Bay Area Flying Lessons

My co-​workers Balaji and Retan from our India offices enjoyed the fly lesson and bay tour! Darryl is a fantastic instructor, clear instructions, hands-​on take off, he is patient and care about you having fun learning how to fly. I graduated from Purdue University in which we had airports and flight lessons, I wish I learned a lesson back then. But now I’m thinking about learning how to be a pilot. It’s a different perspective from the air. Thanks, Darrly!

Highly professional, extremely knowledgeable and incredibly kind are just a few of the many positive ways I would use to describe my experience with Captain Darryl Kalthof. My husband is absolutely in love with aviation, so for Christmas 2015 I decided to surprise him with this very unique gift of flight. From start to finish, Captain Kalthof was very responsive and reassured all my concerns. We scheduled to fly on a day where the forecast predicted rain, so I called Captain Kalthof to reschedule. However, through his calm demeanor and expertise, he convinced me that the weather would be in our favor and of course he was absolutely right. There was little to no air traffic, we had the entire Palo Alto airspace to ourselves, and at the exact moment we took off it was as though heaven itself had parted the clouds so we could fly rain free, I am exaggerating of course because this was all Captain Kalthof who continually checked his elite weather source for when the clouds would be passing. With 20+ years of experience and over 40,000 flying hours you are in excellent hands when you are learning how to fly with Captain Darryl Kalthof, I highly recommend his over the top service! As for my husband, he was overjoyed with the experience and we now have a wonderful memory that will last us a lifetime.

This was a fantastic experience! Alessandro was so nice and knowledgable. I especially like how they allow you to control the plane– you actually get to fly!

Learning to fly has been a dream of mine since I was a young child and I finally took the time to research a variety of schools and instructors in depth and found Darryl. I’ve been flying with Darryl for a few months now and he has been great! Unlike many instructors out there, he is a full-​time instructor and not only knows flying, but how to best teach flying. I’ve spoken with some other pilots in training and feel that Darryl’s guidance has allowed me to learn much more in a shorter period of time.

Darryl K. could’ve been a physics professor but became a great pilot and an excellent instructor. Darryl is not just knowledgeable but what is more important he is able to communicate his know-​how to the student. He helped me tremendously by focusing on where I needed the improvements and suggesting the way to accomplish that. Darryl created a wealth of materials that complemented and even often replaced my readings recommended by other people. Darryl is very structured and clear so that it’s easy to follow his instructions. At the same time Darryl’s instructions are deep and comprehensive helping the student to better understand the physics behind every maneuver. I’m currently taking some lessons with Darryl and would highly recommend him to the student at any level. Thank you Darryl!

Had a blast cruzin with Garret, da pilot, and friend, Linda. Garret letting me take control of da plane after take off, cruzin da Bay Area, planes taking off at Oakland airport, blimp or air ship ova by SF, flyin over Golden Gate Bridge and back down da coast, sun was out what a great experience. Hope everyone has a chance to experience this someday. Probably do it again soon. Awesome.

Darryl helped me achieve my life long dream of becoming a pilot. As an instructor, aviator, teacher, and all around good guy, Darryl is the best.
Darryl has a very impressive resume in aviation. He’s flown pretty much everything with wings, has flown for the airlines, trained as an aviation mechanic, pilot and (obviously) instructor. He has something like 10,000 hours of flying and Gold-​Seal certification.
As well as being a great aviator, Darryl is an excellent educator. Darryl provides a clear syllabus (which provides a great roadmap as to where you are in your training); lots of great materials that supplement or supersede the books and videos he uses; as well as lots of helpful materials like airplane check lists, radio maps for the SF Bay Area, etc, etc, etc. Point is, Darryl takes the ground work as seriously as the air work, and you have to do both to get your Private Pilot.
I worked with Darryl on an accelerated program to achieve my Private Pilot License. I averaged a lesson with Darryl 3 or 4 times a week. Darryl always juggled his schedule to keep me moving towards my goal. Each lesson, before the flight, we would do ground work to cover study areas and to prepare for what we would do in the air. The air work was always done at a pace that was comfortable for me, with no preset expectations about how fast or slow I should progress through the various skills. After the flight, we’d review the flight and discuss my homework for the next lesson.
Along with all the basic flying skill lessons, we had some great cross country trips to Lake Tahoe, Sacramento International, etc., we landed at pretty much every airport with 50 miles of San Carlos — including San Jose and Oakland, and generally got me soaked in the world of flying in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
If you are serious about becoming a pilot, I can’t recommend Darryl highly enough. If you are just thinking about it, go take an intro flight — but be warned — Darryl’s love of flying is infectious, by the time you land you’ll be booking a bunch of lessons, desperate to get back in the air!

