Training at CPS

[akaFlyboy 4]

I am a career changer making my way into the aviation world. I did what a lot of people do on this forum, I started out just lurking and found a lot of useful information that I think helped me make some good decisions. Now I am attending Career Pilot School at New Century Airport a little South West of Kansas City. I have promised several of you that I would post on my progress, so here ya go.

How did I decide on CPS over other schools that offer similar training programs is a question I get the most from JC people. Long story short - I started at a FBO that was relatively new and showed a great deal of promise when it started. Due to a list of problems, some not necessarily their fault, things did not progress as well as I had hoped. My PPL went fairly well but then there was the loss of two planes due to accidents which made scheduling a serious problem. As I started to look at options, ATP's 90 day program caught my attention. I went to an interview and found ATP to be fast with lots of success stories, but they will tell you that it is a fast paced self study program.

In my opinion for the money your spending for that type of program you should get more. I started talking to Michael at Career Pilot School and got the sense that he was serious about his students success and was not just tyring to push as many students through as possible. His program is a three month program as well and offers more hours at about $2000 bucks less. The most important difference for me was the amount of ground school offered along with your flight time. You can get a lot more information about both programs on this forum on the ATP and CPS threads.

My first two weeks have gone very well. I am working on my IFR certificate and my instructor has been great. He is very patient and knowledgeable and we are a good match personality wise. I really struggled with landing the Piper Archer that we have been flying and finally these last two days I have started to get a feel for the plane. I have not seen much of the area around here as you might guess/or know I hear, "My airplane, put the goggles on - ok your airplane" A LOT. During my first day of flying approaches I got so wrapped up in the procedures and trying to think ahead of the plane I some how forgot to fly the plane and entered my fist two holds off coarse and off altitude... did I mention my instructor was patient... Anyways, on my last flight we worked on a DME arc and my overall performance was better but I still have a lot of room for improvement. As promised there has been a lot of quality ground school as well. Having an instructor that is over 20 and not fresh out of training himself has been a plus. Another plus that CPS offers is a great maintenance program. The building that CPS operates out of also houses a full service maintenance shop. The one time the Archer had a Mx issue it was taken care of immediately.



Highlights


Nice facilities with great maintenance support on site.

Michael and Instructors seem genuine about their promise to make sure you succeed.

Aircraft are what you expect, age wise for training aircraft but very clean and well maintained.

My living accommodations are again what you might expect, not new or fancy but very clean and functional with new furnishings, and I can see the airport from my bedroom window - about a mile and half away.

I have done my first actually soft field landing and take off.

I have flown to several airports in, obviously Kansas but also Arkansas and Oklahoma. Being from Utah and really new to aviation, it is cool to fly in to new areas.

My overall CPS experience over the past two weeks gets an "A" . More updates and pictures to follow. Feel free to PM with any questions you may have.

[wildwezul1]

Originally Posted by akaFlyboy 4

I am a career changer making my way into the aviation world. I did what a lot of people do on this forum, I started out just lurking and found a lot of useful information that I think helped me make some good decisions. Now I am attending Career Pilot School at New Century Airport a little South West of Kansas City. I have promised several of you that I would post on my progress, so here ya go.

How did I decide on CPS over other schools that offer similar training programs is a question I get the most from JC people. Long story short - I started at a FBO that was relatively new and showed a great deal of promise when it started. Due to a list of problems, some not necessarily their fault, things did not progress as well as I had hoped. My PPL went fairly well but then there was the loss of two planes due to accidents which made scheduling a serious problem. As I started to look at options, ATP's 90 day program caught my attention. I went to an interview and found ATP to be fast with lots of success stories, but they will tell you that it is a fast paced self study program.

In my opinion for the money your spending for that type of program you should get more. I started talking to Michael at Career Pilot School and got the sense that he was serious about his students success and was not just tyring to push as many students through as possible. His program is a three month program as well and offers more hours at about $2000 bucks less. The most important difference for me was the amount of ground school offered along with your flight time. You can get a lot more information about both programs on this forum on the ATP and CPS threads.

