I appreciate Paragon Flight President Chris Schoensee giving me the spotlight (bloglight?) for a few minutes to share some really exciting information about our new Piper Training Aircraft. We took delivery of this beauty, the Piper P100i on January 31, when the Paragon Flight executive team drove down to Piper’s Vero Beach headquarters. I had the pleasure of flying the aircraft back to in Ft. Myers. What a memorable ride!

The Piper 100i is a modernized version of Piper’s time-tested Archer training aircraft, a staple of the industry for more than 30 years, and it plays a central role in our fleet modernization strategy, with 10 more slated for delivery by the end of this year and an anticipated 50 Piper aircraft in total purchased over of the course of the next five years. Here’s our press release on the topic if you missed it.

A key element of our fleet modernization strategy is updating our training curriculum for the new training platform. We’ll be taking students with us to explore the new aircraft so I can establish corresponding safety and training procedures and update our flight manuals accordingly, along with developing new training aids and materials. I will be training all the instructors in the new aircraft as well, and we will continue to hire additional instructors. Further, we will be obtaining the FAA approvals required for our 141-flight program. Needless to say, there is a great deal of energy and excitement around here!

And while it’s not ready for prime time yet, we certainly are happy to announce that the groundbreaking for our 9,000 square foot learning center on Page Field took place in January, ultimately creating one of the most modern learning environments for flight training in the country. Paragon Flight was among the first flight schools in Florida to obtain advanced simulator technology so that we could provide the highest level of comprehensive flight training education for pilots in the United States. Between our fleet modernization and enhanced learning center, we are furthering our mission to ensure that Paragon Flight is the best place to learn how to fly.

Jeff Wolf is Paragon Flight Training’s Chief Flight Instructor

‘The View from Here’ is an occasional blog series written by Chris Schoensee, President of Paragon Flight Training.