Small Family run airfields in USA

[sham420]

hello all
I am thinking about going to USA this year to do my PPL FAA. Been spending allot of hours on the net looking at flying schools. Does anybody know of a small airfield with perhaps 1 or 2 planes where I can train.I mush prefer small airfield then the big guns in Florida and California.
cheer
sham

[20driver]

There are lots of them.
KSMQ, Somerset NJ is one.

Understand wanting to avoid the mills but with the smaller operations you have a different set of problems.

Buyer beware, a don't pay in advance.

[Pilot DAR]

Don't limit your thinking to USA, think Canada.

Try Lake Country Airways, Orillia, Ontario. Wheels and float training: One owner, two instructors, three planes, one lake, two runways, zero air traffic control, zero waiting on the ground.....

[Katamarino]

I just did my IR and CPL with Cirrus Aviation in Sarasota. They were very good; superb instructors, and a decent fleet; 4 Cessnas and an Arrow. Couldn't recommend them enough, and Sarasota is a lovely place to stay!

I have also flown with a slightly bigger outfit in Camarillo, California. Channel Islands Aviation; a slightly larger, Cessna fleet. I flew with 2 of their instructors, both were superb.

Both of these schools are family owned and run!

[gg190]

Not exactly based at small airfield, but Sunstate Aviation, based in Kissimmee, FL are a superb organisation, they are family owned and run. I was there hour building last year and they could not have been better.

Flight Training and Accelerated Flight Training - Orlando, Kissimmee, Florida (http://www.sunstateaviation.com)

[n5296s]

Unless you are a US citizen or have a green card or other visa permitting you to work, you will run into the problem that small operations do not have the ability to get you the necessary visa (M-1 I think, there's a sticky thread that goes into all the details, which I forget).

Most small operations also don't care (though they WILL care about the TSA approval, which is completely separate). It's up to you whether you take the tiny but non-zero risk of the immigration people finding out, which is likely to result in a 10 year ban on entering the US.

n5296s

[Katamarino]

This is a good point; both schools I mentioned CAN accept foreign students.

[S-Works]

Not exactly based at small airfield, but Sunstate Aviation, based in Kissimmee, FL are a superb organisation, they are family owned and run. I was there hour building last year and they could not have been better.

Flight Training and Accelerated Flight Training - Orlando, Kissimmee, Florida

They were shocking when we went to fly with them last year. Utterly disorganised, did not have the aircraft available that was arranged months in advance and then wanted all of us to do a full BFR and LPC despite all being current FAA/JAA Commercial Pilots. We went elsewhere in the end. I think they have caught the Kissimee disease.

Give Tailwheels at Winterhaven a call, used them for years and they are next door to Jack Browns and share Instructors.

[BackPacker]

...zero air traffic control...

Although I admit that for GA flying ATC is generally more a nuisance than a significant help (unless IMC/IFR), it's a fact of life that you will need them at some point in time. In the UK more, and of a more varied type, than in the US/Canada.

So do make sure you get a lot of exposure to ATC, both en-route and terminal, even if your home base is a non-radio or CTAF field.

[alphaLaura]

Go to SunQuest Aviation in North Palm Beach County - www.sunquestaviation.com (http://www.sunquestaviation.com)

The airport is big but very quiet. This is probably the friendliest school I know with a great fleet of aircraft and brilliant instructors. The owners of the school are extremely proactive and both actively participate in GA flying. Every Saturday they serve loads of (free) pizza on the patio where you can just sit back, scoff pizza and watch the weather or the odd aircraft doing circuits.

Can't recommend it highly enough.

[sham420]

Thank you all for your advise, I will check out each and everyone.
cheers
Shammi