Skyline Aviation

Adding Students While Reducing Time To Earn a Certificate

A Customer-Centric Approach To Growing a Flight School

Skyline Aviation started as a small flight school with a few training airplanes, but in 2021, it began administering Angelo State University's aviation program, dramatically increasing training demands. It quickly added over 20 CFIs and almost 30 aircraft, ticking off more than 1,000 hours of flight time each month. However, to capitalize on its opportunity, Skyline wanted to offer more training time in a way that helped students move through its curriculum more efficiently and reduced costs for the students and school alike.

How Skyline Aviation Added Part 141 Training While Improving Student Outcomes

Skyline determined that adding more aircraft would not reduce costs for its students or the flight school and would require hiring and managing many more CFIs. Furthermore, the limitations of aircraft-only training — such as weather, time of day, instructor availability, and cost — would not support the school's objective of improving the efficiency of student learning.  

Skyline acquired three Redbird FMX and nine LD Advanced Aviation Training Devices (AATD) to provide high-fidelity flight training to its students at a fraction of the cost. In addition to integrating the flight simulators into its Part 141 and Part 61 curricula, the flight school offers its non-university students the option to purchase unlimited simulator time, which provides access to the devices every day from 6 AM to midnight for the duration of a student's training. 

About Skyline Aviation

Skyline Aviation operates at KSJT Mathis Field in San Angelo, TX. Over 100 nautical miles from Midland and Odessa, it offers flight training and lessons at a towered field and is the flight school of choice for many student pilots in San Angelo and from around Texas. It doesn't matter whether you are a certificated private pilot looking to log some hours and increase your rating or just getting your aviation career off the ground, Skyline Aviation has a number of customized plans designed to make it happen under FAA part 141 and part 61.

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"We use the simulators for every single certificate and rating, including the Private, where simulator training is very important. People get hung up on the number of hours students can log, but I want my students in the simulator for 20, 30, or 40 hours. The more time students spend in the simulator, the less time and money they spend in the airplane. As the CEO of the school, I can be on budget and help the students be on budget, too.”
Jonathan Shorey
CEO, Skyline Aviation

The Results

After acquiring the flight simulators, Skyline has found that costs for students and the flight school are lower than airplane-only training, and students using the AATDs pass their checkrides much more quickly.

43

Hours on Average for Students To Earn a Private Pilot Certificate

$150

Average Savings Per Hobbs Hour in a Redbird AATD Versus a DA-20