Third Coast Aviation

About the offering

There is a desperate need for pilots in the United States - according to CAE Inc., 85,000 new airline pilots are needed over the next 10 years. Impediments to fulfillment of this growing need include: affordable and safe training rental aircraft, available Certified Flight Instructors ('CFI'), financing for students through their Commercial Pilots' License ('CPL'), a roadmap for transitioning careers, and customer service at flight schools. That's where we come in at Third Coast Aviation! We didn't start as most flight training organizations did - a licensed pilot tires of their job and decides to become a CFI, finds a plane, and hangs out a shingle, or as we've heard it put, "A bubba, a truck and a plane." No, we are a group of professionals who saw an opportunity (a huge need for training and absolutely no customer service) and brought our experience in operations (our president wrote the book on operations management, "The Operational Tool Chest: The DNA to Successful Organizations"), merchant banking, and adult training to bear on flight training. Third Coast Aviation Inc. ('TCA') is a Part 61 flight training organization providing flight training at historic Ellington Field (KEFD) and Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport (KLBX), working with commercial bound students transitioning into an aviation career. "Part 61 flight training" refers to the Federal Aviation Regulation defining CFI-centric training. There are also Part 141 flight schools that are FAA-regulated flight schools adhering to a strict curriculum. Even though we adhere to a curriculum developed by our Director of Curriculum, Nick Harwood, we believe the Part 141 process does not suit the majority of our students (20% of our students come from 141 schools frustrated by the lack of flexibility in their training and finish their training with us). We are building a network of Part 61 flight schools throughout the Houston - The Woodlands - Sugar Land metropolitan area, delivering on the promise of a great lifestyle (being a pilot is just fun) and a great job (pilots can start with our airline partners at $65,000 plus bonuses their first year)!

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