Flight Instruction
Great Basin Aviation is a full-service flight school and aviation resource center. We specialize in flight training from student pilot to Airline Transport Pilot; with special emphasis on Mountain Flying techniques and Safety priorities. Great Basin Aviation is Northern Nevada’s only flight school offering modern Cessna aircraft, manufactured in this century; sporting Garmin glass cockpits, and autopilot. Our business model provides professional, experienced full-time Flight Instructor- Pilots who are committed to the achievement of your aeronautical aspirations; rather than that of their own.
In addition to basic flight instruction, our instructors are also certified for certain endorsements, IFR instruction, commercial, CFI, biennial flight reviews, and more. Please call or email (goflying@greatbasinaviation.com) for rates and questions.
In addition to basic flight instruction, our instructors are also certified for certain endorsements, IFR instruction, commercial, CFI, biennial flight reviews, and more. Please call or email (goflying@greatbasinaviation.com) for rates and questions.
Ground Instruction
We offer ground school through the Cessna Sport/Private Pilot Course and Cessna Instrument Rating Course.
Have you dreamt of becoming a pilot or earning your instrument rating? Make it a reality! We offer Cessna's new scenario-based flight training course, developed exclusively for Cessna by the experts at King Schools. This web-based course provides everything you need to obtain your Sport, Private Pilot Certificate or Instrument Rating. It's been designed to provide you with the knowledge, skills and confidence to embrace your future in aviation.
This course is for the pilot who is training in either a technically-advanced full-glass cockpit airplane or in an airplane with analog gauges. The training includes flight preview videos and full-motion diagrams of the course material, plus a complete FAA knowledge exam review program—and it's available anywhere you have Internet access. Your personal login will maintain a record of which sessions you have completed and will allow you to continue where you left off if you are interrupted. The course never expires and it is always kept up-to-date, so you'll have access to all of the in-depth knowledge sessions and flight previews well after you have completed your training.
You can take your Cessna Sport/Private Pilot course on your iPad—even when offline! The Cessna Sport/Private Pilot and Instrument Rating course lessons can be downloaded onto an iPad/tablet and viewed later when online or offline, with the Cessna Companion App.
Kits include flight bag and Garmin Pilot access. Other Cessna courses are available. Please give us a call to let us know if you are looking for a specific course.
Have you dreamt of becoming a pilot or earning your instrument rating? Make it a reality! We offer Cessna's new scenario-based flight training course, developed exclusively for Cessna by the experts at King Schools. This web-based course provides everything you need to obtain your Sport, Private Pilot Certificate or Instrument Rating. It's been designed to provide you with the knowledge, skills and confidence to embrace your future in aviation.
This course is for the pilot who is training in either a technically-advanced full-glass cockpit airplane or in an airplane with analog gauges. The training includes flight preview videos and full-motion diagrams of the course material, plus a complete FAA knowledge exam review program—and it's available anywhere you have Internet access. Your personal login will maintain a record of which sessions you have completed and will allow you to continue where you left off if you are interrupted. The course never expires and it is always kept up-to-date, so you'll have access to all of the in-depth knowledge sessions and flight previews well after you have completed your training.
You can take your Cessna Sport/Private Pilot course on your iPad—even when offline! The Cessna Sport/Private Pilot and Instrument Rating course lessons can be downloaded onto an iPad/tablet and viewed later when online or offline, with the Cessna Companion App.
Kits include flight bag and Garmin Pilot access. Other Cessna courses are available. Please give us a call to let us know if you are looking for a specific course.
Cessna Pilot Center
Great Basin Aviation is proud and privileged to be affiliated with Cessna as a Cessna Pilot Center (CPC). A Cessna Pilot Center is a specially selected flight school that represents top-quality, professional flight training. Each CPC is hand picked by Cessna to ensure that they maintain Cessna’s high standards for flight training.
Talk to any certified pilot. They will likely tell you they learned to fly in a Cessna. More people have obtained their private pilot certificate in Cessna aircraft than all other aircraft types combined. There is a reason for that: Cessna's are easy to fly and safe.
A Cessna Pilot Center is where you go to take advantage of Cessna's years of experience in training most of the world's pilots to fly. At a CPC, you learn to fly in less time than other programs while following Cessna's computer-based curriculum that stresses safety (on a National average).
