School me on Private Pilot License

[JustinB]

Thinking about getting my license this spring or summer. Can someone please tell me about the process of getting a basic license?

I found the following places local. Has anyone used them before?

http://www.lakefrontairport.com/schools.htm


Thanks,
Justin

 

[bigpoppat]

My brother in law got his single air land license from there. I don't know much about the process other than he had to do some tests, written and flying. He was given some CD's to study from and he had to read lessons between flights

 

[tunatuk]

Flying lessons are expensive. You're going to be looking at about $10-15k last I checked for fixed wing, single engine PPL only.

You have minimum of 40hrs of flight time, plus ground school, plus your home study. That will only cover you to fly in VFR (visual flight rules, i.e. a clear day with great visibility, and as long as you don't go into any clouds) only.

You'll end up wanting an instrument rating as well (another few thousand bucks), and then possibly a multi-engine rating.

Best bet is to get student loans for this stuff! It gets expensive QUICK.

 

[Tulse Luper]

http://www.bayoushooter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44037

 

[2ridgebacks]

It has been a while since I have done any fling but to get your private pilot’s license you will need to do 40 or so hours fling with an instructor, a solo and a couple of cross countries, you will also need ground school. When I was getting my degree in aviation in the late 90's the FAA was coming out with a recreational license, I am not sure the requirements to obtain a rec license but it was easier than the private. If you just want to fly around this is the fastest way to do it. If you want to fly for hire or other compensation you will need your commercial lic. if it is possible I would recommend you buy a small 152, 162, Cessna or other inexpensive aircraft to train in depending on your plans after you obtain your license.

 

[I_FLY_LOW]

You need to do some serious interviewing with some of the instructors, before you drop the first dime....
Find one of the older instructors, someone that doesn't have thier feelers out, looking for employment elsewhere.
If you can find one that's certified to give the FAA checkride, that's even better.
Being young, and inexperienced back when I first started flying, I went through numerous instructors milking us for money, before I finally got the name of an older gentleman that happened to be check ride certified, that had me ready to go, and licensed in no time.
Every time I got comfortable with an instructor, they would find employment elsewhere, and I would have to start over with the next instructor, until they thought I was ready to solo, x-country, or whatever the case was.
That ordeal was a crock of sh*t.
The first instructor was awesome.
We were rocking and rolling on my way to solo, when he was retiring from the airforce,
but got hooked up with a commercial gig. Second guy was airforce too, but was milking us for the hours. Fired him, and gave a lady instructor a shot. By then I was going into college for an aeronautical degree, and just never geehawed with her. First guy at college was an *******, yelled at me, over nothing... He was fired... Next guy there was cool, but also wound up catching a flying gig... Then was the older fella who knocked it all done in a couple weeks... It took me 80 hrs to get my ticket, in the end...
This was in 1994... Can you imagine what that would cost in today's money???

Another point made was fly as often as you can.
Fly 2-3 times a week, or more, if weather and time allow, vs once a week or once or twice a month.
It stays fresh in your mind.

Another thing you want to do, is get all the emergency situation training, spin recovery training, and unusual attitude recovery training that you can. Any instructor that balks at any of this when asked, needs to be skipped over until you find one that is very knowledgeable in it.
This alone, will greatly reduce you being an NTSB statistic.

I'm just a private pilot, single engine land, with a taildragger endorsement, speaking from past experience, and things I've picked up along the way.
Ymmv...

 

[jimdana1942]

I got my license in 1962. Alot has changed since then. 40 hours required but I went to a Flight School and it was only 35. Back then I flew solo for $3 hour plus $2 hour maintenance fee but I had joined a flying club of 10 members and we each owned 10% of the plane. I paid a $200 down payment and 1/10th of the monthly pmt. of $287. I figured I got my license for about $500 back then.

