Texas and Minnesota Earn AOPA Flight Training Experience Top Honors

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) announced the 2022 You Can Fly Flight Training Experience Award winners during a ceremony at the Aerospace Center for Excellence in Lakeland, Florida.

In the Pattern flight school from Denton, Texas, took home top honors as the best overall flight school and was also named the winner from the Central Southwest Region. In just three years at Denton Enterprise Airport (KDTO), In the Pattern has built a solid reputation as an outstanding business with 12 airplanes, seven instructors, and rave reviews. The school lives up to its motto of “Experience Aviation.”

Great Lakes Regional winner Ambyr Peterson of Minneapolis, Minnesota, took home top honors as the nation’s best certificated flight instructor (CFI). Based in the Twin Cities, Peterson is not only an outstanding CFI, she has a knack for helping other instructors get the best results from their teaching.

“These awards allow us the opportunity to recognize the very best in flight training across the nation,” said Elizabeth Tennyson, executive director of AOPA’s You Can Fly initiative. “Flight schools and CFIs are our front-line ambassadors to protect and grow general aviation, and these professionals are responsible for molding our next generation of pilots. It’s rewarding to see aviation leaders dedicated to delivering excellent training and setting an outstanding example for new and future pilots.”

Regional winners in both the flight school and CFI categories were honored for providing a high level of service to their students, based on responses to the 2021-2022 AOPA You Can Fly Flight Training Experience Survey. The 2021-2022 survey garnered nearly 8,000 submissions, including 1,740 recommendations for top CFIs and 949 for best flight school.

Based on AOPA’s extensive research, the Flight Training Experience Survey considers four key factors of optimum flight-training: educational quality; focus on the customer; community; and information sharing.

Since 2012, AOPA has collected feedback from recent student pilots, and certificated pilots who have received instruction within the past year, about their experiences and the quality of instruction from their flight school and CFI. After analyzing the survey results, the You Can Fly team is able to identify the very best aviation educators and flight-training businesses. AOPA also uses the data from the survey to provide “report cards” to flight schools and CFIs, helping schools and instructors understand their strengths, as well as opportunities for improvement.

You Can Fly is AOPA’s umbrella program to get more people into the air and keep them safely there. It comprises four pillars: supporting flying clubs, encouraging best practices in flight training, getting lapsed pilots back in the air, and helping high school students learn more about careers in aviation.

The AOPA You Can Fly program is entirely funded by charitable donations to the AOPA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization.