FAQ's
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How is insurance handled? Does your underwriter cover students/renters, or is there a deductible that students must cover? Otherwise, should students purchase renters insurance of their own?
Insurance, covers the renter and student to the extent of over 1 million dollars of coverage and that information is provided in the rental agreement. The deductible is not covered for the student or renter and for that reason renters insurance is very valuable. Renters insurance is usually less than 400 dollars for well over 3000 of coverage to cover deductibles. The deductible for our single engine private pilot trainer is $250 not in motion and $1000 in motion.
2. Is your school FAA part 141 approved?
GLAV is not currently 141 approved, we would like to be and we have many of the resources to. We have the ability to gather the other resources but the response from the local flight standards district office which is the local FAA authority has been less than supportive since they believe that we wouldn't be able to support the need for a 141 cert. We have many veterans who would like us to go 141 and that would be the majority of the student base needed.
141 does have its benefits of being able to receive federal funding but it also is usually more expensive as well for that same reason. The overhead involved to keep the governing agencys happy is significant.
As it pertains to flight training, 141 training is more rigid in its structure and may lead to flight training in less hours but in todays atmosphere we have found part 61 training (which is all training that isn't 141) to be much more expedient and efficient. Local banks that offer educational loans still provide funding to part 61 training but with different rates and terms than the federal government. Part 61 you are able to orient your flight lesson around the conditions of the day and where you are at in your training. The idea of 141 training is the FAA syllabus must be followed to the T with very little room for variation. So if you have a day that requires higher altitudes and that day the clouds are lower than you may need to cancel the flight under 141, whereas 61 you could practice takeoff and landings very comfortably.
3. Are weekends available?
Yes, Weekends and even evenings. We are here to serve you and we know that many people who the discretionary funds to play hard flying also work hard and may not be available during regular business hours.
4. What is the pass/fail ratio of your school?
We are a rather new school but all of our other instructors all have many years of experience and we utilize a proven 141 syllabus to insure a quality structured approach to earning your license. The syllabus is 141 so that you have the fast pace structure that ensures you move forward in your training and if you need more work in one area than another we adhere to that need. To actually answer your question, I am not exactly sure at this time but we have only had 2 students fail, one of them retook the checkride and passed. The other is saving money to be able to take the checkride again.
5. Could you please provide a price-breakdown of the different services required to obtain a PPL with your company (per-hour instructor cost, materials cost, etc.).
The Cost,
Cessna 152 - $95 an hour wet (meaning with fuel)
Flight Instruction - $45 an hour based on the hobbs that the aircraft records as flight time.
Ground Instruction - $35 an hour which is before and after every flight to do pre-flight brief and post flight discussion of the flight.
Materials - $225 a package that includes all the books required to complete your PPL.
Ground School - $400 which highly suggested for presenting the material that will asked of you on your written exam and on the oral exam as well as preparing you for the flight training. The Ground school is 35+ hours of instruction and is offered in a 14 week course one night a week starting in january and a 7 week course in May which will be two nights a week.
To breakdown your total cost of getting your license you can see there can be very many variables. Plan on at least 40 hours aircraft rental since that is the FAA minimum but the national average is 60. We typically tell students to plan on at least 7000 to complete your license. If you would like to see an itemized list of cost we are more than happy to meet with you and discuss one or provide via email.
Many of our competitors charge 45 to 55 dollars an hour for all of their instruction and we very competive aircraft rental rates. Our instructors including myself are focused on your success not our wallet so we work hard to squeeze the most educational value out of a flight and produce quality pilots. And you will find our scheduling to be very flexible via our online schedule and personal attention from your flight instructor.
6. Where is Great Lakes Air Ventures located?
GLAV is located at Fitch H. Beech, Charlotte Municipal Airport. The address for the airport is 1325 Island Hwy. Charlotte MI 48813.
7. What type of education is required to earn your private pilot, or commercial license?
There is no minimum education requirement. You are required to pass a written exam for each certificate which requires some critical thinking and is better suited to students who have at least passed their junior year of high school and have a good knowledge of physics.
If you any additional questions please let us know via email at Contact@GreatLakesAirVentures.com or (517) 980-1281 After we answer your question we will put it on this page as well if we believe it is a commonly asked question.