 

[diat150]

You need to do some serious interviewing with some of the instructors, before you drop the first dime....
Find one of the older instructors, someone that doesn't have thier feelers out, looking for employment elsewhere.
If you can find one that's certified to give the FAA checkride, that's even better.
Being young, and inexperienced back when I first started flying, I went through numerous instructors milking us for money, before I finally got the name of an older gentleman that happened to be check ride certified, that had me ready to go, and licensed in no time.
Every time I got comfortable with an instructor, they would find employment elsewhere, and I would have to start over with the next instructor, until they thought I was ready to solo, x-country, or whatever the case was.
That ordeal was a crock of sh*t.
The first instructor was awesome.
We were rocking and rolling on my way to solo, when he was retiring from the airforce,
but got hooked up with a commercial gig. Second guy was airforce too, but was milking us for the hours. Fired him, and gave a lady instructor a shot. By then I was going into college for an aeronautical degree, and just never geehawed with her. First guy at college was an *******, yelled at me, over nothing... He was fired... Next guy there was cool, but also wound up catching a flying gig... Then was the older fella who knocked it all done in a couple weeks... It took me 80 hrs to get my ticket, in the end...
This was in 1994... Can you imagine what that would cost in today's money???

Another point made was fly as often as you can.
Fly 2-3 times a week, or more, if weather and time allow, vs once a week or once or twice a month.
It stays fresh in your mind.

Another thing you want to do, is get all the emergency situation training, spin recovery training, and unusual attitude recovery training that you can. Any instructor that balks at any of this when asked, needs to be skipped over until you find one that is very knowledgeable in it.
This alone, will greatly reduce you being an NTSB statistic.

I'm just a private pilot, single engine land, with a taildragger endorsement, speaking from past experience, and things I've picked up along the way.
Ymmv...

I second this. I started getting mine about 13 or so years ago. I got up to the point where most students would do a solo (20ish hours if I remember right). I wasnt comfortable enough to do the solo flight yet but my instructor tried to pressure me into it. that kinda made me go stale on getting it. I eventually dropped out. Id like to one day go back and find an instructor that I could jive with and finish it up, but its hard to find the time.

btw, that instructor crashed a plane and died a few years back.

 

[bayoupirate]

You may want to look into going the Light Sport Pilot route.
Top Gun in Hammond did a package deal for one of my friends and he has had nothing but praise for their school.

 

[Vigilante Sniper]

I second this. I started getting mine about 13 or so years ago. I got up to the point where most students would do a solo (20ish hours if I remember right). I wasnt comfortable enough to do the solo flight yet but my instructor tried to pressure me into it. that kinda made me go stale on getting it. I eventually dropped out. Id like to one day go back and find an instructor that I could jive with and finish it up, but its hard to find the time.

btw, that instructor crashed a plane and died a few years back.

also check out Fly-by-knight in Hammond, Sharon has some nice planes and good instructors. Also I think Brian Bechtel is an instructor at the school you linked to at lakefront, he can give you more info his number is 504-628-7424. Hammond would be cheaper.
I fly out of Reserve and Hammond, we don't have any rentals at Reserve. I'm commercial, instrument, multi, and been flying since I was 17.

 

[firefighter9158]

Get a single seat ultra light , No license required.

 

[I_FLY_LOW]

Oh, and one more thing, make damn sure you're in great health, before you go get your medical certificate...
Things have gotten a LOT stricter since the last time I had a medical.
My blood sugar was a little high... BAM sorry, got to report that to the FAA...
That was 5 months ago... I STILL haven't gotten that straightened out, and that will now follow me for the rest of my flying career...

By the looks of fuel prices, I doubt i'd do much flying anyway...

Get you a good physician, if you don't already have one, and get a THOROUGH examination done. Bloodwork, the whole nine yards....

 

[I_FLY_LOW]

I wanna say, though I've not entertained going that route, that s'port pilot may be a bit less restrictive in regards to the medical, if you even have to have one...
I already have my license, so I just wanted to get recurrent again...

Oh, and if anyone has a taildragger that they wanna rent out, hit me up...
I loves me some conventional gear flying...

