Sunday, May 1, 2011

Picking a School

There are a few small airports in middle TN, plus one international airport, so I have a few options for schools. I have toured a couple of Nashville flight schools and it appears like “Wings of Eagles” at John C. Tune airport is the option for me. They have more planes than most, so I should have less scheduling conflicts. Everything I have heard about flight training is that it is best to go a few times a week. This way I'm not spending time re-learning what I did the prior lesson.

Next, I sought out a recommendation on an instructor. A friend of ours, Sean Powell, who is also a pilot, recommended an instructor at the same school, yet at the Smyrna airport.

The airport is farther from home than I would have liked, but not too far from work. Since I'll most likely be taking classes after work, I think this is a viable option. They also have a good size fleet.

The other aspect that I would need to consider is the type of aircraft I would be training on. The fleet at John C. Tune are mostly Cessna 172s, where as the Smyrna airport has Diamond aircrafts. They are about the same size planes, but have a couple of main differences. First, the Diamond is a low wing design, and the Cessna is a high wing plane. Not too big of a problem, but does require some getting used to with visibility, glide time and ground effect. Also, the Cessna is controlled with a yoke, where the Diamond uses a stick. Since I'm new, I don't really have a preference.

Cessna Aircraft


Diamond Aircraft

After obtaining my license, I will most likely be renting an airplane rather than purchasing one. The Cessna is a more common plane in general aviation, so I want to make sure that I have some experience flying a Cessna plane. I plan to spend a few hours with an instructor at John C. Tune later in my training.

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