This school is unethical. One of their customers rented their airplane and died, after trying to control the uncontrollable airplane for nearly 3 hours. The first thing the school did was try to shed any blame off themselves by suggesting/speculating intentional pilot actions. Their airplane that crashed, N5203H, was also previously totalled in 2016 but they kept flying it anyways. If you love life and care about your loved ones, I'd avoid this school. There are plenty of other schools that won't turn their back on you if you have an accident. read more

One has to wonder why all of the reviews are more the 3 years old. The biggest mistake made by people interested in getting their PPL is naivete. They don't know what to ask. Understand that less than 20% of students actually achieve their PPL. The challenges are cost, availability of instructors and planes, weather, instructor objectives, personal availability, and other minor obstacles. Instruction quality can be both lacking or superior depending on who is teaching. If your goal is to get your PPL quickly, a flight school is a bad choice. Do some research before you decide. I didn't and I've spent over 4 years, $90K, and have had 5 instructors in pursuit of my PPL. If you're not in a rush and are just curious, it will work for you. It isn't easy and requires commitment. Get some guidance and explore the alternatives. Instructors have to complete your training and sign you off for your check ride. If they leave for better opportunities, you have to start over. At $300 and hour for rental and instructor cost, it gets expensive fast. read more

I did ground school there. I would choose Andy McSunas' PPL ground course. He goes over many questions and is very patient, going over materials. I felt prepared and did well for the written. I would definitely skip their IFR ground course. It is questions only and the instructor doesn't care to upload videos or answer questions during the course. I would probably have to pay someone to get me over the hump. VERY DISSATISFIED! read more

I've been a student pilot here for my private license since June. This is a well run organization filled with instructors who are passionate about aviation. The planes are relatively new, from early 2000 to 2010, and are well kept to ensure safety. For example, once I was doing pre-flight and noticed that there was a bit of white tread showing, and the plane was grounded to swap a new tire. The good: - Newer & safe planes - Solid Instructors (on the most part) - Informative ground class - Strict knowledge verification The bad - More expensive than other schools - Busy schedule (need to book flights at least a week in advanced) Personally I've been switched to my 3rd instructor since the first 2 went on to airlines. This had a bit of delay in my training and the fact only a few instructors are authorized to do phase checks and they mostly work during weekdays. read more

I chose Trade Winds Aviation for my private pilot training. They offer both standard 6-pack and G1000-equipped aircraft which gives students options on how they want to learn. I've taken the Ground School class with Andy McSunas which is fantastic, and have been taking flight lessons with Erin Lai since March 2023. Everyone is great, friendly, and supportive of my learning! So glad that I chose Trade Winds for my private pilot training! Would highly recommend it to folks considering getting a private pilot license! Their rates may be a bit higher than other surrounding flight schools, but the service, aircraft, and education exceed my expectations and make the price well worth it! read more

I had booked the introductory flight training lesson for my husband at trade winds. It was pretty seamless to book the appointment. We were hanging around in the lobby until our teacher arrived. Hosea was very friendly and approachable. He briefed us about where the flight path would be and how the controls will be worked during the flight. He invited me to tag along with them in the back seat. Hosea was very patient with us and professional. My husband enjoyed every bit of the training! I would highly recommend Trade Winds Aviation ! read more

Trade Winds Aviation - Flight Instruction Near Me - San Jose, California

Sander is the best. I signed up for an introduction flight lesson and had a friend sign up. We both felt very comfortable with Sander as our flight instructor. He was very informative, communicated often and had a good attitude. I would HIGHLY recommend doing an introduction flight lesson and if you can with Sander. read more

Took my son who wants to be a pilot for a flight lesson. Niklas was his instructor and was AMAZING! What a delightful, kind, humble and generous man. He was a wonderful teacher and clearly passionate about aviation. He also spent time with us answering questions about the field. This school is a great find. Highly recommended. Professional, well run and great instructors. read more

