Meet Patrick Arnzen | Founder and CEO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Patrick Arnzen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Patrick, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor behind our success is that we care deeply about our students’ outcome.

We believe in helping people change their lives by building careers in aviation. That means setting high expectations, holding people accountable and giving them the support they need to succeed.

Flight training is hard; it’s one of the most demanding things many students will ever do. Our team does a great job of pushing, coaching and mentoring students through that process instead of leaving them to figure it out on their own.

At the end of the day, our success is measured by the success of our students. When they earn their certificates, get hired as instructors and eventually move on to the airlines, that’s what matters most to us.

What should our readers know about your business?
Thrust Flight helps people build careers in aviation. Most people hear “aviation” and only think of pilots, but we go beyond that. We do train pilots but we also train aircraft mechanics and dispatchers through our programs. All of the Thrust Flight programs are focused, immersive and built around one goal: getting students from training into the workforce as efficiently and safely as possible. Our students come here with a mission, and we give them the structure, intensity and support to accomplish it.

We’re probably best known for our Zero Time to Airline® program, which takes students with no flight experience and puts them on a structured path to becoming professional pilots in 18 months. Over the years, we’ve trained thousands of students, many of whom are now flying for airlines across the country. To achieve this, they fly seven days a week. It’s challenging – probably the hardest thing many of our students have ever done – but also one of the most rewarding. And they don’t go through it alone. We’ve built a culture where staff support students, and students support each other. Our goal isn’t just to produce licensed pilots, we’re here to help people change their lives.

What makes us different is that we invest heavily in our aircraft, technology and training systems, but what matters most is the culture we’ve built. Students know what is expected of them and they know they’ll have a team behind them every step of the way.

The impact we’ve had on people’s lives is the thing I’m most proud of. We work with everyone from young adults right out of high school to military veterans and mid-career changers. Watching someone walk through our doors with a dream and leave with a profession never gets old.

At the end of the day, aviation needs more well-trained professionals and our job is to help create them.

Of course, the path to building this business hasn’t been easy. There were setbacks, industry disruptions, financial hurdles, even a personal health scare that derailed me for a year. But I learned to adapt, to pivot and to keep going. We’ve grown from a one-person operation into a multi-campus school with a thriving community of students and staff.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
In the morning I’d take them up in a plane just to see the whole Valley laid out below. That view still gets me every time. I’d bring a friend into Arcadia for lunch at Chelsea’s Kitchen, sitting outside if the weather’s right. From there we’d wander downtown, checking out Roosevelt Row’s galleries and murals, then grabbing a drink somewhere like Bitter & Twisted, which still has some of the best cocktails in the city. We’d also stop for dinner at Steak 44, for a celebration for visiting the city.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I wouldn’t be here without my father. He wasn’t a professional aviator, but he was a passionate aviation enthusiast. He owned a few aircraft – he actually had one when I was born – but life, as it often does, got in the way and he eventually had to sell them. Still, he never lost his love for flying and did everything he could to pass that passion on to me. He supported me every step of the way as I pursued my dream of becoming a pilot.

My grandfather also played a fundamental role. He was a recreational pilot and I had the chance to fly with him a bit when I was young. I probably started formal flight training around the age of 12 or 13 because of both of their roles.

That early exposure, thanks to both of them, shaped the course of my life. Their influence lit the spark that grew into a lifelong commitment to aviation.

Website: https://www.thrustflight.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thrustflight/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thrust-flight/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThrustFlight/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkM9Q2yMZh6ix7TeVy0VH7A

Image Credits
Thrust Flight