Flight Schools specialize in teaching basic flight instruction.  They teach you everything you need to know to pass your checkride (final test with a Designated Examiner) and then fly safely among the rest of the pilots in the world.

Ground School

It will all start in your ground school learning the fundementals of aeronautics.  What makes an airplane fly and how do you control it?  What are the specific scientific principles that behind lift, drag, thrust and gravity?  How does the weather change an airplanes ability to fly and how can you predict what’s most likely going to happen with the weather.  You’ll even cover the various types of airspace and airports around the country.  Ground school is where you’ll learn the fundementals of flying.

Flight Time

Some people will finish ground school first and then move on to actual flight time, while others will do both at the same time.  Which is best for you?  I like the idea of learning something in a book and then immediately putting that into practice in a real world situation.  Regardless of which method you choose, you’ll need to learn all of these fundementals in order to pass your written exam before you can fly solo.

Maneuvers

There a joke among pilots that it takes about 3 hours to learn how to fly and about 37 hours to learn how to land.  There’s probably more truth to this than we’d care to admit.  There’s so much to know about landing an airplane, most of the time you’re in the air will be spend learning all of these.  Even when you’re flying at 5000 feet doing a “power off stall”, you’ll be learning a valuable skill needed to land safely.  You’ll spend time doing “turns about a point” which teach you how wind direction and speed affect your ability to land.  You’ll even spend time learning how to land without an engine (actually it will be idling, but it won’t provide you with any thrust).

Communications

Believe it or not, one of the biggest hurrdles most student pilots have revolve around the radio.  What do you say to Ground Conrol before moving onto a taxi-way?  What about the control tower or departure and approach?  You’ll learn what specific words the air traffic controllers MUST say before you can flight into the airspace surrounding the nations busiest airports.  Then there are those airports that don’t have a control tower.  They use a common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) to let the other pilots in the air and still on the ground know exactly where you are and what you’re going to do next.

Passing Your Checkride

The checkride is what every student pilot is working towards.  It’s about 5 or more hours spent convcing a “designated examiner” that you know everything you need to know to fly safely.  The first half of your checkride will consist of an oral examination.  The designated examiner (DE) will pepper you with questions about aeronautics, reading maps, how the fuel system in your airplane works, what to say on the radio, how to deal with specific weather situations and what to do in the case of an emergency.

Once you’ve passed that section, you’re sky bound to put these principles into practice.  Navigating to a specific airport, proving you know how to recover from a stall, simulating any number of emergencies and showing him or her that you can do a soft or short field landing.  What about taking off when you you’ve only got 2000′ of runway in front of you?  It’s all done in the practical portion of your checkride.  Pass this and you’ll join a very elite fraternity of airmen.  The truth is, it’s not as bad as you think.

Once you’ve crossed this hurdle and you’re holding that coveted piece of plastic in your hand, you’ll then suddenly realize, you’ve only just begun to learn how to fly.  This is when the skies open up for you and you can move on to more advanced flight training.  But, we won’t worry about that yet.

Proximity
Is it close by? How much time does it take to get there? Making a lot of trips, the time soon adds up, and what if the lesson is cancelled due to weather or any other reason? You’ll be pretty hacked off if you’ve driven an hour only to find you can’t fly and have to turn home again. You also want to be fresh, and alert for the lessons, which is something you wont be after sitting in traffic for 40 minutes.

Staff
Do you get on with the staff and the instructors at the flight school? Make a point of meeting them before signing up. You’ll be spending a lot of time with them, so if their are personality clashes, it might be worth looking elsewhere.

Busy Airport?
The busier the airport,the more time you’ll have to spend waiting around for other traffic to get out of your way. Landing taxes will probably be more expensive too. That said, if you go somewhere too quiet, you won’t get the benefit of controlled air space and interacting with other air traffic.

Facilities
Can you refuel at the flight school, or do you have to taxi over to the airports fuel pumps to get fuel, thus using up valuable lesson time? What about maintenance? Does the school have  a maintenance hanger, how many helicopters do they have? Will you have to put your classes on hold while the school’s only helicopter is off somewhere else being serviced?

Cost
This is of course a big one, but don’t just go on the hourly rate. What about landing taxes, accommodation (if required), transport getting there, your time? Do the school charge for the theory lessons? Weight it all up before making a decision.

One option for bringing the cost down is to learn abroad where it can be a lot cheaper. In the US you could do an intensive course in four weeks, pay for you accommodation and return flights for less than it costs just to get the PPL(H) in the UK.

Personally, I’ll be avoiding this route, as cramming so much into such a short period of time is tiring and not efficient. It took me over a week to absorb everything I was shown in my first 2 hours flying. On an intensive, you don’t have the time to absorb fully what you’ve learnt one day, before more is thrown at you the next.

Besides, the cheap hours in the US can be saved for hour building once you’ve got your PPL.

So…
where am I going to sign up? By having just moved to Spain the choice of flight schools available to me has just been drastically reduced. Time to do some research to see what my options are.

MECCTI is Located in Thailand and London

Capacity will be 400 students a year and the first intake will be 20 students, the carrier says. It adds that the 12-14 month programme will be based on CAPT, an intensive ab initio pilot training programme developed by the USA’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

IAC is the only college that offers multi crew cooperation and jet orientation training introductory course on fixed base simulator Airbus A320 without extra charge after completion of CPL/ME/IR course.

Ground subject are taught up to ATPL level

Fleet of world class proven trainer aircraft-Diamond DA40, DA42 and aerobatic Extra 300L for unusual attitude recovery training.

The Club has been specifically organized to satisfy the needs of two major sectors of the sports aviation field; namely Ultralight Flying and Radio Controlled (RC) model airplane and helicopter flying.

Club facilities consist of a 300-meter manicured grass runway (with 100-meter approaches at each end) certified by the Thai Department of Aviation, aircraft hangers, an authorized repair center, RC model workshops & preflight setup areas, flying school, hobby shop, restaurant, members’ lounge, and children’s playground.

CMT Flying Club is staffed by experienced and certified flight instructors, pilots and aviation mechanics for Ultralight aircraft sales, service & operations; and by skilled experts in selling, making & flying of RC model aircraft, including instruction to newcomers on how to fly RC aircraft.

Conveniently located in Chonburi Province on Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard, Sriracha Airfield is a mere 118 km – or just over an hour’s driving time – from Bangkok via two international quality freeways. Situated within the sprawling grounds of the Saha Group Industrial Park, this private airfield provides everything that small aircraft owners and enthusiasts would require for their complete aviation needs.