By Dave Hinz, President / Chief Flight Instructor
JAMESTOWN, NY – Great Lakes Flight Center has been recognized for its high standard of accomplishment in flight training by The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the world’s largest aviation association. Great Lakes Flight Center has been awarded a spot on the Flight Training Experience Awards as a Distinguished Flight School, a title given to high scoring flight training providers from the 2025 Flight Training Experience Review.
The Flight Training Experience Awards was created to highlight the best flight training the industry has to offer. “Having a friendly and family-like atmosphere has always been a hallmark of excellent instructors and flight schools, but this year there was also a strong trend of describing some truly amazing ways that instructors and schools went above and beyond to serve their customers,” said AOPA Foundation Sr. Director Flight Training Education Chris Moser.
"We are extremely proud to receive the AOPA Distinguished Flight School Award for 2025!" said Great Lakes Flight Center President / Chief Flight Instructor Dave Hinz. "All of our instructors work hard to tailor each lesson specifically to each individual student and make flight training fun and safe. We're humbled that our students and pilots have recognized our efforts through their survey responses, and we're looking forward to another great year of flying. We think it’s awesome to have a nationally recognized flight school right here in Western New York and based out of both of our county airports - Chautauqua County / Jamestown Airport (KJHW) and Chautauqua County / Dunkirk Airport (KDKK)!”
The 2025 awards were drawn from flight students and pilots who voluntarily reviewed their flight training experience this past fall through an AOPA online customer feedback process.
Learn more: www.aopa.org/FTawards.
Information about flight training with Great Lakes Flight Center is available at www.greatlakesflightctr.com or by calling (716) 906-8119.
