Can't Just Go Flying??

I_Money

I_Money

Moderator
So my son is scheduled to go to daycare and with it being a lovely New England day I thought I would treat myself to some air time. I have my PPL, but haven't flown much in the last 10 years so I am not too familiar with how things are these days. I called the local flight school to arrange this - The receptionist quizzed me about being able to bring my passport, my certificate and then said she had to speak to the manager about this and will call me back.

What did I do wrong? Have things changed so much you can't call a flight school and going flying the same day?
 
I_Money said:
So my son is scheduled to go to daycare and with it being a lovely New England day I thought I would treat myself to some air time. I have my PPL, but haven't flown much in the last 10 years so I am not too familiar with how things are these days. I called the local flight school to arrange this - The receptionist quizzed me about being able to bring my passport, my certificate and then said she had to speak to the manager about this and will call me back.

What did I do wrong? Have things changed so much you can't call a flight school and going flying the same day?
Click to expand...

It's the accent.
 
I'd you haven't flown with us before you would have to fly with one our instructors to prove your a safe pilot
 
I am not current, don't have a BFR or medical - I wanted to go with an instructor. This would be like a re-intro flight, just going up for fun.
 
A flight school is used to training students, all students need to prove US citizenship with a birth certificate or passport.

If you were just going to get checked out to rent a plane it shouldn't be required, but I'm sure they are so conditioned that it's a normal part of their new renter/student onboarding process.
 
I_Money said:
I am not current, don't have a BFR or medical - I wanted to go with an instructor. This would be like a re-intro flight, just going up for fun.
Click to expand...

If you're getting dual for the first time with them, technically they need to check you citizenship then.
 
It's recurrency training so TSA approval isn't required... as I understand it, but they'll probably still want to document you. So Have never had to deal with it, but that's what the AOPA stuff says. http://www.aopa.org/tsa_rule/alienft.html

Or, you could just call another smaller FBO that doesn't know or care about TSA • :)
 
I_Money said:
So my son is scheduled to go to daycare and with it being a lovely New England day I thought I would treat myself to some air time. I have my PPL, but haven't flown much in the last 10 years so I am not too familiar with how things are these days. I called the local flight school to arrange this - The receptionist quizzed me about being able to bring my passport, my certificate and then said she had to speak to the manager about this and will call me back.

What did I do wrong? Have things changed so much you can't call a flight school and going flying the same day?
Click to expand...

At least you have a FBO. I live in the second largest city in WA and we don't even have an FBO where you can rent a plane anymore. Crazy.
 
I can't think of a time that I've ever been able to cold-call somewhere that rents aircraft and be able to go get checked out and cleared to fly their airplanes on the same day I called.
 
Don you should open one. Hacker15e - last time I got the urge to fly I just walked into an FBO and said - I would like to go flying. The kid behind the counter was a new CFI (I was his first dual given) said lets go! 2 minutes later he had the keys and we were off to the airplane.
 
you did nothing wrong, they are just doing what is required by them now. You should be able to show your passport and grab a CFI to go tool around for a few hours. Good luck.
 
moxiepilot said:
you did nothing wrong, they are just doing what is required by them now. You should be able to show your passport and grab a CFI to go tool around for a few hours. Good luck.
Click to expand...

He isn't required to do the TSA crap actually. Only required when training for a certificate or rating. They probably don't know any better.
 
Maurus said:
He isn't required to do the TSA crap actually. Only required when training for a certificate or rating. They probably don't know any better.
Click to expand...

Every commercial FBO I've flown out of the last few years has wanted a copy of a passport. There is a good chance the person behind the desk isn't a pilot, they were probably just told to get a copy of a passport from everyone to be safe.
 
It shouldn't have been a problem. I did that three months ago in northern Michigan while on vacation. I called a local university's aviation department, explained that I had my PPL and wanted to take my wife flying, and understood that I'd need an instructor check-out. "May I speak with an instructor if one is available?" I told him that I knew it would take a check-out flight in order to rent an aircraft, so rather than doing that, how about he assign an instructor and the three of us would go flying? I emailed a copy of my pilot certificate, medical certificate and drivers license, we booked the flight, and had a great time.

They may both say "Cutlass," but there's a big difference whether you're trying to rent the Oldsmobile or the Cessna.
 
I think the FBO is a little nutty.

I hadn't flown at the FBO in my hometown in 7 years. I called, got re-checked out, and flew two different groups of friends around in a 4 hour period. I've never had my passport looked at. Just a copy of the certs, a hand-shake with the instructor, and off we went.

There is definitely A LOT less FBOs where you can rent airplanes I've noticed as well. Sad...
 
DE727UPS said:
At least you have a FBO. I live in the second largest city in WA and we don't even have an FBO where you can rent a plane anymore. Crazy.
Click to expand...
Not even at Felts? Surely Deer Park or one of the tiny airports in the area has something?
 
Like Maurus said, the fact that you're not a citizen and just wanted to o dick around in an aircraft confused the hell out of whoever answered the phone. There are strict rules for non-citizens flying for TRAINING.
 
z987k said:
Not even at Felts? Surely Deer Park or one of the tiny airports in the area has something?
Click to expand...

Felts only has Moody Bible. Felts Field aviation was the only flight school and they closed a couple of years ago. Spokane Airways just closed. Not sure if UND is still doing anything out there. Heard there is a new school starting up at international but they don't have a website up yet. Nothing at Deer Park. There is a little going on at KCOE but that's quite a ways away.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top