National Flight Academy

Our son attended the 6 day camp in June 2018 and had a fantastic experience. If you or your child is expecting all fun and games, this is not the camp for them. It is structured and STEM based with not a lot of free time. We have booked June 2020 for him to attend again. Hopefully it won't get cancelled due to COVID!

First of all, The NFA was a great experience and so much fun! I don’t understand why people are leaving terrible reviews because I attended and learned about aviation. I did the week long camp with Delta and enjoyed it a lot. The website for the NFA really summarized what to expect but I felt like they should have added a little more detail. Here is an UPDATED version on what to bring.

Clothing:
If you attend the NFA, they will give you a parent and attendee handbook where it tells you what to bring and to expect. However, here are some clothing items that would definitely help you if your decide to go. One, a jacket! Although the NFA is in Florida and Florida is hot, inside the building is FREEZING! They keep it around 50-60 degrees in order for the technology to not over heat. So definitely bring a jacket or buy one from their store. Two, bring shorts. You will most likely have the chance to see the Blue Angels practice and you will be outside so bring shorts. It will be hot. But make sure it still follows the average dress code. Three, depending on how long you are staying, bring extra of everything (clothing wise). They will have a laundry room Incase you do get your clothes dirty. Do not bother bringing a load of shirts because they will have a required camp shirt you have to wear once or twice. Bring comfortable shoes because you will be in them all day.

Electronics:
The NFA does not allow for you to have any electronics during the camp. They will collect them during security and will keep the in a safe place. However, you do get to use your phone on the night before graduation. So if you do bring your phone, follow their instructions and bring a charger in case your phone dies when they have it.

Extra things:
In your dorm you will have a bunk, a locker, and two desks. For your locker, they have a mirror and a clothing rack. I was surprised when I saw they didn’t have hangers to hang your clothes on. So bring hangers. Since the NFA has a strict schedule, you will have no time to waste when it comes to dinner/lunch/breakfast. So bring snacks to put in the cabinets in your dorm. You will get hungry. Also, the vending machines for food are broken. The drink one is available so bring money. I brought around $50 but get permission from your parent/guardian before hand. You will need to bring pencils and a eraser because you will loose them! They provide you with ONE pencil through out your time there. I brought a pencil case and it helped a lot.

Hygiene:
The NFA provides you with 2 small towels and 6 washcloths. The towels are to small and do not cover your body so bring a large towel. It helped me a lot. Have shower necessities and a shower bag. Try to have it ready to go with clothes for the night because it is a RACE to the showers. If you have your bag packed you can easily make it to be first in the showers. The bathrooms are also very clean and the custodians do an amazing job making sure it stays that way. Bring Flip Flops or shoes that can be worn in the shower.activities:
If you want to be successful at the NFA you have to pay attention. You don’t have to know anything about aviation because they will give you your information on the Triad - X12B, your plane. Remember to take notes during your briefs. The NFA is like the military so no goofing off or you will be kicked out. No yelling in the stair wells either. Flying the first time will be difficult so do not expect to be perfect. Be a respectful and courteous pilot or co-pilot. It is no fun working with someone who wants to dictate and not lead to grow better as pilots.

Schedule:
The NFA follows a strict schedule. Since you wake up at 6: 30, if you are from out of town this might be difficult so try your best to get a lot of rest the night before attending the academy. Over dining terms, the food is good but eat as much as you have on your plate because you will be hungry. Don’t bring games because you will be tired and want to go straight to bed. They do have an x-box and a air hockey table in case. If you would like more info.go to their website

This camp is great if your children want to become pilots or enter the military. Delta Air Lines is generous to sponsor middle and high school students. But it is rigorous, going from 6: 30am to 10pm with very little down time. They complete missions, such as evacuating a harbor for a hurricane. You are expected to know how to do things without being taught. So having an aviation background is helpful. Food was good. Dress code was not as strict as stated. No clocks in the "ship", so bring a watch. Comfy spacious sleeping quarters. But not really a fun place to be. It was more like going to school for 15 hours a day. And there is no communication with parents. Phones are confiscated. $2 for family to send an email, which is printed and delivered 2 days later. In order for the student to receive a letter, it must be mailed 2 days before they leave. Bring singles for the vending machine. They give out t shirts to wear. But you need a sweatshirt daily, it is chilly.