Trade Winds is an excellent flying club with well maintained aircraft and a professional staff. I'm not familiar with their current crop of instructors, so, I can't comment there. I've been an inactive member for the last several years, but, I still stop by occasionally and still pay my inactive dues. I may return to flying there one of these days, but, for now, the selection of aircraft and pricing available to me elsewhere is better meeting my needs. In any case, of the operators available at RHV, I highly recommend this one. They would be my second choice behind the operator I'm currently using at PAO. However, my needs may be different from yours, so, Trade Winds might be an excellent choice. I'm an experienced pilot (~900 hours) with lots of actual (~150 hours) and complex (~200 hours) time who likes to go places under IFR quickly. Therefore, I'm looking for the best price/mile for the fastest highest-flying best-equipped, good useful load (in that order of priority, usually) aircraft I can find. If you're looking for basic trainers or stuff for local flights, Trade Winds has an excellent selection and reasonable prices. read more

Just earned my Private Pilot License after studying with Trade Winds. My instructor Nick was great and all the staff was helpful and kind. If you want to learn to fly the right way, fly with Trade Winds! read more

Taking lessons to obtain my private pilot's license. Flying Cessna Skyhawk 172. My CFI Seth is terrific. Very knowledgable and patient. This has been the most amazing learning experience of my life. Skills I am collecting are like no other. To say these lessons are confidence building would be an understatement. Will come back for updates as things progress. If you want to do a demo flight they have Groupon discounts.. The demo flight is amazing and fun. I was hooked from take off! read more

See all

Excellent flight school and club! I have recently got my private pilot license there! I am happy that I have found them and my prime instructor as well. The most important thing for me is safety. And their goal is not just teach you how to fly. Their major goal is to make sure that you will be safe! You will feel this during entire training process. As for prices they are reasonable with advantages that they have: - the newest and well-maintained fleet I have ever seen in schools - their staff is professional! Very nice, friendly, patient and helpful - they have pilot's community where during free monthly breakfast you can socialize with other pilots and instructors. I have done my training with Cecil Chapman, he is great instructor whom I can definitely recommend. He made my training like very interesting journey! He has always supported and inspired me! I had a lot of fun and generally that was a great time for me. read more

Since I never flown a plane before, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I saw the great deal here and jumped at the chance to try it! To sum it up: It. Was. Awesome. Flying in a large airliner is nothing like flying a small Cessna aircraft. My flight instructor was Nofal Beher who was very nice and walked me through the basics of flight and sat next to me the whole time to make sure everything went well. He answered all questions that I had and was very helpful throughout the flight and giving me pointers and tips. 90% of the introductory class involved me physically controlling the plane and maneuvering through the air (this was my first flight and this involved some sweaty palms), including liftoff from the runway and various turns. The scenery from 3500 feet up is amazing and it is breathtaking just flying above San Jose. Nofal walked me through all the turns and instructions and made my whole experience very safe and enjoyable. At the end, I even got a chance to experience some positive G forces as he took the controls and did a quick upward turn that literally took the breath out of me (he did ask if I wanted to try it which I of course said yes), but definitely awesome. Since Trade Winds Aviation is a Cessna Pilot Center as well, they only have up-to-date airplanes that are less than 5 years old. The one I flew in was made in 2013 and had all new gauges and monitors that made me feel very comfortable to be flying in. I also met with Greg at the front counter and Walt who were both very nice and helped answer any questions that I had. Overall, I highly recommend and can't wait to go back! read more

Excellent place, excellent people. Clean, easy, and very enjoyable environment. I had my first flight here. I enjoyed it so much I decided that I will most likely learn how to fly here with them. Thank you. read more

We are a small club with a 1970 Cessna 182 and as the new maintenance officer of the club I decided to take our little plane to Trade Winds for the annual. Boy am I glad we did! Juan when thru the plane and found all sorts of things that have been ignored by the previous shops and came up with a very concise list of squawks and prices for each squawk. As it turns out we ended up putting in a new engine and prop in our little plane and the gang at Trade Winds were AWSOME! The communications, the workmanship and the attention to detail were all stellar! We just got our plane back and could not be happier about the quality of service that we received. If you want you plane worked on by a team that knows how to do it right...then go to Trade Winds! read more

Update 2: TWA has recently added a few more C172s to their fleet and all of them are well maintained. I would highly recommend taking advantage of their new fleet and reduced prices on G1000s. As always, if you want to learn to fly and have fun at the same time, Cecil Chapman is the CFI to go for. read more

