Decisions, decisions

A detailed search for flight training centres in southern Ontario (thanks COPA!) reveals 5 flight schools (at the introductory level) in the city of Ottawa, with another two in nearby small towns (one is a 45 minute drive from where I live, the other 30 minutes). This gives me 7 credible choices, since three of the in-city choices are more than 45 minutes away. So all 7 are candidates.

A quick Internet search reveals that they all basically charge the same unit amount. All websites estimate the cost of getting a ticket based on Transport Canada minimums, some live in the real world and state what the realistic cost will be (this was my first filter on which school I would choose). Some are club-based, some not, but the club membership fees are small so this is not a factor.

However, 2 of the schools are at the GA airport which is a 10-minute drive from home. Even better, it is only a 5-minute diversion from my driving route to/from work (I am a 12 minute drive from work nyaa nyaa nyaa). These are my primary candidates, and are the ones I visited last Friday.

What to ask? How to decide? With questions in hand, I visited the two schools.

At the first school (FS#1) I was greeted by the mechanic, who came out of the maintenance hanger. Youngish, but gave a strong impression that he cared about his job and customer service. Carried a big wrench with him as he showed me the office, explained that the owner had gone out for a sandwich, and took me to the rack of information about the RPP, PPL, etc. There were for-sale ads on the bulletin board, and a whiteboard on the wall in the office had each aircraft's total time and the next scheduled maintenance time. A couple came in with a young boy ("time to go watch the airplanes") and asked if they could use the washroom - no problem. The owner came back and I chatted with him for nearly half an hour, getting answers to all my questions. The training aircraft are a 1972 C172, a 1972 C150, and another C150 that is coming up for a major overhaul so they are probably going to replace with a C172. They had four part-time instructors, and a dozen students for the two aircraft. Overall impression: Very customer oriented, comfortable, laid-back yet professional.

The second school (FS#2) is a new one. They have two full-time instructors, one of which greeted me in the office. He was wearing a name badge and a tie. They have three training aircraft, two new Diamond Eclipse DA-20, and they still had the "new" smell. And one C150. They have brochures for the aircraft, well-printed handouts, and a computerized, web-enabled reservation system. For the two trainers they had 30 active students. Overall impression: This is a crisply-run organization that wants my business.

I booked a familiarization flight with FS#2, for Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning I arrive 15 minutes before my 10AM booking. At 9:55 the other instructor (who is the CFI) arrive from the previous lession. My fam-flight starts 10 minutes late. After introductions we head out to the aircraft and do the pre-flight inspection, then climb in, do the checklists, start up, and head out to the run-up pad. More checklists, with the instructor reaching across in front of me and flipping switches and setting the dials. So I back-tracked down the runway like a drunken sailor, generally to the left of the centre-line, but arriving at the the western end without any great excitement. We're moving so slow the rudder is not very effective, I didn't use differential braking, and the nosewheel is free-wheeling.

The instructor performed the take-off - this puppy lept into the air!!! We cleared the runway, climbed and turned to our heading, levelled off, and headed for the practice area (about a 3 minute flight). I took the stick and flew the rest of the fam-flight. We flew the usual - straight&level flight, coordinated turns (shallow and medium), holding a heading, holding altitute, some throttle work, flying the circuit, base and final and lining up on the centre line for the landing. He took control at about 200' and greased it. Total engine time was a bit more than 30 minutes.

One MAJOR irritation - when I had control this instructor always had his feet on the rudder pedals. His hands hovered near the stick at first, but then relaxed when I was flying straight and level rather than porpoising all over the sky. He got the clue that I had an idea about what I was doing when I started adjusting the trim (electric elevator trim - gotta love it!) so we could fly level hands-free - then there were no more hands hovering near the stick. But it felt like I had to punch the pedal through the floor to get any rudder movement (perhaps this was a factor in why my taxiing was so poor?).

What's next?

• I'm going to book a fam-flight with FS#1. When it comes down to it, what really matters is safety and quality of instruction, not the shiny new airplanes (thought that's really nice too!). So I need to look past the shine, and measure the substance.
• I may book a second fam-flight with FS#2, but with the *other* instructor. I also need to talk to the owner of FS#2 about a few more questions.
• If I take my instruction on the Eclipse, I'll have to budget for eventually getting type-certified on the C150 and C172. Not being made of money, I'll be renting.... and the C150 and C172 are the commonly available types.
• There is another school about 20 minutes north of here, I *may* further investigate them.