San Diego Flight Training International

I’m so proud to have gotten my 12 yr old daughter’s private lessons w SD Flight School. Her instructor Jonathan did such a great job making her feel comfortable. He was thorough explaining all the safety protocol and flight information b4 takeoff. He was also great about giving me positive feedback the entire flight. I loved how hands-​on it was for my daughter who has always been interested in taking lessons. Thanks Jonathan for such a great experience. I’d definitely recommend this flight school for training to become a licensed private/​commercial pilot. My daughter is amazing and makes me proud everyday. She’s sure she’ll get a private pilot’s license b4 her driver’s license.

YOUR DREAM WILL NEVER COME TRUE IN SDFTI
I’m a VICTIM ($ 20,000 in 7 months of training and not even SOLO)…Please stay AWAY from this shabby school and be aware of the bold guy (PHILIP THALHEIMER), He’s very professional to rip you off and ruin you’re training by taking all your budget $$$ and NO ratings. He has the strategy to give you underpriced estimate to bait you in. He also threatens Intl students (Indians, Asians) with immigration stuffs knowing that they have nobody in the US. Don’t let yourself be taken in by his deceptive and dishonest information, He’s more like a car dealer than a «president» of the school.
The instructors are under his pressure and they don’t sign you off for SOLO or Check-​ride unless you have spent a GOOD amount of money. Generally they don’t last more than 3 months in this school, which is harmful for you’re training. The chief CFI constantly fails students on Stage Checks to make more and more money for the school. This is the behind-​the-​scene POLICY!
SDFTI has FAA violations that are public info, Google it! They have a stormy financial situation so they are always behind payments and are loosing airplanes every month!
FAA Part 141 requirement for PPL: 35h | National Average: 65h | SDFTI: +100h
Do yourself a HUGE favor and try one of the other local flight schools like SAA Intl (KSEE) or Learn To Fly San Diego (KMYF).
PM if you have any question, I can show you all about my experience (logbook, transactions) at SFTI and help you make a better decision. I made the worst decision in my life to start with SDFTI, so you don’t…

The owners of this business are incredibly rude. They are dangerous and should not be flying. Stay away.

