November 02, 2005
Flight School Advice
022_flight_school_advice.mp3 - 12MB - 34:11
A neighbor (losely applied) found my website and e-mailed me, asking if I could answer some questions for him about the airports I did my flight training at. I put together this podcast outlining some general thoughts on both Campbell Airport and Westosha Airport. I believe we're going to try to match up on the phone tomorrow so I can answer some more specific questions he has. Since much of what I put in this audio could be applied to anyone starting to seek out a flight school, I decided to post it.
Something I forgot to mention in the audio, though I'm pretty sure I've podcasted before, is one of the major differences between Cardinal Aircraft Services at Campbell and the Westosha Flying Club at Westosha - Cardinal is a full-service FBO whereas Westosha is a self-service club. What this means is that as a customer at Campbell, you get the keys for the plane, go out to the tie-down or perhaps the hangar in the winter (no more than a hundred paces away), pre-flight, hop in, fly, come back, hand the keys to the guy behind the counter, and pay. That's it.
At Westosha, you have to get the aircraft keys from the lockbox, walk 0.15nm out to the planes, hope you didn't forget anything in your car, preflight/untie the plane, hop in, fly, come back, taxi to the fuel pump, top off the gas tanks (yes, after every flight), taxi to parking, tie down the plane, recheck the oil, walk 0.15nm back to the clubhouse, hope you didn't forget anything in the plane, return the keys to the lockbox, and whew, you're done. Sure, you get lucky sometimes and the person who has the plane after you will be waiting for it at the pump, so you won't have to taxi to parking, tie it down, and hoof all the way back to the clubhouse, but that's the exception rather than the norm in my experience.
Heaven forbid there be snow or ice on the plane when you want to fly. At Cardinal, they could probably squeeze the plane in the hangar for a while before you even show up. At Westosha, you're pretty much on your own. I don't mean to paint a grim picture at Westosha, the experience is much like owning your own plane without the maintainence bills, which is great and who can't use the exercise of a good walk? It's just good to know what you're getting into and to realize that an hour-long flight lesson at Westosha is going to take a bit longer than a hour start-to-finish.
Just more food for thought.
This is from the comments, but I wanted to add it to the main body of the post:
1) I picked Campbell to train at because I work less than 5 minutes away and it worked out well with my schedule to fly around work. As a result, I flew 100% during the week for training, so scheduling was really easy.
2) We did NOT use a syllabus. At the end of one lesson, he'd tell me what we'd be working on next. I could have been better informed about what was coming each day, but I don't think it really got in my way. When we were going to be working on VORs, etc., he let me know to brush up on those sections of the books. I think I was a pretty non-demanding student and had I requested/required more preparation and feedback, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten it. Though, to be honest, there were a few times I think he lost track of what we had and had not done. So there is something very positive to be said for having a lesson plan.
3) The lessons very much fit my style. Whether or not other students got the same style, I can not say, but his style worked for me. I was pushed, but not in a bad way, and the only time I felt held up was by the instructor availability issues I mentioned.
4) There is not much I would have changed about my training. When scheduling got sticky, perhaps I should have changed instructors or gone to using two different ones, but it all worked out in the end. It was a very positive experience throughout.
Best of luck in your decision!
Some URLs you should be familiar with:
- directwfc.com - Westosha Flying Club, Wilmot, Wisconsin
- Airnav entry for Westosha Airport (5K6)
- Cardinal Aircraft Services, Grayslake, Illinois
- Airnav entry for Campbell Airport (C81)
- beapilot.com - home of the $49 "Intro Flight" coupon
- Cessna's learntofly.com
- National Association of Flight Instructors' learntofly.org
- AOPA's Learn To Fly page - www.aopa.org/learntofly/ - Check out the free 6-month membership for students
- Great articles and forums for students and veterans alike (a good pilot is alway learning) at studentpilot.com
Contact info:
- email: eblo at ratula dot net
- call: 206-FEW-EBLO (206-339-3256)
- skype: oblivion9999
- Subscribe to my podcasts via RSS:
Too cool! A podsast just for me. Thank you Mark. It's almost spooky how well you answered my questions. It's like you had the list in front of you. I only have a few more that you might (or might not) want to answer here for others to read.
What was it about Campbell that made you choose it in the first place? Why not go to the places that were closer to you instead?
You mentioned that you wish you would have had more pre and post flight briefing time. Did you feel that you were prepared for each lesson? Did your instructor use a syllabus so you knew what was coming next?
Was the instruction tailored to you and your style? Did you feel pushed or held back at any point?
And, the hardest question of all. Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently during your training?
Thank you again Mark - for all you have done to help.
Tom
My pleasure to help. To answer your questions:
1) I picked Campbell to train at because I work less than 5 minutes away and it worked out well with my schedule to fly around work. As a result, I flew 100% during the week for training, so scheduling was really easy.
2) We did NOT use a syllabus. At the end of one lesson, he'd tell me what we'd be working on next. I could have been better informed about what was coming each day, but I don't think it really got in my way. When we were going to be working on VORs, etc., he let me know to brush up on those sections of the books. I think I was a pretty non-demanding student and had I requested/required more preparation and feedback, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten it. Though, to be honest, there were a few times I think he lost track of what we had and had not done. So there is something very positive to be said for having a lesson plan.
3) The lessons very much fit my style. Whether or not other students got the same style, I can not say, but his style worked for me. I was pushed, but not in a bad way, and the only time I felt held up was by the instructor availability issues I mentioned.
4) There is not much I would have changed about my training. When scheduling got sticky, perhaps I should have changed instructors or gone to using two different ones, but it all worked out in the end. It was a very positive experience throughout.
Best of luck in your decision!
Posted by: Oblivion at November 4, 2005 11:52 AM
