with his wife Nicole to Southwest Florida from Detroit. Following a poor experience from a flight school in the market at the time, he figured he could do better and opened Paragon Flight Training with three planes that same year, and watched his business literally take off during the economic downturn. In 2010, his son Chris — along with Chris’s wife Sarah and Jeffrey Wolf, Chief Flight Instructor — had the opportunity to assume control and carry on the school’s focus of providing state- of-the-art aviation and avionics for flight professionals, hobbyists and wannabes. “I learned to fly with my dad and got my license in 2009,” Chris Schoensee notes. “Our philosophy is all about customer service, a strong curriculum and high technology. Today, we operate 13 aircraft — none older than2006—and staff 15 instructors. The pilot community worldwide is less than one half of one percent, so you’re in a unique group. Acquiring these skills is a major confidence booster. The mystique of being a pilot changes you for the better and changes you forever.” At Paragon Flight Training, a variety of options exist to experience flying on a much more up close and personal level — whether you’re eight years old or celebrating 94 years on earth (true and true). If you’re simply curious, the “Discovery Flight” pairs you with an instructor for one hour — 30 minutes of pre-flight, and 30 minutes in the air where you actually pilot the craft with your instructor (with his or her own controls) at your side — for only $125. “These are really popular gifts for birthdays, anniversaries and other special events,” explains Brynn Polonitza, client ambassador and licensed pilot herself. “Sure, you can be one and done, but once I took my Discovery Flight here, I was hooked and I haven’t left.”
t’s a beautiful Friday early afternoon. It’s hot, it’s sunny, and the brilliant blue skies above Southwest Florida are polka-dotted puffy white with whimsical, picturesque clouds. At zero altitude, or specifically on the tarmac at Page Field in Fort Myers, my 13-year-old son is going through his first 30-minute pre-flight inspection with his instructor, in preparation of his first 30-minute “Discovery Flight” lesson — his pre- birthday gift for his official celebration to commence two days later. Needless to say, he’s excited — and so am I, the “passenger” on his maiden voyage (besides, of course, his instructor).
A lot of people experience various levels of angst when it comes to flying — by Google estimates, upwards of 25% of all Americans. But that’s sitting in the plane, and most often, sitting in a commercial plane flown by experience and supported by experts. Climbing into the cockpit and settling into the pilot’s seat? That’s a plane of a different color, and although there aren’t any statistics to cite, it’s safe to say most people would prefer passenger status. Paragon Flight Training exists to enable those daring people who wish to command their own flying machines with the sound, professional and accredited training, experience and expertise to take to the skies. For some, it may be a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. For others, it may be the course of their lifetime as a professional pilot. And Paragon has pretty much seen them all, and provided them all moments that they’ll probably remember for the rest of their lives. Kevin Schoensee is a highly successful entrepreneur, real estate developer and hobby pilot who in 2006, relocated
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