All In the Family

Thrust Flight, the Addison, Texas-based flight academy—has announced that it has earned FAA Examining Authority over the Commercial Single-Engine Land facet of its Part 141-approved training curriculum.

Examining Authority enables designated academy personnel to perform check-rides for enrolled students pursuing Commercial Pilot Certification. Such discretion is only afforded flight-schools that demonstrably and consistently provide their students high-quality ground and flight training. Thrust Flight is among only a few institutions in North Texas to receive Examining Authority.

The U.S. is in the midst of a nationwide shortage of Designated Pilot Examiners—pilots authorized by the FAA to perform check-rides in the stead of FAA examiners. Of late, students are apt to wait in excess of one month to take their check-rides from an FAA designee examiner—a very long time for individuals who must maintain perishable flying skills and retain considerable volumes of eminently pedantic data. By doing away with unreasonable certification delays and considerable examination fees—several hundred dollars in most instances—Examining Authority reduces student pre-test anxiety, improves check-ride performance, and allows monies otherwise allocated to extraneous fees to be reinvested in flight-training.

Thrust Flight chief flight operations officer Liz Brassaw states: “Our team has been working hard to achieve this for some time and we’re excited to be one of the few schools in the country to offer this to our students.”

Flight schools that receive Examining Authority are held to high standards by the FAA. To ensure the paramountcy of their curricula, instructors, facilities, and student performance standards, such institutions endure oversight in perpetuity. Qualification for Examining Authority is predicted upon a flight-school’s students maintaining a ninety-percent first-time pass rate while testing with Designated Pilot Examiners not employed by subject school.

Thrust Flight’s Commercial Pilot program is the first of its curricula to receive approval for Examining Authority.

 FMI: www.thrustflight.com