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[About Us page]

WHY CLASSIC AIR?

OPTIMIZED

Classic Air Aviation is a “mid-sized” flight school and fixed base operator (FBO). We are small enough to know all our students and customers by their first names, which enables us to provide a friendly, personal experience to each of them. Unlike some of the big schools, we treat each student as an individual and tailor their training to meet their specific needs. On the other hand, we are big enough to offer a full range of certification and rating courses. We have spacious, professional-grade training rooms, a fully equipped maintenance facility, and a large enough fleet of aircraft to keep our students advancing through their programs.

AFFORDABLE

Classic Air has a fully staffed, in-house maintenance department that handles all the tasks required to keep our fleet in the air. We have our own fueling facility and trucks to provide our customers with lower-cost aircraft rental options. With our proven training method and syllabus, we keep our students close to the FAA minimum required hours while training in one of the busiest airspaces in the United States. We offer block-rate discounts to students who fly regularly and open a flight account, as well as discounts to active and retired military members. We give our customers flexible payment options: cash, check, or card, and we can assist them in signing up for financing. Best of all, we don’t require our students to pay for programs up front; they can pay for their individual lessons as they go.

COMPREHENSIVE

Classic Air offers self-paced and fast-track programs for private pilot, instrument, commercial pilot, and certified flight instructor (CFI) ratings. Unlike most large schools, we also offer add-ons such as tailwheel, high-performance, and complex aircraft endorsements. We take pride in training our students the traditional “old school” way, teaching skills such as navigation utilizing charts and maps, keeping navigation logs, E6B, and plotter alongside new technology like GPS, moving maps, and glass-cockpit transition. We provide military aviation prep courses for those interested in joining the armed forces as a pilot, courses for family members, solo courses, ground-school classes, and simulator training. Our FBO and maintenance services are equally comprehensive.

FAA APPROVED

We are an FAA-approved part 141 private pilot school and are working to release our instrument and commercial programs in 2018. FAA approval of a school helps students gain eligibility for financial aid and other financial resources. For ex-military students, this can include the GI Bill. Moreover, an

FAA-approved curriculum enables students to take their check rides and achieve ratings and licenses in an organized, syllabus-based way. For this reason, the FAA requires fewer flying hours of part 141 students. For students who enroll in our 61 program, the same FAA-approved syllabus is used to ensure that all students have the same high level of training, but the part 61 regulations allow instructors more flexibility in applying the syllabus, especially in the types of aircraft that can be used.

WHO WE ARE

SCHOOL CULTURE AT CAA

We know that every new student walks through our door with their own aviation aspirations, background, and scheduling availability. Some of our students attend school or work full-time jobs and fly on their days off, while others fly in from other states in order to achieve their certifications quickly in our perfect Arizona flying weather. Likewise, a portion of our students just want to achieve their private pilot license to enjoy local fly-ins or take their families on vacation; others are striving to make aviation their career, whether that be flying a charter jet for a part 135 company or serving as a captain for a legacy airline.

One of the things we love most about aviation and convey to our customers is the general aviation community, which is traditional, small and tight-knit. Classic Air even keeps up the old tradition of cutting off a student’s shirt-tail after they solo for the first time, a ritual signifying that they have metaphorically left the nest. (This happens at as little as 10-15 hours of flight time.) Our instructors include retired college professors, retired military officers, airline pilots, and charter and cargo pilots, plus some new flight instructors who are building time to go to into the airlines or other areas of aviation. So we’re tight-knit, but diverse. We hope you’ll join us.