The Charter Aircraft company of Gran-Aire has been flying out of the Milwaukee Metro Area since 1946, beginning at Curtis Wright Field, now called Lawrence J. Timmerman Airport. Gran-Aire's flight school has been in continuous operation ever since, making it one of the oldest flight schools in Wisconsin. Offering private pilot training conducted on an individual basis, lessons with Gran-Aire can be scheduled 365 days out of the year, on any day of the week. Training cost is calculated by the hour, with at least 40 hours of flight time, including 10 solo hours, required to obtain a private pilot certificate.
Wisconsin's Air Cargo Carriers is a freight business that flies out of General Mitchell International Airport, with a fleet that includes Shorts Brothers 330 and 360 cargo aircraft and routes throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Training with Air Cargo Carriers is executed in several stages, with new hire training encompassing a base amount of flight hours in both the aircraft itself, as well as one of only two Shorts flight simulators in the world. After initial training, students go on to both hazmat and topical training courses, as well as recurrent programs to keep all employees up to speed.
Operating out of General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Flight Safety Services is a worldwide aviation training company that completes more than one million hours of professional flight instruction each year -- more than any other company. Aditionally, Flight Safety trains pilots for a multitude of aircraft, such as tilt-rotor, rotorcraft and fixed wing. Training programs are equally varied, with corporate and business aviation training, to commercial and defense. Flight Safety also manufactures the very software on which students learn, with full-motion full-flight simulators in addition to integrated desktop software. With over 13,000 graduates worldwide, students of Flight Safety Services now fly for more than 100 corporate flight departments, as well as 62 airlines.
The aviation education program at Stein's Aircraft Services operates out of Waukesha county airport, just 19 miles west of Milwaukee. The Stein flight school offers trainees time behind the instrument panel of the Diamond DA40 aircraft, a single-engine plane. Stein recommends prospective students first embark on a "discovery flight" in one of their Diamond aircraft for the purposes of building familiarity. From there, they recommend setting an appointment with a flight instructor to obtain all necessary information in moving forward, as well as to discuss learning objectives. However, in order to begin any class, students must first provide proof of U.S. citizenship.