Marana Flight School

"DO NOT RECOMMEND. This place will waste your time and your money. Do not be fooled by their attempts at sincerity. Avoid this “school” if you want quality flight training. There are other, better options at Marana and Ryan. AVOID, AVOID, AVOID. Updated 2/27/24: Your response to me, and all the other accurate negative reviews on this site, is inaccurate and an attempt to defuse your poor business practices. On the day I booked my night flight you had no prior commitments nor bookings. You (Keith) refused to let me fly my planned cross-country because of an arbitrary 48 hour "rule" for approval. Strange, because according to my instructor you (Cody) had approved the flight in your normal 24 hour window. You prevented me from using my flight time."

"HORRIBLE experience! Don't let 4.3 stars mislead you like it did me and other recent students. I flew 19.2 hours with Marana Flight School, dealings with instructors was mostly good until owners got involved in flight training. Which was on a daily basis. Don't let the early communication and attention get you like it did us. That communication only continues if you keep getting drug along and just take their word for everything. Please do your homework and don't pick these guys because of price. It will COST you in the long run. There are other options at the airport and airports near by that will provide more efficient training, better communicate with you, and save you money. Update: dispite wasted time at this school. I was able to move forward with a school interested in enabling and progressing rather than holding students back. I completed my private, instrument, and commercial airplane in a short time. The instructors are great and am thankful to them for what they could impart on me in spite of the manipulative restrictions placed on them by the ownership. My guess is the instructors will be gone soon as they can't take any more from ownership, which does not take long. Also, since I see we are adding credentials to reviews, I have 2 decades of aviation experience, and over 1 decade of instructor experience in helicopters. Also got a job with a major 121 airline after breaking away from this "school". STAY AWAY!!! Update to unsolicited response: Owner response is a desperate and melicious attempt by the owners to difuse valuable and honest reviews. My review was a warning to people looking to get value on the large amount of money they are about to spend on flight training. There are MUCH better options out there. Please do not take my word for it, ask around the airport, call local DPEs who's phone numbers are available to you on the FAA website. Do your research before you give them your money. They should work for you, you are the customer. Take a look at other reviews here and as well as yelp. Ask the right questions. Have them show you records of how many hours they are taking to get their students to solo, complete the PPL, how many check rides do they have scheduled, etc. there are many resources online to help you ask the right questions. Management team, My name is not Jesse, please review your records and correct. You are also welcome to contact me directly anytime as I am sure your extensive "customer service team" still has my phone number. "Expulsion"? You can call it what you like, but I would say that is a poor representation of what was a mutual disagreement. You refused to train me because I refused to let ownership waste my time and money. Please feel free to also contact me on the matters of "manipulating federal funds" and "manipulating my digital logbook"? I am curious about the funds you received from the government for my contracted 21 hours of flight training, but only provided 19.2? Curious if the shortage was ever return to the U.S. government? You never answered my multiple calls or emails requesting resolution? As for "manipulation of my digital logbook", all flight time recorded in paper and digital logbook is in accordance with the FAR to the best of my ability as confirmed by multiple DPEs prior to all 5 successful FAA check rides conducted after my time at your awful "school". I also value honest, direct, and open communication and can be reached anytime at the phone number you have on file, please contact me direcly with your future responses no need to respond here. Thank you."

"I have been reviewing comments left by other individuals in regard to Marana flight School. I have been in aviation for over 25 years and I was myself a customer/student at Marana flight school. While the CFI’s I dealt with were somewhat knowledgeable, the owners are super unprofessional and shady. They are very deceptive about their methods of charging people and do not like to be questioned. They also do not know FAA regulations and try to manipulate the CFI’s to conduct training in such a way that only benefits the company not the student. I know FAR’s and constantly had to argue with the owner as to how my training should be conducted. I was constantly told I had to do training the way they wanted it done which would cost me exponentially more money. After to speaking with several former students and CFI’s the flight school is only concerned with making themselves more money not helping the student. Please do your research when choosing a flight school and read the reviews left here. You’ll notice there are more negative reviews than positive which should tell you something about this flight school."

"The aviation community is built on trust and honesty. This school has none, and cares more about getting a few extra dollars out of you than running a fair business. If you speak to other pilots at AVQ, they will tell you the same thing."

"Marana Flight Schools made sure I was able to finish my private when covid hit in 2020 and did everything in their power to help me along the way. I have flown with them since and the current flight instructors are knowledgeable, friendly, and professional. As long as you put in the work and study the flight instructors will make sure you have everything you need to pass your checkride."