Did my PPL at Rainier in Renton, really enjoyed it. The key drivers for me were maintenance and fleet quality/ newness and both of these are really good. Pricing of planes and instructors are transparent and good for the area, albeit I think some of the older planes could probably do with a $10 an hour discount vs the 2023 ones. Had 2 instructors during my time and both were great, both left for the airlines. Advice for people signing up - have the funds and a plan ready. Planes are booked up pretty solid 6 weeks ahead, so do the discovery flight, get signed up and then get booking - while you wait get on Sportys and do the written prep and get that done before you start. Also get the highest medical you'll need. Plan to book 3 flights a week and you'll maybe fly 1 or 2 with weather. That level should let you get there in 70 to 80 hours. I did a mix - sometimes twice a week, sometimes once a month, and it took about 100 or so hours and coming up on 2 years - so think through what you want to do. Would definitely do instrument at Rainier Renton, but their PAE location is closer. Thanks guys

Very good flight school and Training Center. Performed my biennial flight review with a highly professional instructor. Excellent customer service!

Front desk workers are fantastic and friendly ramp workers. Upper management needs improvement. Talked to Jim, he’s nice at face value but is a two faced individual and quite frankly a POS. Good flight school, nice owners. Too many instructors for amount of avb aircraft and they tend to go down for maintenance a lot. I heard charging 80+ for instruction but only paying instructors approx 30? That is insane

I obtained my PPL through Rainier and will continue with them into my Instrument training. I began my training at the Renton facility but moved over to Tacoma Narrows along with my instructor when he shifted locations. My instructor was fantastic about holding me to high, safe standards throughout. There are times where it will be frustrating and all of it is expensive... that is the reality of this training in this area in this economy. You will have to be flexible and not panic when maintenance or weather cancel your flight. But there was never a time where the team at Rainier was not supportive and appeared to be doing their absolute best. Not just my primary instructor, but every instructor that stepped-in when he was gone or did a Stagecheck, etc. From the front desk to the flight line it felt like everyone has the same mission in mind: Make safe pilots. I recommend Rainier wholeheartedly.

When I first started here the student to instructor and plane ratio was very good and it was a small school. Now they are way more focused on signing up new students and building hours for the CFIs than student progress. I might not be the most studious book person in the world but there are many problems here including the scheduling, and far too many students for the amount of planes. Scheduling is an absolute nightmare, which is a non issue at all the other schools in the area. Other places you can easily find 2-3 open slots on any given day, even the day before. With RFS you try to schedule a month or 2 in advance to block out time, and some days are already booked full! Just competitive cutthroat and if you don’t get scheduled that day or weekend too bad for you! No guarantee of lessons per week or policing for fairness. Some students leave gaps in the schedule which blocks others. No amount of frustrations expressed to higher ups or surveys filled out changed these issues. I was with Rainier over a year and we had to keep repeating lessons over and over, multiple instructors and no solo in sight. They don’t take enough care on each individual student’s progress. Waiting months to retake stage check for a few small issues, meanwhile inhibiting further progress in other areas. They also got rid of their 152s that many had spent all or most of their time training on and replaced them with 162s which have completely different controls. Why?? Students have to shorten their lesson time and spent it fueling the plane when they’re low - no fuel truck here. Also only 1 or 2 mechanics and most stuff is not able to be done in house like other schools. Planes are down for weeks or months at a time. Flights are canceled with little to no notice for maintenance issues/ inspections. Over the course of my flying here I was pushed into flying in very choppy/ high cross wind weather and I did not find it to be beneficial or a good use of time/ money at all. Other weather issues were unpredictable and do not hold that against the school or CFI. The sim controls are way too sensitive and basically useless in my opinion except for procedures. Need to be calibrated properly. I had a friend here before who has now left to do other things, for some of the same reasons and he never even got his free hour for the referral. Do yourself a favor and go to Regal (worth the wait time and the KPAE ATC operators are awesome), Snohomish, or Galvin instead. All are much better run and you can actually schedule time and progress