Rainier Flight Service

Mar 28th, 2024

Sep 6th, 2023

Loving my experience so far! Everyone has been great
Mar 10th, 2023

A comprehensively disappointing experience across multiple facets. These issues have been escalated to multiple people with no response, so if this review gets Rainier's attention, I'd take it with a grain of salt. This will be an incredibly expensive place to train- all of their behaviors feel like an attempt to squeeze as much money/ as many hours as possible out from students. The number one priority seems to be getting CFI's airline hours and no concern for student progress or safety. There have been a few lessons were I was encouraged to go fly in poor weather or I would be charged and a few lessons where I went out and the instructor had to fly us back in due to weather or maintenance. There have been other instances where there seem to be safety issues and I was still charged or encouraged to go out. In one instance, there was a bad alternator causing the battery failure and I was stuck at a different airport for hours. There was no sign of trouble on the preflight because the voltage annunciator bulb was burnt out! They were going to still charge me for ferrying the plane back and I was told I had to stay if I wanted credit for the flight hours. Not even an apology for the inconvenience. I have flown in planes with transponder and radio issues to the point where the Tower said something- really not safe if something were to happen. According to my training record, I spent 17ish hours getting to 'review for solo' lesson, but have spent over 12 hours and thousands of dollars repeating lessons I've already passed. No stagecheck or solo in site! Some things about the syllabus seem designed to extract more expensive lessons out of students too- multiple instructors mentioned not teaching students to land until around 25 hours. The teach you to land around the end of stage 1 and then insist you need to spend time going through previous lessons "in case you have regressed." If they taught landing earlier, every flight is a chance to practice and there's be no risk of regressing. I also fly very frequently. I also took a ground class through Green River, who has a partnership with Rainier (the course was taught by a Rainier instructor and even had their logos all over the slides!) and continually get pressured from CFIs to pay for another ground. The times I paid for a ground lesson, it was an inferior repeat of what was covered in the Green River/Rainier ground. I enrolled in the "Academy" only to find out there aren't any actual real benefits to the academy- no backseating other students, no dedicated plane (this used to be advertised on their website). There operations department will heavily discourage you from enrolling in the 141 program- it takes 190 hours minimum to complete Commercial in 141 and 250 for part 61, so huge profits to Rainier with the 60 additional hours. There is also little regard for customer service. I once scheduled a flight with a CFI the day before, had the lesson bumped to a different time with little notice or regards for my schedule and then was scolded for booking a time that looked open on the instructors schedule. How dare I schedule a lesson when the calendar shows availability? Another week, Rainier cancelled most of my flights due to multiple planes being down and then the instructor had the nerve to scold me for not coming in. You also pay .2 hours for ground instruction during each flight lesson, but the CFIs aren't necessarily even supervising you or helping. Often there are no preflight checklists, gas testers or sticks in planes and you have to spend training time hunting these down. People often do pre flights from memory as a result. I know this is long, and I could keep going, but please please consider going to a different flight school that will let you cancel a lesson if the weather is bad or if there's a maintenance concern like a transponder issue. I don't want similar and worse to happen to others- flight training expenses add up quickly.
Mar 25th, 2024

My time at Rainier Flight Service left much to be desired. While the facilities were great and the aircraft well-maintained, I couldn't shake the feeling that the focus was more on padding flight hours to make money rather than genuinely caring about the students' progress. The instructor, while knowledgeable- not experienced, seemed more concerned with meeting hour quotas than tailoring instruction to individual student needs. There was a lack of personalized attention, and instructor needed hours for his own rating and working toward next job at airline. Additionally, I found the scheduling process to be frustrating and disorganized. Flights were frequently canceled or rescheduled last minute, leading to unnecessary delays and disruptions to my training. It was clear that efficiency and student convenience were not priorities for Rainier Flight Service. Overall, my experience at Rainier Flight Service left me feeling disappointed and disillusioned. I would caution others considering this flight school to thoroughly research their options and prioritize finding an institution that prioritizes student progress.
Feb 9th, 2024