“There will always be a need for high quality instruction,” wrote Gordon Alvord, owner of Rainier Flight Service in an email to me.
Gordon and I chatted for a few minutes at February’s Northwest Aviation Conference in Puyallup, Washington, before the world was turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic. During our talk, Gordon mentioned Rainier Flight Service in Renton, Washington, was finalizing plans for a new flight instruction academy.
I was curious, given the huge disruption to professional aviation caused by the pandemic, if Rainier Flight Service was still moving forward? Indeed they are. They’re calling it Rainier Flight Academy.
Rainier Flight Service was born in the wake of the 2008 recession when founders Alvord and Bradley Donaldson were furloughed from Alaska Airlines. Today it is the largest flight school in Washington state. So launching the academy in the face of global upheaval must feel nature for Gordon and Bradley.
The Academy Path
There are numerous paths to a professional career in aviation. Two of the most prominent are the university route or the accelerated flight school route. The former will take four years, or thereabouts, and is likely more than most aspiring pilots will need or want. The latter takes about nine months and is a full-time program.
The Rainier Flight Academy is designed to be roughly 18 months from start to finish and will support working adults looking for a career change or local college students at Green River College’s Bachelor of Applied Science in Aeronautical Science degree.
“It’s the structure and the accountability of a university program,” said Gordon. “But recognizing that there’s a lot of individuals that, practically speaking, have to work while they’re training.”
Instruction
The actual flight instruction is designed with professional aviation in mind, from the start, he noted
“We’ve kind of flipped it around a little bit and integrated some aeronautical decision making, a little scenario-based training, and say, ‘Here are the challenges that we want you to understand and to think about and apply. And there’s no right or wrong answer. Some are just easier than others. Throughout the lesson, we’re going to be doing steep turns and stalls, but don’t worry about the ACS standards. That’s something that you need to demonstrate to the examiner. We want you to really understand how to anticipate stall conditions, what indications you have visually and aircraft systems wise. And if you do find yourself in a situation where you’re recovering from an inadvertent stall, how to do that habitually,'” said Gordon.
This is very much in line with what airlines are looking for from new hires, he said.
“It’s an experience-based approach. Where we see our role as flight instructors is setting the safe boundaries for the student to explore. You should be exploring the envelope and seeing what the airplane’s capable of and developing your personal comfort levels and minimums,” continued Gordon. “Over time and after gaining experience, you’ll expand your envelope a little bit. We’re not going to let you do anything unsafe or illegal. But within that, let’s fly the airplane. Let’s see what the airplane can and can’t do. What happens if you get too fast or too slow? And that’s how you develop judgment. So the lessons are predicated on trying to provide as many different opportunities as possible for the students to experience variety and apply the knowledge they gained in the home studying.”
Can I watch?
In addition to maximizing the use of simulation — using two Frasca RTD sims and one Redbird SD 1000 sim on site — students are encouraged to “observe training sessions and participate in group study sessions.
“Observing fellow students is a proven method for rapid learning, while also decreasing cost,” he said. “Participation in study groups also provides opportunities for discussion and in-depth understanding while enhancing a sense of community.”
What’s Next?
While Gordon doesn’t, of course, have a crystal ball that sees into the future, he did say he believes the regional airlines will bounce back before the majors.
“And that’s simply because economically if you used to have a 737 on a route but your load factors are still 20% or 30% you’re probably not going to put a larger aircraft back on that route,” he explained. “You’re going to start with the smaller aircraft and operate those as efficiently as possible to get your revenue up. And then as the demand increases, upgrade the airplanes.”
Like they did with Rainier Flight Service, Gordon and Bradley plan to start small and scale to meet demand. Hopefully Gordon’s right and the demand for “high quality instruction” shows up in Renton.
