Arapahoe Flight Club — Local services in Colorado Springs

For those wanting to pursue aviation professionally or for passion, look no further than Arapahoe Flight Club. They are the best flight club/school in the Colorado Springs area for a few reasons.

In my experience Arapahoe is a true flight club that cares most about sharing and making peoples passions for aviation be possible. They give 100% to all their members and treat everyone with respect and equally. I was lucky enough to do my Instrument Rating with them and from start to finish and it was the best training anyone could get. The instructors are knowledgeable and passionate, they put their students success and needs above all else and the aircraft are well maintained. You can tell the maintenance team treats the aircraft as their own, they are very friendly open to help.

For those looking to pursue pilot training, build time, or fly for fun, I could not recommend Arapahoe more. Being located in COS, the experiences you get are invaluable. You get very comfortable with talking to ATC and often get to see some really cool and unique aircraft. For private pilots, there is an excellent practice area out east with lot of opportunities for ground reference maneuvers and engine out practice. As for instrument training, having your home airport with a variety of Approaches makes your training faster and more valuable. The rental rates and membership fees are very fair with no hidden costs.

There are a lot of wonderful things I can say along with other members, but definitely check out Arapahoe if you are curious about aviation and want to be part of an amazing, friendly, and...

Terrible fleet. Decent instructors but flaky outside the plane.

I've got 400 hours and joined this club to maintain currency and for access to their fleet for personal travel.

I'll just share a few brief vignettes.

My first flight, part of a mountain flying course, we had to abort before getting to the mountains due to a maintenance emergency. They still charged me for the flight, no rebate or anything.

I never got to complete my mountain flying course.

Another time we went up for an IPC. Did the flying portion but the instructor "didn't have time" for the ground portion that day and has been fairly squirrely, so I never actually completed my IPC either.

The DA-40 they have on leaseback to is now only allowed to fly 100 hours a year, so good luck doing any traveling or meaningful flying in that, since the owners fly it regularly too.

The Arrow they have on leaseback is not IFR current and doesn't have a working autopilot, so that's a write off for a travel plane too.

The only Cherokee of theirs I went up in had the worst directional gyro precession I've ever seen, no autopilot, and looked every bit of its 50 years of age, with an apparently original interior and panel.

Long story short, I think this is probably a decent organization if you're looking to do primary training on the cheap, but a bad organization for rated pilots with inflexible work schedules or a desire to fly for travel.

I've joined a new organization closer to Denver, and will be paying a premium for a better fleet, better customer service, and more accessible instructors who actually care about...

Do you want to be part of a brotherhood of aviators? Less than one percent of the US population are pilots. I have nothing but positive things to say about Arapahoe Flight Club. I had the best instructor that now flies for the airlines. From the very beginning of my journey of earning my wings to continuing to be a member of the Arapahoe Flight Club, I been on Cloud9. Now that I have my license, I fly my family all over Colorado to get that hundred dollar burger. I’ve flown to Telluride, Leadville, Centennial and Fort Collins among other places in Colorado. One of my favorite things to do is looping Pikes Peak with my daughter and watching the tourist faces as we fly over. Learning to fly in class Charlie airspace at Colorado Springs Airport (Kcos) is an excellent experience and prepares you for anything. We learn to fly at high altitudes in mountainous terrain and are trained to land safely anywhere at any airport with confidence. And always remember: Keep the clean side up and the dirty side down and please,.. stay out of the...