Hello, my name is John Morris. I am the founder of ACFT Services, LLC.
My interest in aviation probably started at birth. Why? Because my father was a crop duster with his own aircraft, then a flight instructor during WWII and until retiring at age 60, a 35 year airline pilot.
MY PROFESSIONAL AVIATION CAREER
My professional aviation career started briefly with the FAA as an Air Traffic Control trainee followed by aircraft ownership / private flying, flight training for my ATP and Flight Instructor Ratings and then for 2 years, as a ground/simulator/flight instructor at Miami-Dade Community College Aviation program.
February 1993 I was hired by Simcom Training Centers as a Navajo Instructor. In time I was teaching all of the piston Twin Cessna’s and piston/turbine Twin Piper courses offered, except the 400LS, and in 1998 I became the Piper Navajo Program Coordinator.
May 1999 I was offered the opportunity to join the Pilatus PC12 program. To be honest, prior to flying the PC12 I would “diss” the PC12 while teaching my twin courses because it was a “single”, even with the venerable PT6. That changed shortly after I studied and flew the Pilatus, hook, line and sinker. Love this plane!
Summer 2000 I became the PC12 Program Coordinator and continued in that position (along with ground/sim/flight instructing the PC12 and the twins I was qualified for) until I resigned from Simcom April 2007 to start ACFT Services.
WHY DID I LEAVE MY CAREER
Why did I leave after such a long time? Two reasons, both directly related to the PC12.
First, once I was in the PC12 program all I wanted to do was teach the Pilatus, period. Understandably the company was not going to let that happen since I was competing with other PC12 instructors who wanted to do the same thing and we are all required to teach the aircraft that we are qualified in.
Second, as an instructor and the Program Coordinator, I always felt that actual flight training with a qualified PC12 instructor should be, at least, required for new PC12 pilots. Some pilots are required by their Insurer to have additional dual flight time, but not necessarily with a qualified PC12 instructor, just with a PC12 pilot.
Simcom offers this service, but it can be limited due to instructor availability and cost. Since I had over 1000 hours in the PC12, with approximately 600 hours as an instructor, I saw an opportunity to offer my services as a qualified PC12 instructor to the new (and recurrent) PC12 pilots.
Also, their one question on the customer evaluation form always stuck with me. It was “How does our training compare” And the answer was usually “We have no choice”. Ouch! So that’s where my company name comes from. Acronyms are common in the aviation world, very common for the PC12. Acft stands for aircraft and ACFT stands for Another Choice For Training.
