Flight Schools

Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., visited Aims Community College’s Flight Training campus at Northern Colorado Regional Airport (KFNL) in Loveland today (Sept. 3). The college offers two-year degrees in professional pilot careers, air traffic control and unmanned aircraft systems and has plans to add a degree program in airframe & powerplant maintenance, with classes set […]

AOPA is reporting that the owner of a flight school that went bankrupt while allegedly holding hundreds of thousands of dollars in student deposits has struck a plea deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Kevin Rylchik is facing a prison term but by pleading guilty he avoided indictment on a laundry list […]

A flight school operating at Virginia’s Manassas Regional Airport/ Harry P. Davis Field abruptly shut down on Aug. 1, leaving several of its students stranded.   Students from American Aviation Flight School, including Thida Aung, reached out to local news station FOX 5 seeking help. According to FOX 5 Aung had paid the flight school […]

Flight Schedule Pro, a major provider of flight school management software, will introduce its new Next Gen suite on August 13. The platform aims to advance flight school operations with features such as smart scheduling, enhanced tracking of student graduation progress, and automated billing. Flight Schedule Pro says a key priority for the company is […]

At least 100 students enrolled in a South Florida flight school find themselves in a state of uncertainty after the owner of their flight school died in a plane crash, prompting the abrupt shutdown of operations. The academy’s owner, Alfredo Diez, and his wife, who managed the operations, died in a March plane crash in […]

Tours, France-based Mermoz Academy recently acquired 10 Tecnam P-Mentor piston-single trainers. Italy-based Tecnam said the P-Mentor is well-suited to instrument flight training due to its digital avionics with “all the features of the large aircraft [students] will be working on.” Mermoz Academy, established in 2018 to help stem the pilot shortage, also operates five Tecnam […]

Brad Walker, a longtime pilot at Jefferson County, Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Municipal Airport (KBJC; also known  as “Jeffco”), has actively challenged efforts by homeowners to sue the county over noise and lead pollution associated with the airport. Most recently, he filed a request under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) statute (similar to the federal […]

The town of Superior, Colorado and Boulder County are suing neighboring Jefferson County and Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (often call Jeffco), which is owned by Jefferson County, to force them to ban touch and goes at the busy training airport. Citing “negative and unreasonable health impacts” from noise and lead pollution, the city and county […]

PSI, the third-party contractor that administers all FAA tests, has been purchased by ETS, a Princeton, New Jersey nonprofit that is one of the largest language testing organizations in the world. ETS’s main business is in administering language tests for admissions requirements for universities, but it bought PSI as a diversification move to expand into […]

Hal Shevers, founder of world-renowned Sporty’s Pilot Shop, is retiring along with his wife, Sandy, after more than six decades in the business.  “Throughout his tenure, Hal spearheaded Sporty’s evolution from a small pilot shop into a respected global aviation brand, offering a vast array of aviation products, online courses, and educational resources,” Sporty’s said […]