Anybody a have their pilot’s license on here? I’ve wanted to take lessons, however, the cost as well as having young kids at home prevented me from it.
Just curious if there’s anybody here that has done it. Do you have any suggestions, advice, etc? Of those I’ve talked to, the only ones that have regrets are the ones that didn’t finish.
JD
i have had my pilots license since 1993. bought an airplane in 1994. my oldest son got his license in 2003. it is getting to be a pretty expensive sport / hobby. hangar rent, annual inspections, repair costs, insurance, fuel prices, ect. ect.
renting an airplane by the hour is more feasible. just do it. you won’t regret it.
My recommendation would to check the flying clubs in your area. I earned my single engine land after joining the local club that had an instructor who was a member. It was a very reasonable cost to get certified and to be able to have access to aircraft to enjoy.
I am no longer current because flying is not something that you can do now and then and be a good, safe pilot. Due to many other commitments, my flight time dwindled to a couple hours a month which concerned my Dear Wife, who wanted me to ”Fly or quit”, so that I would be around to enjoy retirement .
Most of the instructors that I have known give potential students a ride around the patch, only do this if you are prepared to be addicted. Give it a try, when you are old and gray, you will not be looking to the sky and saying “I wish I would have…”.
Quote:
I am no longer current because flying is not something that you can do now and then and be a good, safe pilot.
This is my situation as well.
There is no similarity between flying airplanes and driving a car. Flying is a sophisticated motor skill that must be practiced CONSTANTLY in order to maintain the skill and the safety level. Flying is also a technical skill. You have to be committed to staying on top of the rules and the technology.
Also, while flying is great fun, at the Private Pilot level it is not exactly a great form of transportation. Weather is the limiting factor and this can be very vexing if you’re trying to get somewhere. Just when you have a nice weekend trip planned, here comes the fog, haze, wind, thunderstorms, and ever other kind of weather that you can’t fly in as a PP.
Yes, of course, you can get your Instrument ticket punched. And THEN the maintenance hassles REALLY begin.
If you’re still interested, I would say it’s worth looking at the Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) certification as an option. This has more limits than the Private Pilot license, but for just going up and flying for fun, it’s cheaper, faster to get, and you can use it as a springboard to the Private Pilot if you choose to go on.
Aircraft ownership? Ha! If it flies, floats, or fornicates, rent it. It’ll always be cheaper in the end. If you think boat ownership is maintenance intensive and expensive, a boat has nothing on an airplane.
Grouse
Quote:
There is no similarity between flying airplanes and driving a car.
So true. Especially if your prone to running out of gas.
No flying clubs around here. The airport is just minutes away. (Rural area) I plan to rent while keeping my eyes open for good solid aircraft at a price that I can’t refuse. If it never comes, it never comes.
This won’t just be for joyriding necessarily. Yes, I think it will be enjoyable, but I have CPE hours that I have to get every year, am on the Board of Directors for the state, my oldest son will be leaving for college next year, and we like to get to a couple football games each year. All of these items are 3-6 hour road trips (1 way). It gets old having to spend that much time on the road.
I’ll see where this takes me, but as mentioned above, I don’t want to look back later in life and say “I should have.”
The problem with using a private airplane for travel is that you are always at the mercy of the weather. So not only is departure a wait-and-see but you can get stranded at your destination or anywhere in between if the weather turns.
As a private pilot with visual flight rules (VFR) you must have a 1000 foot cloud celing and 3 miles of visibility as a bare minimum. In practical terms, this translates to 1500 ft celing and 4 miles of visibility. Watch your local weather and see how often you would be grounded.
Wind is also an issue. In NE, my guess would be it’s a BIG issue. Summer travel is not especially comfortable due to turbulance.
Aircraft ownership is a whole other subject. If you’re talking a sub-$100,000 budget, you will be looking at 1950s and 1960s vintage aircraft. Maintainance costs are SIGNIFICANT and just the annual inspection can run into the thousands or tens of thousands if there are ADs that must be done.
Best I can say is try it. Book a few lessons and see how you like it. I’d also ask an instructor to do a cross country with you early on so you can see what it’s like to try to fly a longer distance.
Grouse
Just go for it, screw the #’s and live without regrets.
What Grouse said is very accurate. And I don’t know him, by the way. I took ground school as a college credit, then after I finished college decided to get my license. It is a fun challenge to become good at flying. I did what everybody I know that ever flew has done. I joined a club with 7 members, the longer they were in the club, the less they flew. I never had an issue getting the plane when I wanted it. Had fun getting the license, then took people I knew for rides, just for something to do. You can have beautiful weather where you are, but fly 300 miles and it can be a totally different story. I realized it was just all for fun with me when my wife was in school in Wisconsin. I flew her to Michigan on a beautiful Friday for a job interview and was to return on Sunday. We couldn’t get back until Tuesday. I say if you have the money…just do it. But you will find out it is not a consistent way to travel due to the weather. You will never forget your 1st solo or your 1st cross country solo flights. Do it and have fun
I had planned to get the instrument rating also. Not that I really want to fly in less than ideal conditions, but under IFR, I would think that would allow for work travel more often, not to mention, being rated for instruments would, in theory, provide an extra skill for a more well-rounded pilot.
Yes, an instrument rating would extend the conditions under which you can fly.
But you can’t rush experience. The ability to fly and control the aircraft with precision is a critical skill for instrument flight. That kind of control only comes with flying experience. Keeping in mind, an instrument landing is essentially like driving into your garage to park at 20 miles an hour, at night, and with no headlights.
Also, what I found out is the technical ability to do something does NOT equate to comfort in doing it. I trained at night for about 10 hours, which was well in excess of the minimum at the time. Night flight, and specificallly landings, scared the hell out of me even after probably 100 of them. I could do it when/if I had to, but I never got comfortable doing it.
