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Flyinace2000

Filing Flight Plan
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Flyinace2000
Back when i was twelve i started taking flight lessons every summer down in florida. Over the cource oof about 3 or 4 yers i accumilated about 30 hours and even solo'ed at the age of 16. Problem was i never reall did anything after that and now i am 24. So last week i decided to come back and finish what i started. I got my medical exam out of the way last weekend and i have my second lesson tomorrow. I have bunch of questions.

1. Costs: I am thinking about getting a loan for the 4k-5k i would need to finish my PPL. Where should i look first for this "student" loan?

2. My instructor gave me a wirtten exam to fill out for must know stats for my aircraft (172P 1982). Is there an online reosource to look all of this us? (V speeds and Weights?). I just bought the Manual on ebay but that won't be here for at least a week. I did find http://www.172guide.com/ but that is missing the information for 1982.

3. Where can i look up where all the V speed abbriaviations mean? Vso, Vsl and so on. I know some of them..but others i just plain forget.

Thanks all and i look forward to becoming a part of the community.
 
First off, welcome to PoA- a great bunch of folks here, always eager to help.

Next, you really want to be answering the questions from the POH for the plane you'll be training in and flying, because you'll have to be able to readily reference it in flight and demonstrate your ability to do so for your instructor and, soon, for the DPE with whom you have your checkride.

I will not be at all surprised if it turns out someone here has an on-line or PDF version of the one you need... good luck, and keep us posted on your adventure.
 
I ende up finding on on ebay, so i ordered it. Might as well if i will be using it a lot. For now i think i will just spend an hour after my lesson tomorrow going through the book for the answers i need.

Thanks

-Will
 
Welcome back to flying.

I agree with Spike that you should be answering from the POH for the plane you will be flying and training in. In fact, I would not hesitate to go up to the airport and ask them to let you look at it while you sit there. If no one is flying that plane at the moment, I'm sure they would have no objection and will most likely help you with any questions.

There are several places to look for flight training loans and lines of credit. Start with AOPA. I personally do not like using these as the interest rates are usually very high and it simply puts you in debt. I would suggest paying as you go or exercise patience and save the money until you have several thousand to spend. Flying once per week or less is not condusive to learning so paying as you go can be challenging. They say that increasing that to twice per week increases learning dramatically.

I am in the same boat in terms of money. We have a meager monthly flying budget currently and I've decided to postpone my current instrument training and just save some money to do more at once. I'm in a flying club now which lets me rent a couple of 152's and 172's at nice rates so I can still get out and joyride some while I still save for the instrument.

I just searched v speeds and found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_speeds

Good luck. When you get discouraged due to money or whatever reasons, just remember the love you have for the act of flying itself to keep you going.
 
Thanks for the link. right now i can do about 2 lessons a month. I will see how it goes and maybe i will just put off flying for 3 or 4 months and save up and bang it all out over the spring/summer.
 
Fly, Welcome to the board and back into flying!

Any time you're going to be flying an airplane more than a couple times, plan on buying the manual. I have one for every plane I've flown left or right seat. There will be slight variations for each year and model so be sure it's exactly what you're looking for.

I'm glad to see you searched one out on eBay. It's a good source and pilot sales on there are pretty reliable over most sellers.

If there's any way you can speed up to two lesson a week, you'll be in much better shape. All too often taking one lesson a week, let alone every other week, results in spending a good part of each lesson relearning what you've forgotten in that time in between. That adds to the overall time and costs in obtaining your certificate.

You can do a lot of chair flying on procedures and maneuvers to cut down on that loss. If your instructor hasn't spoken with you about that, ask.

I'll be curious what books your school and instructor are suggesting.

You've gotten involved in an excellent board for learning more and getting questions answered. Feel free to make use of it. A lot of folks here are very experienced pilots and among them are some excellent instructors. The best among them are still learning and my students are among my favorite teachers.
 
I really want to do like 4 lessons a month, but i would need a bit of financial help. My flight school said they go through sallie mae for personal loans, but i don't see anything like that on there site. Any recommend a place to get a loan for about $5k?

-Will
 
Flyinace2000 said:
I really want to do like 4 lessons a month, but i would need a bit of financial help. My flight school said they go through sallie mae for personal loans, but i don't see anything like that on there site. Any recommend a place to get a loan for about $5k?

-Will
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Will, what you're looking for is a "Career Training Loan" from Sallie Mae. Here is the link to start with:

http://www.salliemae.com/im_applying/career_training_checklist.htm

You're saying the cost will be only $5,000. Be very sure of that amount before you apply. One option I'd suggest is apply for a higher amount then use only what you need.

For example, apply for $10,000 then have disbursements take place over a period of time such as $2,000 per month. If your training starts to move at a faster pace, the school can arrange with Sallie Mae to accelerate a scheduled disbursement. This would be better than being near the end and falling a bit short of that extra bit of requirements. Also, consider the cost of the checkride and the aircraft time for the checkride including flights to and from an examiner should that be necessary.

