Venture North Aviation LLC

"Great training facility. Came up from Chicago, very in depth training course with a lot of flying time available. Thanks to my good ground sessions, and my CFI instructor Dan and my commercial instructor Nolan I was able to accomplish everything I wanted within two weeks. Fast pace courses so make sure you come prepared with some knowledge and self study prep complete. Everyone was highly motivated to help me succeed. Examiners are very thorough and fair but be prepared. Highly recommend!"

"The dedicated team at Venture North helped me to achieve my goal of becoming a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) with an Instrument Rating (CFI-I). I work full-time in an industry outside of aviation, so I could not put my life on pause to go to a traditional school for 2 months. The 10 day CFI course did exactly what I needed to achieve this goal. It is tailored specifically to dedicated pilots who are ready to become CFIs. The course materials are fantastic. I downloaded them several months in advance of the course date. I studied them and knew them so that when I came in, I was prepared. The airplanes are in top-notch condition. I never imagined I would obtain the CFI-I in a brand new airplane with the G1000! The ground instruction with Dan was fantastic. He was able to fill in all of the gaps that I had in my own self-study. I was thoroughly prepared for the oral for both CFI and Double I. Nolan was my dedicated flight instructor for both. He nearly wore me out as he whipped me into shape for both check rides. He worked with me tirelessly until he felt that I was ready. The facilities are also top notch here. Come prepared to work hard and to study hard. The team at Venture North will help you to achieve your goals."

"Five stars not enough for this school, I finished my CFI course in 5 days. I enjoyed my staying there especially when you feel everyone one around in the school want to help and make those 5 days very easy for you. Very good instructors and they always ready to help if you have any problem understanding something they set with you and try hard to make understand it.they have very nice planes.I want to thank everyone over there for helping me drive home with my CFI."

"Incredibly fast paced but extremely thorough training. Be prepared to study hard, focus, and put many hours into training. Facility and airplanes will spoil you; you won't want to go home to your old airplanes, and the instructors are outstanding. Tristan, in particular, has the patience of a saint and the knowledge of a thousand instructors. My time at Venture for my Instrument rating was invaluable."

"As a former (23 year) US Air Force pilot, and currently a 23 year Delta Air Lines captain, I can safely say I’ve been through many pilot training programs - initial, upgrade, transition, instructor - I’ve seen and experienced them all it seems. With that experience, I can say Venture North Aviation is absolutely outstanding - instructors, training environment, staff, aircraft, facilities, syllabi, organization, structure and hospitality are absolutely top shelf. As an airline captain with an ATP, I wanted to add a commercial and CFI, so I searched for flight training schools/programs that offered accelerated courses (for each) where I could immerse myself in “the training environment”. I found several, however I chose Venture North Aviation - living in Utah, Minnesota was a bit far, but I was looking for comprehensive training where I could immerse myself in the learning environment. Plus, I would come to discover that norther Minnesota is quite beautiful. So, in July of this year (2023), I called Bill, the owner of Venture North, and explained what I would like to accomplish. He said his team accommodates the type of training I needed and added me to their schedule for the following month (August). If you’re considering Venture North, contact them early as classes fill fast and it could take several months for them to fit you in. I took a couple weeks off from work, flew up to Duluth, took an Uber to Cloquet, checked into my hotel and the next morning took a cab to the Cloquet Carlton Airport and found the Venture North facility - easy! Met the others in our class starting that day, Bill greeted us, welcomed everyone and took the class to the facility conference room where he gave and outstanding welcoming brief and overview. I was now sure I found the “right school”. There were nine of us starting that day - each with different goals, private pilot, commercial, CFI, CFII, transition… Bill had a plan for each of us already mapped out - assigned instructor, assigned aircraft, training schedule and checkride-day all planned out - no guess work. My assigned instructor was Mac, an exceptional young man whom I hope to have as a first officer very soon at Delta Air Lines. Basically, an 18,000 hours guy getting superb, top-shelf training from a young man starting his aviation career (and it will be a bright one as Mac is exceptionally professional, knowledgeable and knows how to instruct). From what I heard from others going through training, they felt similar about their instructors. Where did Bill find such talent? Don’t know, but he has struck a gold vein in recruiting exceptional talent. I started training/that Monday with Mac, my commercial checkride was scheduled for that upcoming Friday with Bill. Mac and I flew once, twice sometimes three times a day. On Wednesdays, the school hosts a BBQ at the main hangar, and in between flights and/or ground training we (students and instructors) would play Pickleball almost daily. In short, I got the best training, everything exceeded my expectations! As planned, Friday was checkride day - Bill, one of the school’s DPEs, was my examiner - he was pleasant, professional, extremely knowledgeable and very thorough which I appreciated. Passing the commercial checkride, the next Monday, as planned, I started CFI training. Dan, another Venture North instructor, was amazing - knowledgeable, professional, an excellent instructor prepared me perfectly for my CFI checkride. Again, I was more-than-prepared for the checkride! Thank you Mac, Dan, Bill and everyone at Venture North for making the two weeks in northern Minnesota AWESOME. I’ve attached a few pictures of some of the things the instructors and I did while I was there. I’m going back to Venture North in March 2024 for their Garmin G3X Touch transition course."