Because flight training is subject to cost pressure, it is not practically possible for highly-experienced pilots to make a living from instruction. Typically, most flying schools use young instructors who are only there to accumulate enough experience to get a "real job". Their lack of commitment normally shows!

We set out to find individuals who love flying, whether they intend to make a living as a pilot or not, and help them to become excellent flight instructors.

Most often, our instructor candidates are people who have been around the track a few times, often holding substantial qualifications and job responsibilities. Our active instructor corps has included a director in the civil service, a senior researcher with a national science council, a past Air Traffic Controller, a Boeing 737 instructor and an experimental flight test engineer. Four of our senior instructors are rated to fly jets and turboprops. Among them, our instructors hold more than half a dozen degrees.

We have helped people make the jump from a frustrating career in another field, by teaching them about flying and instruction and gettting them started with a career in aviation. Three of our former full-time instructors have gone on to fly turboprops, and have found their background at SFT to be very helpful. Two of them were near 40 years old, and both made their jump into full-time aviation at SFT.