I have been fortunate enough to be a student a Pinnacle completing my private, instrument,…read morecommercial, and certified flight instructor ratings through their partnership with Liberty University. Whether you're looking for part 141 or 61 instruction Pinnacle offers everything in a professionally structured format to meet your needs. The aircraft are well maintained and dependable. In my opinion, this school has the highest quality instructors and ownership at CRQ. Check out their website to gather more information. This is your spot if you're looking to all things related to aviation training, especially if you want to utilize your GI Bill or gain a bachelors degree as a professional pilot while earning your ratings.

Look around- there are better values and more efficient processes for student pilots. Very nice…read morepeople just limited motivation to progress student pilots. Issues future students should be aware of that are unique to pinnacle.  First, pinnacle does not allow touch and gos.  This maximizes profits by likely lowering their insurance rates. This means you will not get nearly enough landings to gain competency quickly.  We spent $25,000 and after 70 hours of flight time, 120 landings and probably another 40 hours of ground time as well as near 22 months w/ no solo approval.  Lots of 'stalling' with instructors drilled by the owner to really wait generate more hours billed. Presolo is treated like an IFR checkride. . As soon as we left solo.   At a busy airport like CRQ you will spend lots of extra money on the ramp due to unqie no touch and go policy.  Pinnacle pays their instructors just a fraction of the total, so on the positive side very nice people and quite a lucrative business with good margins.

Terrorizing and dive bombing Carlsbad neighborhoods everyday. This inconsiderate club of sky…read morelawnmowers buzz people's homes at low altitudes daily, operate deliberately outside of Carlsbad's voluntary noise abatement procedure a spew leaded fuel exhaust all over people's neighborhoods. They simply refuse to be a good neighbor and make aviation in act of torture.

Best flying club in San Diego county, bar none. Great scheduling system, aircraft & avionics, and…read moreplenty of knowledgeable CFIs. And most importantly, aircraft maintenance is excellent thanks to the involvement of club leadership and aircraft owners. I got my instrument, commercial and CFI at PCF, and regularly use their aircraft for cross-country flying. I have experience flying with other clubs in the area, and this one is the best.

I did an instructional cross country to from Palomar to Santa Barbara, as I needed a refresher on…read moretransitioning Class B and landing on Class C. Frank is very knowledgeable about the airspace in Southern California, and set me up with great procedures for future flights. I highly recommend.

Franc has a fantastic disposition as an instructor. We recently went out for an IFR profiency…read moreflight. He is very thoughtful to not engage and give you the required workload then coach you through when you need it. Had a great training flight in IMC and even an unconventional 115 degree localizer Intercept. Looking forward to more flight time with Franc.

I am writing to commend the quality of the ground, flight, and simulator training over the past few…read moreyears. The programs for the C-560-Ultra, CJ-2/3, and C-560XL are all exceptionally well-structured and managed. Furthermore, the management, instructors, and all employees are friendly, willing to help, and possess great experience. Sincerely, Stelios R.

What a great experience. Did my CJ initial here a couple years back and just went through a…read morerecurrent here as well. They have really put a lot of work into making it a comfortable and effective learning environment. All new classrooms and new sims as well. The entire staff at Loft always goes above and beyond to make you feel at home during your stay.

My husband and kids had an awesome experience! They can't wait to do it again! Very accommodating…read moreand flight was recorded for us and even received a logbook!

I've thought about learning to fly for years and years but it always seemed like a far fetched…read morefantasy. I can't believe I waited so long!! I am so glad I did an introductory flight with Ramin!! And he gave me a veteran discount! I am definitely going to learn to fly now!! Time to start saving for a plane! Or win the lottery ;) Thank you Ramin!! I look forward to this journey!

The crew here at TRU are fantastic! The client service staff (Jamie, Danielle), Sara in sales,…read moreJoey Maniscalco (Director of Training) are all Aces in customer service! Their facility has all the resources necessary for successful training and certification. Highly recommended!

From the owner: The country's leading Cessna Conquest I and II pilot training has expanded into the CitationJet…read moremarket. Newest Level D FAR Part 60 Cessna CJ3 simulator in the world. The industry's only online CitationJet Learning Management System for CitationJets allows year-round access to fully animated interactive aircraft systems training. ProFlight pioneered the computer based, interactive animated aviation training revolution in 1991.

