We’re thrilled to announce our merger with Aero Elite Flight Training. Click here for more info!

Frequently Asked Questions

This is the most common question we get asked, so let’s get things out in the open. This is heavily dependent on two people: you as the student, and your instructor. Overall, we guarantee that if you follow our guidance we can get your training done in the most efficient way possible. Our instructors are trained to maximize time in the cockpit, and conduct training on the ground. The cockpit is the lab, the ground school is the classroom. If an instructor is lecturing you in the cockpit, they’re doing it wrong. 
 
We highly recommend 2-3 lessons per week. Learning to fly is like learning any other skill, the more you do it, the faster you learn it, the more efficiently you progress. Efficiency is time savings, and time is money. 2-3 lessons per week, and we can turn you into a private pilot in 6-8 months. This varies depending on weather and maintenance, but the biggest variable is you and your instructor! 
 
If you show up 2-3 times per week on time, prepared, and ready to learn, our instructors will get you through the training for Private Pilot in 6-8 months. At this pace, you will spend somewhere between $13-15k all-in to include airplane, fuel, instruction, ground briefings, ground school kit, medical exam, checkride and test fees, and pilot supplies. This assumes the average student, progressing at an average pace using average FAA completion rates. 
 
Some flight schools will quote the cost for Private Pilot using the minimum standards as outlined by the FAA. It is extremely rare for a student to become a pilot at exactly 40 hours (the FAA minimum). In fact, the national average is 55-70 hours. Our quote assumes 55-70 hours of training. If you are shopping around for flight schools, which we recommend, we highly encourage you to use 55 hours of flight time as a baseline for cost comparison (40 hours of instruction and 15 hours of solo flight).

Just click here and sign up for a Discovery Flight. A Certified Flight Instructor will contact you within 24 hours to schedule your Discovery Flight. At the end of this flight, your instructor will help you get all paperwork out of the way (see #3 below) and handle scheduling you for future lessons

We handle this. Once you sign up, we will personally guide you through every step of the paperwork process. In fact, we handle most of it digitally. There are various documents that the FAA requires, you’ll need a medical exam (see below), and we have standard rental agreements you’ll need to sign, but our staff will help you throughout the process. The most important piece of paper we have to have is proof of U.S. citizenship (a valid Passport is ideal, but a birth certificate will suffice). If you are not a U.S. citizen, see #6 below.

Yes, you need a medical exam. You don’t need it on day one, but you will need one before you fly solo in an airplane. Our staff will connect you with a local medical examiner once you decide to move forward with lessons. These exams are fairly routine and usually cost less than $200. If you think you may have a medical issue that would prevent you from receiving an FAA medical certificate, call us to discuss. We are not doctors, we’re just pilots that have seen a thing or two and we want to help you throughout this process.

The short answer is paperwork. The FAA loves paperwork, and paperwork is the biggest difference between 61 and 141. To be honest, there is little to no advantage to the average student pilot taking 141 training over 61 to earn their Private Pilot license. On paper, technically the Private Pilot license under Part 141 can be achieved in 35 hours versus 40 hours, but as we discussed above in #1, it is extremely rare for anyone to pass a checkride at the bare minimum number of training hours. There is also no difference between 61 and 141 training standards. 
 
141 does offer one distinct advantage, however. That is the ability to use government funds to pay for flight training. This is typically only seen at large collegiate programs like Embry Riddle, for example, but never at the retail flight schools like we are. Simply put, you cannot use any public funds to attain a Private Pilot license unless you go through a college aviation program (many restrictions apply). 
 
That said, if you are pursuing an advanced rating and are already a pilot, 141 does offer a distinct advantage which is the ability to transition to the airlines at 1,000 hours of flight time, versus 1,500 hours. If you choose to go down this route, called the R-ATP, all your training after Private Pilot must be done in the 141 environment.

No problem, assuming you are a legal U.S. resident. The TSA has a standard screening process which takes 10-15 business days and costs less than $200. Our instructors can help you navigate this process after your discovery flight. You do not need TSA approval to take a Discovery Flight. 

We highly encourage prospective students to extensively research other flight schools. In fact, here is a link to a search of flight schools in Norfolk and Manassas. Every flight school in the United States must train pilots to the same FAA standards. That said, we set ourselves apart in two distinct ways: customer service, and instructor quality. 
 
Our customer service is unparallelled, and we are proud to abide by the Golden Rule in everything we do–treat others as you would want to be treated. We go above and beyond the typical flight school in every aspect of our operation. You will always be treated as our most important customer, because when you are with us, you are the most important. 
 
Our instructors are selected, not just for their ability to fly an airplane, but for their ability to teach others to fly an airplane. We carefully select instructors who truly enjoy teaching and sharing their love of aviation with others.
Of course! We maintain our aircraft to FAA standards. In fact, we are one of the only local flight schools to also own our entire fleet of training aircraft. This allows us to demand the highest quality maintenance standards from our mechanics, and keep our costs low which we pass on to you in the form of lower rental rates. 
 
We are so confident in our maintenance program, we will give you half an hour of free ground instruction if we have to cancel a lesson due to an unforeseen maintenance problem.

Yes. We offer: instrument, commercial, and flight instructor ratings.

We ❤ aviation.

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