How to choose your flight school: big school versus small school

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Ingo

If you are looking for a flight school you should carefully research and choose the school you want to do your flight training with. This is how we think about big and small flight schools.

Big flight school:
The bigger the school is the more impersonal it gets. It is likely you are just one of many students that go to that school every day. How can a big flight school know all their students needs? Are there always aircrafts available for every student? It can easily happen that a student that just began his training will be pushed back because another student needs that same aircraft to get a check ride done.

Small flight school:
A small school has the advantage of better being able to stay in touch with the student. The instructor can easily react to any changes or personal needs of the student, because there are fewer administrative steps to take and less other students to take care of.

Conclusion:
We think it is important to get a personal training that fits your needs and a flight school that is able to react to the students requirements. This is usually easier with smaller flight schools.

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How to choose your flight school: busy airport versus small airport

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Ingo

If you are looking for a flight school you should carefully research and choose the school you want to do your flight training with. This is how we think about flight schools located at busy versus small airports.

Big and busy airport:
Flight training at big and busy airports is usually more expensive than at small airports. Usually busy airports have a control tower that manages the traffic at the airport. You cannot move your aircraft, leave or enter the airspace without getting permission from the tower. This means that you have to wait! Either you have to wait for other aircrafts to finish their operation, or if the tower is busy managing other traffic you are low on their priority list and have to wait.

Since you usually get charged by the minutes you fly the aircraft you end up paying money for sitting on the ramp or a taxiway with the engine running while doing nothing but wait.

Another factor is the weather. Especially if you fly a helicopter you might be able to do flight training even though the weather isn’t great. If it is good to fly, but not good enough, some airspace restrictions might apply. In that case only a limited amount of aircrafts is allowed to fly at the same time. You might end up not flying at all.

Small airport:
At a small airport you just don’t have enough traffic to slow down aircraft operations, and if it gets busier it usually gets resolved very quickly and it slows down. Usually you should be able to just get into your training aircraft and take off. This saves you time and money to focus on the important parts of your flight training.

Some people say that your radio communication skills are not as good as if they would if you train at a busy airport. Make sure there are busy airspaces in the area that you can fly to to easily learn these skills. This way you don’t have to multitask from the beginning of your training.

Conclusion:
It is likely that at busy airports you spend a lot of money just waiting to take off or enter an airspace. Small airports are usually quieter on the radio, making it necessary to fly to a different airport to experience a busy airport. The upside is, you can time your training to train your radio skills.

Tip:
While you study your books, open the liveatc.net webpage and listen to a busy airspace nearby to get used to listen to a tower. Choose an airport you can fly to, to get used to locations, taxiways and runways mentioned in the radio calls. It will help you getting used to it.

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How to choose your flight school: part 141 versus part 61 flight school

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Ingo

When you are looking for a flight school you should carefully research and choose the school that best fits your flight training needs and goals. There are a lot of flight schools out there: big schools, small schools, some offer 141 flight training, others don’t have that kind of certificate. Some are at busy or big airports, others are located at smaller airports.

Everything has it’s pros and cons, and this is how we think about it.

Part 141 versus part 61 flight training:Part 141 - Part 61 flight school

Every flight instructor can do flight training under part 61. No certification is required for that. A part 61 flight school does not need to meet any requirements.

The flight training:
A part 141 flight school needs to have a syllabus outlining your flight training with several stages that are concluded by stage checks. This syllabus has been checked and signed off by the FAA to make sure it meets the standards required for the appropriate certificate.

A part 61 flight school doesn’t need that. They sometimes have one, but they don’t have to stick to it making your training less coordinated.

The ground training:
We think your ground classes are very important, because you learn what is important to be a safe pilot.

A part 141 school has to have an approved syllabus for the ground training as well. It usually consists of 2 stages, like the flight training. Usually you are not allowed to continue your flight training into stage 2 unless you finished your stage 1 ground training. These guidelines make sure you learn the topics required for each stage through your training.

Again, a part 61 school doesn’t need to have these guidelines or doesn’t need to follow a specific syllabus. This makes it possible for the flightschool to schedule a checkride because they think you can fly an aircraft while you are behind with the important ground training.

Conclusion:
A part 141 school has to apply for this status with the FAA. This is a complex application and a process that even includes certain needs for the classrooms, flight instructors, ground and flight training. Everything needs to be approved by the FAA to make sure your flight training will meet the high standards required to be a safe pilot.

A part 141 school is always able to enroll you in a part 61 course to tailor the training to your specific needs. This would be the case if you already have some experience.

Talk to your flight school in advance and make sure they understand your particular situation. This helps you to get the best flight training you deserve.

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Willamette Valley Event Showcase at the Salem Conference Center

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Ingo

All preparations are done. Tomorrow we will be at the Willamette Valley Event Showcase in Salem.

It was a work to get everything going for this event. We wanted to bring in our beautiful helicopter to show it to Willamette Valleys Event planners in Salem. We had to find an appropriate landing spot close to the Conference Center. A big thank you goes to the Bravo! Crew who helped us a lot in talking to the landowners and make it possible.

After having the permission of the landowner we had to talk to the Salem Police, the Fire Department, the City and the Salem Airport to make sure everybody is fine with us landing in the middle of the town.

We are looking forward to the show and you are certainly invited to stop by and say hello.

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Konect Aviation Wine Tasting Afternoon

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Ingo

Last week on Labor Day we decided to appreciate the help of our friends and colleagues by visiting our good friends and customers Vista Hills Vineyard and Winery and Stoller Vineyards for an afternoon of winetasting and snacks.

