With a franchise in hand from the Curtiss Company, an aviation school established, and at least 40 cadets
guaranteed for training, Stevenot and Croft launched their flight school. The principal flight instructor for the new Curtiss Flying School would be Alfred Croft.

Training at the new aviation school was divided into two curricula: flying and ground training. Croft was responsible for the cadets' flight training, while Robert Johnson would serve as a ground school instructor. In addition to the two principal instructors, Major Stevenot recruited others who helped to complement and round-off each cadet's formal flight training. Lieutenant Carrol V. Stein, formerly an officer in the U.S. Army Air Service, served as the school's radio and aerial navigation officer and assisted Croft in flying. Johnson, having been a former U.S. Naval Air Service mechanic, served as the principal instructor in aircraft mechanics and rigging. Father Jose Algue, S.J., who was the assistant Director of the Philippine Weather Bureau, taught the cadets meteorology and weather conditions. Other instructors at the school included Lieutenant Evans of the U.S. Army Air Service, who had served with distinction in the Kosciusko Aero Squadron in Poland, and Captain Day, United States Marine Corps. Both were highly talented pilots.

Major Stevenot designed the Curtiss School of Aviation to follow closely the course of instruction for the U.S. Navy flying school which he believed to be the most comprehensive and best suited for pilots flying in the Philippine Islands. The school's ground training took place at Fort Mills on Corregidor. The flight training required pilots to be qualified to fly land-based aircraft and seaplanes, and to be proficient at aerial navigation and radio work.

Each pilot was trained to break down and repair engines, rig and re-rig aircraft and to be able to handle the seaplanes on open water. Each pilot was required to know his aircraft inside and out and to be able to make repairs. Major Stevenot and the other instructors knew that in the more remote islands of the Philippines far from any repair facility, each pilot would need to have the skills and knowledge to repair and maintain his aircraft. This type of comprehensive training would give the future aviators the skills needed, not only to keep them flying, but also to keep them alive.

The aviation cadets went through rigorous training and course work, which included aerial navigation, straight-line flight on designated courses, triangle flight on designated points, and cross-country and inter-island flying. Each element of this ground school training would help a future pilot to keep flying in primitive and dangerous terrain.

Each cadet who graduated from the Curtiss School of Aviation would be certificated in flight, engine mechanics, aircraft rigging and construction. The success and enthusiasm of the cadets was not only being closely watched by the school's administration, but they were also being observed by influential members of the Insular Government and the Philippine Aero Club. The President of the Philippine Aero Club was Philippine Senate President Manuel Quezon, who at the outbreak of the Second World War would be the President of the Philippine Commonwealth. Senator Quezon adamantly believed in the importance and long-term potential of commercial and military aviation for the Philippine Islands to prosper and eventually to defend itself.

On January 9, 1920, Alfredo Carmelo made history when he became the first Curtiss School of Aviation student to solo in the Seagull, two months after beginning his flight training. Under Croft's watchful eye, he began his pre-flight inspection of the Seagull, making sure that everything was in proper order, and then climbed into the cockpit. After checking his instrumentation he turned over his 360-hp Liberty 12 engine and was released from the small floating dock. Powering up his engine, he began his takeoff on a calm and flat sea. After a short flight he proceeded to make three takeoffs and landings.

Carmelo had originally taken flying lessons when he was a student in Germany before the First World War and had never lost his love of being behind the stick in the cockpit. When he landed his airplane, he was greeted with great enthusiasm by Croft who initiated his student into the fraternity of pilots by promptly dumping him overboard into the bay—a tradition that would continue and be welcomed by each cadet who soloed.

Curtiss Aviation School flight instructor Croft along with pilot Lefert
(pictured near the wing) along with one of their Curtiss Jennys.