This policy explains what personal information Flight First LLC collects when you use flight-first.com, the Ground First course and our other services, how we use it and the choices you have. The short version: we collect what we need to sell you training material and run your account, and we never sell your information.
What we collect
Only what we need
Your order, your account and how you use the course.
What we don’t do
We never sell your data
No selling, no advertising trackers.
Your choices
You’re in control
Ask to see, correct or delete your information at any time.
Flight First LLC (“Flight First”, “we”, “us”) is an Oregon company that publishes helicopter flight training material and runs the Ground First online ground school. We are responsible for the personal information described in this policy.
Flight First LLC 9001 SW Robert Gray Ln Portland, OR 97225 United States
Information we collect
Information you give us
Orders: your name, email address and billing details. For printed products we also collect your shipping address and phone number.
Your account: your name, email address and password.
Messages: what you send us through the contact form or by email.
Reviews: the name and review you choose to post on a product page.
Flight schools and instructors: school and instructor details, and for the referral program, the PayPal email address we send payouts to and the tax form (W-9) U.S. law requires for payments.
Information created as you use our services
Your order history and the files you have downloaded.
Your Ground First progress, such as lessons completed, quiz results and certificates.
Which instructor or school link, if any, you signed up through.
Information collected automatically
Your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visit and the site that referred you. Some of this is collected with cookies, which our Cookie policy explains.
Card details are entered directly into our payment processor Stripe’s secure fields. We never see or store your full card number.
How we use your information
To process your orders, deliver your downloads and ship printed products.
To run your account and give you access to Ground First.
To answer your questions and provide support.
To send emails about your orders and account, such as receipts, password links and notices about updated files.
To send occasional emails about our products. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link.
To credit instructor and school referrals and pay referral commissions.
To show your flight school or instructor your Ground First progress, if you joined through them.
To keep the site secure and prevent fraud and spam.
To understand how the site is used so we can improve it.
To keep business records and meet our tax, accounting and legal obligations.
Where the law requires a legal basis, we rely on performing our contract with you, our legitimate interest in running and improving our business, your consent (for example for marketing emails, which you can withdraw at any time) and our legal obligations.
Who we share it with
We share personal information only with the service providers that help us run Flight First, and only as far as they need it to do that work:
SiteGround, which hosts our website.
Stripe, which processes card, Apple Pay and Google Pay payments and helps prevent fraud.
PayPal, which we use to pay instructor referral commissions.
WooCommerce and Automattic (Jetpack), which provide our store, sales tax calculation, shipping labels, site statistics and security.
Shipping carriers, such as USPS, for printed orders.
Google, for the reCAPTCHA spam check on our contact form and the fonts used on some pages.
Zoho, which provides our email.
Zapier, which passes order details to the tools we use to run the business, such as our accounting.
Your flight school or instructor. If you join Ground First through a school or instructor, they can see your name, email address and course progress.
When the law requires it. We may disclose information to comply with a legal obligation or to protect our rights, our customers or others.
If the business changes hands. If Flight First is sold or merged, customer information may transfer to the new owner under this policy.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for targeted advertising.
How long we keep it
Order and payment records: as long as we need them for tax and accounting, usually seven years.
Your account, downloads and course progress: until you ask us to delete your account.
Ground First activity history, such as sign-ins, lessons opened and quiz attempts: 24 months.
Messages: as long as we need them to help you and keep a record of our conversation.
Your choices and rights
You can ask us to:
See the personal information we hold about you and get a copy of it.
Correct information that is wrong.
Delete your information and your account. We may need to keep some records, such as orders, where the law requires it.
Stop sending you marketing emails. You can also use the unsubscribe link in any of them.
Depending on where you live, for example in the European Union, the United Kingdom, California, Oregon or another U.S. state with a privacy law, you may have further rights, such as objecting to certain processing, withdrawing consent or appealing a decision we make about your request. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.
To make a request, email hello@flight-first.com. We will confirm your identity before acting on it and reply within the time the law requires. We will not treat you differently for using your rights.
Where your information is stored
Flight First is based in the United States, and our website and most of our service providers store information in the United States. If you use our services from another country, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States.
How we protect it
We use secure (HTTPS) connections across the site, keep payment details with Stripe rather than on our servers, and limit access to your information to the people who need it. No system is completely secure, so we can’t guarantee that information will never be accessed without permission, but we work to protect it and will tell you if a breach affects you where the law requires.
Children
Our services are not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, email us and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as our services change. We will change the date at the top when we do, and for significant changes we will let customers know by email or with a notice on the site.