Choosing a flight school

Part 61 or Part 141?

Both names come from the FAA's rulebook, and both lead to exactly the same pilot certificate. (The FAA says certificate; most people say licence, and so do we.)

Part 61 sets out what every pilot has to learn. Independent instructors, flying clubs and schools can all teach under it, and lessons fit around your week. A Part 141 school holds an FAA certificate of its own and teaches to a syllabus the FAA has approved, with stage checks along the way.

That five-hour gap looks bigger on paper than it is. Most students take 50 to 70 hours whichever way they train, because what really sets the pace is how often you fly. A Part 141 school does have to keep its standards up: to hold its certificate, at least 80 per cent of its students must pass their FAA tests first time. The FAA has an online finder for Part 141 schools, but no list you can download.

School, club or college?

What to check before you sign up

The instructors

Ask whether you'll keep the same instructor from your first lesson to your flight test, how many students each one has, and how long they tend to stay. Plenty of instructors are building hours for an airline job, so some turnover is normal. What you want to know is how the school handles a handover when it happens.

The aircraft

Ask how many aircraft there are for how many students, how far ahead you have to book, and what happens when one is in for maintenance. An aircraft used for paid instruction has to be inspected every 100 hours of flying as well as once a year, so a busy trainer spends real time in the hangar.

Billing, and paying up front

Get the hourly prices in writing and ask what they cover: fuel, ground time with your instructor, the briefing before and after each flight. Ask which meter sets the bill, too. The Hobbs meter runs like a clock while the engine is on; the tach counts engine turns and, as one club explains, usually reads 10 to 25 per cent less for the same flight.

The training plan

Ask to see the syllabus: the lesson-by-lesson plan from first flight to flight test. A Part 141 school must have one. AOPA treats a school that doesn't follow a syllabus, or the FAA's testing standards, as a warning sign.

The wait for a checkride

Training ends with the checkride: questions on the ground, then a flight with an examiner. Most examiners are experienced pilots the FAA appoints to test on its behalf, and they set their own fees. One university tells its students to budget $800 to $1,500.

In 2024 the waits were often counted in months. There are more examiners now: 1,122 were active at the end of September 2025, up from 1,035 a year earlier, and between them they gave 153,967 tests that year. The FAA plans to publish wait times by region in November 2026. Ask how long the school's recent students waited, and whether it can test its own students.

Pilot examiners by state All FAA examiners near an airport

Location and weather

Low cloud, strong wind and winter storms all cancel lessons, so ask how many were lost last winter. You'll also need at least three takeoffs and landings at an airport with a control tower, so make sure one is within reach. Every public airport's page on eFlight shows its weather, its notices and whether it has a tower.

Housing, for full-time courses

Moving away for a full-time course adds rent, food and getting around. One university lists $5,341 a semester for a room and meals on campus in 2026–27.

Paying for it

Federal student aid generally goes to accredited schools taking part in the federal aid programmes, which usually means a college degree course; many stand-alone flight schools don't qualify, and private loans usually lack the repayment protections of federal ones. A bill in Congress, the WINGS Act, would let more flight costs count towards federal aid, but it hasn't passed. Veterans can use the GI Bill at an approved school once they hold a private licence.

What the schools fly

Across the 9,158 aircraft registered to the schools, clubs and college programmes on our list, these are the most common types. Half of them were built in 1981 or earlier.

Comparing fleets and safety records

Our state pages compare every training organisation we've found on the FAA register: how many aircraft it has, what it mostly flies, how old the fleet is, and every accident or incident the NTSB recorded with those aircraft in the last ten years. Towns with two or more schools have a page of their own, like Mesa, Arizona.

A few things to keep in mind when you read them:

• We count only the aircraft registered to the school today, wherever they were flying and whoever was at the controls, and including any accident from before the school owned them.
• Aircraft a school leases from their owners are registered to those owners, so they don't show up.
• A school that flies more will have more accidents, and nobody publishes how many hours each school flies. Treat it as a record to read, not a score.
• We find schools by the names they register under. A school whose name doesn't say what it does, or that leases every aircraft it flies, isn't on the list yet.

An older fleet isn't less safe in itself. Ask about maintenance, and read what actually happened in each accident.

Questions to ask on a visit

1. Will I train under Part 61 or Part 141, and can I see the syllabus?
2. Who would my instructor be, how many students do they have, and how long have they been here?
3. How many aircraft and students do you have, how far ahead can I book, and which aircraft would I fly?
4. How exactly do you bill, and what does a cancellation cost me?
5. Do I have to prepay? What happens to my money if I stop, or if you close?
6. How long did your recent students wait for a checkride, and what did the examiner charge?
7. What insurance does the school carry, and do I need my own?
8. Can I talk to a few current students and recent graduates?

Before you sign

• Your schedule, budget and the local weather allow two or three lessons a week.
• You've met your instructor, seen the syllabus and looked up the aircraft on eFlight.
• You have the prices and the billing rules in writing, and you've read the refund terms.
• You'll pay as you go, or prepay only a small amount.
• You know how long the checkride wait is and what the examiner charges.
• You've read the school's safety record, not just counted it.