How to Achieve Your Dreams of Flight Without Going Broke!
Have you ever heard this said about people pursuing a Private Pilot’s License?
“Oh, that guy? He has about 80 hours in his logbook, but no license. He only flies a few times a month, so he gets stuck learning and relearning the same maneuvers.”
“Yeah, I started flying lessons one summer. Soloed, logged a bunch of hours, but never actually got my license.”
“I’d love to learn to fly, but it seems so expensive. I have no idea where to start.”
You’ve probably heard versions of these stories before. Aspiring private pilots face all kinds of headwinds en route to getting the FAA license. The time, effort, and energy required to follow through on the hours of training, studying, and preparing for the check ride are demanding. Many student pilots fizzle out in the first few weeks of training once the motivation, or the money, runs out. But if you can do it right from the start, few goals are more rewarding than taking your flying ambitions all the way to the Private Pilot’s License. Below are six “hacks” that I learned from getting my Private Pilot’s License that will help you get there.
1. Block Out the Time
Learning how to fly is like learning a new language: The best way to advance quickly is by immersing yourself in it. I started flight training at the beginning of May 2020 and got my private pilot’s license by mid-August. For those three-and-a-half months, I flew 3-4 (and sometimes 4-5) days a week. The days I wasn’t flying, I’d throw myself into ground school. Often, I’d fly in the mornings and do 2-3 hours of ground school in the afternoon.
The key is blocking out a solid chunk of time where you can focus intensively on flying. If you’re only able to fly once every two weeks, you’ll spend most of each lesson refreshing and re-learning what you went over before. Flying consistently, especially at the beginning of your aviation education, is the best way to build on the skills you’re acquiring without spending time revising those skills before you move to the next one. Better efficiency in your training means better efficiency in your budget.
Many pilots who fail to get this point get stuck in limbo. Similar to the first story above, they fly once a month and learn and relearn the same skills, logging time and spending money but never flying with the consistency it takes to progress through the check ride. Don’t get stuck in that trap!
Finding the chunk of time to devote to intensive training can be difficult. Here are a few practical tips:
- Block out time when the weather in your local area allows for consistent flying. (Late spring to early summer, for example, was a great time to learn in Texas.)
- Set a demanding but realistic deadline that will motivate you to finish.
- Visualize your goal in concrete terms. For example, “I’m going to fly my wife and kids to our family beach vacation in August.” “I’m going to fly my mom to the historic airfield she’s always wanted to visit before I leave the country for grad school in four months.” You get the picture.
2. Find the Right Instructor for your Private
You’re going to spend a LOT of hours with the person who’s teaching you to fly. Make sure that you get along. At minimum, make sure you feel comfortable asking that person questions and admitting when you don’t know something. Make sure they understand your aviation goals and have the incentive to help you reach those goals as efficiently as possible. Sometimes, younger instructors who are building hours for the airlines are more likely to help you progress quickly than more experienced instructors who have less incentive to expedite your training.
While there are advantages to hiring multiple instructors—it’s always helpful to get different perspectives and may help you schedule a lot of hours in a short amount of time—you’re more likely to progress faster if you work with the same instructor, since they’ll be able to learn your habits and track your development more closely.
My flight instructor was the highlight of my private pilot training, but it took trial-and-error to find the right match. I took my first discovery flight with a 70-year-old CFI who gave me the creeps. I switched to a retired Marine-turned-corporate-pilot, and it took my training to a different level. He had an inexhaustible bank of stories, and I still hear his voice in my head on key flight maneuvers.
More than once, that voice has been the difference between a safe flight and a bad outcome. (Landing NORDO after an electrical failure in a Class Charlie international airport, for example, I heard him say the whole time, “Pitch for airspeed, throttle for power.” It helped me keep calm and manage the situation successfully.)
3. Make Every Lesson Count
You can’t control the weather or the ATC red tape, but you can control the quality of the time you spend in the plane and face-to-face with your instructor. Maximize that quality by showing up well prepared.
On a practical level, get the sleep, nutrition, and caffeine (“nectar of the gods,” my instructor says) that you need to be mentally sharp. On an aviation level, study on the ground what you’re covering in the air ahead of time. For example, if you’re working on steep turns, read about steep turn procedures in the FAA textbook and “chair-fly” (i.e. simulate) the maneuver the night before. By the time you get in the plane, the actual steep turn will be review, and you’ll master the skill much faster.
Another key is to keep an ongoing aviation journal. Take the time after the lesson to debrief your mistakes. Take notes and draw diagrams. Set specific goals for fixing those mistakes next time you practice the procedure. On this point, I think often of what a friend and F-35 pilot told me his squadron would do before flying sorties over the South China Sea: “Always chair-fly the mission.”
