Most instructors don't really care about your personal goals. If they do, they often lack patience with someone who hasn't flown before. I went through several instructors trying to find one who would actually stick with me and help me achieve what I was paying them for. Instead, it felt like some were just trying to build hours or take control of the flight, and I ended up wasting thousands of dollars. read more

This is a large family owned and family run flight school with 4 locations. My background is having ran a twin-engine flight school and a single-engine flying club in Georgia so when I surveyed the schools as a place to do my flight reviews, and send friends and their children to, AvAd came out on top. They also have been one of the main schools at Leesburg while others have come and gone. They also hire and train students and retired or career changing professionals to run the front desk, giving them aviation management and dispatch experience. I have flown with a few of the instructors up here and they are all different in how they teach but all are focused on safety, fun, learning, and promoting aviation. "Uncle Mike" is a fantastic advocate for aviation and even politely spent time going over weight and balance. I was 314 or 317 at the time and made it down to 270, which opened up the ability to fly other aircraft like the 172z. I made it down to 253 a few weeks ago and 230 will open up all aircraft, help me live longer, and make it easier to pass my 2nd class medical that I need for my commercial. Mike reviewed this with me very professionally, very politely, and shared his journey with me. He also took my son for a lesson. You would be hard pressed to find a better instructor, human being, safety, and aviation advocate. Safety is always at the top of my list because mistakes in aviation can be very unforgiving. You can fly safely in safe aircraft and still have fun. My favorite instructors are "Uncle Mike" and Mitch. However, I have also really enjoyed time learning from Bob, Ray and past instructors. Buck left for OpenAir, Dan went to fly KingAirs and Connor went to fly Learjets. This is part of aviation. Instructors are hard to find and good instructors are Unicorns. AvAd has had quite a few unicorns and some remain! Eventually they will build their 1000 hours with a degree from Liberty and go to the airlines with their ATP-R or get their 1500 and move on. That's just how aviation goes during a strong economy. Their aircraft are well maintained, particularly for flight school aircraft. I really enjoy flying the 182, the Cherokee Six, and the Grumman Cougar but also dropped weight so I could fly safely within the weight and balance envelope in the 172. My goal is to drop enough weight to fly LSAs like the 162 for fun! Bob and his family are amazing for aviation and have stellar employees and nice aircraft. read more

To preclude this comment, I have had 4 total experiences with Aviation adventures with me attempting to give them money in exchange for the ability to freely rent a 172 and out of the 4 attempts, 3 of them left me walking out the door being very upset and frustrated..... I am a 10 year professional pilot. I have flown in 3 different flight schools, logged 1200 hours as a certified flight instructor with two different schools and now have almost 6 years flying for a major airline. I owned a 172 for 3.5 years which I sold 6 months ago, a 172L more specifically. I wanted to get checked out in Aviation Adventures 172L just so i could go fly periodically with my GF. 1. The checkout flight. First, forget the schedule, none of the CFIs respect the time that their flight block ends, so expect to always start your block 15-45 minutes after your flight block begins, even if there's someone after you. I was "taken for a ride" Im a CFI so i know when I'm being taken advantage of by another CFI. All I wanted to do was get a 172 checkout with a CFI which I understood. However, by the end of the checkout, we had spent almost 2 hours flying 33 miles to another airport, I was instructed to fly 3 instrument approaches into that airport then fly an instrument approach back into our airport. I was also told flying at 100kts in a 172 is too hard on the engine, I needed to slow down and fly 88 knots???? No.... someone was trying to time build at the expense of my money... 2. I wanted to check a plane out. I was contacted the day of, about 2 hours prior to the flight indicating that the plane was down and my checkout only allowed me to operate a L and N model. The result was them moving all their students to the only other plane operating thus not allowing me a slot. Sure, whatever. 3. I rented a 172L again. I showed up 20 minutes before my flight block, yet my plane didn't arrive until 30 minutes after my flight block was suppose to begin, but who cares i'm just a renter and at the end of the day, I have finally rented a plane successfully after being taken advantage of and having a failed attempt at renting. 4. I call Valentine's Day morning to see if I can rent a plane to take my GF up for a sunset flight. I was told 242AV was available starting at 5:30. Sun set was at 5:45 that day. I surprise the GF and take her to the airport. once again we get there 15 minutes before our flight block. I talk to the front desk, "all is good, were just waiting on them to get back" of course.... they finally show up at 5:45, once again 15 minutes after their flight block ends. I walk out to the plane with my GF as the CFI and their student is packing up the plane and ask if there were any squawks. As its turning dusk, they say oh yeah, its day VFR only because the right nav light has been inop for the last 2 weeks. WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? 2 WEEKS? A NAV LIGHT?? I couldn't have been told this when I called earlier and asked the front desk if it was available? you're telling me you all have wasted my Valentines day evening waiting for a plane that was late, wasn't even legal for night VFR when a simple light bulb could have been replaced from the other N model that was grounded due to a missing flap? That was my last straw. I will never again try to spend a dollar with Aviation Adventures. I went against my gut reading all the horrid reviews online and said "how bad could it be? It can't be that bad" It was worse. This nonsensical excuse for a flight school is what an incompetent monopoly of a flight school looks like that will steal money and suck more out of you for every single reason that can come up with. Theres red tape everywhere preventing you from doing this and that unless you pay for that and this. Future students, steer clear. Potential renters, save your money and go elsewhere. Avoid the headaches and wasted time and money that I have. I realize this is the least professional organization I have ever experienced in aviation. People that learn to fly here refuse to work for the school as CFIs because they realize how horrible of a place it is to not only learn as a student but teach at as a CFI. There are plenty of flight schools in the area, so take your money elsewhere to learn or rent. I have already. read more