My first two weeks have gone very well. I am working on my IFR certificate and my instructor has been great. He is very patient and knowledgeable and we are a good match personality wise. I really struggled with landing the Piper Archer that we have been flying and finally these last two days I have started to get a feel for the plane. I have not seen much of the area around here as you might guess/or know I hear, "My airplane, put the goggles on - ok your airplane" A LOT. During my first day of flying approaches I got so wrapped up in the procedures and trying to think ahead of the plane I some how forgot to fly the plane and entered my fist two holds off coarse and off altitude... did I mention my instructor was patient... Anyways, on my last flight we worked on a DME arc and my overall performance was better but I still have a lot of room for improvement. As promised there has been a lot of quality ground school as well. Having an instructor that is over 20 and not fresh out of training himself has been a plus. Another plus that CPS offers is a great maintenance program. The building that CPS operates out of also houses a full service maintenance shop. The one time the Archer had a Mx issue it was taken care of immediately.



Highlights


Nice facilities with great maintenance support on site.

Michael and Instructors seem genuine about their promise to make sure you succeed.

Aircraft are what you expect, age wise for training aircraft but very clean and well maintained.

My living accommodations are again what you might expect, not new or fancy but very clean and functional with new furnishings, and I can see the airport from my bedroom window - about a mile and half away.

I have done my first actually soft field landing and take off.

I have flown to several airports in, obviously Kansas but also Arkansas and Oklahoma. Being from Utah and really new to aviation, it is cool to fly in to new areas.

My overall CPS experience over the past two weeks gets an "A" . More updates and pictures to follow. Feel free to PM with any questions you may have.

I'm glad you are enjoying you training with us,and I promise I will try not to get you frustrated, I like to make IFR rated pilots who know what they are doing, and not just the " I R Pilot" type

[Pilot84]

Thanks for the update, hopefully I will be joining you very soon to finish up my commercial. Are you doing the accelerated program or the self paced?

[akaFlyboy 4]

Originally Posted by Pilot84

Thanks for the update, hopefully I will be joining you very soon to finish up my commercial. Are you doing the accelerated program or the self paced?

Accelerated, hopefully done by or around January.

[ChrisL]

Thank you for posting your update. As a persective student, it really helps people like me to know I have made the right decision on where to attend.

I was out there for a visit to the facilities and to meet Michael a few months back and I was really impressed with the facilities, and especially the attitude towards everything.

Im in the process of wrapping things up on my end and hopefully with any luck I can get my a$$ out there and start a whole new career.

[akaFlyboy 4]

Alot of people have been asking me for pics -maybe this weekend when I have more time but they are coming. Also you can catch some pics of my trip out here from Utah on;

Pics From the Road - "No really- pics from the Road"

[akaFlyboy 4]

First pics are of the facility that CPS operates out of and a little gem of a plane in the hanger. ANYone care to quess that plane? I even got an interior shot.

A couple of A-4 trainers.

Chinnooks just north of CPS tiedown area.

Any one know what home built this is?

Then a Phantom F-4 on static display at Emporia Airport.

[akaFlyboy 4]

Here are two more pictures, 10 the limit per post.

First is a nice angle on the Phantom and the last is a B-2 base I snapped just before going into IMC. As all IFR students know having your goggles off is a rare event, so I don't have alot of area pictures. I am improving with every flight and don't mind the glasses at all cause I need the extra work. My instructor says "it is hard to teach old dogs new tricks" and all I can say is "Woof!" Anyways the training is good and all is well at CPS. Thanks for all the PMs with encouragement and expect more updates in the future.

[nkoenig]

Thanks for the updates. Keep em coming....

[akaFlyboy 4]

I was cleaning up my Private Message area and deleated some old Pms when I came across the attachment file. I did not know that those files had to be there to keep pics already posted. My bad so here they are again.

[KC Jake]

I am oh so close to joining the group at career pilot school for my commercial through MEII. I just found this board today and I like what I have read thus far. Everyone that has atteneded the program seems completely satisfied. It makes me feel confident about my choice. Now I'm just anxious to get all the loan paperwork and the like out of the way and take to the skies!

[Patrick]

Jake-

Welcome to JetCareers and (hopefully soon) Career Pilot School! Please give a call or stop by to ask anything you want about our program, and if you need financing, we can help get you on the right track with that as well.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

[KC Jake]

Thanks, Patrick. I've actually already been talking to Michael quite extensively. I visited the school a month or so ago and have already gotten my loan approved. SO, I should be all set and ready to go. I will be at the school to pick up some materials probably on Monday, and then start next Monday.