Learn to fly your own aircraft — from your first lesson to your first jet.
This isn’t a flight school running students down an assembly line. It’s one-on-one instruction and real-world mentoring from an 9,000-hour professional, built entirely around your goals as an aircraft owner — making you safe, confident, and capable in the aircraft you actually want to fly.
Based in Portland, Oregon, serving the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Meet your instructor: Jack Odinsen
Jack holds an Airline Transport Pilot certificate — the FAA’s highest — for both airplanes and helicopters, with more than 8,000 hours of experience. He is a Certificated Flight Instructor for single- and multi-engine airplanes and for helicopters, qualified to teach instrument flying in both, and he is type rated in the Embraer Phenom 300 (Single Pilot), Cessna Citation 500 series (Single Pilot Exemption), and Dassault Falcon 900 EASy.
He also holds an Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) mechanic certificate — so you’re learning from someone who understands these aircraft mechanically, not just from the cockpit.
All of Jack’s certificates can be independently verified on the FAA Airmen Registry.
What Jack can teach you
Turboprop & jet mentoring — Jack’s specialty. Moving into a turboprop or light jet is the most demanding step in personal aviation, and it’s where experienced mentoring matters most. Jack is type rated in the Embraer Phenom 300 (Single Pilot), Cessna Citation 500 series (Single Pilot Exemption), and Falcon 900 EASy, with extensive turboprop time across the TBM and King Air fleets, and he guides owners through the full transition: the turbine, high-altitude, high-performance, complex, and TAA training and endorsements you’ll need, the type rating itself, and the real-world hours that earn an insurer’s confidence — all flown with a professional in the right seat from your very first flight in the aircraft.
The foundation behind it. Whether you’re starting from zero or filling gaps, Jack provides the full range of certificates and ratings — Private, Instrument, Commercial, and Multi-Engine — in both airplanes and helicopters.
And the rest of what flying can be. Tailwheel, mountain, and international operations, for owners who want to take their aircraft well beyond the everyday.
Four ways to fly
Initial training
Your first certificate is usually earned in a four-seat piston airplane, which is easy to rent. If you’d rather own your trainer from the start, we’ll point you toward the right aircraft so your training dollars build toward something you keep.
Turbine transition & mentoring
This is where ownership gets ambitious — and where most pilots need a guide.
If you buy a turboprop or jet certified for single-pilot operation, you can be in the cockpit from day one. But before you can act as pilot-in-command on your own, you’ll need a private certificate, multi-engine and instrument ratings, a type rating, and several endorsements — and your insurer will likely want 800+ hours before they’ll cover you to fly it solo.
That’s exactly what mentoring solves. Jack flies as pilot-in-command while you fly the aircraft, building the hours, the experience, and the insurability you need — safely, and from the very beginning. You’re not waiting on the sidelines to earn your own airplane. You’re flying it, with a professional beside you.
Helicopter training
Helicopter instruction is less common and usually clustered near larger cities, and few schools rent to pilots after they’re licensed — or do so under tight restrictions. Jack helps you find the most practical path given what’s actually available in your area.
Adventure flying
Tailwheel bush planes. Aerobatics. Mountain strips and busy high-density airports. International flights across borders and oceans, with a mentor in the right seat. If flying is the adventure, Jack can take you there. Your adventure awaits.
One professional, the whole journey
Training is rarely where it ends. Many of the pilots Jack mentors go on to have him help them buy the right aircraft, then fly and manage it for them — building hours behind a dedicated professional until they’re ready to take the controls themselves. From your first lesson to your own flight department, it can all be one relationship.
Start flying
If you want to learn to fly — or fly something faster than you do today — let’s talk about where you want to go and how to get you there safely.