Flight School Business News


Success through symbiosis

Owners and operators of flight school businesses can benefit from symbiotic relationships with organizations in the community, relatively easily and with little to no additional investment. Read more >>

Redbird motion simulator: One flight school's experience

With more than a $100,000 line of credit, flight school co-owners Kevin Walsh and Vince Talbert could have added a couple of nice Cessna 172s or Piper Cherokees to their rental fleet, maybe even a high performance Beech Bonanza. Instead, they bought a flight simulator. Read more >>

Student safety tied to aircraft type

Which is harder to land: High-wing or low-wing? Read more >>

Scammers target flight schools, CFIs

AOPA has received notification from flight instructors and the FBI that scammers are once again targeting flight schools and instructors. Read more >>

Make aviation fun

Flight school owners are the front line of that community, so it behooves them to present it in a way that highlights the benefits of belonging. For many pilots, that reason is fun. Read more >>

Adding knowledge testing services to your school

FAA knowledge tests must be taken from an approved provider. You may want to consider becoming a site for one of the two approved providers. Read more >>

Airport manager--your flight school's invisible partner

Unless you own or have a contract to operate the entire airport facility, you have to operate in a partnership of sorts with a manager or management team who may be guided by motivations and goals that are completely different than those outlined in your business plan. Read more >>

What's in a name?

For years we've believed that flight instruction enjoys an accident rate lower than that of general aviation as a whole, and less than half of that afflicting personal flights. A closer look at NTSB data calls that assumption into question. Read more >>

Zulu finding success in retail flight training

Last year an unlikely company unopened an unlikely flight school. Headquartered in a retail strip mall location, Zulu Flight Training is owned and operated by Continental Motors, and based on the school's initial results, it seems as though an engine manufacturer can effectively run a flight school. Read more >>

Don't be boring

Given the way interpersonal communication has changed over the past decade, it behooves any flight school to also change its marketing tactics. Read more >>


Project Flight School: An end and a beginning