You should certainly do some flights with a CFI and find out how you like it. I’d say do some pattern work, do a reasonable cross country, and maybe even do some instrumet time under the hood to see how you like it. Go from there.
I’ll tell you that the sound I love, and I can hear it in my mind right now, is that sound on final approach. You’ve made the threashold, throttle to idle, and there’s those few seconds of silence and everything is in slow motion, when you just hear the rush of air against the flaps, like wind against a pole shed.
And then it’s down, and level, and flare, and keep that nose wheel up, up, up. Chirp! I love those sounds. I’ll get back there someday.
Grouse
Well, it took a while coordinating schedules, weather, etc, but had discovery flight last week and first full lesson yesterday. 2 more scheduled for next week.
Really enjoyable. Hope to get through the lesssons by mid to end of July so I can solo. Then won’t have as many conflicts with scheduling and can get hours and practice in.
Update on the topic.
My CFI and I were apparently on different pages. When I spoke with the CFI originally, the plan was to have 2-3 lessons per week so I could build on what I had learned and make some progress. In reality, from June 13 to October 16, I had 7 lessons total (7.1 hours logged.) 32+ lessons cancelled by the CFI. Some were weather related, but many were cancelled for everything under the sun. Not to mention the times the CFI didn’t get back to me when he was going to “check his schedule.”
My frustration began to build and I spoke with the CFI multiple times to see if there was different times of the day, different days of the week, anything that we could try to allow for more than 1-2 lessons per month. It seemed that I spent more than half of each lesson relearning what I had done the prior lesson due to the time lapse. Progress was minimal.
October 16 I was at the airport speaking with the airport manager/rental plane owner who had set me up with the CFI. I mentioned that I was probably going to hang it up for the year as I was going to start getting extremely busy with work in November and then mid-January to mid-April would be unavailable to fly at all. Figured it was best to start fresh in April. Expressed my frustrations with all the cancellations, of which they were unaware.
By the end of the day, they called me to let me know they had another CFI that wanted to meet with me if I was interested. I met with the new CFI the following day and he agreed to take me on as a student. I had 4 flight lessons the following week and the only reason it wasn’t 5 is because a downpouring thunderstorm moved in just before the scheduled lesson. Still had some ground school training that day. By the end of that first week, I had solo’d.
We continued with lessons through October and when it would work with my schedule in November. December I hit it pretty hard. Got the night flying in, instrument flying, and covered all training requirements. I was set to complete my first dual cross-country at the end of December. Between the holiday turmoil and some less than ideal weather, it took until the middle of January to get that cross country in.
Had a couple more lessons in January, but knew it was going to have to come to a halt for my busy season (tax accountant). End of April I got back into the cockpit and did my second dual cross country. Did my solo cross country work in May. Took my written test beginning of June and prepared for my checkride hoping to be finished by the end of June.
Had to reschedule 5 times due to non-VFR weather. However, yesterday I was able to complete my checkride. I officially have my Private Pilot Certificate at 41.7 hours. It’s been a journey. Now to continue to improve and then make a decision on whether to get an instrument rating or not.
Congrats! Don’t forget to enjoy the process.
FDR
I love reading threads where people inquire, and then follow through!!!
Way to go Pilot!
My buddy got his license a while back. My Father in law (pilot) heard that I was to go up with him and took me up in his plane. When we got over a corn field, he took his hands of the steering and said “take over and get it as close to the ground as you can, if you’re going to go flying with a rookie you better learn how to land a plane”. Talk about white knuckles. Lets just say I would rather walk to my destinations after that. LOL
He always says “a good landing is when you can walk away after, and a great landing is when you can walk away and the plane is still in one piece.
Way to go 318!
Congrats!
Watch out for F-16’s when flying…
My dad had a Cessna 172 when we were growing up, I wish I would have leveraged that amenity a little better.
My flying experience was very similar to what other gents have posted here – a tremendous sense of accomplishment after earning my ticket, having “mastered” the aircraft systems, navigation, weather, radio comm, nerves, and the complicated air traffic control system. After flying a few business trips and friends/family over their house and favorite lake, it started to come down to just putting in hours to stay current. It’s an expensive hobby, but it is fun. One thing I’ll add as a frequent consideration on flying, besides weather, is useful payload. Planes are not designed to carry a lot of cargo, particularly after adding passengers. A couple of great organizations to look into for support are AOPA.org and EAA.org. The annul EAA Fly-in in Oshkosh, WI, is well worth a visit. I wouldn’t mind getting back into, now that I think about it!
You know what the difference is between a fairy tale and a pilot story? A fairy tale always begins with “Once upon a time…” A pilot story always begins with “No sh*t, there I was upside down…”
It would be an absolute dream come true to get my pilot’s license. Not sure I can justify the expense at this point sadly.
we have a flying club here that is pretty inexpensive to join. My old boss had his IFR and our company shared a Cirrus SR22 with a few other businesses.
There are times where its economically and timewise def the way to go. There are also times when its not.
I have wanted to get my license but would have no way economically or time wise to maintain the license. Maybe someday.
That cirrus was certainly a nice way to travel.
One last update. I just received my “official” certificate in the mail from the FAA just the other day. Continuing to go up when I can and weather permitting. Have taken a few passengers up when the conditions were near perfect for their first plane rides.
Had the opportunity to really save some time 2 weeks ago. Had a 2 hour seminar for work that I needed to attend. Problem was the seminar was a 3 hour drive each way. Weather was perfect that day. 1 hour there, 2 hour seminar, back to the office in another hour.
Recently got checked out in a Cessna 172, so I’ve got another option available to me. Need to get current on my night takeoffs and landings. Going to continue to learn and begin training for IFR.
Thanks for all the comments everyone.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