If you ever wanted to learn how to fly and earn your Private Pilot’s Certificate or advanced rating Darryl Kalthof is an awesome Flight Instructor. Darryl has been training me for almost three months. I had no previous experience flying. Darryl’s teaching process is first rate. Through his years of instructing many students he has built up a significant amount of written and video material on his website to augment the standard texts which really helps my learning beyond the texts. This information Darryl provides is not a rehash of the textbook, but real world application of the topics within the book as it applies to the airplanes you would most likely train in and the airports you might take off or land at within Northern California.
Darryl has literally thousands of air hours and has trained a great number of pilots. Darryl has seen almost every mistake a new pilot can make flying — I certainly test his skills for corrections and repeat mistakes. This has enabled him to be even a more effective instructor. Darryl is a very positive flight instructor with a calm demeanor in the cockpit. His goal and his full time profession is to train those who want to learn how to fly, fly safely and fly very well.
You have to be dedicated if you want to learn to fly. I can tell you first hand, it’s not driving a car. It has a yoke, which is like a steering wheel, but how it is applied is something completely different than a car. Darryl’s goal is to help you attain the knowledge and the coordination level to become a pilot. He wants me to be a good and safe pilot. The standards he teaches me are the ones he flies with and although I cannot meet all his standards yet, that’s my goal. He genuinely helps me move forward in attaining those standards so one day I can pass the FAA Checkride and as importantly know that when I am by myself flying without him, I will have attained sufficient knowledge and confidence to make me a safe new pilot so I can be a safe old pilot. I cannot recommend Darryl highly enough!

I’m a current student of Darryl’s working on the last phase to earn my private pilot’s licenses. I had no prior flying experience or aviation knowledge when I started taking lessons with Darryl. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to learn how to fly. Darryl has literally been walking me through the process at a pace that he has tailored to meet my needs.

Darryl’s primary goal is to help his students become competent, confident, and most of all safe pilots. Through ground instruction and in-​flight training, I worked on becoming competent and safe, but personally struggled with having the confidence to go out on solo flights. Darryl worked with me to figure out why I was hesitant, and to help me gain the confidence to go out solo. And now I enjoy flying solo more than I could have ever imagined.
I highly recommend Darryl. Flying is an expensive hobby. If you’re going to learn to fly, you need an instructor who is focused on his students, regularly updating his materials, and continually working to become a better instructor. And it doesn’t hurt that Darryl is fun to fly with too!

I recently returned to flying after a 14 year break. In order to get my pilot’s license current, I had to basically start training from scratch. Darryl’s excellent training materials, including videos and handouts, along with his structured teaching style made the process easy and I was current again within three months. I’m now working on my instrument rating with Darryl and making great progress.
I think one of the reasons Darryl is a great instructor is that this is his full-​time profession. Most other flight instructors are teaching just to build up flying time to get to a job with the airlines. He’s been a commercial pilot, but left that to be a flight instructor because this is what he wants to be doing.
I highly recommend him to anyone looking to get their first time pilot’s license or to get current. I wish that Darryl had been my instructor when I got my original license. He would have made me a better and safer pilot back then.