Boise, ID 83705
M-F: 8:00am - 9:00pm
2024 by the Numbers
We trained just over 100 students at Carmel Aviation in 2024. Of those, nearly half hit a significant milestone before the year was out.
Here is what that looked like:
- 30 students passed a checkride
- 19 students completed their first solo flight
- 15 students earned their Private Pilot License
- 5 students completed their Instrument Rating
- 4 students earned their Commercial Pilot License
- 3 students earned their CFI
- 3 students earned their CFII
Every number on that list represents a real person who made a decision to learn to fly, showed up, put in the work, and passed. We do not take that lightly.
What a First Solo Actually Means
If you have never trained as a pilot, the first solo can be hard to put into words. It is the moment your instructor steps out of the aircraft and you take off, fly a pattern, and land entirely on your own. No one in the right seat. No one to take over if something feels off. Just you and the aircraft.
Nineteen of our students had that moment in 2024. Every one of them will remember exactly what the sky looked like.
It is also one of the clearest indicators that a student is progressing well. First solos do not happen by accident. They happen because a student has built real skills and their instructor trusts them to fly alone. Nineteen solos across a single year, at a school training over 100 students, is a result we are genuinely proud of.
The Dominic Story
The milestone we talk about most from 2024 is not a number at all.
Dominic walked through our door looking for information about the school and asking about a Discovery Flight. He was curious about flying, not yet committed. He took that Discovery Flight. He kept training. He worked through his certificates methodically, one after another.
In June 2024, we hired him as an instructor.
The same person who sat in the student seat, asking the same questions you might be asking right now, is now the one sitting in the right seat helping the next student solo for the first time. That kind of full-circle outcome does not happen at every flight school. At Carmel, it is part of how we are built. We grow our own.
What We Are Carrying Into 2025
The goal for 2025 is straightforward: more students, more milestones, more of the same culture that made 2024 worth writing about.
If you have been thinking about learning to fly, this is the year to stop thinking and start logging hours. A Discovery Flight at Boise Airport takes about an hour. You will be at the controls. You will see what it actually feels like. And you will know whether this is for you.