We all had worked hard and we certainly appreciate the help of our friends and colleagues. A 7-seater van and a designated driver made it possible for all of us to enjoy the afternoon tasting wine, chatting and chilling in the shade of two wonderful vineyards in the dundee hills.

First we visited Vista Hills Vineyard and Winery. Ryan – the Tasting Room Manager – welcomed us. After chatting for a little while he started serving us a flight of 6 wines. We had 2 white wines and 4 reds. We sat outside on the porch enjoying the great view in the shade of the trees surrounding the Treehouse. With the wines we enjoyed a tasty cheeseplate.

After about 2 hours we bought some bottles of our favourite wines and continued on to the next vineyard.

Arriving at Stoller Vineyards we were warmly welcomed as always. Sitting in the deckchairs in the shade, sipping on the Stoller Wines we enjoyed the afternoon. We tasted 5 wines and relaxed and chatted.

To complete our afternoon of non-flying helicopters and enjoying wines we headed to McMinnville Downtown to the Hotel Oregon and climbed the stairs up to the famous Rooftop Bar to get some dinner.

Usually we are unable to enjoy the wines at the wineries since we are working with the helicopter. So we really had fun just hanging out there sipping wine and chatting with our friends.

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Hot August Flights in Salem

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Ingo

Yesterday we were at the Hot August Flights in Salem. A few month back we were asked to provide helicopter rides at this event and we said yes.

The night before I packed all the equipment we needed in the car. This included our tent, table, signs and other things like the credit card equipment. I was not planning on flying our Robinson R44 down to Salem. I left this task up to Sandy and Alan who wanted to help out loading and unloading passengers.

Part of the ground crew and I arrived at 7:30am at the airport and started to set up our booth space. Once we were done we had a little time left over before the helicopter arrived. So we decided to get some breakfast which was provided by the Flight Deck Restaurant. While we had our pancakes, sausages, ham and eggs, we saw a couple friends arriving in their airplanes.

Once the helicopter arrived we headed over to our booth, cleaned the helicopter and set everything up for the first customers.

The day started a little slow, so we walked over during a few quiet minutes and checked out the awesome cars, airplanes and helicopters that were on display on the field. Some were really nice vintage cars and they looked like they just came out of the showroom.

The overcast sky cleared up and customers lined up. At the end it turned out to be a pretty busy day.

Thank you Salem for having us. We had a great time and we’re looking forward to coming back!

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Skyraider Release Event at Vista Hills Vineyard and Winery

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Ingo

Vista Hills Vineyard and Winery called us again this year to join their celebration of the release of their top product the Skyraider Pinot Noir. They were offering a flight of wine and helicopter tour special. We were thrilled to be invited to provide the Sky-part of this event: the helicopter tours.

We landed with our helicopter just after the ground crew arrived at the premises. Our landing spot was just down the road from the tasting room at the owners house, where they had set up a shady spot on their patio with lemonade for the crew, pilot and customers.

We all enjoyed a great afternoon with great people, amazing views of the vineyard and the valley and of course: helicopter rides. A couple customers were participants in the mornings Wine Country Half-Marathon.

At the end of the day we were invited to taste their wines. I had to say no since I had to fly the helicopter back home, but I enjoyed talking to John, the owner, who was pouring the skyraider wine and sharing stories of his flying experiences.

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The 2011 Original Sandfest

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Holly

After weeks of preparation Pilot and crew have packed the final items and supplies for an afternoon departure to the Sandfest in North Bend, Oregon, a small Oregon Coastal town with a population of approximately 10000.  Ingo, Alan, and DJ will be flying another event at Stoller in the afternoon before they head to North Bend, so Jesse and I are left to load up the dog, Snoopy, and make the 4 hour drive.

Due to Ingo’s tech savvy nature, we are deftly guided by a talking GPS system and we make the trip without mishap.  Although we had hoped to beat him there and have the ‘camp’ set up before his arrival with the helicopter, we find that we narrowly beat them there with only enough time to find wind indicator supplies (balloons & and an American Flag) in town.

It turns out the helicopters arrival was much anticipated, once Ingo and crew touched ground they hardly had the rotors stopped when someone was asking for a ride.  Virgil and Shannon were hooked after one ride and went up two more times over the course of the weekend.  Virgil even hooked us up with rides in their ATV around the dunes.  It was great!

After we got them in the air it was time to set up camp.  We needed to stay near the helicopter at night so we pitched our tents around the perimeter of the landing area which was a couple hundred feet down the hill from the Sandfest.  We were fairly well protected from wind but the gusts were so bad Friday that we had to fix the tent poles several times.  The wind ended up shutting us down Friday, but fortunately mellowed out the rest of the weekend.

At nights we parked the car right next to the helicopter so that people would see there was something in the middle of the lot.  The black helicopter blends in a little too well when there isn’t much light in the area and we wanted to be sure, in case someone rode their ATV’s through the lot, they would notice.  In the end, I think it was Snoopy that kept them at bay :)

All in all a good weekend.  It was windier than we would have liked, but that’s the Oregon Coast for you.  We flew, met some great people, DJ and Jesse attended their first bon fire at the Sandfest camp, and we all had some fun; it doesn’t get much better than that.

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Our New Office

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Ingo

Welcome to our first entry in our new blog.

It took almost half a year to finish the new hangar at the McMinnville airport. After the last things were crossed off the todo list and the city checked the building we were allowed to move in.

After a year of having the computers set up in the living room it feels nice to have our own office space right at the airport. It also enables us to work even closer together with Cirrus Aviation.  We even have a new classroom.  If you would like to, you are more than welcome to stop by, say hello and get a tour.

The Cirrus Aviation FBO and Konect Aviation always welcome you.

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