Whether you want to earn your Sport Pilot or Private Pilot Certificate, fly for recreation, travel with family and friends, or simply experience the freedom of flying your own airplane, Smoketown Flight Center can help you get there. Our experienced instructors provide personalized flight training at your pace, with multiple aircraft and training options to fit your goals and budget. If your goals eventually grow beyond recreational flying, we also offer advanced ratings and a complete professional pilot training path.
30 min grd/1 hr flight $249
Take your first step into aviation with our Discovery Flight lesson, designed to give you a complete, hands-on introduction to flying. The experience includes a 30-minute ground session followed by a one-hour flight lesson — and yes, you get to fly the airplane! This flight also counts toward your pilot training, making it a great first step on your journey to becoming a pilot.
During the ground session, you’ll learn about the aircraft’s instruments and controls, gaining an understanding of how each function contributes to safe and effective flight. Your certified flight instructor will guide you through a preflight checklist and prepare you for takeoff. Once in the air, you’ll experience the airplane’s maneuverability, practicing climbs, turns, and other essential flight skills under expert instruction.
This immersive lesson provides a more in-depth look at what learning to fly is all about, offering an unforgettable perspective of Lancaster County from the sky.
Book FlightSport Pilot has changed. The FAA’s new MOSAIC rules have dramatically expanded what Sport Pilots can fly, making the certificate a practical option for many recreational pilots who may have overlooked it in the past.
Sport Pilots are no longer limited to the small Light-Sport Aircraft traditionally associated with the certificate. At Smoketown Flight Center, our entire fixed-wing training fleet is Sport Pilot eligible — including the Pipistrel Alpha, Cessna 150, Cessna 172 and Beechcraft B19.
No FAA Medical Required — For qualifying Sport Pilot operations, an eligible pilot may use a valid U.S. driver’s license instead of an FAA medical certificate.
Sport Pilot is an excellent option for pilots whose goal is recreational flying. Our instructors can help you compare Sport Pilot and Private Pilot training and choose the path that best fits what you want to do with your pilot certificate.
Sport Pilot Training Path
The FAA minimum for a Sport Pilot certificate is 20 hours of flight time, including at least 15 hours of flight training with an instructor and 5 hours of solo flight. Most students should plan for additional training beyond the FAA minimum based on experience, proficiency and training frequency.
Training includes aircraft control and maneuvers, takeoffs and landings, navigation and cross-country flying, emergency procedures, airspace and regulations, solo flight, and preparation for the FAA knowledge and practical tests.
Not sure whether Sport Pilot or Private Pilot is right for you? Talk with us. We can help you compare the privileges, limitations, medical requirements and training involved with each certificate before you decide.
Earn your Private Pilot License and unlock the freedom to fly wherever you want, bring friends and family as passengers, or even fly at night! We will guide you every step of the way, ensuring you gain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed. While the FAA minimum requirement for a private pilot license is 40 hours, the national average needed to reach proficiency is around 77 hours. Once all requirements are satisfied, your check ride will be scheduled — and the day you pass, your Private Pilot License is granted immediately!
stage 1 will be pre-solo training. In this stage, you will learn to fly and gain all the training needed to solo the airplane safely.
stage 2 consists of cross-county training. During this time, you will gain knowledge of how to navigate long distances in your airplane. You will get the chance to fly cross-county flights with your instructor along with completing cross country flight solo.
stage 3 checks ride preparation. To obtain your private airplane license, you must pass a check ride with a designated pilot examiner (DPE). In stage 3, you will train towards meeting the published FAA standards that must be demonstrated on your official check ride.
Take your flying to the next level with an Instrument Rating. Whether your goal is professional aviation or becoming a safer, more capable private pilot, instrument training develops the skills needed to operate confidently within the IFR system and greatly expands the utility of your pilot certificate.
Choose the aircraft that fits your training goals. Smoketown Flight Center offers multiple IFR training platforms, from our economical Pipistrel Alpha to traditional general-aviation aircraft. Train in our Cessna 172 equipped with a Garmin GNC 355 WAAS GPS, or our Beechcraft B19 equipped with a Garmin GNC 355 WAAS GPS and Aspen E5 electronic flight display.
Save significantly with our Pipistrel Alpha. The IFR-equipped Alpha provides a modern glass-cockpit training environment at a substantially lower aircraft rental rate than traditional IFR trainers. Completing a large portion of your Instrument Rating in the Alpha can translate into significant savings while still providing modern avionics experience and high-quality instrument training.
Accelerated Instrument Training is available. Students who can dedicate the time can train on a concentrated schedule with frequent lessons, allowing skills to build quickly and efficiently while working toward the FAA practical test.
Training covers instrument aircraft control, IFR navigation, approaches, departures, enroute procedures, weather, air traffic control procedures and real-world IFR decision making. Our instructors can tailor the program around your experience, schedule and training goals.
Turn your pilot certificate into a professional qualification. Earning your Commercial Pilot Certificate allows you to begin flying for compensation or hire and is an important milestone for anyone pursuing a professional aviation career.
Commercial training is about developing greater precision, consistency and professional-level decision making. You’ll refine the skills developed during Private and Instrument training while learning the advanced maneuvers and standards required for the FAA Commercial Pilot practical test.