ATP Flight School is an absolute joke of a school. In my opinion, they care more about protecting…read moretheir passing percentages and taking your money than actually teaching students how to succeed. My son was pressured into taking the PAR exam only two weeks into the program when he had barely learned any of the material. A lot of the information on that test is not even covered until months later. The first instructor he had would literally ask him, "What do you want to learn today?" How does a school charging over $130,000 not already have a structured training plan in place? We were also told this would be about a 4 to maybe 5 day per week schedule, but my son was going 6 to 7 days a week constantly. For the amount of money they charge, there should be organization, structure, and actual instruction instead of burning students out while throwing them into tests they are nowhere near prepared for. The first two times my son failed the PAR exam were directly related to poor instruction and lack of preparation. The test costs around $175 every attempt, yet they were perfectly fine sending him in unprepared without properly teaching him the calculations and concepts needed to pass. Then finally he got a decent instructor who actually started teaching him correctly, and surprise -- his score immediately improved because someone finally took the time to help him understand the material. Instead of supporting him, ATP cut him from the program anyway. What makes this even worse is that nobody from ATP has even bothered to call us to discuss what money should be refunded after removing him from the program. They were quick to take payments, but once there's a problem, communication disappears. I hope parents and future students read this before committing their time and money to this place.

Training here costs much more than average yet provides much less return on investment than other…read moreflight schools. I got very few ground school classes and management didn't respect my concerns about this. When paying twice the going rate, the quality of training should be great. It actually sucks! Myself and many others were ripped off here. If the better business bureau or a class action lawsuit doesn't correct the greed here, I'll hope karma triumphs. If you're considering ATP, do yourself a favor and pick any other flight school on the planet.

this is a update. fly san diego flight school is still suspended by the ftb and the secretary of…read morestate says they are suspended with them as well they just haven't updated their website. i will leave a current screenshot taken right before this review. jamie will also not provide you with insurance covering her suspended business. if you fly with her, you are putting yourself in danger.

Booked an intro flight for my hubs and Jamie was more than accommodating about timing. We live in…read moreOC and drove to SD so we were able to book an afternoon flight. You can find Fly San Diego at the Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport under the Casa Machado Restaurant in the terminal building. Hudson was the flight instructor and he explained everything in great detail. Hubs was able to pick between a tour or more hands on time. In the end, we did a bit of both. I would highly recommend them.

My daughter is in her second year at Native School and we cannot say enough good things about it!…read moreUnfortunately there has been some bad publicity because a former employee (trying to steal students away to a competing school she was opening) fed parents misinformation that scared them, including launching a really personal attack against the amazing director, Shannon, who is an incredibly transparent and thoughtful preschool director. She hosts regular meetings for parents to talk to her and will also always be happy to hop on a meeting any afternoon to discuss any questions and concerns. The program itself stood out to me immediately for being a really good supportive model for development. The students are not playing "Lord of the Flies" out in the woods, they are guided and supported by amazing teachers who spend their afternoons writing documentation of the learning in their classrooms and designing emergent curriculum. We could not be happier with the school we chose and our daughter loves school passionately. We have even decided to keep her in Native School another year instead of moving to the free public TK because of how much we love the program and the teachers.

***Warning to parents*** My experience with the teachers…read morewas generally good but you could tell there was a disconnect between them and upper management due to the high turnover rate and disruption in teacher continuity. The frequent and disruptive staff changes significantly effected my 4 year old son who was upset to see teachers come and go. At the end of our semester for 2024-2025 it became worse and substitutes/new faces were very common. We were told by some teachers that quit that safety regs/guidelines were not being followed(especially on rainy/stormy days). All that being said, we decided to pull our child out from the Fall 2025 semester. We had already paid for it but we figured we would be returned our reservation money due to the circumstances. Management refused our first attempt to reimburse us even after my child's spot was filled(Bad business etiquette). So here we are with our reviews and our next steps will be small claims. In the contract it states that they will maintain a consistent and properly staffed program...That was not our experience.