California Flight Training

By Matthew Everett

Flight training can be costly and difficult depending on your training environment. A lot of times it makes sense to travel for your training in order to save time and money. With more than 1,000 airports, one of the more popular destinations for future pilots seeking flight training is California. California, the third largest state in the US, is blessed with a climate and diverse geography that create an ideal training environment.

California's Ideal Climate for Flight Training

One of the most overlooked aspects in all of flying is air temperatures. How hot or cold it is can affect the way your airplane flies and it can affect the way you fly your airplane. Generally speaking, cooler air will yield better climb performance in your aircraft. Similarly, while you don't want to be preflighting a plane in freezing air, sweltering heat isn't all that pleasant a flying environment either. While California is known for one of the hottest locations on earth, Death Valley, most of the state has a very regulated temperature range with low temperatures averaging 40 degrees in the winter to high temperatures averaging only about 85 degrees in the summer.

California has a somewhat love-hate relationship with rain. It can suffer long dry periods followed by short periods of dense rain. This can increase the risk of certain climate issues, such as fires or mudslides, but it also means the average day in California is a VFR flying day, perfect for your training flight. Incidentally, with so much varied landscape at hand, if you can't fly at one airport, there may be another close by with perfect weather just waiting for you to take to the skies.

California's Diverse Geography, Key to Flight Training Success

California was invaded by the movie industry decades ago because of its extremely varied geography. Home to coast line, mountains, and desert, it is entirely possible to find any flying conditions you will ever encounter within the bounds of the state of California. From mountain flying in high elevations and desert operations over hot and unforgiving terrain to flights over scenic beaches you will find it all in California.

California is also home to many international airports, such as Los Angeles International, that will allow you to regularly interact with lots of aircraft in very large, busy airspace. Don't be alarmed, even though California has very large, congested airspace, it also has a lot of low traffic airspace that will be perfect for practicing your maneuvers or just sightseeing. Additionally, California is home to Van Nuys Airport, the busiest general aviation airport in the world. If that's not your speed, you can also easily find small airports in California that are off the beaten path.

No matter what your flying or training desire, California has you covered. For more information on flight training in California, check out San Diego Flight Training International. Located in San Diego, they are one of the premier flight schools in California. For more information on flight training in general, check out our Flight Training Resource Center.

Matthew Everett is a private pilot, aviation writer, and frequent contributor to AviationSchoolsOnline.com. You can follow him on twitter @leaving_tf or find his blog at http://leavingterrafirma.com.