Professional flight training doesn’t have to come with a big-school price tag. Smoketown Flight Center offers a personalized and cost-conscious path through Commercial, CFI and CFII training without requiring students to enroll in an expensive academy or university aviation program.
For aspiring professional pilots, the Commercial Pilot Certificate is the bridge to CFI and CFII training — and ultimately to your first flying job. Students pursuing a career can continue directly into our instructor program and Professional Pilot Course.
Becoming a flight instructor is more than another rating — for many professional pilots, it’s the beginning of their flying career. The CFI certificate develops your ability to teach, evaluate and communicate while sharpening your own flying skills to a professional standard.
Our goal isn’t simply to prepare you to pass a CFI checkride. It’s to develop the kind of pilot and instructor we would want teaching our own students. Throughout your professional training, we emphasize precise aircraft control, proper rudder coordination, crosswind proficiency, stabilized approaches, sound judgment and the ability to operate confidently in real-world conditions.
Build experience, not just hours. Solo cross-country flying and PIC time have value, but accumulating hours alone is not a substitute for purposeful training. Consistent dual instruction gives experienced instructors the opportunity to identify weaknesses, correct bad habits and continually raise your standard as you progress toward becoming a professional pilot.
Your training is also your job interview. We train professional-track students with the goal of developing future Smoketown Flight Center instructors. Students who complete our CFI/CFII training and demonstrate the flying ability, judgment, teaching ability, professionalism and work ethic we expect will be strongly considered for instructor positions as staffing needs allow.
Employment is not guaranteed simply by completing the program — performance matters. But for the right student, our goal is to provide a path from training at Smoketown to teaching at Smoketown and beginning to build professional flight experience.
Expand your teaching capabilities with your CFII. Adding the Certified Flight Instructor Instrument rating allows you to teach instrument students and is an important next step for instructors pursuing a professional flying career.
A CFII can make you significantly more marketable as a flight instructor. Flight schools need instructors who can work with a wide range of students. With both CFI and CFII qualifications, you can teach primary students as well as pilots pursuing their Instrument Rating, giving a prospective employer greater flexibility when assigning students.
More students can mean more opportunities to teach, earn and build flight time. Rather than limiting yourself to primary and advanced VFR students, adding your CFII expands the pool of students you can instruct. That can help you remain more consistently employed and productive as an instructor while building the flight experience needed for your next professional aviation opportunity.
Teaching instrument flying also develops valuable experience within the IFR system. You’ll spend time working with approaches, IFR navigation, weather, air traffic control procedures and aeronautical decision making while learning to recognize and correct instrument-flying errors from the instructor’s seat.
For students pursuing our professional pilot path, we strongly encourage completing both CFI and CFII. Our goal is to develop versatile, employable instructors who can contribute across our training operation while continuing to build experience toward the next stage of their aviation career.
Train local. Spend less. Start your career sooner. Our Professional Pilot Program is designed around the entire path from your first flight to your first professional flying job — not simply getting you through a series of FAA checkrides.
Students training consistently 3–4 times per week can potentially progress from initial training through Commercial, CFI and CFII in approximately 9–12 months. From there, the goal changes: stop paying to build flight time and start getting paid to build professional experience.
We prepare you for the job you’re about to have. For most new professional pilots, that first job is flight instructing — not flying a jet. Our program emphasizes becoming a capable, employable CFI who can actually teach: from helping a primary student understand a landing or improve rudder coordination and crosswind technique to explaining ground-school concepts one-on-one in a way that makes sense.
Your training is also your job interview. We develop our professional-track students with the goal of producing future Smoketown Flight Center instructors. Students who complete our program and demonstrate the flying ability, judgment, teaching skills, professionalism and work ethic we expect will be strongly considered for instructor positions as staffing needs allow. Employment is not guaranteed simply by completing the program — performance matters.
For airline-bound pilots, getting through training efficiently can have long-term value. Beginning your CFI career sooner means potentially beginning paid hour-building sooner, reaching the experience required for your next opportunity sooner, and ultimately beginning airline seniority earlier — while potentially arriving there with significantly less training debt.
LOOK AT THE ENTIRE PATH — NOT JUST ONE NUMBER
Fewer required hours doesn’t always mean lower cost. Some approved Part 141 programs offer reduced-hour Commercial Pilot pathways, but higher aircraft, instructor, tuition and program costs can mean paying more while finishing with less flight experience. For a career pilot, those additional hours aren’t wasted — they’re already in your logbook toward your long-term goals.
The same is true of the 1,000- and 1,250-hour Restricted ATP pathways. Qualifying collegiate aviation programs can reduce the flight experience required for an R-ATP, but the entire timeline matters. A degree program may take several years before full-time professional hour building begins. A student training consistently at Smoketown may potentially reach CFI/CFII in approximately 9–12 months and begin pursuing paid flight-instructor work much sooner.
Train for the job you’re about to have. Our immediate goal isn’t to make a new Commercial Pilot feel like an airline captain. It’s to produce a capable CFI/CFII who can teach primary and instrument students, get hired, build meaningful experience and prepare for the next stage of a professional flying career.
College and flight training don’t have to be bundled together. Students who want a bachelor’s degree can pursue one separately — even in a field outside aviation — while completing flight training locally, providing valuable career diversification.
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