Flight Schools

United Airlines has created a new program with Metropolitan State University of Denver to identify talented student pilots and place them on a path to flying for United, the airline announced on Tuesday. Regional carriers have offered similar programs in recent years, but this will be the first time a major U.S. airline has established […]

The Bob Hoover Academy, an aviation-themed nonprofit youth outreach program based in Austin, Texas, has partnered with Redbird Flight Simulations to add a full-motion flight simulator to the curriculum. “As with any program, time in our aircraft and with our instructor is limited,” said BHA chairman and founder Sean Tucker. “Simulation helps our students make […]

Pilots who have an instrument ride or any other certificate or rating tested by an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) are being asked to let the Flight School Association of North America (FSANA) know how much they pay for the flight. The group is conducting a survey to see how rates compare. “While FSANA is […]

The first FAA-approved hybrid course for A&P mechanics, offering some of the coursework online, has graduated its first class from Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Tulsa, Oklahoma, officials at the school have announced. Fifteen students completed the program, which comprises 13 to 16 months of coursework online and then seven months at the […]

You’d think a flight instructor would limit stupidity. You’d be wrong, as many accidents involved CFIs reacting too slowly to student silliness. Then there’s the Kentucky instructor whose student wouldn’t do anything dumb, so he intervened, setting the Cessna 172’s fuel selector to OFF within, he thought, gliding distance of the runway. Only the instructor […]

Eight general aviation advocacy groups signed onto a letter this week protesting a bill now in the House that would put a cap on payments to veterans in flight-training programs. Other education tracks are not subject to caps, the advocates said. “Capping funds available for flight-training degree programs virtually guarantees that veterans seeking to use […]

Three Britons and a man from Vietnam were killed in the midair collision of a small helicopter and a Cessna 152 on Friday. Authorities haven’t officially released any names but well-known helicopter instructor Capt. Mike Green was with a student aboard the Guimbal Cabri training helicopter when it and the 152 collided in Buckinghamshire. Both […]

Textron Aviation announced this week it will continue its Top Hawk program for 2018, providing a new Cessna Skyhawk 172 to five university programs for use in their flight training and recruiting efforts. “As the Top Hawk program enters its fourth year, we’re proud to build on a program that has allowed us to support […]

I mostly make my living as a flight instructor, so I often fly with ten or more students in a week. Not all are “student pilots” in the FAA sense of the term, but they’re all flying with me to get instruction of some sort. They’re seeking new certificates, instrument ratings, tailwheel transitions or they’re […]

If I were an airplane salesman, I would starve to death. Airplanes that I think have no prayer of selling fly out of the factory almost faster than they can be produced. One of these was Diamond’s DA42, which I thought was a long shot. The DA62, one of the best GA airplanes ever, in […]