comprehend the current situation.
7. Facilities
Last but not least, find out what other facilities are provided by the flight school. Some might be able to provide accommodation for an additional cost for the span of your training.
If you visit the flight school, take a look at the availability and condition of the classrooms, teaching material used, and briefing/debriefing rooms. These will be used during the ground instruction part of your training.
In the unfortunate circumstances where you cannot complete the training for whatever reason, confirm what the refund policy is. And if, during training and testing, you do not meet the required standards, what would be the consequences.
Finally, to sum it up, look up flight schools in your country or around the world based on my suggestions. To make the decision process more comfortable, and before you decide on a particular flight school have about 3-4 flight schools shortlisted.
Research about them by visiting in person or looking them up on the internet. In my opinion, the best way to know about a flight school is to visit the facility in person. Talk to the students and flight instructors there. That will give you a first-hand view of the existing conditions.
Just like a story has two sides, all these factors discussed here have their own pros and cons. If you have further concerns I would like to discuss those with you, so please write back to me here.
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