Membership Details and Costs
Flight Cub 502 is a non-profit 501(c)(3), based at Bowman Field (KLOU), Louisville, KY and is dedicated to inspiring success through aviation. Kids 13 – 20 years old eligible to join. Flight Club 502 is insured and the youth leadership is mentored by professional adult volunteers, many of whom are CFI’s and Airline Pilots.
The Four Fundamentals of Flight Club are: 1. Integrating STEM/Next Gen learning, 2. Developing decision making, Developing leadership skills, 4. Patriotism (being grateful and respecting each other and our differences).
Flight Club is not a Flight or Maintenance School. We use lessons in aerospace to develop life skills. The Senior members run the “business” of the club. We are not just building a plane and learning to fly. We are learning entrepreneurship, developing leadership by teaching our peers the intro class and teaching the junior flight ages 8-12 years old.
How To Become a Member
Overview: Kids 13 – 21 years old eligible to join. Flight Club 502 is insured and we are mentored by professional aerospace volunteers. Senior members are required to help teach the junior flight club (8-12 year olds), contribute time to the aircraft build project, keep the planes and the facilities clean and participate on one of the committees that helps run the “business” of flight club which includes fundraising, bookkeeping, strategic planning, organizing ground school classes and camps, marketing, maintenance scheduling and record keeping.
Membership: Prerequisite for membership includes: 1.“Introduction to Aviation Class” which is taught by the senior members of flight club. 2. After completion of class: application for membership and recommendation from a flight club member who taught the class.
Intro to Aviation Class: This class includes 8 hours of ground school. We have changed the class structure because of the coronavirus and limiting the number of participants. Please look under the “classes” and you will see the schedule and chose the dates that work best for you. The fee for the class is a recommended $300 donation and includes the the ground class, the first flight (young eagle flight), the Sporty’s Online Private Pilot Course (donated by Sporty’s value $250), use of our Redbird Simulator. Scholarships are available.
Once you have completed the classes and been approved for membership, you can pay your annual dues ($150 per year for kids who plane to fly or $50 per year for kids who want to be part of the operations and build but not interested in flying). Members reimburse the club for actual cost of operating the plane ($68 per hour for Cessna 150 and $99 per hour for Cessna 172) wet (fuel included). Members pay the instructors directly $35 per hour. The approximate cost to complete a Private Pilot’s license at flight club is about $5000 which is about half of the cost of what a flight school would charge.
Junior Flight Club
Junior Flight Club ages 8-12 is an aviation exploratory course taught by Senior Flight Club 502 members. We incorporate the four fundamentals of flight club into this program.
We teach the junior flight club kids all about the parts of the plane, the four forces of flight, basic navigation, aviation weather and aeromedical factors. We also take the junior flight club members on a variety of tours including: the control tower, walking tour of Bowman, visit a corporate flight department at SDF, backside tour of SDF, visit Air National Guard and UPS.
The junior members will have their first flight for no charge through the young eagles program (and they will receive the Sporty’s online ground school $250 value). The kids can use our Redbird Flight Simulator and can take 4 lessons per year in our club plane at our cost $68 with fuel plus cost of flight instructor.
If you have questions email us at memership@flightclub502.org