Pilots in the sky with students becoming a bit more plentiful.

IN nearly two decades of training student pilots, Joe Justice has witnessed some stomach-churning turbulence--not just in the air, but in the aviation industry as well.

Still, nothing prepared him for the nosedive that his Santa Monica flight school, Justice Aviation, took after the 9/11 attacks, when business fell by more than one-third and insurance rates soared.

"I knew things were going to be rough," he said. "I just didn't know how bad it would get."

Justice downsized into a 900-square-foot office at Santa Monica Airport--half the square footage of the old office--and put off purchasing new aircraft and an expensive flight simulator. But the business model is flexible (instructors are paid only when they have students) so he avoided layoffs.

This year, business has been picking up for Justice and other flight schools encamped around L.A.'s smaller airfields. It's not clear sailing yet, as soggy weather grounded student pilots for three solid weeks. Rentals to foreign pilots are also tougher due to new security measures. But the economy is once again percolating, and more students are signing up for flight instruction--an interest that has always been tied to having disposable income.

"Flight instruction is a luxury pursuit," Justice said. "Business has begun to increase, but certainly not to pre-9/11 levels."

The improvement has been felt mostly near affluent communities. "Flight schools are busy in marketplaces where there's cash to go around," said Bob Trimbom, director of Santa Monica Airport, where the six flight schools have been busy. (The two largest are Justice Aviation and American Flyers.)

At the Long Beach and Van Nuys airports, there's still a lull, although most flight school owners and instructors say lately there has been improvement.

"It's definitely a lot better than the last two years," said Mark Mayer, an instructor at Aviation West Flight School, one of two flight schools at Long Beach Airport. "Our students, which range from doctors to truck drivers, are working but still finding the time to learn to fly."

High costs

Earning a basic pilot's license is both time-consuming and expensive. Federal regulations require 40 hours of flight time with an instructor and 10 hours of solo flight, in addition to hours of classroom work.

But Mayer said that most instructors tell students who intend on flying once or twice a week to expect to spend closer to 60 hours before receiving their private pilot's license. "That's because if you miss a week, you'll have to re-learn part of the lesson again and that tacks on extra time," he said.

Costs vary on location and flight school, but a one-hour plane rental is $60 to $90, and instructors charge $30 to $60 an hour. By the time all the requirements are met, student pilots can spend between $6,000 and $8,000 to get their license, Justice said.

Many flight instructors are "on call" and work as contractors for flight school owners. Each instructor pays a fixed rate to use the school's facilities and equipment. When they aren't teaching students, most flight schools also rent their aircraft by the hour to accredited pilots.

After 9/11, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration established rules that require background checks on foreign pilots wanting to rent planes.

"That's made it nearly impossible to rent planes to foreign pilots who want to take a day trip," said Dave Kirkendall, owner of Blue Skies Aviation at Van Nuys Airport. "It can take weeks to get all the paperwork done."

To defer the costs of owning the planes, flight schools lease the aircraft and pay operation costs. In other arrangements, casual fliers own percentages of the aircraft and kick in for maintenance. "They have to do just enough to show they aren't passive investors," Justice said. "It's enough to keep the IRS happy."

The cost of aviation fuel--currently about $3.45 a gallon--has risen along with oil prices in general, but at a slower pace. Still, most single-engine planes go through between 10 and 14 gallons of fuel an hour, making it an expensive component of running a flight school.

Other costs, such as high insurance and maintenance, tend to rise with revenues, so profit margins remain slim even when business improves. Justice, who has owned his company for 14 years, says he sticks with the business out of love of flying.

"Howard Hughes once said, 'If you want to make a small fortune in the aviation industry, start with a large one,'" Justice quoted. "It's very true. It's made me a living, but certainly not a fortune. It's allowed me to make a living doing something I enjoy, so that's worth a lot."