Is 1-2 days a week enough for flight school?

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Brandon Shinabarger

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Hey all. I'm looking to start flight school here soon possibly. Depends on whether I save all the money up front and chunk out the G's for it, or pay as I go.. I'd ideally want to go 3-4 days a week, although, I can't afford to chuck a $1000 a month while running my other life expenses as a young adult.

Also any tips for those of you out there that had to really budget through your flight training??
 
2 days per week at the very least. Even though you might pay more to fly more frequently, you’ll end up saving money by retaining the information and skills rather than having to repeat it, so keep that into consideration.
 
Ryanb said:
2 days per week at the very least. Even though you might pay more to fly more frequently, you’ll end up saving money by retaining the information and skills rather than having to repeat it, so keep that into consideration.
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Do you think starting off by me paying half of it up front makes sense? Like get my first 25 hours pre-paid. Then pay as I go afterwards? or just wait and save the full price for the 40 hours, and if extra training is needed possibly pay that as needed.

Thanks for the comment Ryan!
 
Brandon Shinabarger said:
Do you think starting off by me paying half of it up front makes sense? Like get my first 25 hours pre-paid. Then pay as I go afterwards? or just wait and save the full price for the 40 hours, and if extra training is needed possibly pay that as needed.

Thanks for the comment Ryan!
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Some, if not most places offer a block rate, which is usually 10 hours upfront and they’ll give you the 11th hour free or give some kind of discount for prepayment in block time. I would do this if they offer it, but nothing more than that. Personally, I would just pay as you go.
 
If you're young you can sometimes get away with once per week. Just study in between flights, review lessons mentally, chair fly, etc. This can more than make up for not flying as frequently. Just try very hard not to miss any weeks. I see people say they're going to fly once a week, then life, weather, or scheduling get in the way and this accidentally turns into every other week, combine that with they don't study or review in between lessons, and not only do they not make progress but they actually go backward.

Never give a flight school money up front. But for the sake of your own finances, I think it's a good goal to try to save up about half the total cost before you start.
 
Brandon Shinabarger said:
Hey all. I'm looking to start flight school here soon possibly. Depends on whether I save all the money up front and chunk out the G's for it, or pay as I go.. I'd ideally want to go 3-4 days a week, although, I can't afford to chuck a $1000 a month while running my other life expenses as a young adult.

Also any tips for those of you out there that had to really budget through your flight training??
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I'll bet you'll get mostly high frequency recommendations due to total cost savings. I'll be the contrarian though, it depends on your goal. If speed and money saving is your goal, save up and start when you can afford high frequency training. If you aren't in a hurry and face time or money budget constraints and just want to get in the air, it can be done at a lower frequency. I did my PPL over 2 years at about 3 hrs per month and finished at 60ish hours. It'll be good practice for after you finish and don't have time or money to go twice a week.

Tips?, read, read, read, put a lot of thought into what you've done and what you'll be doing next, before you get to the lesson. Don't show up cold.
 
2 sessions a week is good, 3 is better. Less chance of you losing the edge and need to repeat lessons.

Pre-paying 10 hour chunks is good advice. Limits your exposure if you show up for a lesson to find the door padlocked and the school owners have disappeared with everyone's money.


One suggestion I like to make regarding the financials. Following this plan will ensure that lack of funds isn't the reason that keeps you from training. And this plan also works to avoid getting you into any debt.
  • Plan for ~$9000.00, plus or minus for regionality. This can include aircraft rental, supplies, testing fees, books, etc.
  • Do what is necessary to fill up your money bucket to at least 60% to 66% of the total funds required or budgeted.
    • This includes taking on additional hours at work, part time jobs, neighborhood handyperson jobs, mowing dogs, walking lawns, house sitting, etc.
    • Hold a garage sale. You might be able to get as much as 10% of your funding uncluttering your house.
    • Do anything legal that increases your income
  • Once you have 60% to 66% of the money, open the tap at the bottom of your bucket and start training.
  • As you deplete money from the bottom of your bucket, continue to work the extra income jobs to add to the top of the bucket.
  • If you finish with money left over in the bucket, plan for a celebratory flight with your sweetie to a really nice dinner.
Saving your money at this stage is cool. But don't go spending any big training dollars flying until you get your monocular eye medical sorted.

