What should every aspiring pilot know. 1. Who is this guy/gal, calling him/her self an instructor? It's probably good form to find out who your flight instructor is - and who he wants to be. Does he have airline aspirations? Is she working toward a multi-engine? Do they seem to have fun? Is she proud of her job? Does he show enthusiasm for teaching? 2. How long's it gonna take to get my license? Like, can I get it, next month, dude? Not. The national average is approximately 75 hours of flight training and somewhere around a year and a half of your life. 3. Why so long? Time. And money. You never start out with enough. In fact, over half of the student pilots who start flying never actually stick it out to get their private pilot certificates. Sometimes they're lowballed by an FBO who promises them the license in the FAA mandated minimum of 35 hours (at a Part 141 certificated school) or 40 hours at a Part 61 school. The percentage of pilots who manage their certificates in the minimum is small. So, when students don't do it in the time allotted, they run out of dough ... because they hadn't budgeted enough in the first place ... and they quit and never come back and are bitter for the rest of their miserable lives and want to die. 4. Well, then ... how much is enough? If you're a little better than average student - let's say it takes you about 60 hours - and your airplane costs $75 an hour to rent, and your flight instructor $50 an hour for his services (both of which are reasonable numbers), and the ground school charges about $250, your expenses would be $7750. Add to that the cost of a headset (about $250), E6B computer ($25), plotter ($10), books ($125), flashlight ($25), charts and maps (about $30), the fee for the FAA knowledge exam ($80) and the designated examiner's fee (around $350) and you're at about $8565. 5. Hokey smoke! Why so much, Batman? Volume, Robin, volume. If as many people learned to fly as learned to drive, airplanes and flight instruction would be almost as cheap - but I'd hate to think about how crowded the skies would be around the airports. 6. Can I cut the cost of getting my certificate? Somewhat. If you can fly twice a week, every week, you'll probably learn to fly in fewer hours. Less than twice a week and you spend a big chunk of every lesson getting reacquainted with the airplane, the elements, the instructor ... and there's a certain amount of pucker factor that you'll constantly have to overcome. Flying twice a week keeps your head in the cockpit, even when you're not near the airport - and it makes the coordination of flight controls easier to master because you've just seen them and used them three or four days ago ... instead of a week or more. It's almost a guarantee that if you can fly twice a week, you'll have your license in 50 hours. Will that save you money? About $1250. About the price of a nice hand-held GPS. 7. What can I expect? Your first lesson will be a get acquainted session: you meet the airplane and learn what makes it tick; as importantly, you meet your instructor and learn what makes him/her ticked off. Both relationships are essential for your well-being and the eventual success of your endeavor. Learning the basics of the airplane are obviously an essential element. You need to be intimately aware of how to handle your bird, just in case you need to act quickly and instinctively, say, in an emergency. But, almost as important is the relationship you have with your instructor - if you and she/he don't get along, it will be a long, hard, expensive lesson. Some instructors are ex- military folks who are great for explaining flight theory and performance, but who may not be as accepting of you as an individual - say that cool earring you're wearing, Bob, or that swell tatoo of a naked jaybird, Sally. Other instructors are, perhaps, more interested in furthering their careers and see you as a source of building more hours for them - regardless of how productive those hours are for you. It is essential that you find an instructor who makes you feel comfortable in the airplane. Sure, you're going to feel like a dodo a lot of the time because you don't know how to fly - but if the instructor lets you know that everyone else was a dodo once, even he/she, it makes the process a whole lot more enjoyable. So ... if you find out that your instructor has the makings of a petty tyrant, or is constantly distracted counting the hours until he can take his ATP, or does anything that makes you so uncomfortable that you're afraid to talk to her/him about it - dump him or her. It's your jack. Fire the cluck and find another. Good instructors are getting harder to find because lots of them are getting gobbled up by the airlines, but you'll know the good ones by the way they watch other airplanes when they're not flying. The way they smile when they talk about a flight on a particularly beautiful day. Or the way they glow when they mention the success that another of their student's is experiencing as he or she moves on to a higher level. The key, then, is this. You'll likely be a tad nervous your first time at the airport, your first flight, your first lesson involving stalls, your first solo ... etc. Flying makes us all nervous, at first. But, if you're nervous when you come to the airport because you're afraid what your instructor's gonna say if you screw up another landing, or another power-off stall, or another ... anything - dump him and find another. 