Brand new to flying and have a few questions

I

Izzy Faden

Filing Flight Plan
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Oct 27, 2013
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Izzy
Hello everyone and thank you for reading my post.
I am a 50 year old man in good health and Ive been taking lessons here and there since I was 18. Never went a very long stretch taking hours other then ground school which was 15 hours I believe. I have about 6 hours of flight time along with the GS. My questions are this:

1.What can I do that may help reduce the costs of my training?
I heard mention of some home study aids?

2.After completing the requirements of the private pilot cert, my thoughts were to go on to get my instructors cert. Is there a demand for instructors or would I have a hard time finding a position with a school.
This is something I am hoping to do in my retirement at 55.

Any comments that may help would be great.
Thank you,
Izzy

Located in Southern NJ
 
Have dedicated time and money to COMPLETE training. As you've seen, stretching training out over age 18 to 50 is not effective.

The only issue with instructing in retirement is the pay blows and you need a medical. If you don't care about money and you're in great health then have at it. I doubt you'll get your money back on what you spen to get your ratings through CFI.
 
If you are worried about passing the written there are plenty of home study materials that will help you. Have you researched the cost of obtaining a n instructors rating? The amount of new students continues to decrease , you would have to be employed by a very busy flight school to make a living. Go for your commercial and try to get on with a charter company.
 
Izzy.....best advice ever from SEA172.......get your dough together so you can just knock out the whole thing over a summer and the good flying months. Do the written right up front and get that out of the way, no sense burning cash on flying if you don't get past the written. Your next hurdle will be finding an instructor who will go all the way with you. Changing instructors really sucks and sets you back. Instructing will be a tough way to get your money back, but hey, if you're on fire and set to do it.......go whole hog and have fun. It is a great achievement. At your age you might get a commercial job flying boxes. Keep in mind those jobs fly rain or shine......doing a walk around at night in the snow may take some of the "sparkle" off the experience......lol........good luck to you and I hope you sail through..............
 
get to know people in your airport and amke connections because you never lnow if they have a plane that they could let you fly. as others have mentioned get money so you can finish the training. its bad to start and stop because you take 3 steps back and 2 steps forward which will make you training more lengthy
 
Depending on where you live, you might find a Community College that teaches aviation courses.

Could be an economical and structured way to get at least the ground portion towards a license.
 
Wow thank you for the advice. It wont be about the money. I want to teach so I can see the joy on peoples faces as they learn. I cant stop smiling for hours after I come down from a flight. The cash outlay wont be too bad. I see that available at tax time. Medical Ill have at retirement and a decent pension so......
Anyway the commercial flying may be a supplimental income. What is needed flight time and how hard to get with a company to fly boxes?
:eek:)
 
...best I can tell you can count on $30k to get PPL, IFR, CPL and CFI, and that's probably a bit on the low side (or if you can get through it quickly). You'd probably need at least 500 hours before you'd be able to fly any 'boxes'.

It cost me about $9k to get my PPL (I have my own plane - paid more for gas in my Cherokee 235 than I would have in a smaller plane - but I wanted to learn in what I was going to be flying in...) and the programs I've seen to get a IFR in a reasonable amount of time is around $10k. So, it's close to $20k to just get those two.
 
Izzy Faden said:
Medical Ill have at retirement and a decent pension so......
Click to expand...

Good luck to you on your goals. I just earned my PPL and I can only image the work you have ahead of you to become a CFI.

I agree that you should 1st make sure you can get your medical. I also want to make sure you understand what medical they are talking about, since your comment above seems as if you are thinking medical insurance possibly :dunno: , My apology's if this in not the case, but here is some helpful information if I so: http://www.faa.gov/licenses_certificates/medical_certification/faq/
 
Hello-
I'm 53, have my PPL and will be getting into complex AC and starting my IR soon. So I guess we're in similar positions.

My wife works and makes real good money, I'm not working, but I'm studying and training to become a professional pilot. Not sure exactly where this will lead, maybe CFI, maybe aerial photography, air taxi, air freight, etc.

My wife likes going flying with me, and every hour in the air is fun. Hey, last week we flew from Kansas City to Santa Fe, NM, my longest cross-country ever. Occasionally I fly her to Wichita for business reasons.

One thing to remember is that you will need 50 hours of 50-nm cross-country flights for your IR. So, whenever you fly, try to make it a 50-nm cross country, rather than just flying around in circles.