I actually spent $140 to take my niece and 2 nephews to the rooftop viewing of the Blue Angels Practice. I think it was somewhat new, but it really was pretty unprofessional for the most part. Although they would sell it as a better experience and view, you can actually go out near the airstrip/hanger to watch the practice for FREE, which lots of people were doing. I didn't know about that option. The rooftop is HOT. The "guides" just seemed young and/or inexperienced. We paid an extra $10 or $20? For lunch and 2 bottles of water, instead of 1 bottle of water and no lunch. (They had no way of keeping track of who got 1 or 2, so that was just a way to justify the larger price of the ticket). When we first got there, the guide told everyone where to get the water and so the kids went in and picked one up. Then the next guide came up and said to the other guy that they were not supposed to get the water yet. He literally made the kids give back the water if they had not opened it up yet? The first guide was really nice and had a flight background but the guides seemed to have a clash of personality and the way the 2nd guide answered the question he got about "if there had ever been a female blue angel". He eluded to a "issue" and "she was not there long". I was really just embarrassed for him. I really could go on and on.but at the end of the day it was just a disappointment and not up to the standards even set by the Blue Angels. They really should stop doing the program until they can do a better job.

My son went for a week. He had a great time. He described a very military experience. The USS Ambition IS a simulated aircraft carrier, after all. He was fine with military regimen. He's been in a serious JROTC program at his high school, and when he was SLP of our Scout Troop, he ran the troop military-style. Some kids get it and thrive on it. Maybe a little more than half can't take it. It didn't sound like the Ambition has Marine Corp drill instructors roaming the passageways looking for people to make miserable. But if loud "encouragement" at reville bothers you, or a barking drill instructor might make you cry, this might not be the place for you.

My AFJROTC corps went for a 3-day cruise. This is a compiled review of our thoughts.

Chiefs/Supervisors (instructors provided by the NFA) : they were moody at times being rude and sarcastic (banging on our doors to wake us up and generally yelling when we didn’t do anything). Other times they were amazing and actually helped us learn. Disclaimer: they did tell us that the last 2 months had been only bratty children

Here’s the good chiefs to get: Clue, Bethany, Tater, Houdini, princess, lurch (but strict)

Here’s the bad chiefs: turtle, wavy, sassy

Staff: the food was good, sweet and helpful, food choices were considered, seconds were offered, the building was very clean, the bathrooms were good, just generally selfless people trying to make our time there better, you WILL have cheese every meal

Agenda/Itinerary: When we first got there they had us in the lounge room for 2 hours doing nothing, tried to enforce rules but didn’t stick to them, changed the times often, we had too much free time and the only thing to do in the lounge room is sit or play ping pong, if we were running out of time the chiefs would just leave the activity incomplete and wouldn’t help us, not enough structure so we were confused a lot, DO NOT TALK IN THE LADDER WELLS (you will get yelled at and they will make you walk down and back up)

Staterooms/What to bring: they don’t have showers you have to walk down the hallway to a shower room with 4 showers, the towels are not big enough or soft enough (bring your own!), around 3am it was super cold but otherwise it wasn’t okay, bring a watch if you want to keep track of time, bring your own blanket or wear long johns when you sleep because they only give you a hospital blanket, bring chapstick for sure, bring a water bottle so you don’t dehydrate like us and a bag of you if you don’t want stuff in your pockets constantly, bring your own pencils/pens because they only give you jone, make sure that you bring like a book or cards so you can do something other than talk during free time, don’t bring too much clothing because they provide a squadron t-shirt which we wore for 2/3 days, don’t forget a bag for dirty Landry bc no one wants to smell dirty clothes, bring money (one guy spent $140 on memorabilia)

Classes/Activities: make sure you pay attention to every single class that’s about the Triad- X12B, you really need to know everything about how to fly it so take notes in the back of your book, read your book as often, some chairs have a movable desk so don’t slam it because you will get yelled at, pay attention and ask questions, always wear your lanyard (it gets you into your hallway and room)

