There are many great options for students looking for a college aviation program.  Many colleges offer programs designed to prepare students to join the aviation industry by providing training to become pilots or air traffic controllers. These colleges operate under FAR Part 141 and provide an FAA-approved curriculum.

In this seminar, we have invited in pilots from a handful of the most prominent aviation college programs in the country to share their experiences.  How do the programs differ?  What should a new student know when evaluating these programs?  Come and ask our panelists about their reasons for selecting the school they chose and how their experience lived up to the expectations.

Instrument Flight Rules are highly regimented.  They are designed to keep pilots and passengers safe while flying completely blind through clouds and weather.  Altitudes must be maintained, courses have to be tracked tightly, and radio communication must allow air traffic controllers to maneuver planes around traffic and conflicts.  But what happens when radios fail? Although it doesn’t happen often, radio communication equipment can be faulty or inoperative mid-flight, even while a pilot is flying IFR in instrument conditions.  For safety, there are very specific rules an instrument pilot must comply with in the event of radio failure, and the rules are far more structured that those for a VFR pilot.  The basic rule is to continue with the flight as previously instructed by air traffic control, but the regulations don’t cover every situation and there can be some gray areas. One local DPE recently commented that 95% of instrument applicants fail to answer questions about lost comm procedures, so many of you are likely confused about it too. Join SCFC Assistant Chief Pilot and IFR expert Brian Eliot as he presents “Lost Comms in IMC”.  He’ll clarify the IFR lost communication procedures, and specifically discuss the areas most pilots find confusing.  After this seminar, you will find a new comfort in how to handle a lost communication situation even in IMC.

Who do you force to fly with you? Is there a spouse, friend, or family member that frequently joins you on flights? This seminar is for them!

Flying in the right seat is a great privilege that many people don’t make the most of. There are so many opportunities to make this experience memorable by helping the pilot to spot traffic, tuning radios, reading checklists, or folding up charts that the pilot does not need anymore. 

In this seminar, a panel of friends and family of San Carlos Flight Center pilots will share their experiences and answer some moderated questions about the fun of tagging along on a flight.

All attending San Carlos Flight Center members and guests will receive an SCFC Co-Pilot log book!

The G1000 is now found in most aircraft manufactured within the last 10-15 years. Odds are if you are a renter and desire a glass cockpit, you will be flying with the G1000.    In this seminar, San Carlos Fight Center Chief Pilot Dan Dyer and CFI Oscar Martinez will be introducing the G1000 system. While primarily focused for the G1000 beginner, all who have G1000 experience are welcomed. We will plan a cross country flight with the audience and review how to enter all the procedures into the G1000 GPS including departure, enroute, arrival. approach and taxi. Modern GPS avionics usually have more than one way to accomplish a task so input from all will be welcomed.

San Carlos Flight Center teaches student pilots that there are 3 types of Class G airspace, Class G-low, Class G-mid, and Class G-high.  Do you know the differences between them? Where do you look it up? What happens to Class D when the tower closes?  How well do you know airspace?

Let’s face it, airspace is an imaginary concept.  It’s just a short cut way of talking about the set of Federal Aviation regulations that apply by location and altitude, and the impact they have on VFR flight.  As confusing as you think the rules are, with a quick refresher, you’ll be back to full knowledge in no time.

If it has been awhile since you sat through ground school, you may be due for an airspace refresher. In this safety seminar, we will review the different classes of airspace that are found in the United States. We’ll cover their shapes, sizes, operating rules, and also cover special use airspace. You will leave the seminar with a renewed understanding, and probably a few memory aids to take with your on your next flight.

This safety seminar is open to current and aspiring Private Pilots, and will be of particular interest to students pilots and those who are preparing for a flight review.

What’s next after Private and Instrument?  Many pilots have no interest in working toward a career as an Air Transport Pilot, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t great reasons to continue training.  If you have enough flight hours, you should consider training for your Commercial certificate, which can unlock some great flight opportunities and give you benefits beyond Private. 

Join us as SCFC CFI Reed Coté reviews reasons for obtaining your Commercial certificate, and the benefits of having it.  He’ll show how having your Commercial ticket can increase your ability to log cross-country flight time, and let you turn a fun hobby into a fun hobby with occasional contribution to the bottom line.  He will review the FAA regulations regarding aeronautical experience requirements, and outline the training path required to get it.  You may only be a few new maneuvers away from experiencing the thrill of compensated flight.

After an aircraft accident, government regulators and industry come together with a common purpose - to identify the factors that allowed the accident to happen, and change things so that they cannot happen again.  Our willingness to change aviation regulations and operating procedures is one reason why aviation is so much safer today than it was 60 years ago.  We are always learning and always trying to identify and eliminate risks.  Pilots sometimes refer to FARs with reverence as having been written in blood, meaning that tragedies of the past and the lives of past airmen and memorialized forever in policy changes that protect future pilots. In this seminar, Ben Taber brings to San Carlos Flight Center a discussion of some memorable accidents in the past, and shows how much the aviation community changed as a result of those accidents.  He’ll review how major aviation accidents and near misses result in regulatory changes, and/or changes to standard procedures used by air carriers.  Pilots will come away from this presentation with a healthier respect for aviation best practices, standard procedures and checklists, federal regulations, and POH limitations.

Have you ever taken a kid on their first flight? As a pilot, having the opportunity to ignite the passion for aviation in a young person's soul means the world, but you need to keep in mind that safety always comes first. With new passengers, a pilot needs to take many safety precautions. 

In this seminar, EAA Chapter 20’s president Oliver Coolidge and Elizabeth will cover the procedures to safely conduct an EAA Young Eagles flight. Review passenger management techniques and get prepared for San Carlos Flight Center and EAA Chapter’ 20’s joint Young Eagles event on June 15th.

GPS is a wonderful tool for instrument flying, but sometimes it can be tricky. Is my approach loaded? Is it activated? This is something you really need to know!

First-generation approach-certified GPS units required a specific action on the part of the pilot to place them into approach mode. That action, along with some of the buttons that used to be on IFR-certified GPS units, are missing from the latest generation devices. What replaced them? It's easy for pilots to experience "mode confusion" regarding the approach status of the GPS. Is the approach loaded? Is it active? When and where do I check?

In this seminar, SCFC’s in-house instrument expert Brian Eliot will cover the procedures an IFR pilot needs to take to safely manage a GPS approach. If you are an IFR pilot and plan to use GPS approaches, join us for this informative seminar.

Pilots N Paws is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that connects volunteers engaged in rescuing, sheltering, and adopting animals. Volunteer pilots and plane owners assist with animal transportation (a.k.a. "Freedom Flights") and coordinate with volunteers on the ground to get rescue animals to appropriate shelters, foster homes, adoptive families, and sometimes specialized veterinary care. This seminar, appropriate for both newer and more experienced pilots, will provide information on Pilots N Paws as well as best practices for public benefit flying - safety considerations, tips for coordinating with ground volunteers, and how to keep "furry passengers" comfortable. Ashley Carroll, AGI and Commercial Pilot, and Sarah Sobczak, Instrument-rated Private Pilot, will share their experiences conducting Freedom Flights. Learn how to use the Pilots N Paws website and safely conduct rewarding Freedom Flights.  A Pilots N Paws flight would be the perfect way to make use of the San Carlos Flight Center charitable flight benefits to enrich our community.