I just finished my CFII with GATTS and the chief pilot Willie Flores. The professionalism and dedication from the accommodation, checkride scheduling, ground and flight instruction they put into the students is top notch and surpass that in all the flight instructors that I've worked with in the San Francisco Bay Area. I would not hesitate to travel back from California to Kansas for more advanced ratings. Again, just like flight training in any other parts of the States, weather, mechanical issue and examiner availability can cause delays. Be prepared to spend extra days - but they will try their best to make sure the training remains on schedule as much as possible. read more

Gatts - New GATTS training facility in downtown Manhattan. - Test Preparation Near Me - Manhattan, Kansas

(Using my wife's account). After failing my check ride in California in December 2019, I went to GATTS and then received my instrument rating in July, 2020. But the GATTS I experienced is nothing like what was on the web site or what I was told to expect. The web site has a copyright of 2012. The business was sold in 2019 to a new owner. I was there for a week and never met Dale or Jason Wolcott. As far as I can tell, other than sharing office space with a turbine training school run by Jason, the Wolcott's have no involvement in GATTS. I was told there were four instructors, one who had been there less than a month and neither Dale or Jason was one of the four. I did not receive any curriculum or training materials. There was an instructor with a headset who flew in my plane, nothing more. I was told the training fee ($4,000 for 5 days) would include a hangar for my plane, an apartment, a car and the check ride fee. When I arrived, the apartment was occupied by another customer. In order to have a kitchenette for my stay (indoor dining shut down due to Covid-19) I had to rent a room at the Candlewood which cost me $828 for which they gave me a $500 credit. The car provided had a broken engine mount and 160,000 on the odometer. I was told by Matt, the new GATTS owner, they planned to use it until "it don't want to be fixed anymore". I interpreted that to be until it left one too many customers on the side of the road. The hangar was 40' wide, less 8" for electrical boxes on both sides which left 39' 4". My plane has a wingspan of 38' 3", so there was about 6" clearance on each wing tip. Pushing the plane in/out with the tow bar was serious hangar rash waiting to happen. I was not anxious to have AOG in Manhattan, KS and there is a constant threat of thunderstorms. You won't see many planes on the ramp at KMHK. I rented a larger hangar from the jet center which cost me $60/night. The instructor was not familiar with the G1000NXi and kept referring to the operation of a Garmin 430 and G1000 and issuing instructions that were not relevant to the G1000NXi. Most disturbing was his insistence that climbing when on an instrument flight plan was limited to 500fpm. After rotation, he repeatedly told me to "drop the nose" and climb less steeply whenever we were on an instrument flight plan. When flying VFR he allowed me to climb at Vy. The instructor was apparently not familiar with AIM 4-4-10 d. which explains that 500fpm is the minimum rate of climb expected under IFR and that the pilot is obligated to advise ATC if they are unable to maintain at least 500fpm. I have no doubt you can go to GATTS and get a crash course that will get you through the instrument check ride. But don't expect it to bear any resemblance to what you are reading on their web site. And don't expect to depart as a proficient instrument pilot. Caveat emptor. read more

I went to GATTS based off of many older reviews I read, only to find it under new ownership. The seven day IFR school turned into two trips and over 30 days for me, and I still don't have my instrument rating. Matt, the new owner, is a nice guy but the first red flag was when he told me that that didn't do any oral test prep, that was all on me. Matt took my logbook on day one, returning it to me the day of the check ride. He had just filled it in with numbers that were required, I don't think it remotely reflected what we had actually done. The weather kept us from flying for days on end, Kansas weather sucks. Finally I was sent to the 82 year old DPE, even though I didn't feel ready, and failed my check ride due to my autopilot "glitching". I went home depressed, and not really wanting to go back. I wasn't impressed, and it's a long flight to get there. I did end up going back a couple of months later, and doing some polish work to try and get ready. The day of the check ride I was sent to the DPE with a new instructor who wasn't even a CFII, and again failed my checkride due to my autopilot again malfunctioning. It has never malfunctioned before these two incidents, or since. After working with a CFII at home, I was told that one technique Matt had taught me, while not prohibited, is highly frowned upon by the FAA and most DPE's. plus it is very dangerous. I'm not going back, I'm finishing it out at my home airport. I'm not going to say that the money I spent was a total waste, I did get a good bit of the fundamentals of instrument flight, but I've still got quite a bit more work to do. read more