Whatever you do, don't do unnecessary flights that are not strictly involved in your training. Get your ticket accomplished and stop there. That's some fairly inexpensive money for flight training but unless you're well-disciplined in paying it back sooner, it can come back to bite you with a much larger debt.

If there's money left over after you've completed your ticket, let it be sent back to Sallie Mae. From there, you'll need to start building some cross country PIC time if you wish to pursue an instrument rating. Do that on your own as time and personal funds permit. Maybe, share some distant flights with friends where part of the expense can be paid as allowed by the rules.
 
The 5K figure was just a quick estimate. At my next lesson i will figure out with the flight school how much i should get financed.

Thanks for the advice!

-Will
 
Sallie Mae is great for student loans... but just be aware you'll be paying it off for seemingly forever. I got my instrument rating in December 2001 on a Sallie Mae loan. Training was done at a local FBO. I was planning on immediately rolling into the Commercial rating, but I suffered a post 9-11 layoff, and when I was done with the Instrument rating I did as Kenny suggested above and had the balance of funds (substantial) paid back to Sallie Mae to reduce my balance. I've made all the payments on time, and even additional principal payments as I'm able to do so, but at the current projections, I won't be done paying this off til the end of 2011... That's 10 years of $100/avg/month indebtedness for about $7500 worth of educational money.

Caveat emptor. I'm with the crowd that says "fly as you can, save and work for the money, don't go into debt". If I could do it again, I'd not do it this way. I share my story to hopefully pursuade you to fly with economic conservativism.
 
gprellwitz said:
Another place to look at would be http://www.pilotfinance.com. Note that I have no experience with them, so this isn't a recommendation for or against them. I couldn't find interest rates on their site.
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Pilot Finance is okay toward borrowers but more difficult for schools. They always pay in arrears and only in blocks. That places more financial risk on the school which most won't go for.
 
Flyinace2000 said:
1. Costs: I am thinking about getting a loan for the 4k-5k i would need to finish my PPL. Where should i look first for this "student" loan?
Click to expand...

Not to rain on your parade, but after the training is complete, how do you support the cost of continued flying? Let's say to maintain a nominal level of competence you need to fly 50 hr/yr. At $100/hr wet for a simple single, that's $5,000 a year to commit.


Trapper John
 
Trapper John said:
Not to rain on your parade, but after the training is complete, how do you support the cost of continued flying? Let's say to maintain a nominal level of competence you need to fly 50 hr/yr. At $100/hr wet for a simple single, that's $5,000 a year to commit.


Trapper John
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Flying an hour a week for currency and review is much different than an hour a week for training. I've encouraged students to fly at least twice a week otherwise they lose part of what was previously learned making it much more difficult and more expensive to obtain a ticket.
 
I'm a member of a flying club which has 7 airplanes, 2 of which are 152's that fly for $60ish wet. I can go up and fly for 1/2 hour, shoot some touch and goes and it only costs me $30 or so. $100/hr wet is a very real and even conservative price for most FBO's but you can certainly fly for less if you look around some.

It's not about flying for less money for me, although that is a perk. It is really about being around the airport, making some strong friendships and learning as much as I can. I try to help with different projects. Our EAA chapter is fairly active and we have 3 or 4 projects at the field alone so there is usually plenty to watch or perhaps actually get my hands dirty with. Simply listening to everyone talk about flying, building and routine maintenance is rewarding in itself. Many of these pilots are retired airlines and/or military so the wealth of information is simply priceless to me. I'm happiest in the cockpit but the other stuff is a big part of it too.
 
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KennyFlys said:
Flying an hour a week for currency and review is much different than an hour a week for training.
Click to expand...

But the thing they have in common is that they both cost money!

I've encouraged students to fly at least twice a week otherwise they lose part of what was previously learned making it much more difficult and more expensive to obtain a ticket.
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That's been SOP for years. I have an old Cessna Pilot Center manual from the early '70s that says to have two or three lessons a week.


Trapper John
 
I used Sallie Mae for the funds for my CFI... Borrowed $3000 and had it paid back in under 2 years, while I was making a few bucks at teaching. Essentially, what I earned paid off my loan, and I had a few bucks left over. It was a relatively painless deal for me.

I will endorse the idea of not borrowing to get your basic ratings. Use of loans should be a last case scenario in the current economy. But I would suggest that you hold off with your lessons until you can afford 2-3 per WEEK! That is the rate at which your funds will be used most effectively and efficiently.

Provided that you still have possession of your original logbook, those hrs earned 8 yrs ago are still valid towards your pvt cert. But there will be some amount of review to get you back up to speed, and to continue forward.

Good luck with the balance of your training, and keep us informed how it goes!
 
Thats for the thoughts guys.

@i'Ve Moved!
Yes i still have my original log book, so those hours still count! Based on my last lesson my instructor said if i can get my book work done i should be able to solo by the end of my next lesson.

@Everyone else
The money is a very valid point. The problem is i want to have my cake and eat it too. Right now i am saving about $300/paycheck. If i really want to fly i would need to put a hold on savings while i fly. I guess holding off on savings while i learned to fly would be the same as borrowing from my self. Its an investment on myself right?
 
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