If you have the money for powered airplane lessons do it. If you don’t have enough consider gliders or paragliders. No matter which option you choose:
“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."
You can trust me…
4 Likes
Thanks guys for all your input…My interest is flying GA. Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.
I took 46 hours to get my PPL.
A minimum of 40 hours in the logbook is required.
A successful Medical undertaken by a Medical Examiner certified by the Aviation Authority.
There are groundschool elements and a lot of examinations to pass.
Radio theory
Radio practical (simulated taxi, take off, enroute dialogue, frequency changes, initial contact, emergency procedures etc)
Air law - two part
Human performance
Technical
Meterology
Navigation and planning
Plus practical flying:-
Aircraft handling around a designated route under the control of the Examining Instructor (from planning to debrief)
Solo Navigation
The highlight is the first solo flight which is typically a Circuit, the grin factor is off the scale.
If you think MSFS is real, it is very much minor league compared to being airborne in the real mccoy. You do not fee G in MSFS, you do in a 60 degree banked turn in a C152/172/Cherokee etc. As for a stall and a spin, well that get the heart pumping. As does having an RAF fighter jet going ballistic in-front of you when you are on your solo Navigation practical exam in the club’s Piper Warrior.
Good luck
4 Likes
A very important part of becoming, and staying, a pilot is that you need a medical. The requirements for a private pilot’s licence aren’t that stringent but there are some. The FAA and other national regulatory bodies have lots of info available on medical requirements.
One piece of advice I would give after getting my UK PPL is it took me over a year flying one hour every possible weekend and finding quite a few weekends unflyable is to save your cash and do a crash course. You can easily forget what you learned if you have to miss a couple of weeks, so to try to get as many flights in over a weeks holiday or two means you will progress much more quickly.
Time in flight simulator and a prior understanding of aerodynamics, meteorology, etc. will help and most of the study is distance learning from textbooks.
After each lesson, I used to go onto flightsim and replay the flight and lesson. That was in the late 90s, so I can’t remember which version of flightsim I had then. I think I had to do 2 hours of instrument flying and my instructor could not understand why I picked that up so quickly, but flightsim reallt helped that bit.
RW ATC is nothing like flightsim ATC BTW but is fairly easy to learn compared to the other study areas.
Good luck.
1 Like
In Chicagoland, it costs about $6000 to get a PPL, then thousands more for each increment on the ladder. It all depends on what you want to do. IFR? CFI? Professional commercial or charter pilot? The final tally can be 75k or more. Keep in mind, in the old world, some airlines partnered with schools to get a steady stream of pilots into the pipeline. Now, with Covid and all that, it may be a couple of years before we’re back on track.
I’m actually thinking about getting my PPL beginning in March or April (weather depending). I expect to pay about 150 an hour with a 172 and instructor.
It takes money to get the license. Then it takes money once you have your license to continue flying.
If you have a lot of money, you can buy your own plane.
If you are not wealthy and live near a big city where there are a lot of pilots, then there is a chance that you can find other pilots to buy a timeshare plane. In addition, some pilots rent their aircraft to reduce their cost; you could buy one yourself and rent it. With these possibilities, the cost of flying becomes easier.
I suggest you first visit a flight school and take a one hour lesson to feel the magic. Then you will better see how you feel and what you would like to do with this project.
Good reflection!
1 Like
@SageGoldfish543 wow, that’s is quite cheap at your place!
You must live in an alternate reality. There is a chance of what? Where do you live?
Yeah, that was the lowest price I could find in the area, but it’s not a 141 school. I don’t really care about that tbh. At KMDW, where I’d prefer to go because it’s near my house, the cost is about $8000, so I’ll drive to save a little money:-)
In 18 years, the price has gone up.
The 10 to 15 thousand USD, seems like a good figure to work with, for a Private Pilot License.
I think the dedication part is probably the most important part of the equation.
Another thing to bear in mind that once you gain your PPL that is not the end.
I am not sure of the rules in the USA but typically you have to stay current or the hiring Club/Company will need you to undertake a check flight or a refresher before being allowed to fly solo or with passengers.
There is also a requirement to log at least a specific number of PIC hours per year in order for the PPL license to be validated by an Examining Instructor every specific period of time.
So whilst it may cost you say $12,000 to get a PPL it may then cost you $3,000 a year to maintain the basic PPL licence.
On top of that or offset would be Instrument Rating, Night Rating, CFI etc
You may also like to check out shared ownership, where a group of PPL’s own an aircraft and each pay a monthly fee for hangarage, maintenance, certification etc then each group member then pays an amount per flying hour. Aircraft availability is an emotive matter and it requires consensus planning to avoid conflict.
Go for it
I could’ve sworn it’s John. It’s not John and Martha?
EDIT: Looked it up, and it is John and Martha King lol
I used their online CBT for flight school. Used to play the audio behind each slide, but then I got annoyed with hearing their voices and decided to just read everything else haha
1 Like
Something else to suggest when flying within MSFS and that is avoid flying aircraft with glass cockpits.
What you will probably learn to fly in will be quite old Cessna’s or Piper’s with analogue gauges.
Flying MSFS aircraft with said gauges will hold you in good stead.
