CRAFT Flight Training & Simulation operates out of the Atlantic FBO complex at Charleston International (KCHS) — a Class C controlled-airfield environment with daily Part 121 traffic. We're not a sleepy grass strip. We train pilots in the airspace they'll actually fly in.
Six-month DPE waits. CFIs that change every other lesson. Aircraft 30 years older than the airline jets you'll one day fly. We built CRAFT to fix all three at once.
1. The DPE bottleneck. Pilots finish training in months, then sit on a checkride waitlist for half a year. We built our DPE relationships first — before we ever ran a cohort. Checkrides are scheduled in weeks, not months.
2. The CFI rotation. At big schools, you might fly with a different instructor every week. Each one has to re-learn you. We pair every student with a personal CFI who stays through to the checkride.
3. The aging fleet. Most flight schools are still teaching on 1970s steam-gauge aircraft. We picked the Diamond DA40NG and DA42-VI because they have the same Garmin G1000 panel students will see in regional jets — the transition gets shorter every year you wait.
Waiting six months after passing your training is a disgrace. So we don’t.
Every metric below is for our active student cohort. Compare to industry averages.
We don't compete on price. We compete on the airplane, the instructor, and the bottleneck. Anything that doesn't sharpen one of those three doesn't make the cut.
Modern Diamond fleet, all G1000-equipped, all Jet-A diesel. Same panel architecture the airlines fly. No transition tax when you finish.
Two Redbird AATD AATDs in-house. Repetition without burning Hobbs. $100/hr beats $255/hr nine days out of ten — and the FAA lets you log up to 50% of IFR time in it.
Discovery Flight to ATP minimums in one school. Cohort scheduling, dedicated CFIs, a built-in DPE pipeline so the practical doesn't disappear into a queue.
We're at the Atlantic FBO complex inside Charleston International (KCHS). Same gate the regionals use. Walk the line, sit in a DA40, climb into the Redbird, talk to a CFI — no pressure, no commitment.
The fastest way to know if CRAFT is right for you is to be on the ramp for an hour. Office hours are Monday through Saturday, 9am to 4pm.
Schedule a tour, take a Discovery Flight, or just call us. We answer the phone.