PPL question

eduardomr99

eduardomr99

Filing Flight Plan
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Hector
Hey from Philadelphia, I'm about to graduate from HS and the first thing I wanna do after that is to get my PPL, any recommendations or advices?

Do you know any good and cheap flight school in the Philadelphia/NJ area?

Is it better to take lessons with a flight school or personally with an instructor?.

What's the next step after the PPL? Can you give an estimate of how much is the cost for the PPL?

Thank you guys


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eduardomr99 said:
Hey from Philadelphia, I'm about to graduate from HS and the first thing I wanna do after that is to get my PPL, any recommendations or advices?
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Obtain your medical certificate first. Search this forum about answering the questions on form 8500-8 especially Question 18 before you go to the Aviation Medical Examiner to make sure you won't have any surprises that could foul the process. One of which as a kid of the new millennia is being improperly labeled ADD/ADHD.

We suggest getting the medical hurdle done early so money isn't wasted on training just to find out something brings it to a complete halt or a long delay.

Do you know any good and cheap flight school in the Philadelphia/NJ area?
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Being in Texas, I'll defer to folks closer to you

Is it better to take lessons with a flight school or personally with an instructor?.
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Either is good. But the key with either is finding the right instructor who's teaching method fits your learning style. Finding the right instructor has been discussed many times here, so try the search function for past discussions. Also check out http://www.aopa.org/Pilot-Resources/Learn-to-Fly

What's the next step after the PPL? Can you give an estimate of how much is the cost for the PPL?
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Typically the next step is enjoying your newly earned privileges and flying to places you have yet to land at. Then when you're ready, your next training step is "Instrument Airplane" where you learn to operate the aircraft by reference to the flight instruments. This gives you the privileges of flying within the clouds without reference to outside cues such as the visible horizon.

A frequent PPL training budget we discuss is $8000-$9000 depending on locale, type of aircraft used, and how frequently you train. airplane and instructor rental is about $6000-7500 of this, and the remainder is supplies, books, testing fees, silk scarf, nomex flight suit, helmet emblazoned with either a Maverick or Iceman or Ted Striker call sign, and a few other odds and ends.

Many ways abound to keep your training budget under control and to a minimum. And this has been often discussed here, so once again, the Search function will aid you here.

@CC268 just started his journey within the last 4-5 months and asked many of the same questions you have. So look for threads started by him.



A question back to you that might help us answer future questions: Are you looking to do this for recreational flying or are you thinking of flying as a career?
 
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Good to see there see still young people interested in flying.
Welcome
 
And how can I save money? Is it cheaper if I train more frequently?


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Btw thanks for your answers, they have been helpful


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The only advice I can give is that if you have a bad day, rewind the clock and get back up and do it again. It eventually clicks and then all of the sudden your flying an airplane
 
eduardomr99 said:
And how can I save money? Is it cheaper if I train more frequently?
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Its only cheaper in the sense that you wont spend as much time repeating lessons that you have forgotten or skills that have deteriorated. Flying is a perishable skill. Flying at least twice a week is recommended during training. And as for cost, 'cheap' and 'good' do not necessarily go hand in hand.
 
Join a club ,with a good instructor,could save you some money.
 
Where in the Philly area are you located? I'm in Chester County.
 
When you say a club you mean a flight school?


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Northeast Philadelphia Anthony


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frfly172 said:
Join a club ,with a good instructor,could save you some money.
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It can. This is because clubs aren't in the game to make a decent profit margin on the rental of aircraft and instructor.

Flight schools will ask about $100-150 per flight hour wet (meaning fuel cost is included) to rent you an aircraft (cost depends on local and type of aircraft) and about $50-60 per hour on the instrutor. They are hoping to get about $30-40 per hour profit on the aircraft rental, and $20-30 on the instructor.

Clubs often rent the Cessna 172's and the Piper PA28 Cherokees at about $75-100 per flight hour wet, and then the instructor sets his own rate that could be something like $30-50 an hour.

Using a typical 50 hours to get your license, that could be about nearly $750-1000 savings.

But in budgeting, it's always better to save up, plan, and have money available for the worst case larger amount of cash. Then work hard to never spend that much.

As John Cranford said above, it's a perishable skill. So a good start to not overspending is to have enough money saved up in advance before you begin training. So that when you do start training, you don't stop because you ran out of funds. And then try to set a training schedule of 2 to 3 times a week.
 
eduardomr99 said:
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Please change your settings on Tapatalk to NOT display this "Sent from..." tag on every post. Many regulars, including me, find this extremely annoying.
 
Ok my bad


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Is it your plan to fund the training yourself with cash you save before you start? (which for a 17-19 year old I find admirable and honorable)

Or will you be using parental funds? Or will you be using a debt product (such as credit cards)?
 
I don't know if this fits your need or not, but if I were a youngin looking to make career in flying I'd tend to gravitate more towards a University program that couples an aeronautical degree of some sort with a PPL.
It will cost more overall, but the costs will spread out over a few years and you'll gain a much broader knowledge of aviation in addition to potentially looking better on a job application.
I'm not a fan of student loans, but if that's you're thing you have them as an option with that route as well.
 
