Flight School Spotlight: San Carlos Flight Center

Dan Dyer started San Carlos Flight Center with the belief that learning to fly, and being part of a flying community, could be the same thing. That the transition from learning to pilot had to be seamless, and that pilots in all stages needed a place to come together for fun and education.

The idea worked well. Only a few years after its inception, SCFC was named AOPA’s Best Flight School of the Year in the Flight Training Experience Awards, and has since been honored with top honors in its region.

Dyer hasn’t been a stereotypical absent owner. In fact, his passion is primary instruction, specifically helping students through those difficult plateaus that come with learning to land. It’s one reason why, after somewhat unexpectedly losing his medical certificate earlier this year, Dyer began to step away from the school.

How do you leave behind something you’ve spent years building, with no guarantees it will continue to succeed? For Dyer, the answer is that you don’t. He approached multiple schools in the Bay Area with the prospect of a merger or sale, but soon came to the realization that SCFC wasn’t a good fit for any of them. “It would be like fitting a square peg into a round hole,” he said. SCFC is a unique mix of traditional flight school and social flying club, with a heavy emphasis on the social for camaraderie and learning. No other school in the area had that kind of business model.

The answer came from an unexpected place. A few years ago SCFC started training pilots who win the Upwind scholarship, a program that provides flight training grants for high school students. In 2018 Alessandro Franco won the scholarship and learned to fly at SCFC. Franco’s dad had discovered the school when he wanted to become current again, and through the club and scholarship Franco became heavily involved. Eventually he started working at the school.

Dyer toyed with the idea of employee ownership in the form of a co-op, but the staff wanted to concentrate more on their current roles and less on management. But for Franco it presented an opportunity to take on more responsibility and become more involved. In the midst of the pandemic and a necessary move to a different building on the airport, Dyer sold the business to Franco, a former student only two years out of high school.

Rather than throwing him to the wolves, Dyer has stayed on as director of operations, Franco’s former position. It allows him to mentor the young owner and be available for anything the school needs. Most importantly, he wanted to make sure the transition was a success. “I’ve always felt a crushing responsibility to take care of the 30 employees,” Dyer said.

Franco said Dyer has been a great resource who will continue to stay on as long as needed. The new owner doesn’t anticipate any big changes as he learns the business and politics of running a flight school. “The idea is to keep the core flight center idea,” he said.

For now the team is focused on fully moving into its new space on the airport and bouncing back from the pandemic. “The member base, CFIs, and airplanes have been growing since the school started and I expected that to continue,” Franco said. Dyer confirmed that business is up from seasonal norms since the flight school was able to reopen earlier this year, and demand is spread across the week as working from home has brought more flexibility to people’s lives.

“For the suckiest year ever for me, it’s overall not been a bad year,” Dyer said. “To see the school succeed and take on new life has been rewarding.”