Research and Ground School

After my first flight, I started researching flight schools in the Seattle area to find out which would let me get my license without breaking my budget. I also had a few other criteria I wanted to get out of flight school:

1) I wanted to fly out of Boeing Field, so that I could get used to flying in a high traffic area from the start, so that I’d never be surprised or put out of my element by flying to or through a large city.

2) I wanted an instructor who would be patient, well spoken and not arrogant – in other words, a good teacher. I figured I’d be stressed enough at learning to fly without having to deal with someone’s attitude problems or personality conflicts, and I’d read quite a few horror stories of students burning out because they’d found an impatient CFI with a grating personality.

There are quite a few flight schools in the Seattle, but I decided to go with Alternate Air because they’re located on Boeing Field, their name kept coming up with positive reviews and their rates are relatively low. Alternate Air is a flight club rather than a school, but there are a number of flight instructors who are members of the club. For $20 a month and $97 an hour, you can rent a Cessna 172 and pay the instructor you choose whatever hourly fee they ask for.

I did a bit of calling around to some of the different instructors to find one who would match the sort of CFI I was looking for. Most of the instructors had too many students to take on another, but I received a recommendation to contact Ed Bryce, another Alternate Air instructor and an ex-Microsoftee. I sent Ed an email, and decided to do a little research on any reviews he had online while I waited for a response. I found this link, which gave me an idea that I was on the right track.

His profile described him as exactly the sort of instructor I was looking for, and after a few phone calls and emails, I decided I wanted to learn from him. There was one sentence on his profile that really sold me, “I am retired and do flight instructing because I like to fly and I like to teach.” He’s not teaching because he has to in order to become a commercial pilot (as is the case with many instructors) – he’s teaching because it’s how he wants to spend his retirement. Perfect.

Ed told me that he, too, had too many students to take on another, but was willing to take me on in August when one of his students would most likely take their flight exam. That timing worked for me, since I was recently back from Alaska and still needed to restore my savings. With that goal in mind, I signed up for ground school at Aviation Training Center at Ed’s recommendation. The school would mean two full weekends, and would finish at the end of June – which should have me ready to start flying after passing my FAA Written Exam.

Ground school was not much more than you’d expect from four 10-hour days in a windowless classroom, while perfect cloudless summer days went on outside. Okay, that sounds pretty negative – the classes were enjoyable because I was learning information that I really want to learn. In retrospect, though, I’ve decided that if I ever pursue my IFR (instrument) rating, I’ll do the weekend ground school classes in the winter.

I took my written exam just over a week after completing ground school and passed with a score of 90%. I called Ed soon after passing the test, and scheduled my first flight with him for September 2.