Received a flight lesson as a Christmas lesson, and finally got to experience flying for the first time. As a complete newbie to flight, I was taken by surprise how within reach it is to actually get into a plane and "take the steering wheel" within an hour from shaking hands with the instructor. As for the experience itself, for anyone who played with flight sims or spent money on a flight control stick before, there's just no excuse not to try it out considering how inexpensive it is to take a lesson and try the real thing. The staff was friendly, my instructor was genuinely interested in aviation and his enthusiasm radiates through his presence. I had a great time. Don't know if other aviation schools would compare, but I'll definitely recommend Trade WInds to my friends. read more

We had a great time here today for Father's Day! Took an introductory lesson for my husband and they let me and our 1 year old son join in on the fun! I didn't think they did that, but it was so awesome that they did! My husband loved learning and flying, I enjoyed being a passenger and the great views, and our little guy actually fell asleep he was so comfortable! read more

Trade Winds Aviation - View of Santa Cruz in the distance - Flight Instruction Near Me - San Jose, California

See all

Nice place nice people and good instructors and awesome airplanes worth the time and money.

Tradewinds is probably the most professional and high quality flight school in the Bay Area. Really professional outfit. Rental planes are first rate and late model. Also best ground school as well. Their training cost are reasonable and fair. Others charge a little less by using older ragged out planes, which students will see when comparison shopping. The certified flight instructors are employees, and not contractors. This is big because they are not competing with each other and mutually support the flight school. Also no big deal if you want to switch teachers for whatever reason due to person fit or style. The parts counter is helpful locating parts, and they stock a lot of Cessna parts for sale. Since they are continuously buying Cessna parts, your order is additive to a larger buy. Experience is getting the parts quicker and avoiding shipping costs. The only negative as an aircraft owner is sticker shock from maintenance quotes. The estimates were towering above other FBO's. Flight school -5 stars Rental Planes -5 Stars GA Outreach -5 stars Parts Dept -5 Stars Friendliness -5 Stars Maintenance -3.8 Stars (Great mechanics, but high $ estimates) TWA maintenance estimates were over 2X other quality shops who wound up doing the work for me. Don't let my maintenance rating take away from the quality of their mechanics. They are very good. Just the tasks I got bids for were very high. Still shop them as it might have been the jobs bid might not have been in their power alley. The ownership is a credit to General Aviation and the full array of services and aviation outreach they they offer at Reid Hillview (KRHV). Their monthly pilot breakfasts and BBQ is a great way to meet fellow students, alumni, and employees. They also host monthly FAA Wings credit classes and other seminars in support of General Aviation. read more

Trade Winds is a great place to learn how to fly. Everybody is extremely friendly and greets you as soon as you walk in the door. Of the Instructors that I know, they are all really great, and extremely affordable. Their aircraft are all maintained super well and very nice. The entire business side of the club is very well run and organized. Billing was always accurate and they were always there to answer any questions I ever had. read more

I've been a pilot for over 15 years, rented airplanes on the east coast and west, and this is by far the best flight school I've come across. Walt, the owner, is incredibly conscientious and clearly has a passion for his business. His aircraft are some of the newest and best around and are always clean and well maintained. If you're considering taking lessons, or if you're a current pilot looking for a quality rental, Trade Winds Aviation is the place to go. read more

I can't say enough about Trade Winds and the great job my son's instructor did. We started by giving our son the introductory flight lesson for his 18th birthday. By our good luck, he was set up with Cecil, an amazing teacher. Now, he has his private pilot's license. While that is exciting, I'm more thrilled about the fact that he has been taught to take total responsiblity and to not take chances. My heart used to go out a little every time I knew he was flying, but now I'm totally comfortable. Good job, Cecil and Trade Winds! read more

While I don't have any good things to say about their maintenance shop, or their plane brokerage service, I can say that their training facilities and instructors are quite good. Their equipment is in good shape and well maintained. Trade Winds would not be a bad place to start your aviation journey, but if you are an owner, stay away. read more