What can be done now is downloading and reading the following publications from the FAA.gov site:
Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge
Airplane Flying Handbook
​
Reading these two will get a healthy start on studying for the written exam.
 
AggieMike88 said:
2 sessions a week is good, 3 is better. Less chance of you losing the edge and need to repeat lessons.

Pre-paying 10 hour chunks is good advice. Limits your exposure if you show up for a lesson to find the door padlocked and the school owners have disappeared with everyone's money.


One suggestion I like to make regarding the financials. Following this plan will ensure that lack of funds isn't the reason that keeps you from training. And this plan also works to avoid getting you into any debt.
  • Plan for ~$9000.00, plus or minus for regionality. This can include aircraft rental, supplies, testing fees, books, etc.
  • Do what is necessary to fill up your money bucket to at least 60% to 66% of the total funds required or budgeted.
    • This includes taking on additional hours at work, part time jobs, neighborhood handyperson jobs, mowing dogs, walking lawns, house sitting, etc.
    • Hold a garage sale. You might be able to get as much as 10% of your funding uncluttering your house.
    • Do anything legal that increases your income
  • Once you have 60% to 66% of the money, open the tap at the bottom of your bucket and start training.
  • As you deplete money from the bottom of your bucket, continue to work the extra income jobs to add to the top of the bucket.
  • If you finish with money left over in the bucket, plan for a celebratory flight with your sweetie to a really nice dinner.
Saving your money at this stage is cool. But don't go spending any big training dollars flying until you get your monocular eye medical sorted.

What can be done now is downloading and reading the following publications from the FAA.gov site:
Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge
Airplane Flying Handbook
​
Reading these two will get a healthy start on studying for the written exam.
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Thank you!! That was my thought when starting school. Pay what I have at about 60% cost of total hours. Then just save as I fly and who knows, I might not need extra training if I’m studying 2 hours every night and know I’ve got things nailed. Given I’ve got my 40 mandatory hours straightened out.

And for the vision, I contacted Dr Bruce and got some advice on getting some info that will get my pass on the subject. That way they just have to make sure I am able to do the following things..

• The ability to select emergency landing fields at a distance, from high altitude, and preferably over unfamiliar terrain.
• The ability to simulate forced landings in difficult fields; note the manner of approach, rate of descent, and comparative distance at which obstructions (stumps, boulders, ditches, etc.) are recognized.
• The ability to recognize other aircraft (which may be present by prearrangement) approaching at a collision course (particularly aircraft approaching from the far right or far left).
• The ability to judge distances and to recognize landmarks (compared with the ASI’s estimate).
• The ability to land the aircraft.
• The ability to read aeronautical charts in flight and tune the radio to a predetermined station accurately and rapidly.
• The ability to read instrument panels (including an overhead panel, if any) quickly and correctly.
 
Brandon Shinabarger said:
• The ability to land the aircraft.
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Always keep in mind that takeoffs are optional, but landing is mandatory

Which is why for just about any flight instructor, he would just charge about $500-600 to learn to take off. Being taught how to land is the remainder of your training budget.
 
IMO and experience as a CFI one should fly at least once a week, twice a week is even better. Spacing out lessons more than that ends up having you repeat lessons and material which ends up costing you more money as you'll require more lessons. Good luck!
 
dmspilot said:
Never give a flight school money up front. But for the sake of your own finances, I think it's a good goal to try to save up about half the total cost before you start.
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This.

Most schools I used had a worthwhile discount for block rates which started at $1,000. That a low enough number to lose, so I'd pay in blocks of $1K and re-up when I hit 0. (And it made checking out easier, not waiting around to pay every time.)

No reason to ever give more at once. And if discounts are much higher than what you can risk losing and just be "somewhat annoyed", don't.
 
I started my PPL in September and I passed my test two weeks shy of a year later. I tried to fly once a week but with weather and other factors there were several gaps of 2-3 weeks at a time where I didn't fly and I didn't have an ungodly amount of hours when I took the test.

I took my test at 59 hours.
I had 15 of those hours the month before the test waiting for the exam and doing "test prep"

Basically I had all the requirements in at right around 40 hours. I would say I felt ready for the test at 50 and then spent another 9 hours practicing while waiting for the examiner to be available.

