.png)
About PTS
Pilot Training System (PTS) is a network of college flight schools, offering affordable, career-pathway programs to become a Professional Pilot at colleges across the United States. PTS also offers FREE eLearning for student pilots to prepare for FAA written exams for Private Pilot and Commercial Drone Pilot licenses.
Mission: Affordable, High-Quality Flight Training
Founded in 2011, Pilot Training System (PTS) was built to make flight training more affordable while maintaining the highest standards in professional pilot training and aviation safety.
PTS's mission has several dimensions:
1) Lower the barrier of entry to aviation via FREE eLearning
2) Reduce the cost of commercial pilot training through college partnerships
3) Reduce the abnormally high failure rate that flight schools suffer via structured, scalable flight training
4) Prepare flight students for long-term careers in aviation
PTS focuses on delivering affordable, safety-driven aviation certification programs that help students transition from student pilot to commercial pilot efficiently, affordably and responsibly in the safest abbreviated timeline.
Company History: From Free Ground School to College Training Programs
Pilot Training System began by offering free online ground school for Private Pilot students and later expanded to provide Commercial Drone Pilot training. By lowering barriers to entry into aviation education, PTS has grown an online community of over 72,000 students pursuing aviation education at various levels.
In 2023, PTS launched the Professional Aeronautics Certification (PAC) program, a structured career pathway that integrates the structure and rigor of college classrooms with hands-on flight instruction at approved flight schools. PAC offers students an affordable, abbreviated career pathway and a known timeline to an amazing career while simultaneously reducing aviation's abnormally high failure rate.
Today, PTS partners with eight colleges and 12 flight schools across seven states, creating scalable, cost-efficient professional pilot training programs that address the growing demand for commercial pilots.
Vision: Solving the Pilot Shortage Through Scalable Pilot Training
The global pilot shortage is accelerating, making affordable and efficient professional flight programs more important than ever. Commercial pilots are experiencing record-breaking salaries, rapid career progression, and strong hiring demand in today’s aviation job market.
According to Boeing, North America will need 119,000 commercial pilots from 2025 thru 2044 due to increased travel demand, expansion of drone operations, Advanced Air Mobility aircraft, and mandatory pilot retirements at age 65.
Aviation is one of the only careers with a mandatory retirement age, making workforce replacement critical. As new airspace users including drone delivery networks and air-taxi services expand operations, the need for structured, safety-focused flight training programs and professional pilot certification pathways will continue to grow.
Pilot Training System is committed to building scalable college flight programs and affordable commercial pilot training solutions that meet this demand without sacrificing quality or safety.
Core Values:
Safety First
No financial incentive will motivate PTS or its affiliates to cut corners on safety or flight-training quality.
Integrity
PTS operates with transparency and accountability, continuously improving through feedback and measurable outcomes.
Service
PTS's commitment to customers is relentless improvement to maximize efficiency and lower costs.
As financial incentives in aviation increase so do incentives to cut corners on quality and safety, and PTS believes affordable pilot training must never compromise flight-training quality or aviation’s unmatched safety record. Every aviation certification program developed by PTS and its partner colleges and flight schools emphasizes structured training, standardized curriculum, accountability and operational excellence that emphasizes quality and safety.
Company Founder: Chris Johnson, PhD, CFI, CFII, MEI
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
Pilot Training System was founded by Dr. Chris Johnson while completing his PhD at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. During that time, he developed flight courses within the College of Engineering to support FAA-funded weather research focused on improving aviation safety.
Dr. Johnson is an Air Force veteran, commercial pilot and Certified Flight Instructor (CFI, CFII, MEI). He learned to fly at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he studied Human Factors and researched pilots' weather-related decision skills. He experimented on pilots flying simulators equipped with custom weather software that he designed to make simulation more realistic help provide deeper insight into weather accidents like those that killed Kobe Bryant and John F. Kennedy Jr. His research findings lead to follow-on funding from the US Army to develop simulations to train artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that power drones and other robotic vehicles.
In 2021, he joined Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University as a professor, where he began researching the growing pilot shortage. Recognizing the scale of the workforce challenge, he stepped away from academia to focus full-time on expanding affordable college flight training programs in the US.