8. What happens then? You'll establish a routine and you'll commence to learn how to fly. The curriculum for most flight instructors is pretty standard because the FAA expects you to be able to perform certain maneuvers in certain ways, in order to pass their check ride. You'll first become familiar with the airplane, how the controls work, what the trim's for, the basics of flight. On your first lesson, you'll probably do most of the flying. The four fundamentals: climbs, descents, turns, straight and level. You'll move on to combine those elements into maneuvers, some of which may seem silly, but they're all geared to teaching you coordination in the air, and close to the ground, as well as an understanding of, and a respect for, the elements. As you progress, you'll become familiar with how the engine works, how simple a thing it is to land if it should ever quit, how a wing works and how to know what to do if it should stop working - a stall. You'll learn how to takeoff and, eventually (and it might seem forever) learn how to land. And, just after you learn how to land, and prove it to your instructor on a regular basis, you'll solo. AND YOUR LIFE WILL BE CHANGED, FOREVER. AMEN. Solo. Recalls images of Lindbergh, doesn't it? And Earhart. When you solo, you won't believe that you're ready and you'll dread it's approaching day - knowing in your heart that you're a hopeless groundling and should never have even thought of such a stupid thing as flying. When your instructor has you stop on a taxiway to let her/him out, you probably won't be able to swallow, and your palms won't be able to grip the yoke from all the sweat. You will remember that moment forever. You'll check the pattern, or call the tower and they'll clear you to take the active. Your airplane will accelerate faster without that extra 150/200 pounds of deadweight in the right seat and ... all of a sudden ... you're in the air in a whole lot shorter distance than ever before and the airplane's climbing like the proverbial raped ape and ... YEEHAH ... MY GOD ... I'M SOLO. Ask any pilot, no matter how many hours she/he has, what was his or her most memorable experience and nine times out'ta ten that pilot will pause, blink back in time, and a glow will light up her or his face and you'll know the words even before the response begins: "My first solo. God, the airplane climbed so well. And that first landing, and the second ... I don't think I've ever made a better one. It was incredible." And, once you've soloed your world will begin to change. Do you know how few people in the world have soloed an airplane? You are now one of them. You will have learned the basics of flight, and controlled the aircraft in most flight regimes that you'll encounter, and the remainder of your flight training will begin to move quickly because, along with maneuvers involving more finesse, you'll be preparing for the next big phase, cross-country. What do you want to do once you get your private pilot certificate? You wanna go places with friends. You wanna fly to the ocean to swim, or the mountains to ski, or the desert to hike, or ... heck, you'll fly anywhere, even your mother- in-law's, just so long as you can fly there. The cross-country stuff gets you into navigation and radio work in a big way: pilotage, dead reckoning, VOR's, ADF's (a little). Plotting courses and headings, winds aloft, azimuths and all that roger/wilco stuff that sounds so cool when you drop it in conversation around non-fliers. Cross country work requires thought, planning and execution - along with an understanding of weather and wind, airport and radio procedures, and solid decision making skills. When it's time, your first solo cross country won't be as exciting as your first solo - because you'll be too darned bizzy. Checking your flight log, timing check points, verifying landmarks, calculating fuel burn, winds, listening for changes in the weather, ATIS information, you name it. But, it's worthwhile knowledge - required knowledge - and once you've completed your long cross country, you'll be pretty close to done with the stuff you've gotta learn. The last hours before your check ride will be spent polishing the skills you've spent all that time and money learning. You'll also spend some ground instruction time getting quizzed on things your check examiner will expect you to know. And, everything you'll need to know is contained in a document called the Practical Test Standards. All the maneuvers required, the standards to which you'll be held, the questions you'll be asked - and the answers - are all laid out for you. Your job will be simple because you know what's expected ... all you have to do is study. 9. I've heard that it's expensive to keep up my certificate. Flying's always been sort of the playground of the rich - or that's the way it's pictured. Of course, most of the rich hire their pilots from the ranks of those who aren't, but ... . Aviation ain't cheap. It can be affordable - reasonable, even - if you're smart. There are lots of ownership options after you get your certificate: flying clubs; partnerships; leasebacks. Of course, it becomes downright cheap if you get someone to pay you for it, or find a way to write it off as a part of your business. 10. Then what? Get your IFR rating. Get a check out in a high-performance or complex airplane. Get a tailwheel endorsement and learn all about crosswinds, sideloads and rudders. Go after a glider rating and start to really understand about wind and lift and drag. Whatever you do ... don't become complacent. The most fun you can have in an airplane is learning a new skill. The IFR rating will make that certificate eminently useful - and make you a far more proficient, competent and confident pilot. A commercial certificate will teach you the joy of precision maneuvers - and give you the opportunity to earn back some of that expensive training. The FAA says you must receive an hour of ground and an hour of flight instruction every two years. Don't let that be your goal. Make annual recurrent training your mantra. The FAA even administers an industry-sponsored program called WINGS - the Pilot Proficiency Program. Attend an FAA-sponsored seminar and take three hours of instruction from a flight instructor, and you're exempt from the mandatory flight review. They even send you a shiny pair of wings to display on a hat or a jacket, or as a tie pin - and a certificate announcing that you're a WINGS participant. What's that mean? Well, for one, statistics prove that WINGS pilots have far fewer accidents and incidents than non-WINGS pilots. But, beyond that, WINGS participation displays to everyone that you're a safety-oriented flier - one who believes in recurrent training to keep him or herself in top flying form. That's it. I've rambled on for quite a while, herein, but I believe the ramblings are worth something if they help you, a new student pilot, learn a little more about the private pilot certificate - and how to get one. If you have any questions, complaints or suggestions, please e- mail me at the address below ... or call me at (619) 890-2FLY. If you're a San Diegan - or plan on visiting at some time in the future - and would like to get acquainted with the local airspace, I look forward to being your guide. 
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