Flight Schools

Flight training providers across the country are reporting that they are having trouble getting their flight students scheduled for practical tests in a timely fashion, according to reports received by the Flight School Association of North America (FSANA). The organization says the decrease in the number of examiners in recent years and a lack of […]

The University of North Dakota (UND) has partnered with United Airlines to create a career pipeline program for its flight students. Through the Career Pathway Program (CPP), graduates of UND’s Professional Flight Program now have a direct path to United’s regional partners. Assuming they meet CPP requirements both during school and after graduating, students who […]

From 2005 to 2015, my small flight school offered training in the famously rare Comco Ikarus C42, which was (and still is) manufactured in Germany. I say “rare” because (to my knowledge), only 13 C42s were ever imported in the U.S., and at one point I had three of them in my hangar. It was […]

A Canadian company has bought the bankrupt Dowling College at Long Island’s Brookhaven Airport and plans to rebuild the school’s aviation academic and technical offerings with a focus on aeronautical engineering. The college’s 105-acre campus is adjacent to and has access to Brookhaven’s two 4000-foot runways and has a hangar, a dormitory, classrooms and a […]

While taking on debt isn’t without risk, it’s an option quite a few student pilots looking to start flight careers are examining. Loans remain one of the few ways to nail down the resources to see them through to earning their ATP. On that front, many college and university flight students have an advantage over […]

Republic Airways announced today that it is launching a pilot training academy to help address the shortage of qualified commercial pilots in the U.S. The Leadership In Flight Training (LIFT) Academy, which will be located at the Indianapolis International Airport (IND) in Indianapolis, Indiana, is designed to be a direct-to-hire path for students. Graduates of […]

Textron is in the process of restructuring its Cessna Pilot Center (CPC) network, including cutting back on the number of CPCs and putting more focus on its Cessna Flight Training System digital interactive flight-training curriculum. “As a part of a new strategy to expand the reach of the Cessna curriculum to student pilots,” Textron told […]

As an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE), I’ve felt like my pass rate on practical tests has been declining over the last couple of years. It started as a gut feeling, but then I compared my recent numbers with my pass rate from a few years ago and found it was also statistically true. It […]

It’s arguably the best time in history to begin a flying career. Never before could a pilot expect to become a jet first officer so rapidly. Sure, it’s a challenge to log the time needed to earn the ATP that’s now required. But demand is so great that as soon as a pilot meets that […]

Build A Plane, the nonprofit that offers kids a chance to restore an airplane using donated aircraft, now is expanding into rocketry, and with help from a major unnamed donor, recently bought up the assets of XCOR, the bankrupt company that had been working to build the Lynx spaceplane, for $1.1 million. “Our donor heard […]