A professional pilot working for an aviation company such as an airline is not just another employee. The pilot is an ambassador of the company to the passengers and public representing their brand. Apart from this, the safety of the flight operations rests largely on the pilot. The responsibilities that come with this are manifold.
To qualify and equip you to face the challenges of getting employed as a pilot means it is not just about getting a license as a qualification. The school that you graduate from goes a long way in shaping you as a professional pilot.
It is important that one gets their professional pilot training in an established school, a school with the reputation of the highest standards and experience in training pilots.
Today finding a flight school is as easy as a click away on the internet with the web pages displaying thousands of schools globally. Choosing from this large selection of schools can be a daunting challenge. The authenticity of these schools, their reputation, standards and accountability is quite often in question since there is very little verifiability. This has also lead to unfortunate incidents where students have lost their money in newly mushrooming schools that are unable to sustain and go bankrupt taking with them all the funds that the students have invested as tuition fees.
It is very important that one considers the following features in choosing a flight school:
- Approvals
- Establishment and Reputation
- Training standards
- Transparency
- Faculty
- Facilities and Fleet
- Course Cost
- Hidden Costs
- Continued support
Approvals
The first and the foremost aspect of selecting a right school is to verify if the flight school has the appropriate controlling agency approvals. Avel Flight School is approved by:
Establishment and Reputation
It is quintessential to choose a flight school that is well established over the years and has built a reputation of quality and high training standards. Avel Flight School is a world renowned flight training organization with the highest standards in training. Our reputation precedes us. Having trained students across the globe, and helping them achieve their dreams of becoming a pilot, our students flying for various airlines in India and around the world in both first officer and command positions is a testament to our reputation and standards.
Training Standards
It is not enough if one graduates from a flight school with a pilot license. What matters most is, if you are able to compete in the process of interview and selection for a job as a pilot. This is only possible if the standard of training that one undergoes is high. It is important to choose a flight school that has the highest standards of training.
We are a Federal Aviation Administration approved school with a 141 recognition for the highest standards maintained by our school. This approval is only given to schools that maintain a pass percentage of higher than 80% in the first attempt of exam of their students. At Avel Flight School, this is higher than 96%. This is a clear testament to our high training standards.
Transparency
Many schools do not offer all the information up front. Many flight schools offer only partial information to prospective student enticing them with an apparently cheap course price. The students are usually not made aware of all the cost and factors involved in flight training. This has often lead to stressful situations for both students and parents with escalating training costs. Many school exploit students financially through the many hidden cost that they did not originally inform the student about.
At Avel, we believe in transparency and empowering the student with information to make the right decisions and prepare well for the physical, mental and monitory challenges one has to face to become a pilot.
Faculty
When choosing a flight school, it is important to make sure that the faculty of the flight school are friendly professionals who are well qualified, trained and experienced in imparting the highest standards of education to student pilots.
Avel’s instructors are highly trained FAA certified experts with excellent communication skills and a strong passion for teaching. Having trained students from various countries, they understand the complexities of teaching international students from different cultures and the challenges students face in their new learning environment. They will provide you with the undivided personal attention you need to successfully complete your training smoothly and be the best pilot that you can be.
Our instructors love to fly and work very hard at passing on their specialized knowledge to every one of their students. With our low student to instructor ratio, our instructors are able to focus and concentrate on each student individually, producing the highest quality of flight training essential for safety and success.
Facilities
As a student pilot, you will spend most of your time at the flight school that you are training with. It is essential that the facility that your school provides is a friendly and positive environment conducive for the challenging process of learning to become a pilot.
Avel Flight School combines all pilot training facilities within the corporate headquarters located at DuPage Airport, Illinois. We also have our Asian headquarters in Chennai, India, to facilitate students from this part of the world.
Both facilities includes fully air-conditioned classrooms, simulators, over-head projectors, office space, study areas, testing and briefing areas as well as the latest audio visual aids from the GLEIM program to give you the best platform of learning that a flight school can offer.
Fleet
The exposure to the type of aircraft, number of aircraft and standards of safety and maintenance are important factors in choosing a flight school.
At Avel, our aim is to give our students the best exposure to both aircraft and equipment during their professional pilot license course. This not only gives them the opportunity to fly different types of aircraft but also gives them a strong and broad based foundation in aircraft handling essential for airline flying. You will have opportunities to fly as soon as you complete the basic and necessary ground school instruction you need to take-off. While you continue ground school, you and your instructor will take to the skies as you progress through training.