From Sheila: I called to set up a flight lesson as a surprise gift for David as he has always been saying how much he has wanted to fly a plane (always playing dorky flight simulator games too). The guy I spoke to on the phone was very nice. He explained everything very completely and gave all the information I requested. He made it very easy for me to setup a flight lesson. It was like I could hear the smile in his voice while he was talking. It was obvious he truly enjoyed his work which reassured me that this was going to be a great experience. So then I told David and he was ecstatic. From David: I've been fascinated with flight for as long as I can remember. Airshows at Moffett, flight simulators on the computer, my uncles old helicopter helmet. I was amazed that it was so much more in reach to go flying than I had imagined. I had figured there would be a lot more involved, ground school, etc., but I was able to (with instruction) work the steering, brakes, throttle, and surface controls. After arriving, the instructor taught a lot of the basics about flight, what we were going to do, how to taxi, how to do the pre flight check, filled out a flight log book, and all the other fun stuff that happens before you're actually up in the air. I opted to fly the Cessna 172 G1000 and I will never forget how it felt to go down the runway and pull up into the air for the first time. I've been on many airlines and a variety of planes, large and small, but it has never compared to actually doing the flying. I wish I had the time and money to go back and learn all of the other lessons so I could do a solo flight. We had an hour of actual flying (Sheila was able to come along) and we flew over the South Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was a perfectly clear day and the view was unforgettable. We did some entry level maneuvers (steady banked turns, etc) and the instructor showed me a bit about the fancy navigation system (G1000) that this plane had. We will be going back soon and the seats will be switched for Sheila and myself! read more

Excellent FBO and flight center! I'm taking my instrument ground school with them right now and Tom is a fun good instructor. They have a great pancake breakfast and BBQ every month which is a great way to meet fellow pilots. read more

I got my private, instrument, commercial and CFI certs through Tradewinds. I was originally drawn to them because the planes were new compared to many clubs and plenty of G1000 equipped planes. But I have grown to really appreciate their maintenance, on the very rare occasion that something has gone wrong it was fixed promptly without pointing fingers at the pilot. I have direct experience with many of the instructors there but my instructor of choice would be Tom Navin. You can't really go wrong with any of them. Contact me if you want additional info. read more

I was given a demo flight as a birthday gift from a few friends since flying has been on my bucket list for a while. Josh was my instructor and he was amazing. The whole experience was amazing actually. I was in the tiniest plane ever and I was able to take off and fly around the mountains. My favorite part was banking around the Observatory. Josh was helpful, patient, and so easy to work with. I totally recommend him as an instructor. It was such a powerful experience that I can't wait to get back up in the air and earn my private pilot's license! If you are interested in flying, this is the place to help get up there! read more

Just got my private pilot license last month Mr. Cecil and Trade Winds were the ones that guided me to achieve both the knowledge and confidence to fly and land a plane. looking forward to continue and start my instrument"T" then heading for commercial"T" with them. thru the good days, bad days and interesting days of my flight training they were there. Cecil kept my training flights interesting while other instructors like Mr. Aaron and Mr. John checked my readiness thru each leg of my stage checks. Trade Winds made sure a well maintained aircraft is available for me to train in. A great place with good people and a friendly atmosphere read more

I see that the positive reviews are a bit old, or are from folks not seeking flight instruction. I have seen an erosion of the quality instructors mentioned in other reviews. 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 club's 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. 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. read more

I flew on the Remos with CFI Rocky here. It was a fantastic flight. Not only did I get to try the Remos, but I received some great advice about flying with Rocky. The time and the money was well spent. read more

Cecil taught me to fly back in 2007. It was great. These days I fly 6-8 times a year for business and leisure. I fell like Cecil gave me all the tools I need to be safe and have a good time. read more

Learning to fly has been a lifelong dream, and I finally got the chance to give it a try last year. Trade Winds was a great place to learn. Everyone's very friendly and they keep the planes in good condition. Also, the Reid-Hillview airport is an ideal location to learn because it's not too busy, but still has a control tower so you gets lots of experience on your radio calls. I'd definitely recommend asking for Cecil as your flight instructor. He was incredibly patient and positive, especially during the first few flights when I had no idea what I was doing. read more

I love Trade Winds Aviation. The maintenance is wonderful. The staffs are knowledgeable, friendly, and professional. The director of maintenance examined my plane thoroughly and explained to me the problems in details with patience. I appreciate their service and highly recommend it. read more