I have logged about 200 hours, but only about 37 hours of these 50-nm cross countries. It only occurred to me recently that I want to get my IR and that I need this cross-country time.
-Scott
 
Buy your own plane and pay a young instructor thats needing to build time for commercial liscense 15 bucks an hour to teach you. win/win for both of you. he builds time while making a few bucks and you get cheap instruction. Better than renting one and you have a plane your comfortable with to fly when your done! Kinda like renting a house...why pay somebody else's note.
 
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...some interesting advice I over heard in my school a few months back...

"...do your commercial from the right seat...makes CFI a breeze...".

Makes sense.
 
Also keep in mind that all the FAA documents you need to read are available free online. If you look at the practical or written test documents, they even contain a list of all the documents to read. Lately I've been reading the documents for the IR.
 
ScottVal said:
Hello-
I'm 53, have my PPL ...

My wife likes going flying with me, and ... Occasionally I fly her to Wichita for business reasons.

-Scott
Click to expand...


SSssshhhhh!!!

That's (borderline) illegal for a Private
(you probably get a 'pass' for immediate nuclear family member)

.
 
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Izzy Faden said:
1.What can I do that may help reduce the costs of my training?
I heard mention of some home study aids?

2.After completing the requirements of the private pilot cert, my thoughts were to go on to get my instructors cert. Is there a demand for instructors or would I have a hard time finding a position with a school.
This is something I am hoping to do in my retirement at 55.

Located in Southern NJ
Click to expand...

As others havestated, there is no shortage of available study aids andmany are available for free. The Gleim, Sportys or King home course are all good if youve got around a $150 to spend.

One route to instructor to consider is CFI Sport Pilot. Minimum of 150 hours total time, take the Fundamentals Of Instruction (FOI) written, SP instructor knowledge written and the CFI SP practical test. It's not for everyone and check your local area for oppurtunities. It will get you in the air teaching sooner and you can continue to work toward more ratings.
 
Izzy Faden said:
Hello everyone and thank you for reading my post.
I am a 50 year old man in good health and Ive been taking lessons here and there since I was 18. Never went a very long stretch taking hours other then ground school which was 15 hours I believe. I have about 6 hours of flight time along with the GS. My questions are this:

1.What can I do that may help reduce the costs of my training?
I heard mention of some home study aids?

2.After completing the requirements of the private pilot cert, my thoughts were to go on to get my instructors cert. Is there a demand for instructors or would I have a hard time finding a position with a school.
This is something I am hoping to do in my retirement at 55.

Any comments that may help would be great.
Thank you,
Izzy

Located in Southern NJ
Click to expand...

www.ascentgroundschool.com might help. Price is right...free.
 
Captain said:
Have dedicated time and money to COMPLETE training. As you've seen, stretching training out over age 18 to 50 is not effective.

The only issue with instructing in retirement is the pay blows and you need a medical. If you don't care about money and you're in great health then have at it. I doubt you'll get your money back on what you spen to get your ratings through CFI.
Click to expand...

There's at least one "retired" CFII teaching at KAPA who doesn't care about the money, but does enjoy funneling his best students to flying jobs with buddies who he's known for decades to "help the kids out".

He's a really nice guy. I won't "out" him, since he'd have piles of prospective "students" all over him if they figured out that's really the only reason he does it, that and getting to fly around all day in retirement.

So if you're kinda the Pied Piper type and know a bunch of people who have aviation businesses that need fresh meat from time to time, I suppose it could be quite enjoyable to hear from your friends that you sent them another good pilot...

He's pretty picky about who he helps find jobs. Maybe in some small way he's helping keep accidents and BS low in the low end of commercial aviation by only forwarding on the kids who show a real aptitude. He'll teach anyone, but only a few get recommendation letters to his buddy's businesses.
 
Hang out at the airport and you'll get some rides. I've stopped at the FBO a TON of times refueling my plane and have never seen anyone that looked like they'd go for a short XC hamburger run. Seems a waste to fly solo so much.

A ton of my flying is long XC. I own my own business and most times the family has traveled a few days ahead of me and I meet them there. Several have been solo runs.

Had an opportunity to fly in a private jet out to Telluride last year, but couldn't get my schedule to match theirs:mad2: (Telluride is where we spend our winter vacations).
 
oldShar said:
SSssshhhhh!!!

That's (borderline) illegal for a Private
(you probably get a 'pass' for immediate nuclear family member)

.
Click to expand...

I'm staying within the bounds of FAR 61.113, but thanks for pointing out that I need to be careful...
 
What do you want to do as a pilot?

At some glider clubs you can get a rating for very little cash - but expect to spend a lot of time working / waiting at the field. Time or money...
 
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