 

[JLouv]

wow....I could write so much....

I_FLY_LOW hit all the high points though.

Find an older instructor....he's not gonna ditch you for the first "real" job that comes along. I put the "real " in quotes for a reason. It's not a dig on flight instructors, but rather, I think flight instructing is a REAL job. It's simply the most work you'll ever do in an airplane, aside from being the student in it!! Point is, every young instructor out there is just building time until the next gig comes along. Find an instructor who's a bit older than fresh out of college...someone who's been there more than a few years. Even better....find a local pilot that has a job who would like to do some instruction on the side.

Personality. Everyone has got one. Sometimes they don't mix. Just move on and try the next guy. An aside to this is a good way to avoid being "milked" Every 10flt hours or so, fly with a different instructor to get a "second opinion" At the school I ran, these served two purposes. 1. I got to evaluate the quality of instruction the student was receiving 2. I got to see if anyone was being "held back" But I'm honest like that.

Paying for ground school. This is entirely up to you. If you study, and demonstrate knowledge, then you don't have to have many classroom sessions. The only real serious ground school I ever taught was cross country flight planning. Everything else was done in 1 hour increments prior to the actual flight and only covered what we were going to do that particular day. I would give reading assignments and it was up to the student to do his own bookwork. I was of course available to answer questions, but I didn't preach out of the book to anyone.

FLY OFTEN!!! Twice a week is the MINIMUM. If you can't do that for any reason, then don't waste your money.

TURN OFF THE F*$King GPS. Most training airplanes today have all sorts of gadgets and gizmos in 'em. Don't even bother. They are a crutch. You'll spend more time learning how to use whatever is in that particular plane instead of actually learning how to fly the thing!! Learn to fly the hard way & let the gadgets make it easier later. They don't give second graders learning math calculators for the exact same reason.

I've been flying (ahem) professionally for 20 years. I'm currently running a corporate flight department. Before that, I was a charter pilot. I did all my instructing as the director of an initial pilot training school for the Air Force <until I got a "real" job>

 

[JLouv]

Get a single seat ultra light , No license required.

As a fact that's true. As advice, it's suicidal.

Ultralights are a blast!! And as safe as something so dangerous could be. But please don't hop in one and think you'll figure it out!!! At MINIMUM, get a solo sign-off in a "real" airplane first!!!!

 

[bayoupirate]

So who here is a currently available LSA instructor?

 

[JustinB]

......You're going to be looking at about $10-15k last I checked for fixed wing, single engine PPL only.

Best bet is to get student loans for this stuff! It gets expensive
QUICK.

If it is that expensive I am going to wait to do this so I can pay off my regular student loans first.

If you just want to fly around this is the fastest way to do it. If you want to fly for hire or other compensation you will need your commercial lic. if it is possible I would recommend you buy a small 152, 162, Cessna or other inexpensive aircraft to train in depending on your plans after you obtain your license.

Yeah I am not looking to fly for hire or go commercial. I just want to get up there and do some barrel rolls.

My ultimate dream is to fly a P51 mustang. (I know it will be almost impossible to accomplish that goal )

Oh, and one more thing, make damn sure you're in great health....

By the looks of fuel prices, I doubt i'd do much flying anyway.....

Knock on wood Im in good health so far. So that shouldn't be a problem.

I know with the price of oil going up its only going to make flying more expensive.

Thanks everyone for the awesome info.

 

[leVieux]

It is fairly easy to get a recreational pilot license; good for sightseeing, short hops in good weather, etc.

To use General Aviation as a reliable means of transport; much more education, training, and investment is required. And, the "continuing education"; or, as it is called "recurrency training", MUST be kept up.

Any pilot school will be glad to explain it to you if you visit in person.

leVieux

 

[leVieux]

Get a single seat ultra light , No license required.

Right, get an ultralight for your LAST birthday !

Ignorance is bliss; at least for a short while.

leVieux

 

[Jed]

At 23 yrs old your best bet would be the military.
They'll teach you and pay you.