Aggiemike my parents are gonna fund my training
 
@tuwood I thought about the aviation colleges but as you said they're more expensive and I'm not a fan of student loans either
 
Download the free ebook at www.FreeFlyBook.com. It will answer just about any question you could have about learning to fly. The download is instant, no sign-up needed.
 
eduardomr99 said:
Aggiemike my parents are gonna fund my training
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Okay... to what end? Career or personal fun?

If career, a good person you should talk to from this board is @ARFlyer , Andrew Finne. He recently was hired by a regional airline after going through a university aviation program and then working to build up the requisite hours of experience. He can be a wealth of information about what you are about to embark on and what to be prepared for. And I think he frequently has overnight stays in the NJ area as part of the job. So perhaps you would have the opportunity to meet in person.

Another young one to talk to is @DavidWhite David started at age 16, quickly built up the experience to gain his commercial pilot certificate, and now at age 21-22, is flying passengers in Alaska.

Plus we have many others here that are career pilots for the various air carriers and charters. Do take every advantage to talk with them to gain their wisdom and insight.
 
eduardomr99 said:
@tuwood I thought about the aviation colleges but as you said they're more expensive and I'm not a fan of student loans either
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The various aviation specific colleges (such as Embry Riddle) can be.... but there are many others such as University of North Dakota and Oklahoma University will do the job (maybe better) and not cost so much.

And having a college degree in a business or engineering discipline will really aid you in life and future job hunting.

So don't count out going to a college as part of your future plans.
 
http://www.aviation.ou.edu/

http://aviation.und.edu/


And with aviation as a possible career choice, getting the medical exam done early (as I suggested in my first reply) is going to be a key step. If something in that area prevents you from progressing (which I hope isn't going to happen) then you haven't wasted your parents money just to find out a medical condition permanently grounds you.
 
Don't get sucked in to spending your money on fancy instruments. The $95 152 and the $160 g1000 172 will both get your ticket but the 172 will cost you twice as much. Bells and whistles should be learned after the ppl


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One bit of key advice for someone as young as you...

  1. Stay away from alcohol and controlled substances. Nothing gets pilots in trouble quicker than these items, especially when you're caught
  2. Ditch and stay away from any friend who uses marijuana or over consumes alcohol. You do not want to be exposed to the temptation and peer pressure.

Too often we get prospective pilots showing up on these forums saying, "I want to start training, but I have multiple encounters with law enforcement, including arrests, that include alcohol or MJ." This is something that the FAA (and future employers) have a very dim view of, and to get back into their good graces requires lots of time, lots of commitment, and lots of cash for testing and documentation. You do not want to ever need to go there.
 
Anthony said:
I learned to fly 22 years ago at Lancaster (LNS), but if you are in the Northeast go check out Hortman at N. E. Philly airport.

http://www.hortmanaviation.com/
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99% sure Hortman is closed as of about 1 year ago. The shop near me had several of his planes that they were reconditioning and selling. There is a flight club at Flying W (South Jersey maybe 35 minutes from where you are) that charges $45 per month for the club. They have several training planes of different types and different prices. The cheapest is a 152 that if you buy bulk time goes for like $95 per hour wet. They can line you up with instructors in the ballpark of $40 per hour.

I did all my training out of Robbinsville, NJ (N87), that has an active flight school using Warriors that charges $139 for the plane and $48 for the instructor. They give you a %10 discount if you buy time in $1000 blocks. This would be like 40 to 50 minutes from you best guess.

Trenton (KTTN) has two flight schools if I remember. One is ATP, which is commercial flying focused and is very much geared that way. Not sure the costs at those. Doylestown, PA also has a flight school.

The cheapest option you will be around $8000, but costs will vary widely based mainly on hours to completion. Figure it will take you 60 to 70 hours, not the 40 minimum the FAA requires. Always budget high.
 
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Feel free to PM. I started flying around your age and just got hired at a regional airline and I'm 22. I got my BA in Economics and flew on the side without racking up a mountain of debt so it can be done.
 
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AggieMike88 said:
Please change your settings on Tapatalk to NOT display this "Sent from..." tag on every post. Many regulars, including me, find this extremely annoying.
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I've put everyone on ignore who has that in their post. ****ing annoying.
 
eduardomr99 said:
When you say a club you mean a flight school?
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No, a flying club is not the same as a flight school. A flying club is a group of people who own (or lease) an airplane (or airplanes) for the sole use of the club members. As an example, my club, Metro Flyers, owns two airplanes and there are 16 members. We 'rent' the airplanes to ourselves at a reduced rate to pay for fuel and build up a fund for future maintenance. Most clubs have CFI's who are club members. These CFI's will often provide flight training at a reduced rate to the other members. Some clubs allow non-pilots to join. The monthly dues gains you access to the airplanes and the CFI's while you are a member. As AggieMike said, there can be substantial savings over the course of your training.

Kudos for being adverse to students loans. Become equally adverse to other debt and it will serve you well. Especially if you havnt looked up the pay scale for pilots. Flying as a career may be seen as a 'high prestige' career, but is less financially rewarding (in the early years at least) than most people realize.

Good luck and keep us posted
 
Does anyone know any fly club on the philly/NJ area?
 
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