We have a variable fleet that will expand with requirement. Every one of our instructors have a designated aircraft for themselves to fly all day.
At Avel Flight School:
- Only Aircraft that have a proven safety record in the training environment is used
- Students get trained on appropriate aircraft type as they progress through their course
Course Cost
Price is Not Everything!
Many potential students simply choose the cheapest flying school. But this is not necessarily a good idea. As with many things in life, often one gets what one pays for, and the cheapest school may not necessarily be the best. Less good instruction means that it will take longer for the student to get a pilot’s licence, so it will cost more at the end. It may be better to pay a higher hourly rate, but make sure of getting first-rate instruction.
Avel Flight School offers one of the most competitively priced courses, while still maintaining the highest standards in flight training.
Hidden Costs
Most flight schools, only furnish you with the basic flight costs for your training. There are many hidden costs that the school make money out of the students from. Some of these hidden costs are :
- FAA written exam fees
- FAA check ride fees
- Head Set
- Books and all required supplies.
At Avel Flight School, all these are transparent and specified in our training cost.
Reimbursement of refuelling costs
During your flight training, you will be required to land and refuel at other airports other than your home base where your flight school is located. The fuel costs will largely vary and is usually well more than what the flight school pays at its home base as they buy fuel in bulk quantities from the local supplier. Most flight schools will only reimburse the fuel costs that they pay their local supplier per gallon of fuel. In reality, you would have ended up paying a substantial amount of difference in refuelling at other airports. This additional costs in the difference in fuel price is a major hidden costs that flight schools do not inform you about.
At Avel Flight School, 100% of the refuelling costs are reimbursed to our students, there are no hidden costs.
Escalation of Fuel and Course Price
Course prices of most schools escalate with increase in fuel price. At our school once a student is enrolled with us and commences training, there will not be any rise in course prices even if fuel prices go up – Your Course Price is Frozen and Guaranteed to stay the same.
Unlimited Ground School
Flight schools usually offer a limited number of ground school hours for each part of the course. Once this limited time is exceeded, students are charged by the hour ranging from $40 to $75 per hour.
At Avel Flight School, we offer unlimited ground school. Our friendly instructors are happy to spend as much time as required to teach and clarify students with their demanding aviation studies. This means you are not paying for any additional ground school that you may require.
Continued support
It is important that the flight school you choose is able to offer you continued support.
Here at Avel, once our student, is always a part of our Avel Family. Our relationship with our students has always been endearing.
We believe in continued support to our students even after their flight training is completed. Some of the programs we offer for continued support to our students after graduation of their FAA CPL course are as follows:
DGCA Written Exam Preparation Course
Once a student graduates from CPL course in the USA, the DGCA written exam preparation course is done in order to pass the DGCA written exam in India. This is a requirement to convert the American FAA Commercial Pilot License to Indian Commercial Pilot License.
We offer this course at 50% fee for students who graduate from our school who joins not later than 6 months from the time of completion of Commercial Pilot License.
This course is offered by other ground schools at a cost ranging Rs.60,000.00 and Rs.100,000.00
RTR Radio License Conversion Course
RTR– Radio Telephony Restricted (Aeronautical) License is a requirement to convert to Indian DGCA CPL.
We offer this course at 50% fee for students who graduate from our school who joins not later than 6 months from the time of completion of Commercial Pilot License.
This course is offered by ground schools in India at a cost ranging Rs.15,000.00 and Rs.20,000.00.
Placement Assistance and Airline Bridge Course (An Interview Preparation Course)
The success of our students is what makes us a successful school. In the past, our students have been the ones filling majority of the Pilot positions offered by the aviation industry. To ensure continued successful placement of our students as First Officers, we offer continued support after graduation from our CPL program by offering you the Airline Bridge Course (An Interview Preparation Course).
Airline Bridge Course is offered by ground schools in India at a cost ranging Rs.30,000.00 and Rs.40,000.00
This course is offered at 50% fee for our students after graduation who joins not later than 6 months from the time of completion of Commercial Pilot License. During this course we prepare you to confidently and successfully face the Airline Written examination, Interview and Simulator Check.
Professional Pilot Resume and job application Cover Letter is also prepared during this course for our students making sure your placement in the Airlines is Successful!!
Choosing a flight school can make or break careers for an aspiring pilot. It is probably one of the most important decisions you will make in your life. With Avel Flight School, you have certainly made one of the best choices for your career!