Thrust Flight (Formerly US Sport Aircraft KADS) – CFI Academy Review
This is my review of the CFI academy that I attended March 1 – March 15th.
www.thrustflight.com
Rating:
Price: 10/10
Quality of Instruction: 10/10
Dining options: 5/10
Lodging: 7/10
For a base price of $3885 – I only went over by about 300$ in additional costs for instruction. This was mostly due to their mock oral that they provide for an additional charge. As well as 2.5 additional hours of 1-on-1 ground instruction.
I had a 55$ per night hotel plus taxes and fees.
This is a higher income area and the average lunch/dinner price outside of fast food or cooking yourself is 15-18$+
I spent about 200$ in just general materials (marker, whiteboard, papers, charts, notebooks, pens)
I spent around 300$ for required non-owned renters’ insurance. Since I was participating in the flight portion.
The classroom training was fun and stimulating and the instructor Bob Choate was a dream instructor to have. Any questions you had outside of class he answered quickly, and he would tremendously help if there was something that you didn’t understand. Bob has the heart do what he does and specializes in flight instructor training only. Topics you were taught at the private or even commercial level are enhanced and taught in a very easy to understand and able to reteach to someone else with ease. (You will love the bicycle wheel).
If your electronic device goes off, you are required to bring treats for the class the next day.
If you do not laugh at the instructor’s jokes you will be removed from his will.
The classroom is divided into mostly four-hour days besides the first two days being 8 hours for the FOI portions and written test prep. You are provided about 90 hours of student study time in your room while the class doesn’t meet in the afternoons and on the weekend. My class really did not take advantage of the student study time, nor really wanted to meet up and study so I had a lot of personal self-study. (Get a buddy and seriously study to reduce your time here, ask for help, or pay for 1-on1 instruction)
For the flying portion you pay for 10 hours of flight instruction, anything in excess is an additional charge.
You have to call the shots and take charge when you are doing your CFI training and take the role of the CFI and as PIC. If you continue to act like a student from the right seat, it may increase your training time.
I took a mock oral as an additional fee and had a blast with it. Although I was more than nervous for it, it really showed me how well prepared I was to where I thought I was.
Scheduling was the only issue I ran into while at thrust flight. I did not fly for the first time until the 18th day (3 days after the academy ended, mostly due to weather). You have VIP privileges for your first 5 bookings after that you are off to fend for yourself on flight schedule pro with the rest of their renters. This put my time out here to about six weeks with additional weather and aircraft unavailability.
This program is very difficult to get in and out of in the 15-day timeframe unless you are very well prepared and use your time very wisely. (All written tests done, FOI knowledge, technical subject areas down cold). Becoming a CFI is about the teaching aspect which makes certain topics a little more difficult and forces you to really get into the material.
I was not on a tight timeframe and not everyone studies or learns at the same rate. I spent six weeks in the area and haven’t regretted a single minute of it. As far as check ride availability I will be returning to my home base since CFI check rides here are delayed another 3 weeks. (Mostly weather-related delays again). Check ride fees in this area are $1000-$1400 for DPE’s.
Thrust flight also offers a CFI-NO-FLY academy which is an 8 day course covering the same material as the 15 day course crunched even more. This allows you to go home and do the flight portion at your local flight school. I feel that either course is a great jumpstart to becoming a CFI if you do not finish there. I would highly recommend the 8-day no fly if you are on a really tight timeframe to keep costs low.
As an added bonus if you attend either CFI-A academy you are allowed to sit in on any other CFI-A academy normal or accelerated for free, for life. I did sit in on a few additional courses from the next academy.
TLDR - Long story short, they made the whole experience fun and I made some great contacts while I was down here, and I would gladly do it again. The airspace is a significantly more clustered than where I come from, but you will get used to the flow of KADS.
-John
