Humbling to see all of the contributing comments, very much appreciated. Great read with a lot of perspective. Thank you.
I think you should take a flying lesson in a rented plane with a CFI and get back to us on that.
LoL I just might...
Yep, there is nothing cheap about flying and everybody wants your money. Our world has come to the point where the majority opinion is that the accumulation of wealth is the meaning of life. The nice thing about that is it means you can buy other people's time which is in fact priceless.
Thing is, you can spend all the money you want on aviation, and you will still have to work every bit as hard and spend the same time to learn.
The advantage money gives you is efficiency in time getting to full ability.
Exactly I will be using this to my advantage until we see an entire reform of our world economy which will for sure not happen with Obama nor within the next 100 years ( A lot of you might disagree, but ultimately our world is a joke. We were better off on buggies, but we can not dwell on what should. A great man once said " work with what you got "
Regardless of ability to learn or information transfer, the single most important point here is that an Mooney R probably can't take the beating that a student pilot will give it.
One bad landing that a 172 will shrug off, will put an M20R in the shop for expensive repairs.
The analogy is like learning to drive in a manual Lamborghini. Can it be done? Yes. But one curb check (that a Chevy Malibu wouldn't notice) will require replacing expensive parts.
Plus, the challenge of learning in a high-performance sports car (with bad turning circle, clutch like a tractor, limited visibility, too many controls, etc) actually limits the ability to learn the fundamentals of driving.
Can it be done? Sure! How much to you want to spend? Is it the best way to do it? Probably not. Start with a trainer that allows you to learn the envelope and margins in a forgiving airframe, one that allows you focus on flying the wing and learning the basics.
Then step up and learn the systems and complexities while you aren't having to divide attention and learn the fundamentals at the same time.
That is a great point. Can not disregard.
It sounds to me like you have lots of money to spare, and hopefully can put away some of your bravado. Everyone here has good advice for you, and really wants you to succeed. Some of this is selfishness, we all want new pilots to join the group, but do not want to see accident reports. Learning to fly is a process much like learning to walk. What you want to do is go from the stage of a baby laying in a crib unable to even sit up to running minimarathons by the time you are five. There are some who can pull that off, but not many. For the rest of us mortals, we have to go through the process of learning, and to do this correctly this takes time. There is a reason someone earlier brought up the fact that 80% of those who start pilot training do not finish and the majority of the 20% that eventually gets their PPL take more than 40 hours. Furthermore, once you get your PPL there is more training that is needed to do what you want to do, minimally getting your IFR, and even on top of that to be a good pilot you need to fly regularly, and more so if you want to stay proficient in IFR conditions. Flying is a hobby that literally can take over your life.
If I read correctly what your purpose in flying is, to be able to get from point A to point B without using the airlines, then your may be better served chartering a plane, or using ground transportation. If your goal is to become a pilot and fly for fun and business, then doing it the proven way, strarting off in a trainer and progressing like most of us, is probably the best way. Remember pretty much all those astronauts, and fighter jocks started flying in single engine trainers, too.
Bravado is me on my bike, lights to the sky at 160mph then maxing out at over 200, regularly. I am just being blunt is all. I mean no disrespect to any of you pilots. I have no time to play games and waste countless hours on something I already know I will never fly other than maybe training.
An EMS in a 152?
The general concensus, unless you're about to enlist in military training, is to
1. Learn the fundamentals
2. Learn the fundaments very well
3. Then learn something else
Remember me in your will
$250,000 for a new 172 is cheap? I repeat - remember me in your will
Out of curiousity - what do you do for a living? How long did it take you to become reasonably competent?
If you are speaking of my little knowledge in aviation. I have only been researching for a little over a week. It is disrespectful to quote like a journalist, anyone can piece together a few words from a comment to make one look ignorant. Anyway I'll put you in my will, but you must do the same for me.
Also EMS = Engine Management System
Henning, I think 70K is on the light side for what he envisions doing (shrug) but it is his money.
Our local industrialist made the same decision about 7 years ago (tempus fugit, so does memory).
However he did it right. He got trained in a Skyhawk, using the CFI/FBO as his second crew member on business flights while learning to fly.
Then rented the plane heavily for about three years, often having the CFI/FBO fly with him into sketchy weather.
Then he bought a Skylane and flew the wheel pants off it for about 2 years, or so. Then he moved into a new Corvalis and put a thousand hours or so on that in roughly a year and a half.
He just took factory delivery a week ago on a spanking new Meridian and plans to put a thousand hours on that.
His familiarization flight in the Meridian, with an instructor, was to fly the family to Florida for a vacation over Christmas and New year. He and the instructor will fly off the hours the insurance company wants while down there, and when he gets back he is free to fly the plane.
After a thousand hours in that he intends to move into a turbine.
He is one of the few "yuppie" types I have seen over the decades that I feel has his head screwed on right and will do fine.
I'm going to be around here for awhile so we will see what I am capable of soon. Not saying I am going to be a trusted pilot right off of the start, but I will be proficient. Take it slow, finish hard. When I receive my curriculum I am sure that I will memorize it to the point where all I will have to do is implement my knowledge and let my skills build.
He did it one way, the cheap this quarter way that takes lower concentration of effort, it works, but it's a decade before he gets to full capability. The lowest cost, fastest way to get to full capability is buy your last plane first and hire a pro to fly with you until you're up to speed. That length of time will largely be determined by effort, however he is under no press because he has a pro with him. Just the costs involved in 'trading up' planes 4 times will buy another plane.
I agree and everyone has their own image of things. That particular image is what his friend felt right. I am trying to take my image and refine it to the best of my liking.
Probably the first thing you'll learn is that you aren't nearly as good as you think you are. There is a whole lot of overconfidence going on. No, it isn't that easy.
You may feel it is overconfidence, but this is just who I am. I am going to prepare myself for flight and fly. There is nothing hard about it and it is inevitable.
Worthless? No. Not at all.
Learning to fly is learning to fly. Takeoff, landing, flying straight and level, navigation, etc. Pretty much a basic skill set.
Would time spent learning to drive a Chevy be worthless when you buy a Lexus?
FWIW, my old man learned to fly in a Navion... It's your money.
Valid point even though the transition between aircraft and cars is like night and day, compared to day and day / night and night, but I do get your point.
Learning to fly a plane and learning to be a pilot are two very different things. Pilots can deal with situations that arise because they have the experience to think rationally through situations that arise. People who just fly planes get themselves (and often their families) into a lot of trouble in the same situations.
I'd ask if you're looking to fly a plane or become a pilot. Either one is ok, but if it's the former, please leave your family on the ground.
Ok I will.
"Bravado is me on my bike, lights to the sky at 160mph then maxing out at over 200, regularly. I am just being blunt is all. I mean no disrespect to any of you pilots. I have no time to play games and waste countless hours on something I already know I will never fly other than maybe training. "
- My nerd, you can not even quote properly, grammar is equivalent to someone lacking a GED yet you persistently troll like you are the best thing to ever happen in aviation. Learn how to quote, learn how to speak properly, learn how to properly acknowledge one and show some respect because with all of your " sighs ", " rolleyes " etc just makes you look like an attention craving little girl. You will not get me flustered and ultimately you are just making yourself look close minded and confrontational. Or are you just a flamer
.
