This by far the best aviation school I have been to. I tried 2 schools before and Im picky. Clean and well maintained airplanes, great customer service and wonderful training team. Terry, Chris and Niklas are amazing CFIs. Highly recommended.

Trade Winds Aviation in San Jose, CA is an outstanding organization. Flight training is with excellent CFIs who are both experts in their field and passionate about flying. Trade Winds shop and maintenance are exemplary...so you can be confident that the fleet is maintained to the highest standards. Very good management. Friendly and efficient staff. I recommend Trade Winds Aviation without reservation.

A great place to learn how to fly. I was only able to take ground school but even that was well done. Theyve expanded their classroom floorspace and can accommodate more students at one time. All of their instructors are top notch. They also have a very competent squad of mechanics. Best of all, they havepilot fuel ... snacks and coffee!

Positively the worst flight school on the field. I tried them twice, with several years between. Both times the flight instructor stood me up without notice, and without apology. The second time I was there, the instructor told me his rate was higher than normal because he had an ATP (airline transport pilot) rating. I needed a BFR (bi-annual flight review). He told me he was only working there because he got kicked out of the airlines for safety violations. In short, he charged me that higher rate for about 2 hours of time with no flight time and I didnt get my BFR, which I needed to get flying again. We rescheduled for the next weekend, then he stood me up, without notice. Never again. There are plenty of other flight schools on the airport.[reply to Trade Winds aviation]As stated in the review, I have been a student there twice, although both times for only a short period. So trade winds adds insult to injury by claiming I dont exist. Tell me something. If I never went there how do I know details about your flight instructors? Ill bet you didnt even bother to check.

This school struggles to attract and retain talent, which is understandable in the current pilot shortage environment. However, the situation that I experienced was all to the detriment of the student. Of my primary flight instructors, 3/3 left or are leaving the school imminently. My first instructor was very capable, but left shortly after we began training to seek a better salary at another flight school. My second instructor, who was decidedly less capable, saw a 50% salary raise (probably the clubs retention attempt) and took me on several costly cross-country flights. Then, with zero notice, he left the school before completing the solo cross country milestone with me. It took the club months to locate my third instructor, and before they did, they proposed a higher hourly rate advanced instructor as a stand in. The third instructor, who may have meant well, re-flew the entire course from slow flight with me costing me thousands of dollars to re-qualify for Solo -- then we had to refly the cross country portions entirely as well! At the time of this review, the 3rd instructor is scheduled to leave imminently for personal reasons. That led to a rush to get qualified before his departure which ultimately led to the falling out with the owner of this club. The owner, while appearing initially to support my training, and seeking in fact to involve me somehow in his aircraft leasing operations of the club, today unilaterally chose to fire me (his customer) because I was not making sufficient progress after needing to refly my stage 7 check. The blame for this unfortunate cascade of situations was put 100% on my shoulders. The owner failed to acknowledge any responsibility or propose any meaningful remediation. Overall, I would recommend against this club as it seems a shadow of its former self. The owner took his personal frustrations out on his customer (me) who rightly questioned the value proposition of having to repeat entire sections of work already established. Give this club a miss until they can regroup and refocus on the customer.

Took a fight lesson in June 2015 and had the best time. My instructor was very patient, explained everything very well and we got to see gorgeous landscapes and the hills of the bay area.

High quality flight training. A bit pricey, but for good reason. Lots of member benefits. Incredible staff and instructors.

Fantastic place to rent an aircraft. Well maintained, clean planes. Professional and responsive dispatchers. Best FBO I have rented from (out of five nationally).

Great place. Rocky is a great instructor.

Lang waiting times until a flight instructor is assigned. Intransparent communication.