Your opinion's on Utah flight schools please.

[NewPilotInUtah]

I am just starting to do my homework to decide which flight school I want to attend. I have no flight experience and will be starting from level 0 working towards my CPL and instructor licenses.

I liked the people at Air Center of Salt Lake but they are not on the approved schools list at the bank so I can't get financing for their school. These are the approved schools:

G&B Flight Academy
Leading Edge Aviation

It looks like Mountain America Credit Union is the only place that will finance flight school, besides my Visa. Are there other financing options that I have overlooked (rich relatives & winning the lotto are not options for me)? If not, what do you think of the schools I've mentioned so far?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

[Gimble]

I can't speak to flight schools in Utah.

However, I would like to warn you to be careful about financing flight training, particularly if the bank directly pays the loan to the flight school. It puts you in a difficult position in the future, and there's been more than one story of students who have financed through a bank, paid the flight school, and then the flight school went bankrupt: leaving the student with the loan payment and no certificate. One recent article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/business/05loan.html

If you haven't investigated getting flight training through a university, it would be worth looking in to. Student loans and grant programs may be available, you end up with a degree (a plus), and interest rates on student loans are typically pretty good.

If you must borrow money for flight training as a career, be prepared to be living on a shoestring budget for a very long time. And pick up a side career, because one furlough may leave you with big bills and no income to pay for it.

[AngelKiha31]

I was actually looking at schools in SLC a week or so ago. It all depends on what you want to get out of the school, and what you want to fly.

I would suggest looking into Salt Lake Community College (Salt Lake Community College -), or Utah State University's (Aviation Technology) professional pilot programs. They seem pretty well structured to go from 0 experience to CPL with Multiple Engine and CFI single engine. You also can optionally get the Multiple engine instructor as well. You also will end up with a bachelor's in aviation (ya, pretty vague, but I don't remember the exact title).

Costwise they seem fair. Unless you're a non-resident, then the tuition is simply ridiculous.

Personally, I was planning on enrolling to Utah State and taking distance learning classes during the week and driving to SLC every(other?) weekend and doing the flight lessons, but decided not due to the out-of-state tuition.

If you're going to avoid the colleges, then I know of 3 flight schools in the Salt Lake City area off the top of my head.

1 -- Fixed Wing -- Cornerstone Aviation (Welcome to Cornerstone Aviation Flight schools Odgen Salt Lake and Provo Prices)
2 -- Helicopter -- Upper Limit Aviation (Helicopter Flight School Instruction Helicopter Flight Lessons Training - Upper Limit Aviation)
3 -- Helicopter -- Mountain Ridge Helicopters (Mountain Ridge Helicopters Home)

2 saturdays ago I took an hour intro flight in helicopters from Upper Limit Aviation. I was highly impressed by them, and would recommend them for the helicopter school.