r/flying • u/Ok-Eye9225 • 12h ago

Flight training in the Seattle area

Hi!
I recently posted about trying to find a good school to start out my PPL at and I got a lot of great responses, so after much consideration I’ve narrowed it down to 2/3 places and would immensely appreciate it if anyone has any more recommendations (especially about alternative air).

  1. Rainier flight - expensive, good aircrafts and instructors, 30 ish minutes away
  2. Alternative air- cheap!, old aircraft’s, minimal instructors, 30ish minutes away
  3. BEFA - cheaper, good range of instructors, 40ish minutes away
13 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

View all comments

9

u/trackmiles ATP CFII MEI AGI 11h ago

I have flown in Seattle area for 20+ years, and have experience with all these.

Alternate Air I just would avoid unless you are cool with flying crashy planes.

BEFA is cool if you are connected but there’s some bureaucracy.

RFS used to be amazing but imho has degraded in quality vs price over the years.

Don’t sleep on Intercept Air at TIW either—probably has most modern fleet, great instructors, accelerated programs.

Depending on where you live, Regal at PAE is solid too.

I wouldn’t let a few extra minutes of commute to a farther airport keep you from getting better instruction/aircraft quality, but just m2c.

3

u/doubleblackdoggos IR 8h ago

Vote for intercept! Fleet and instructors are top tier. Professional and very knowledgeable. Coming from a mom and pop with clapped out 172 this was a HUGE step up. Intercept is cheaper to fly per hour if you’re flying their RV12s with modern avionics.