The Bottom Line:
SDFTI is a fantastic flight school with great instructors, but very poor billing policies.
Context:
I have flown with SDFTI for one year and earned both my PPL and Instrument Rating during that time. I am 30 years old. Below, I’ll offer the details of my experience.
The Instructors:
I flew with three different instructors at SDFTI and each of them was fantastic. Ali (the chief instructor) and Zach (the assistant chief) *really* know their stuff and are great teachers. I cannot emphasize this enough: the CFIs at this school are really top-​notch. They deserve a 5 star rating.
The Planes:
The school’s fleet is large and well-​maintained. You’ll never feel like one of the planes is unsafe. However, many of the planes have inoperative equipment that is simply never fixed. (N24780, for example, has had a broken autopilot for the entire time I’ve been at the school.) More frustrating, however, is that only one of the R-​model Cessnas is currently approved for GPS approaches. The others have GPS installed, but it’s limited to VFR-​only. (The GPS in N7257T, for example, frequently reboots in flight, making it unsafe to use for approaches in actual conditions — again, this has been unfixed for over a year. The GPS in N24780 has no light to warn you when it has not properly sequenced for an approach, so it’s VFR-​only as well.) If you’re new to general aviation, don’t let this worry you. Virtually every FBO with a large fleet have planes with some inoperative components. SDFTI’s planes are in good shape.
Renting:
If you’re looking to rent an airplane for a flight without an instructor, SDFTI will only allow you to rent their 172s. And you can only rent the specific model in which you get checked out. So if you get checked out in the R model, you can’t rent the older N or M models unless you get checked out in those as well. SDFTI will not allow you to rent their Piper Arrows or their Seneca. That’s a real disadvantage once you have your license and start looking to build time in a complex aircraft. As I understand it, this is an insurance issue: it would cost the school more money to allow people to rent the complex airplanes solo. Still, Plus One Flyers right across the street is happy to rent you a Piper Arrow for $ 120/​hr, which is $ 8 cheaper than you can rent a 172R at SDFTI!
Pricing:
SDFTI is not the most expensive flight school in San Diego, but they are not cheap. You’ll pay $ 128/​hr to rent an R-​model Cessna and you’ll shell out roughly $ 60/​hr for an instructor. Essentially, every «normal» lesson flight will run you about $ 300. Cross-​country lessons will run much more than that. Flying is simply expensive, no matter where you do it.
Customer Relations:
The two guys that run the school are Phil and Rick. While they’re good guys, they are definitely terrible at customer relations. I never get a response when I email them and when I call to discuss something, they’re usually busy and never call me back. The first time I met with them, I had the impression that I was bothering them — like they wanted to get rid of me as fast as possible. It’s a shame that SDFTI’s management is not as great as their instructors!
Poor Billing Policy:
The primary reason for my 2-​star rating is that SDFTI has enacted a draconian policy. In order to schedule any flights, you must maintain more than $ 500 on your account. If your account drops to near $ 500 or below, the staff will freeze it, leaving you unable to schedule lessons (or fly) until you go to the airport and deposit more money with them. (This is really a hassle because your CFI’s schedule will fill up with other students while you’re jumping through hoops to get your account unfrozen!) So, if you want to take a lesson, you’ll need to pay SDFTI $ 500 + $ 300 = $ 800. And even though $ 500 is more than enough money to cover the normal lesson flight, you will not be allowed out the door if your account has only $ 500 on it.
If you contact any other flight school or FBO in the area (such as Learn To Fly San Diego or Plus One Flyers, right across the street), you’ll find that SDFTI’s policy is definitely not normal. Every other flight school and FBO simply bills you as you fly, for the exact amount you used. You do not have to deposit large amounts of money beforehand and you certainly don’t have to keep a $ 500 balance just to schedule lessons.
If it weren’t for this, my rating would be much higher. But the policy continues to bite me and every time I try to discuss it with SDFTI management, I get ignored. As a result, I can’t give a high rating.
Conclusion:
SDFTI is a great place to learn to fly, if you’re willing to tolerate dumb billing policies. The planes are reliable and safe and the instructors are top-​notch. You’ll come away a proficient, safe pilot.

If you want a fat loud mouth DRUNKEN SON OF A DOG to teach you a video game call rick Morrison he will teach you all about the cool stuff he makes up about flying f 4’s. The STRONG smell of booze and out dated blah blah loud mouth non seneschal crap this old man vomits and puts the squeeze on for $$$$$ is super embarrassing. Look up and feel confident he aint up there. get a play station 3. This clown also has FAA violations that are public info. when learning to fly a alcohol free representative is imperative unless you are too. Stay away!!!

A couple of friends and I decided to buy a deal from some group deal site (I forget which one) and try this place out.
Amazing fun. Very interactive and knowledgeable staff! Beautiful flight over San Diego! I’m going to do this much more often. The instructor’s are cool and we all had a great time.
A girl in our group was kind of scared, so the instructor promised to buy her a shot after to calm her down: D Cool guys, amazing experience, definitely recommended.
5 stars if it wasn’t so expensive!

I bought flight training lessons from a daily deals type website. I bought one for myself and one to surprise my girlfriend. When I tried to make a reservation to redeem the gift certificates, the customer service representative from San Diego Flight Training International was extremely rude.
After I finally selected a date, San Diego Flight Training International said that I could not use both certificates at the same date. I explained that I purchased one as a gift to surprise my girlfriend and that there was no where on the fine print that stated they could be used individually. I have had friends purchase similar certificates from other daily deal sites and they were able to go up in groups.
After listening to my complaint, I was transferred to San Diego Flight Training International’s owner who was also very rude. He said that there was no way both certificates could be used at the same time. I explained how I wanted to redeem one as a surprise gift, but he said that he could not do this request and insulted me on the phone.
The daily deals website refunded my money. They acknowledged that I was correct and that the owner of San Diego Flight Training International was making up its own policies.