All that to say it can be done at a slower pace without taking big steps backwards or dragging it out.
 
In what state will you be doing your training?
This -> "Plan for ~$9000.00, plus or minus for regionality." doesn't fly in SoCal :(
CFI $90/h, C-172 $167/h in the LAX area.
40 h minimum is $10,280. More likely to finish in about 60 h, so that's $15,420 and that's just training. Add headset, flight bag, tools, books, apps, landing fees here and there, extra hours needed, etc.
I'm just saying this because I don't want you to get surprised like I did, when I went in thinking I will spend the price of a Civic and ended up spending the price of a Mustang GT :cool:
 
If you can go more often it would be better. 1-2 times a week usually turns into 0-1 time a week due to weather, scheduling, mx, etc issues.
 
Find an established and reliable flight school,buy block time,which usually gives you a discount on rates.Due to weather and plane availability,2 times a week would be the minimum.
 
Bank the money until you can do 3-5 days/week. At that rate, you'll get done with less time and less total expense.
 
Just do what you can to get it done. General aviation is dying !!!

Okay, kidding.
But I think you should train as much as you can without stressing too hard.

Find your balance.
Reach out with your feelings....
 
As most have said here, compressing your training will get the most out of your money, and buying blocks of time helps also. Get your medical and written test out of the way asap also. If your location has seasons, choose a time of year that has the most reliable VFR wx.
 
Hippike said:
In what state will you be doing your training?
This -> "Plan for ~$9000.00, plus or minus for regionality." doesn't fly in SoCal :(
CFI $90/h, C-172 $167/h in the LAX area.
40 h minimum is $10,280. More likely to finish in about 60 h, so that's $15,420 and that's just training. Add headset, flight bag, tools, books, apps, landing fees here and there, extra hours needed, etc.
I'm just saying this because I don't want you to get surprised like I did, when I went in thinking I will spend the price of a Civic and ended up spending the price of a Mustang GT :cool:
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It will be out of the Indianapolis area. Most places are between 7k-10k for 40 hours including the online course and pilot kit (headset, tools etc) Around $148 for the plane rental, 49 per hour instructor training. Also part of the 7-10k is the standard Flight club fee.

What I thought about doing is paying for my flight kit, (headset, books, courses) And all my medical/flight tests upfront (set aside) so that my main saved budget is solely for my instructor/plane rental cost.
 
Brandon Shinabarger said:
It will be out of the Indianapolis area. Most places are between 7k-10k for 40 hours including the online course and pilot kit (headset, tools etc) Around $148 for the plane rental, 49 per hour instructor training. Also part of the 7-10k is the standard Flight club fee.
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Keep in mind that the range you report is the 40 hour min which can look attractive at first and gives the school something to advertise.

But it is rare for a student to finish with 40hrs on the nose. The average is more in the high 50's. Which means you'll need to set a higher number for the budget.

Also, does the range you quote include the fees for written and checkride? Written exams are about $150 and the DPE can charge between $300-$500 depending on location and individual.



On the "pilot kit", don't get suckered in buying a highly marked up all-in-one system. You can gather up the items you mentioned separately and save significant money.

Good starting passive noise reduction headsets can be found used for $100 to $200-ish. So save some money there. Also you don't need the upper end whiz bang one now. That can wait. But one thing you do want to do is to try various models on for fit and comfort.

"Tools", all you need here is a plotter and manual E6B. Both can be found used for $20-$30. A knee board is useful and you can make that a DYI project for less than $10-15.

Books can be downloaded for free. Get the AFM and PHAK from FAA.gov

"Pilot bag" is another item that you can save on. Sure, you can get something from Sporty's or other source for $100. But I found a $30 computer backpack does the job better than some of the purpose built bags.
 
I you want to spend any money on apps, I highly recommend Boldmethod's airspace and vfr chart apps. Best 50 bucks I ever spent.
 
DCat23 said:
This.

Most schools I used had a worthwhile discount for block rates which started at $1,000. That a low enough number to lose, so I'd pay in blocks of $1K and re-up when I hit 0. (And it made checking out easier, not waiting around to pay every time.)