If you fly through liberty, good luck. My first semester I had 19 flights cancelled for "maintenance" and weather and received an incomplete in private flight 1 with 98% of the training course outline completed. 100% sure they lie about maintenance to either prioritize other students or so the cfi's can take your time slot to do their own training. After receiving an incomplete my first semester I re registered for the class 8 TIMES before aviation adventures responded to Liberty so I could complete registration and financial check in. I was notified by Liberty I was not the only student having to register over and over again until aviation adventures replied. Finally after 8 tries, tons of emails and Liberty university's flight affiliate program reaching out to them to force their competency, I got registered. After taking loans out for flight fees for the SECOND time, now in $22,000 BEFORE SOLO I was finally enrolled in private flight 1 again to fly. The semester starts, my first 4 flights are cancelled for "maintenance." Concerned about getting an incomplete again I reach out to liberty's flight affiliate program. Liberty reached out to aviation adventures to ask that they try to prioritize me as I've paid for private flight 1 twice and have now had 23 flights cancelled which is more flights cancelled than I even had in hours of flight time (I was scheduling 3 hr flight blocks).... I had a flight scheduled for the following Sunday morning, Saturday night I get a call asking if they can cancel my time block and get another student in my plane because "this student really needs to fly." This was the last straw for me. I withdrew, got half my money back and went residential at Liberty. All of liberty's planes are in great condition and new. All of aviation adventures planes are old and dirty. At aviation adventures you'll fly a different plane with different avionics packages from day to day and will fly with multiple instructors. If you're a Liberty student I highly recommend going residential and not wasting your money here. read more

I have been flying with aviation adventures for almost three years. I finished a part 141 private rating in June 2020, and am close to finishing a part 141 instrument rating. Despite being so close to the instrument check ride, I have decided to no longer give my business to this school. I will preface this review by stating that I have only good things to say about the instructors and staff; they are all very knowledgeable and personable, and were effective at teaching the material. That being said, this is a truly unorganized, free for all, chaotic mess of a school. It will be prudent to note as well, that there is a certain level of inherent uncertainty built into flight schools, and any student needs to accept the fact that various contingencies will always result in delays. I cannot control the weather, for instance, and neither can the school. I have spent an inordinate amount of hard earned money at AvAd, and its obvious at this point that they are unable to adhere to the simple principle of honoring the time slots that I reserve on the website. I am fed up with getting to the airport on time for my reservation, only to find out that the airplane is still in the air over Frederick Maryland. By the time I was ready to go in this particular situation, I had only an hour left of my time. Feeling rushed does not result in an effective use of time and money, especially since the effort was ostensibly for check ride preparation. I surely could have just flown and been late for the next guy, but that is simply not fair to compound the schools disorganization. For both ratings, I have never had consistent availability of instructors leading up to the check rides. I've had to string together various different instructors, a lot of times based on last minute availability. Not everyone is on the same page about where I am in my training (not necessarily their individual fault). As a result however, I end up with an opaque, often times contradictory picture of what needs to be done to get over the finish line. This ultimately leads to further logistical challenges as I figure out as I go what actually needs to happen. In conclusion, find a more coordinated school. You'll end up spending less time and money with a more streamlined and efficient organization read more

They're a good flight school, but there's nothing about them that particularly stands out to me. The instructors and office staff are all very nice and helpful, but there is a general sense of disorganization. They also have an extremely high turnover rate of instructors (schedule 2 months ahead if you want to have any chance of a lesson longer than an hour), but with the airline pilot shortage that's to be expected. As a sidenote, the scheduling software they use is possibly the worst piece of crap I have ever seen. read more

yeah, great flight school with great instructors and aircraft to rent. G1000 172's, Instructors who know the SFRA,FRZ and will help you out with the airspace around here. Cindy and Stacy are awesome employees who are glad to help you with anything you need. They have many aircraft and 4 locations well maintained aircraft . the best instructor they have Raymond looks like Joaquin Phoenix.Check out the AOPA and the many awards they have received!!!! read more

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