Learn the correct scanning technique and how the gauges can be used in an interactive manner.
IE
Artificial horizon will show a climb or descent, the VSI will confirm the action by showing the change.
You do not rely solely on or get fixated on one instrument,
2 Likes
Thanks guys for all your input…My interest is flying GA. Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.
Very cool. Firstly, It is imperative that if you decide to go for your Private Pilot’s License, you get an Instrument Rating as well. Not only will having one possibly save your life someday, it takes a lot of the guesswork out of creating your own personal safety minimums.
I can only speak about training in the US. I’m not sure how it works in other countries.
Since you want to stick with GA flying, I’d recommend going through a “Part 91” school. These are the schools at your local airport that have the green “Learn to Fly Here” signs everywhere. Before you even get started, do your homework on the schools you’re interested in. Look into their maintenance (do they have their own maintenance center), look at instructor longevity at the company, look at the diversity of their planes, etc. At your local airport, there are probably 2 to 3 flight schools around, so go in and talk to people. Remember: They want your business, try to see through that and see if they’re good folks, or just after your money.
After you’ve settled on a school, start sifting through instructors. This part is make-it-or-break-it for a TON of people. Typically what will happen is, you’ll show up to a flight school, say you want to fly, and then they’ll pair you up with a random instructor. You’ll blindly accept them as your instructor since they know how to fly and you don’t. $5000 later, you and the instructor aren’t getting along, and now you need to change instructors. You’ll have to do a couple of flights with the new one to show them what you already know before moving on to the next thing, and the cycle continues.
Things to ask your prospective instructors are:
- How long have they been instructing?
a. I’d recommend an instructor that WANTS to teach. There are plenty that want to, and there are
plenty that need to. Career flight instructors are phenomenal at teaching what works. They’ve
seen a ton of mistakes, and are very good at explaining things in a way that makes sense. - What’s their pass/fail rate?
- How many students do they currently have?
a. This really only tells you how often you’ll be able to fly, and if you’ll be able to build a foundational
relationship with them while learning. - How long does it take to get through both a PPL and an Instrument Rating?
After you’ve gotten all of that done, you’re pretty much set. I’m not sure how much it costs now, but I’d imagine anywhere from $10-17,000 for both a PPL and IR. If you’ve got your own plane, it’ll be cheaper for sure.
You’ll have 1 on 1 ground school with your instructor, so don’t stress about that too much. There are plenty of products (like the King series) to prepare you for your written exams as well as the oral exams. IF you stay focused, fly 2-3 hours per week, and study a bit every night, you’ll be done in no time.
The most important thing is, getting done safely. Calculating risks, and assessing your comfort level.
1 Like
Another thing to consider is what medical requirements your jurisdiction may place on pilots.
In the US, a “private pilot” license requires getting a third-class airman’s medical certificate; when I did my research I discovered that I’m disqualified due to a mental health condition that triggers an automatic fail, so I can never solo fly. 
A US “sport pilot” license, limited to flying 2-seater “light sport aircraft” in VFR conditions, doesn’t require the medical, but requires that you not have failed it, and if you know you would fail you have to ground yourself until you can pass a medical.
“Ultralights” under part 103 rules are much more loosey-goosey with requirements (no license, no medical certification, no training, no minimum age, nothing) but they can still kill you if you mess up, so discretion is the better part of valor – if you’re disqualified from flying big kid planes, consider carefully if you’re willing to risk your own neck in solo flight over open country. 
For a lot of people though, the medical will be more a matter of annoyance if you have to go to a doctor and get poked and prodded every once in a while.
I would like to thank each and everyone of you for contributing .Thanks again…Unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to pass the medical, Due to bad eyesight meaning legally blind in one eye and have diabetes. But I would like to learn about the technical aspect of flying.
2 Likes
Sorry to read of your health issues.
Whilst you may not pass a medical if you feel able there is nothing to stop you having some lessons and probably even getting your PPL all be it with limitations.
The limitation that can be applied to a PPL license in that it could be conditional that you always fly with a safety pilot in the next seat.
Check the FAA website for details.
To learn about the technicalities visit a Pilot Supply Store and obtain all the books that go with the PPL syllabus, also obtain an aeronautical chart of the area local to you, but do check if they have a low level version (it will show ground level to c+5000 feet hence omit the flight level airways and it will be less confusing) and buy a chart as well.
Good luck
Don’t be too discouraged by that, there are programs everywhere that cater to people that have limitations.
As said above, more than likely you can still get a PPL albeit with a limitation (that could be you have to always have a safety pilot on board, the definition of which depends on the country legislation)
We have a pilot in our club who is wuite severely disabled (physically), and whilst he keeps moaning about the rules like every pilot does, it didn’t stop him ftom racking up 600 hours so far and counting, and enjoying every one of them!
So if you really want to fly, there most certainly is a way!
Definitely money, take your time, make sure you don‘t forget other things you have to pay (yeah my parents know exactly what I‘m talking about) and make sure you get a flight school that has a good reputation. In my case it was a club and so I had instructors who did it out of passion, not for money. Perfect. It saved me half of the price but took almost 3 years. Anyway, best decision of my life.
3 Likes