Acme Aviation

Testimonials/References
1) Steve Adams
2) Jack Bernard
3) Andrew Jayne
4) Tommy Fogarty
5) Gary Grant

Dear interested person,

I would like to relate to you the process I used for selecting a flight school and my experience with the one I chose, Acme Aviation. I had been interested in learning to fly for a long time and when I finally found the time to do it, the first thing I did was to talk to the bigger flight schools in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay area. They were all very nice and seemed to be quite capable of getting the job done, but I was a bit disappointed in their failure to convey much of a passion for the art of flying. Just as I was about to sign up with one of the big guys, I decided to do a last minute due diligence at the airport I liked the most, Watsonville. There I talked to all the schools and discovered Acme, where the passion for flying was very apparent. The emphasis on the added challenge and fun of a classic tailwheel aircraft and the value of that instruction in making a better pilot was intriguing. I then asked a close friend of mine about his flight training. He said that he was taught adequately how to takeoff from point A and fly to and land at point B and three years and 500 hours later he was alive and enjoying the convenience and business advantages of flying his own airplane, but there was really nothing noteworthy about his training. Next I talked to a couple my Naval Academy classmates, who were career fighter pilots, about the concepts I discussed at Acme. They were very intrigued and said that when they retired, that was the kind of flying they looked forward to doing. Finally, I asked my father who was a post-WWII Navy fighter pilot and had done the Stearman-SNJ-Bearcat training progression over fifty years ago, but had done very little flying since then. Surprisingly, he initially wondered why I wanted to do the Acme program and not the easier to fly newer airplanes. However, once he talked to a few old Navy buddies who had kept up with flying the entire time, he realized that the Acme concept was definitely the way to go. But he did caution that the quality of the instruction would be especially important and that learning on a tailwheel is not innately difficult, but does require more teaching ability and patience from the instructor. The reward would be a trained pilot more knowledgeable about the art of flying.

I decided to give Acme a shot and I can definitely say that my expectations have been exceeded. Shawn Kelly, my instructor, has done a masterful job. His instruction has been superb! I can best judge that by the fact that I feel very comfortable about all aspects of flying the airplane taught to me by Shawn so far, and am having a lot of fun doing it. In addition to piloting skills, Shawn's continuous emphasis on safety and good judgment has broadened my perspective on the realities of general aviation flying and has given me confidence to pursue it more fully in the future. One notable example of Shawn's teaching philosophy is spin training. According to "Stick and Rudder" (a bible for piloting) most fatal lightplane accidents are not caused by engine/structural failure of the airplane or weather, as most people would think, but by improper execution of a turn, which ends up in a spin. Consequently, the FAA requires that students get an "appreciation" for spins. Because many training aircraft are not authorized for intentional spins, the FAA is forced to mandate only a "discussion" to fulfill the requirement for spin appreciation. After our spin discussion, Shawn and I went up for a training flight where he promptly demonstrated a spin (the Acme aircraft is authorized). At that moment I thought I was real fortunate to get the added perspective of actually riding in an airplane that had spun. I was all ready to fly off and do the next maneuver in the training syllabus when Shawn turned to me and said "now it's your turn". I then proceeded to do several spins myself under Shawn's watchful eye; I put the aircraft into the spins and did the recoveries. There is definitely no better way to get an appreciation for such a critical concept in flying while training! This obviously goes far beyond the FAA requirement for private pilot instruction, and it was a lot of fun (after the first one).

We are fortunate to have Acme Aviation right in our back yard. I know that my experiences here will have a significant influence on my pursuit of flying in the future.

Jack Bernard
June 2002

Light Sport Airplanes West - Flight Training Center:
Salinas Airport Terminal Building
70 Mortensen Avenue, Salinas CA 93905
Phone: 831.754 2263
info@acme-aviation.com

Office Hours
9am-5pm Every Day
[Please call for appointments]
Flying Lessons
Any Day, Any Time - by appointment.

Acme Aviation is the official flight training school for Light Sport Airplanes West. We show and train in our Piper J3 Clipped Wing Cub and Cessna 140 tailwheel aircraft. Light Sport Airplanes West is the West Coast Distributor for the state-of-the-art Evektor Sports Star, Flight Design CT Cruiser, Tecnam Bravo, Tecnam Sierra and Allegro.
Our aircraft, instructors, syllabus and service are first class. Try a $49 intro flight and find out why we are one of the best flight schools in the Bay Area.