When choosing the right flight school for you, consider the following factors that will enable your success.
Considering a career in aviation or exploring flight schools in Memphis, Collierville, Germantown, or nearby? Learn about our pilot programs and rental aircraft. We make flight training fun and efficient. With 30 years of experience, our programs combine best practices from civilian and military aviation. Our professional instructors ensure safety and use proven methods for success.
Both flight schools have multiple flight practice areas nearby within 5 minutes of departure so you’ll spend less time on the ground than if you were at an airport with considerable traffic, helicopters, towers, etc. So for a typical 1 hour rental, you will have more time to practice maneuvers and that extra practice time adds up. Ultimately, you may be ready for your checkride sooner, saving you time and money.
At First Team Pilot Training, we’re dedicated to providing world-class instruction in a welcoming environment where there is room to hang out and rooms to study without interruption. The FBO has additional training rooms available as needed.
The Fayette County Airport is located just outside Memphis Class B airspace with a 5,000 ft runway and less traffic than nearby flight school alternatives. The West Memphis airport It has 3,000 ft of airspace under the Memphis Class B restriction and no ATC tower. You can reach multiple practice areas within 5 minutes flight time!Traffic patterns are standard with few airport obstacles meaning you can depart in any direction. Plus having a 5000+ ft runway will be great when it comes time to solo.
At First Team Pilot Training, we have full-time and part-time instructors with experience levels and communication skills that will positively benefit you. We have our own training syllabus that’s provided at low cost to you, or you can bring your own and even upload it to our Flight Circle app.We use Flight Circle to schedule and track online progress. Its always available online to review lesson plans, coursework and sign-offs. It also keep track of all required aircraft maintenance, billing history and pilot records.
At First Team Pilot Training, we’ve invested a lot of time and money choosing the right Piper aircraft. Each aircraft is outfitted with Garmin or Avidyne GPS navigators, electronic flight displays, and several are TAA Certified with new autopilots. All aircraft are certified for instrument flight. We even put sun shields up after every flight, cover them at night and provide portable air conditioning, iPads and GoPros.
Our flight training programs are built upon thirty years of experience within the aviation industry. Best practices from civilian and military flight training have been incorporated into our training methods, generating repeatable and successful results.Our courses provide the structure to accomplish your flight training goals efficiently and are built upon the specific knowledge and skills required by the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Airman Certification Standards (ACS) to pass your chosen practical exam. The syllabi are complemented by free, source document, PDFs downloadable at the FAA’s online library further reducing the cost of training. No expensive “training systems” or textbooks are required! Each lesson contains specific tasks and study assignments guiding you to prepare in advance of your next lesson, reducing confusion and holding both you and your instructor accountable to the training requirements.
Our ownership and flight instructors are heavily invested in our pilot training programs. Each serve as leaders and mentors to our student pilots. Our leadership, flight operations and training experience, combined with the desire to build positive, lasting relationships with people from all backgrounds help guide us everyday. We promote open conversation, seek to find common ground and find synergy in every interaction to be successful as a team.You will find that our commitment to your success is undeniable. We have built relationships within local and national aviation communities and will make every effort to help you reach your goal of becoming a world-class pilot, career pilot or aviation enthusiast.
You can begin your flight training immediately with a Discovery Flight, there is no minimum age requirement to fly with an instructor. Once your Discovery Flight is accomplished, you will require a FAA Student Pilot Certificate, FAA Medical Certificate, Logbook and Government Photo ID to open a student account with First Team Flight Training and enroll in our flight training courses. All of which, your assigned flight instructor can help you obtain.
Flight lessons are typically about 2 hours in length. This would include 5-10 minutes of preflight inspection of the airplane, 10-15 minutes of preflight briefing to review previous flight items and a thorough discussion of how to accomplish this flight’s goals. The flight itself will usually last between 1 hour and 1 hour 30 minutes, followed by a post-flight briefing and what you can look forward to for next time.
At a minimum per federal requirements, you will require a minimum of 40 hours of flight training in an assortment of topics and skills plus additional ground training to acquire the knowledge required for the FAA Written Exam and Practical Exam. An individual that can commit to accomplishing one ground or flight lesson every day and the required “homework” to prepare for that lesson, can accomplish their training in approximately 60 days (weather permitting).
The FAA requires a minimum of 40 hours of flight time and 20 hours of instruction to obtain a Private Pilot Certificate. The cost to obtain a private pilot certificate in the US ranges anywhere from $9K-$18K spread out over several months up to a year (depending on the school and the aircraft rental rates). Our standard Ground Lessons total 30 hours and flight training totals 40 hours which is more in-line with what you should expend to spend.