Hygiene: learn to shower fast, bring small bottles of shampoo and all that, it is a race to the showers so when you get released from debrief run, bring lshower shoes for sure, bring your own towel, put on deodorant

The simulators: they each work a little different so when you change it will take adjusting, learn to hover early on when the missions are just practice, always let your copilot have a shot because sometimes they’re surprisingly good at it, make sure the copilot is looking at the notes for the deployment, the copilot needs to tell the pilot where to head, how far they are, they need to put the gear and tail hook down, so don’t get distracted

The JOC (communications) : always think before you speak and don’t repeat if you don’t have to, make your communications short and sweet, don’t yell at the pilot, always double check the hearing you give them before telling it to them, do not get distracted (stay on top of where they are at), make sure your headset is muted if you are not talking, do not talk over other people on comms

Museum: there isn’t a lot of time so don’t plan on everyone doing the museum’s simulators (they do cost money), there is a gift shop but it’s very expensive

Graduation: it’s boring, there might be a guest speaker (ours was pretty cool), they say your callsign so everyone will remember your bad name, there’s also a lot of pictures taken, you get your ambition “wings”

This program is the worst program that I have ever been in. This program this is the biggest joke that I have ever seen. This is a low level flight school it is more like a daycare. DO NOT COME TO THIS PLACE. If you want to come here don’t. If you start to have any sort of fun they will shut it down and make you start doing physical labor and pt

This academy was a complete joke they disrespected there guests.they didn't show any appreciation towards there job.they acted like they didn't want to be there.the supervisor ¨trip¨ was a complete jerk.went to complement his tattoos and didn't even say thank you and just said ¨flattering wont get you anywhere. ¨ i went with my Jrotc group and they had promised us many things like flying with the blue angles, they had 360 simulators.however our chief goofy was amazing she was super nice and really cared for our group. Peanut butter sat us down and talked to us and tried to reason with us and we really appreciated it.when goofys shift was up turtle replaced her she was an awesome chief.she was down to earth and really made us feel we were welcomed.thank you Peanut butter, goofy and turtle for being an awesome chief!

Apparently, all you get for spending a load of money and falsley advertised is getting nowhere other than being treated like a 10 year old (as a 17-18 year old), playing musical squares, heads up 7up, and other childrens games doing nothing they advertised when you signed up, and on top of it all, having your freedoms stripped from you by their "military personnel", wearing military flight suits with tennis shoes, out of regulation hair and beards. Think before you come here, do you really want to spend the money on dissapointment? Because i certainly didnt get what i expected.

This place was so bad you can go through all the reviews and even a child could see that they are all fake. But getting back on topic we were told we would be flying 360 Sims and that was not at all the case we got there and they checked us in and we made paper airplanes so we felt like we were in daycare and one of the squadrons played music carpet squares. And me coming from a military past they demanded that we call them chief and they all wore flight suits that none of them had earned. The only reason I stayed was because I couldn't drive myself home. And they made us get up at 12: 30 to do pt when they knew damn well we had to be up at 6 am and they woke us up at 4: 30 as a punishment So in turn this place is not worth the money I would never go here if I knew what it was. That was money not spent well.

This camp was horrible. How the camp was marketed to us and how it actually was was completely different. We came in thinking that we were going to fly 360 degree simulators (because that’s what we were told) We had windowless buildings and horrible chaperones that made us run stairs and do push ups at 12: 30 am. If you are coming to the horrible place just hope you get Goofy or Turtle as a chaperone because they are amazing, they were the only reason that I stayed in this camp. They could have fun with us but know when we need to get serious. Overall this camp was one of the biggest waste of time and money that I have ever had, don’t come here if you are interested in Aviation because it won’t give you what you are looking for.

This Academy was not at all what I expected. As a JROTC member I came in thinking this would be a professional academy focused on the principles of flight and teaching the average person how to fly. On the first day we played musical carpet squares and had a paper airplane throwing contest.the staff members apart from chief PB and chief Turtle were terrible and had no knowledge of flight. Highly unorganized and little to no communication between the directors and the staff members.even the staff members had no clue what they were doing. 1/10 would not recommend. This place is an absolute joke, if you would like your kid to learn more about aviation you should probably find a different program, because they wont learn anything here other than how disrespectful the staff is.