Sky Chiefs Aviation

"I'm thrilled to share my positive experience with this flight school for my Private Pilot License (PPL). Ryan, my instructor, has been an incredible match for me in terms of personality and teaching style. After a disappointing encounter with a previous instructor at a different FBO, I made the switch to Ryan and couldn't be happier. The dedication to maintaining their fleet is impressive – the planes, including the 152 and 172, are well cared for with routine oil changes, tire replacements, and even repaints, all carried out by the on-site certified mechanic. Having access to the maintenance logs for review instills confidence in the safety of each flight. Thanks to this flight school and Ryan's guidance, I've not only excelled in my preflight checks but have also found renewed enthusiasm for pursuing my PPL."

"Took my son on an introductory flight it was awesome"

"I got checked out at Sky Chiefs Aviation in the C-152 (N67410) in 9/18 for the purposes of building flight time for my IFR and Commercial Pilot License. I believe I had the checkout flight scheduled 4 times. The first time was cancelled due to weather, the second and third were cancelled upon arrival to the airport and finding out the battery in the aircraft was dead and the starter would not engage due to this dead battery. Well, this is just the start of my poor experience as a customer at Sky Chiefs Aviation. After renting the aircraft a few times I noticed a trend that never ceased. The 152 would NEVER pass an engine run-up on the first attempt. Even after leaning the mixture while taxiing, one of the magnetos would never fail to drop at least 250+ rpm on the run-up. So, every time I flew this plane, I had to clear the mags prior to takeoff - up to this point I had never flown a plane in my ~240 hours of flight time that had this continuous issue. After squawking the mag issue on the aircraft logs, it seemed Ryan (the owner) did not care, and the problem was never resolved. There was also an issue with the transponder's mode C altitude encoding capabilities to be intermittent, this would often cause issue with flight following when ATC would not be able to see our altitude on the radar. Not a huge issue, but this was also squawked by myself and never resolved by Ryan. I started to see a trend, a flight school owner that seemingly had little care for his customers or his aircraft, not to mention the exterior condition of the 152. The plane was never washed during my one year of renting from the school, always covered in oil residue and dirt/grime. This was certainly no way to treat your aircraft. On an eventful day on July 19th, 2019 flying the Cessna 152. The following occurred: I had asked a CFI friend of mine to join me on a cross country flight to KSSI (St Simons Island Airport) in Georgia. The flight up was a nonevent, perfect conditions and no issues at all. The return trip, however, was a different story. After departing SSI, weather conditions began to deterioriate in Northern Florida, so I decided to divert to KHEG in Jacksonville, FL. After we waited out the routine afternoon thunderstorms in HEG, we decided to continue back to X60 (Williston, FL). About 15 minutes into leveling off at cruise altitude, we were faced with a severe power loss. Immediately, carburetor heat was applied, with no discernible change in power. This was no slight roughness or “momentary drop in RPM”, as the owner (Ryan Foote) said. This was a severe power loss, followed by erratic and un-commanded power surges. At one point while the throttle was at an 100% power setting, the engine was only operating at around 1000 RPM. I now knew that a prompt landing was necessary, and it would be far too risky to continue to an airport beyond gliding distance. There was only one paved runway in gliding distance as referenced on ForeFlight, and this was an old military base that had been turned into a State Prison - so we decided to land here upon given permission from Jacksonville Approach Control. Upon landing, I called Ryan and explained the sequence of events. He, to no surprise, seemingly had no care for the safety of myself and my passenger, and immediately said "run the engine up and if its runs fine - fly it back to Williston". To this I said - "I am not flying this airplane until it is properly checked by a mechanic." Since this, Ryan has stated that I should have made “better aeronautical decision making and troubleshooting.” My Passenger (a CFI) can attest that the most appropriate actions were taken. I cannot believe the claims Ryan has made and the unbelievable charges he placed on my account. Ryan's disregard to my safety and his condescending, rude and speculative statements have caused me to cease business with Sky Chiefs Aviation. I have rented from several flight schools in the past, and none have treated me so poorly. I would not recommend anyone to continue or start business with Sky Chiefs Aviation in the future."