Flex Air, AOPA Award Winning Flight School in San Diego & Kansas

We are One Crew.

Flex Air Aviation was founded by Charlie Copeland on the belief that flight training is more than just how to fly an airplane. It’s about joining a community, and becoming a respected professional, and not just a job. Since Flex Air’s humble beginnings of one plane and a family loan in 2016, our company has doubled in size every year. In 2018, Charlie met Paul Wynns and decided to team up to take Flex Air to the next level. Together, we added operations in San Diego, CA, and Amarillo, TX with the main base location in Manhattan, KS. Through it all, as Flex Air leadership we have yet to lose focus on our belief that every student pilot is an individual. In aviation, every pilot’s work/life goals are unique so therefore the career paths may also vary. At Flex Air, we measure our success by the career opportunities that we create for every student.

We are an aviation company led by minorities and veterans focused on increasing minority representation in every corner of our industry. We seek out industry partners and hiring managers most closely aligned with our core beliefs of equity, inclusion, and diversity. We create career opportunities for all students no matter what their background.

People first, respect for all • Hard work, no shortcuts • Teamwork • Accountability • Community • Personal approach to training • Adaptability, resiliency, and innovation • Do the right thing • Mastery of the fundamentals • Career outcomes matter most • Remember the prize

One Crew: For the Future

COMMITTED TO ALL ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT BY 2026!

We’re committed to aviation’s more inclusive, diverse, and innovative future. We call this vision One Crew, and it also means we’re doing our part to make aviation more sustainable. Flex Air is a proud launch customer for the Bye Aerospace eFlyer 2, the world’s first all-electric, zero-emissions training aircraft. Our students will begin flying these quieter, cleaner, more reliable training aircraft in 2025.

Bye-Aerospace-1-300x60

The Flex Air Core Mantras
that we live, teach and fly by.

We train hard, every day.

There are no shortcuts in an aviation career. Nobody is going to build our skills for us. It’s up to us to put in the hard work every day.

We succeed as a crew.

Aviation career is a team sport. We back each other up in our successes and hold each other accountable for our mistakes.

Master the fundamentals.

We treat every maneuver, procedure, and rule with respect and give them our full effort and focus. It’s about careers and opportunity. We measure our success by the aviation career opportunities we create for every student.

Remember the prize.

We set clear career goals, and pursue them relentlessly. Aviation training is a long path and we’ll keep our eyes on our objective every step of the way.

Beech 95

Multi-Engine Training Planes

Multi-Engine Training Machine

We use the planes that get the job done every time. Meet our multi engine trainer, the Beech 95 Travel Air, which we use for Complex Aircraft COMM training, AMEL, and MEI courses.

Bye Aerospace EFlyer 2

Electric Plane, Coming Soon!

For our advanced students

We’re a launch customer for the eFlyer 2, a clean, renewable energy, electric training aircraft, manufactured by industry leader Bye Aerospace. Our new fleet will feature Garmin G500TXi flight decks and Soteria whole-aircraft emergency recovery parachute systems. This translates into safer, more efficient training for our students on every flight, in all weather conditions. Service entry for our eFlyer fleet is scheduled for 2025.