A flight school (otherwise known as an aviation training organization) conducts the business of teaching people to fly. It can take on a variety of guises, from the small, traditional flight school at a local airport using a light aircraft or two all the way to those international ATOs that train pilots for the airlines—and often conduct their recurrent training as well—in large fleets of aircraft and flight simulators. Of course, there are many that fall in between these two generic categories.
The organization you choose should depend on a couple of factors. Primary among them is your goal. If you want to learn to fly at a measured pace—near your home, for your own business or recreation—you’ll generally search locally for a place to train. If you want a career in aviation, you’ll make a larger investment in time and money. You should look both locally and nationally—or around the world—based on where you want to fly and how much you can spend.
