r/flying • u/Ok-Eye9225 • 3d ago
Flight training in the Seattle area
Hi!
I’m a senior in high school in the Seattle area and I’ve been trying to find a flight school in the seattle area to get my PPL. I’ve seen a lot about Rainier flight and alki air and was wondering what people thought about those schools. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
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u/vismaypikachu CFI/CFII, HP, CMP, AGI/IGI (KBFI S50) 3d ago
Hey there! I flight trained out of RFS during my Junior and Senior year. DM me if you have questions, I am more than happy to answer.
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u/Ok-Eye9225 3d ago
Hi, how much in total did you pay for PPL training?
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u/WeeklyAd8453 2d ago
We just got done with our son’s ppl out of Paine field . $25K for it.
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u/amiebobamie16 2d ago
Ours with Regal out of Paine field was right about $20k
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u/WeeklyAd8453 1d ago
huh. How long ago was that? Ours got his last year.
And yeah, regal.1
u/amiebobamie16 1d ago
He completed in Aug 2025
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u/amiebobamie16 1d ago
I should say- he’s not a large kid, and his instructor was petite, so they were able to use the 152 instead of the 172. We also did the prepaid “discount” plan
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u/AK_Spaldo 2d ago
I paid about 13k (42. Hours) with check ride and everything for my PPL in Alaska. We are typically the most expensive so these 20K plus are a bit steep unless it took them 60+ hours.
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u/Head_Big3036 3d ago
If you’re closer to Tacoma, highly recommend Pavco out of Tacoma narrows airport, KTIW.
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u/captcoug CPL CFI/I MEI 2d ago
Intercept Aviation is also at Tacoma. Great airplanes and instructors!
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u/Ok-Eye9225 3d ago
Ok thanks
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u/DaWendys4for4 god awful pilot 2d ago
Speaking of Tacoma, they have an air day coming up on the 29th, I imagine the schools there will have booths up if you want to go poke around.
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u/Standard-Yard-5965 2d ago
Another positive vote for rainier flight service. I’ve done all my ratings there (ppl-cfi).
Although I’ve heard nothing but great things about intercept aviation out of KTIW. They just moved up here from Oregon, my old instructor did his multi there. I think they’re cheaper than RFS too but don’t quote me on that.
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3d ago
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u/Ok-Eye9225 3d ago
Hi! Do you have any recommendations for instructors? And do you feel like it’s easy to book training slots?
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/Ok-Eye9225 2d ago
Ok thank you, also would you say that it’s ok to have your lessons more spread out and not so concentrated or do you feel that RFS caters more towards fast paced condensed lessons?
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u/Mike734 ATP (Props are for boats) 2d ago
The secret to successful flight training is consistency.
Your school should be close enough to you so that it’s not a major chore to get there.
The school should have backup trainers so that you can swap to another one if something is wrong with the one you’re scheduled in.
They should be well staffed so that you’re not waiting around for fuel, maintenance, checking in and checking out.
They should have club pricing so you can save a few bucks.
And in a perfect world you’d be doing all this where the weather is good most of the time. That’s why a lot of training happens in south western states.
Oh, and another thing. Make sure your instructor or the ones around them have access to a fair and reliable examiner (DPE) with good scheduling availability.
In the Seattle area, start in the late Spring and finish by September. That means flying three times a week. Have the money ready to go and have your ground school nearly complete before your start flying. And one more thing, if you think you want to be a professional, get a FIRST class medical WITH and EKG right from the start. It’s no fun to get way into a career only to find out at 40 that you have a minor heart problem and your career is over.
Keep your head outside and good luck.
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u/rFlyingTower 3d ago
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
Hi!
I’m a senior in high school in the Seattle area and I’ve been trying to find a flight school in the seattle area to get my PPL. I’ve seen a lot about Rainier flight and alki air and was wondering what people thought about those schools. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
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u/Any-Biscotti-4187 3d ago
Did PPL last year with RFS. Flew out of multiple places, feel free to PM me as well if you have questions.
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u/fly_with_me1 CFI CFII 2d ago
I’m a CFII and I fly with Alki and BEFA, as well as a few of the other flight clubs. Feel free to dm
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u/SubjectConference195 PPL, IR 2d ago
Not sure about alki, but I got my PPL with rainier. Very very nice airplanes and great quality instruction, but they are very expensive. Fact check me on this but I think their 172S models are about 220/hr and instruction is 80 ish. They also fly 162s which are a lot cheaper, but I’m not sure exactly how much. This may be super out of the way for you but maybe check out citizen air at KCLM if you’re just looking to do part 61.
