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Caveat emptor is a Latin phrase that translates to "let the buyer beware" and means that a person buys at their own risk.
This phrase teaches us why it is important for potential buyers to do their research and ask pointed questions of the seller, who in this case, are flight schools.
When preparing to make a big decision, such as an investment, it is wise to explore your options and gather enough information to enable you to make an informed decision on where to learn to fly at. You'd do this when buying a house or a car, deciding on which college to attend, where to go on your vacations, and even where to apply for a job, right?
Wait, Don't All Flight Schools Offer The Same Training?
While all flight schools provide pilot training for the same pilot licenses, there is nothing that is the same about how they train you. A Private Pilot certificate has the same privileges and limitations no matter where you earned from or whether it came through Part 61 or Part 141 requirements, but there are some significant difference between flight schools that you should consider before making your selection.
Training Programs
The training cirriculum and instructional techniques vary widely. Most flight schools that offer pilot training under Part 61 of the FAA regulations do not follow a standardized course syllabus or training program, mainly because it is not required by regulation. Instead, most schools leave it to the individual flight instructors to develop courses and individual lessons or even entire courses. This causes significant gaps in the student's knowledge, especially when the flight instructor is inexperienced or weak in their own knowlege or skill or receives little to no supervision or professional developmenet mentoring.
Infiniti Aviation uses professionally developed training courses and a structured syllabus for each pilot training course. This training method follows proven aeronautical training methods to teach you the foundational behaviors, knowledge, and skills and how to effectively apply these elements into how you fly the airplane and minimize your flight training costs. You will know exactly where you are in your current course, what material to study for to prepare for the next lesson, and precisely what the completion standards are for you to graduate.
Total Cost
Another major difference is the total cost of pilot training and related services that are provided by the school. High rental or instruction prices and lofty claims rarely indicate that a provider's services are "premium" or "premier".
Unfortunately, it is an all too common experience of students to be charged for extra and often unnecessary flying time or ground lessons. CFIs generally use this tactic in an effort to pad their logbooks with extra flying time and pad those meager paychecks. Sadly, too many CFIs severely underestimate their profound role as teachers and mentors, and their ability to positively influence their students while guiding them on their path to their goals and are merely trying to log hours to advance to an airline. As a result, they are probably not as invested in your training as they should be. Flight school managers generally encourage this practice as well as it brings them extra income and if customers are willingly paying more because they don't know any better, why not just continue with "business as usual"?
Avoid Membership Club Schemes
Membership Club pricing is a scheme that appears on the surface to lower your flight training costs. These tricks essentially trade monthly membership fees for lower advertised aircraft rental or flight instruction rates.
In reality, these fees actually increase the total cost of your training and be as much as 26% higher than the standard advertised aircraft rental and flight instruction rates when you factor in the annual membership costs on top of your training costs. That's right, you actually end up paying more to spend less. One school in the local area charges you an extra $2,395 for your first year's membership costs, which equals approximately 17 hours of flight time that you don't actually get to log, and you pay more for the same training.
Conclusion
Caveat emptor would emplore you to do your research before you choose your flight training partner and compare training programs and services and the total cost of your training. Our goal is to earn your selection as your flight training partner by giving you the best information so you can make the choice that is best for you and your future aviation career.
Remember, it's your future. Get it started right!