The Truth: How Hard is Learning to Fly?

PAGE THREE

Family considerations. Don’t build a wall of resentment around your flying activities by stealing time from the family or other personal relationships. Include them and try extra hard to be there for them when you’re needed (little league games, PTA, etc). It’ll pay off in the long run.

Job. If you’re one of the lucky ones with a flexible job schedule, then you have a ready source of available time as long as you don’t shoot yourself in the foot by over doing it.

Hobbies/Other activities. Other leisure time activities are the most likely sources for available time.  Flying is one of those skills that benefits from near-total immersion: you want to put your head into it and keep it there until you’re finished. This is the ideal situation although we recognize it’s not always possible. However, since your life depends on learning the skill well, it only makes sense to let boating or golfing slide to a back burner while learning to fly occupies the front two.

Scheduling. The ideal situation is to fly twice a week, which assumes you have both the time and the money. The less frequently you fly, the more hours it is going to take because of the brain drain between hops. Once a week works fine, but the losses associated with time become higher as you go past that. This is the primary reason it’s advantageous to have all of the money for the training going in, so you don’t have to nickel and dime your way through it.

Finances as a Reason
Aviation is expensive. That’s impossible to argue. But it’s also one of the most rewarding, engrossing things you’ll ever put a dollar into. If you have any creativity at, finding the finances to learn to fly is a good place to put it into action.

Total Costs Required. The total amount you’ll spend depends very much on location and the type of training situation you are enrolled in. The costs per hour range from $65 for a rural mom and pop operation using a C-150 to $130/hour for a recognized flight school in an urban area using a newer C-172. Assuming 70 hours for the PPL, which is hopefully high, that comes to a total that ranges from $4,500 to $9,100.

Big School/Little School. The big school has the advantage of a more tightly controlled program and the disadvantage of a less personal approach. It’s also probably going to be more expensive.  The little school will be the opposite in both of those areas. Continuity is probably more guaranteed at the larger schools because their instructor turnover is a little less, but that’s not always the case.

What are the Hardest Parts?
Everyone who learns to fly remembers one or two things that gave them fits. Usually individuals don’t identify the same thing, although there does seem to be a hierarchy of least favorite training activities.
                  • Turns around a point
                  • Shortfield landings
                  • Softfield takeoffs
                  • Check Rides
                  • Doing weight and balance problems 

Are There Scary Parts?
This depends on the individual, but we’d be lying if we said there were no scary parts. However, the initial solo isn’t one of them. The first solo generally happens so quickly and with so little warning that it’s something you just “do.” The long cross country makes students nervous until they actually leave on it, then they are generally too busy to get scared. The check ride, however, is generally hands down the scariest part, mostly because of the psychological build-up.

How Tough is the Check Ride?
The goal of a check ride isn’t to flunk you, regardless of what the airport wags say. And, if they’d shut up, the “The Ride” wouldn’t loom as such a frightening experience.
 The goal of a check ride is to protect you by making certain you’ve learned what you should have learned and can do what you’re supposed to be able to do. You’ll be nervous and under pressure, so if you can perform on the ride, you’re probably okay.

If you bust the ride, it’s no big deal. You just go back and do it again after getting a little more training in the areas the examiner saw as being weak. This is a good thing, not a bad thing. Look at it as being the FAA’s way of taking care of you and your family. And by the way: far more people pass than flunk.

So, what do you think? ‘Think you can make it happen? Of course you can. Look at all the other people in the universe who have learned. They can’t all be smarter and more talented than you and that’s an absolute fact. So, have at it. BD

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