Principle 01
Fundamentals first.
Every advanced maneuver is just a fundamental performed precisely. Nail the basics, and the rest of flying gets dramatically easier — and safer.
Meet Nathan
A pilot who flies for the love of teaching it.
Some instructors teach to log hours. Nathan teaches because he can't imagine doing anything else.
Background
From the right seat, with intention.
Nathan Bey-Smith is a Commercial Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor — Instrument (CFII) based in the Phoenix Valley. He came up the way good pilots do: one careful hour at a time, with a stack of checklists, a shelf of FAR/AIMs, and an unshakable belief that the fundamentals are the answer to almost every problem in the cockpit.
He trains the way he flies — calm, deliberate, and curious. Every lesson is a real flight, every flight is a chance to make the next one cleaner. There's no syllabus theater here, no boxes ticked just to log them. Just two pilots in an airplane, working the problem.
CPL
Commercial Pilot
FAA-certificated for commercial operations.
CFI
Certified Flight Instructor
Trained & rated to instruct primary and advanced.
CFII
Instrument Instructor
Authorized to instruct in instrument flight.
Philosophy
How he teaches.
Three principles that shape every flight, every brief, every chair-fly session.
Principle 02
Calm beats fast.
The best pilots aren't quick — they're unhurried. Nathan teaches the kind of cockpit composure that makes hard days feel routine and routine days feel sharp.
Principle 03
Train for the real world.
The FAA gives you minimums. Nathan gives you margin. You'll leave training able to handle weather, workload, and the unexpected — not just pass a checkride.
In his words
Why I fly.
I think about the first time I saw the Phoenix Valley from a thousand feet up — the way the light hits the saguaros at sunset, the way the desert stretches further than you can imagine. I knew right then that I wanted to spend my life up here.
Teaching wasn't part of the plan, at first. But the more I flew, the more I realized how much I loved the moments when something finally clicked — for me, and now for the people I train.
My job is to give you the cockpit confidence that lets the airplane disappear, so all that's left is the flying. That takes time, repetition, and an instructor who's actually paying attention.
If that sounds like the kind of training you're after, let's go fly.
The right seat is open
Let's go flying.
Send Nathan a message. Tell him where you are in your training — he'll take it from there.