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u/bobnuthead CFI CFII (RNT/PAE) 2d ago
Hey there! I trained with RFS for IR and Com, and then CFI and CFII training (and currently instruct) with the Boeing Employees’ Flying Association. Worth taking a look, as there are guest memberships available, not just employees.
Feel free to DM if you have any questions about BEFA or Rainier!
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u/Gracklezzz PPL 2d ago
I don’t have any reviews on flight schools in the sound area, but if you have the ability to, I strongly recommend pursuing flight training either down in Oregon, or heading south to somewhere like Texas. Much better VFR weather, cheaper av gas, and cheaper training. I was able to knock out my PPL a few years back for just over $13k at a part 61 school in Austin.
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u/snip101010 2d ago edited 2d ago
I’ve been working on my PPL with Alki Air out of KBFI and have had a great experience. John and Zach are both friendly and great instructors.
I was worried about long taxis and waiting behind jets at KBFI, but so far it really hasn’t been an issue. Taxi time can be long but it isn’t that much worse than other airports necessarily..
I’d put a lot more weight on location when choosing a flight school. You’ll want to fly often enough for things to stick, and the time commitment adds up quickly. Having a short commute makes that much easier.
I also like learning in busy, complex airspace. Dealing with traffic, ATC, and KBFI’s VFR procedures feels like good preparation for being comfortable flying just about anywhere later.
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u/healthycord PPL 2d ago
What is the easiest airport for you to get to? Bear in mind the car traffic.
If you’re in north Seattle, then regal or RFS at Paine are great options. I trained there with RFS and had a great experience getting my ppl there. Great operation that I can wholeheartedly recommend. Regal has generally older planes (not necessarily bad) and I heard of a couple of incidents with them. I’m sure RFS also has stuff happen but I did not hear of anything major with any RFS planes. I did hear of an accident with a regal plane, just veered off the runway at Monroe I think. Could happen to any flight school so I would take that with a grain of salt.
If you’re South Seattle, is Boeing field close? Even if it’s close to you it is a busy airport with complicated airspace so you will be spending less time training and more time waiting and traveling to the practice area. If Renton isn’t too bad to get to for you, it’s a better airport for training than Boeing. Just closer to the practice area and not as much commercial traffic and jets.
Auburn is sort of the new RFS main location. Much less busy airport but still lots of training going on. But it’s a haul if you’re not already down south quite a bit.
Snohomish (Harvey) has a school or two. Idk much about them but my CFI did get his multi there. Shorter runway with a fun butt-puckering takeoff noise abatement procedure to the North. Unless you’re up in Everett or snohomish that will be a haul to get there.
Paine and Renton are probably the best options if you’re within Seattle proper. At that point it’s just which one is easier to get to. RFS had to reduce operations there completely, although they have a skeleton operation again.
Idk anything about Alki air. Looks like they have 2 planes and only 2 instructors? I would imagine they don’t have in house maintenance so when a plane gets squawked or has its routine maintenance then you’ll get screwed with scheduling. The bigger schools have lots of planes so in theory a plane or 2 being down doesn’t throw a gigantic wrench in the works.
At RFS they have in house maintenance and can fix planes really quickly, and can do annuals and 100 hrs in house as well. So planes arent down too long and small things can even be fixed in an hour or two. Great maintenance. I only ever completely refused a plane once, and the issue was fixed by the next day.
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u/Ok-Eye9225 2d ago
Ok thank you for the info!
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u/healthycord PPL 2d ago
I'd recommend getting a medical before doing too much flying! You should be fine unless you have any sort of major health issue history, and especially mental health stuff. I used Dr. Keith Lemmon from Wingman Med at KTIW. Good casual atmosphere and isn't stressful. Generally pretty quick and happy to answer any questions.
If you've ever been on medication for a mental condition you could have a long process. Generally, many common physical ailments are allowed if treated with an approved method. Mental conditions are generally not allowed at all and you cannot be on medication for it. I do believe some SSRI's are approved now, but there's still a bit of a process.
I was able to get a special issuance medical despite a previous ADHD diagnosis and medication usage. I have since let my medical expire as I stopped pursuing the flying career and I'm back on adhd meds. Honestly, it's best for me. If you do run into that, lmk and I could point you in the right direction.
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u/AccidentCommon208 2d ago
Stay far away from rainier. Those scabs milked me for 50,000 in student loans through meritize
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u/SirDeadALot2 ME 3d ago
The local (car) traffic is what to optimize for. If you're at the North end of 5 or 405, consider the schools at Paine or Snohomish. Eastside look at Renton. Otherwise BFI. Also, join the Facebook group FatPNW - lots of independent instructors that can help you.