When you learn to fly from a Cessna Pilot Center, you are truly learning from the best. It’s not just that you’ll learn from the world’s best-trained instructors. Or that you’ll train with innovative computer-based instruction. What really matters is that you will be learning to fly in the world’s greatest aircraft, Cessna’s forgiving, reliable single engine airplanes. For more information on the advantages and benefits of training at a Cessna Pilot Center visit: cessnaflighttraining.kingschools.com/Index.aspx
Talk to any certified pilot. They will likely tell you they learned to fly in a Cessna. More people have obtained their private pilot certificate in Cessna aircraft than all other aircraft types combined. There is a reason for that: Cessna's are easy to fly and safe.
A Cessna Pilot Center is where you go to take advantage of Cessna's years of experience in training most of the world's pilots to fly. At a CPC, you learn to fly in less time than other programs while following Cessna's computer-based curriculum that stresses safety (on a National average).
When you learn to fly from a Cessna Pilot Center, you are truly learning from the best. It’s not just that you’ll learn from the world’s best-trained instructors. Or that you’ll train with innovative computer-based instruction. What really matters is that you will be learning to fly in the world’s greatest aircraft, Cessna’s forgiving, reliable single engine airplanes. For more information on the advantages and benefits of training at a Cessna Pilot Center visit: cessnaflighttraining.kingschools.com/Index.aspx
Our Instructors
Bob BennettBob is a CFI/CFII instructing with Great Basin Aviation for the last several years. Bob has been a pilot since 1972 and a flight instructor since 1988, with over 8000 flight hours in general aviation aircraft. Bob is an advanced instructor with Great Basin Aviation and specializes in instruction, flight reviews, endorsements, and discovery flights.
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Earl KesslerEarl is a CFII/ATP with Great Basin Aviation. He has been instructing for over 20 years and has been flying since 1970. Earl also flies as a corporate pilot with international flight experience. He has flown everything from light sport airplanes to turbine power aircraft and has instructed in each of them. He also specializes in basic, instrument, and advanced instruction.
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Jeff Sanders
Jeff is a CFI and our Chief Flight Instructor. He has 1100 hours flying GA aircraft, a seaplane rating from Alaska, and is teaching beginning private pilot students, discovery/sightseeing flights, and loving it! He taught physics and coached baseball in WI, and then a PhD in physics led to U.S. Navy research, scientific patent, and a stint as a physics prof at an aeronautical university where he earned all his ratings and flew 900+ hours all over from Key West, Florida to Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Come take a discovery flight with Jeff!
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Al Hayes
Al soloed a Cessna 120 at age 16, earned his Private Pilots License at age 17. Instructed as a 20 year old kid that eventually led to a 36 year United Airlines career, retiring as Captain on the B-747-400. Then flew as Captain for NetJets for 9 more years. Now here he is back to square one, in good old Cessna's. Instructing - and loving every minute of it !!
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Dane MeyerhoffDane is a CFI/CFII and has been with Great Basin Aviation since 2017. He trains students for private pilot license, instrument rating, and commercial license. He also is currently a full time student at the University of Nevada, Reno pursuing a B.S. in Economics.
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Paul Jolley
Paul Jolley was born and raised in Reno, Nevada and started his flight training at Reno Flying Service and finished at ATP in Sacramento. He flight instructed at Sierra Academy of Aeronautics in Atwater, California before heading to Bethel, Alaska for 2 1/2 years to be a Bush pilot and company instructor for Yute Air, a part 135 operator. He is currently a first officer at Skywest Airlines. He has had numerous mentors along his route to becoming an airline pilot and is looking to share his experiences with others!
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Taylor PhillipsA highly experienced pilot, Taylor is an ATP, CFI/CFII, MEI, CFI-G, and FAA Safety Team Member. His aviation career roots in gliders from the Great Basin, to cargo operations in Alaska, and currently as a pilot for SkyWest Airlines. He now instructs at Great Basin Aviation as an amazing addition to our staff! (at least, when he isn’t out having fun flying something else!) You’ll find that his 15+ years of experience has served him well in the cockpit, passing it onto you! His personalized instruction technique will leave you very pleased!
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