Off to Flight School

The weather has been pretty crappy lately in Southern California. I saw it as a good opportunity to visit the schools without worrying about getting seduced into signing up by the clear blue sky. One never goes shopping in the supermarket when hungry. Same rule applies here. I live close to Santa Monica Airport ("SMO") so I naturally chose it as my home airport. There are four schools located in SMO and they are American Flyers, Proteus Air Services, Justice Aviation and Skyward Aviation. I visited American Flyers and Proteus on the same day that Barney's had its warehouse sale at one of the airport hangars. American Flyers is fancy. It is a national brand and has its own campus building, fleet of Cessna 172 planes, uniformed staff, etc. It is a 141 school which essentially means that the FAA has blessed its curriculum and allows it to graduate students with a minimum of 35 flight hours. Learning how to fly is not cheap. One should allocate approximately 10-13K for the effort. However, for approximately 11K, American Flyers' program only budgets in 35 hours worth of flight time. I like to be conservative and follow the national average of 60 - 70 hours. If you were to compare apples to apples and just look at the rates of the aircraft rentals and instruction cost, they run about 20- 25% above average. Other downsides include the requirement to take a 3 day workshop (I think I can self-study using Sporty's or Kings School), unpersonalized instruction (I like to work with only 1-2 instructors), inflexible time blocs (I'm self-employed so I like to create my own schedule), requirement to take flight simulation class (I don't think I need this 'cause I'm not flying commercial planes). My goal is to get in as much flight time within a 11K budget. This is obviously not a good fit.

My next stop was Proteus Air Services. The school is basically a hut manned by a 19 year old boy whose name card lists him as the CEO. Confidence inspiring indeed. However, after a few minutes of discussion, I realized that this boy was one cool geek. He took me on a tour of the planes and answered every one of my tedious questions. He has flown with an instructor since he was 14 but couldn't get his license until he was 17 years old as mandated by the FAA. I feel like a grandma right now. Proteus has three instructors on staff and prides itself in providing personalized instruction according to your schedule. Its planes are from the Piper Cherokee family which are low-wing. A Cessna has a high-wing which means that I can easily see below me. This might affect the way I land I presume. Eitherways I really don't think it'll make a big difference at this stage of my flight career which is basically non-existent.