No reason to ever give more at once. And if discounts are much higher than what you can risk losing and just be "somewhat annoyed", don't.
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-Totally!!
 
IMHO, you need to plan on spending about $1500/mo. for the rates in your area. Lessons are mostly going to be 1-1.5 hrs, and if you regularly get 1-2 lessons per week, it won't be hard to get in 7-8 hrs per month. That's a pretty good rate. Much faster and you won't retain the information as well, and much slower than that and you'll wind up repeating things.

Do not prepay 60% of what your estimated total is going to be. Buy the smallest block that gets you a discount and repeat until you are done renting.

Is this a flight school or a flight club? Or is it both? Does the "flight club fee" buy an equity share of the club, or a non-equity share?
 
Eric Gleason said:
Do not prepay 60% of what your estimated total is going to be. Buy the smallest block that gets you a discount and repeat until you are done renting.
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Clarifying what I said earlier when I also used the 60% figure (and I'll update that cut/paste). Put the additional earned and saved money in a savings account. Or envelope. Or buried mason jar.

But I also agree with Eric to not pay large sums to the school. Just give them enough to trigger any block rate discounts.
 
Good advice above, but here's another way to look at it.

What will be your monthly budget for flying when you have your cert? How often do you expect to fly? I suggest you train at the same frequency you will fly after you finish.

Yes, this will take more training hours. Yes, it will cost more in total. But, once your skills no longer atrophy between lessons, you can have confidence they won't atrophy significantly between flights after you finish training. IMHO, this is a safer approach.

Furthermore, a slower training pace will result in you receiving instruction in a greater mix of weather and traffic conditions. It's best to get as much variety of experience as possible while you're training.

A desire to finish training in the fewest hours possible is the wrong motivation. Rather, your goal should be to become as safe a pilot as possible. A slower pace might cost more, but it might be safer.
 
I saved up 7500 cash before I started. Usually scheduled 3 days a week figuring at least one would get canceled. Plus at least 1 of the 3 day was for ground. Some weeks got to fly 3 days some I didn't fly at all.

I didn't fly one whole month because of instructor vacation and me out of town for work. Several times I didn't fly for couple weeks due to weather or scheduling.

From the day we filled out iacra and went over the syllabus to checkride was 1 year 1 day.

I was hearing money and time are big factors in people not finishing, I could manage to make time, wanted to make sure I had the money to finish.

Having a large chunk to start let me focus on learning because between work, family and lessons I had enough on my mind.
 
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First lesson was 8/10/2007. I had a 10 day break, for whatever reason. Then started again on 8/20/2007. My PPL check ride was on 9/27/2007. Often, I did two flights a day, as I’m looking through my log book, I have not flown since 2010! I am suffering from an acute case of nostalgia!!!

My advise, if possible is save up, and block time in your life to do it. The more you do it, the faster you will develop the muscle memory.

Also, remember getting your license just means you are starting your studies!
 
Save enough to get started and then pay as you go. I had trouble fitting three times a week in sometimes, but it is worth it. Here is the example:
Plan flying 1 hour/2 hours ground time @ $165/hr wet and $35/hr instructor, three times a week. $225/day or $675/week (too much for me to spend at that rate), I could save about $200 a paycheck, so....
I approximated I needed about $6750 for dual and $1650 for solo work, total $8400 over 14 weeks, during that time I would have $1400 of income to spend on flying, so I didn't start until I had $7000 saved. It will change depending on how much time you fly, rates, amount of ground time you have with instructor, how much disposable income you have, but using this method would make sure that you don't have take a break from learning or spend forever flying once a week without any progress. Lessons will get cancelled so sometimes you will get lucky and have three lessons, sometimes you'll get a week with none, this just buys you a little extra time to set aside money when you go past the 40 hours. In my estimation, I planned 30 dual with an hour of ground and only 10 hours solo, this also gives a little cushion if you end up not flying 30 hours of dual. Don't prepay!!! It can be worth it, but usually too much risk for you. What if you hate the instructor or the school or the school decides to close or they go bankrupt, that time you bought could end up useless no matter how good of a deal it was and how solid everything seemed. Life happens. The school offers it because it is a good deal for them.
 
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