Realistic Flight Training Timeline Recommendation

[SkyHighFlyer45]

I am a student starting school in September and alongside that planning to begin my in-aircraft flight training in August.

My proposed schedule is:

• August–December: Train 3 times a week (weekday afternoons and weekends).

• January–April: Reduce training to weekends only (1–2 times a week).

• April: Complete my check ride. (No budging on that, school)

Is it realistic to train 3 times a week for 4 to 5 months, and then reduce to once or twice a week for the final 3 months? I am particularly concerned about information retention and staying on track for an April check ride.

 

[AuntPeggy]

The first few lessons are the drinking from a firehose phase. Each lesson is intense and the student tires quickly. The brain is being bombarded with sensations to make sense of. Two a week is plenty.
When getting ready for the check ride, the student is taking what has been learned and converting it to automatic, habitual response. The student is becoming confident and has the energy to fly longer and more often. Three times a week is reasonable for the final stage.

 

[RyanB]

This could definitely work, it will just depend how quickly you pick up on the required skills and retain the knowledge. Feel free to private message me for a consultation or some mentorship. I can help you navigate your journey.

-Ryan CFI/CFII

 

[Initial Fix]

This could definitely work, it will just depend how quickly you pick up on the required skills and retain the knowledge. Feel free to private message me for a consultation or some mentorship. I can help you navigate your journey.

-Ryan CFI/CFII

agree with Ryan - if you can stick to the 3x per week you will be doing great. Far too many start strong but get "busy". Learning to fly is quite a bit of muscle memory, and flying a lot with repetition is the key. BUT if your flying that much, and are committed to doing the flights and ground school, plan to be doing your checkride much faster than ride in April.

 

[sarangan]

I am a student starting school in September and alongside that planning to begin my in-aircraft flight training in August.

My proposed schedule is:

• August–December: Train 3 times a week (weekday afternoons and weekends).

• January–April: Reduce training to weekends only (1–2 times a week).

• April: Complete my check ride. (No budging on that, school)

Is it realistic to train 3 times a week for 4 to 5 months, and then reduce to once or twice a week for the final 3 months? I am particularly concerned about information retention and staying on track for an April check ride.

It is a very reasonable schedule, but weather could be a limiting factor if you limit yourself to weekends only, especially in winter. But that depends entirely on where you live.

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

But that depends entirely on where you live.

Yeah, what part of the world or country will you be flying? If winter is wet, overcast, foggy, snow storms, etc. you might lose a few of those proposed weekends, some maybe back to back to back.

 

[dmspilot]

That schedule might work or it might not. Flight training is highly individualistic and unpredictable, it's not an assembly line. Your learning rate, weather, maintenance, instructors, instructor schedules, aircraft schedules, DPE schedule, etc. all have to fall in line.

 

[Racerx]

The issue with winter is shorter days... But that makes the night stuff easier to finish.

 

[schmookeeg]

Can you flip the 2x/week and 3x/week timeline? I feel like the initial stuff is better spaced out to give time to let it soak in, and then ramp up for the intensity that is around the middle bit, perfecting maneuvers, preparing and flying cross-countries, checkride prep, etc.

Regardless of your flight schedule, there is a lot of value in getting the written done and out of the way early. A lot of standard flight instruction is just tying lessons to written exam questions, and you can skip that noise and focus on the flying bit. At our flight school, students who did that were usually right at 40 hours when they flew their checkride, beating our average by ~16 hours handily.

$0.02

 

[RussR]

What's the reason for going from 3 to 2 times a week? Is it known family events or family scheduling issues?

Either way, you pretty much need to schedule 3 times a week in order to have a high likelihood of flying 2x a week. So sometimes you'll fly all 3, other times just 1 or none. Mechanical, weather, sickness, family duties, all that stuff will get in the way more often than you think.

So I vote aim for 3x a week through the entire training. Towards the end several of the flights will be longer as you work on cross country navigation, so may you only do one or two of those a week (for time and budget considerations), but otherwise try to do 3 so you get 2.

 

[brcase]

The Math is pretty simple, Average for a Private pilot certifcate is about 65 hours.
Plan on an hour of flight time per lesson, some lessons will be longer but that should account for flight delays due to weather Maintenance and scheduling issues.
This does assume you keep up with the ground study and don't get delayed by having to study for Knowledge test and then Oral test Prep.

• August–December: Train 3 times a week (weekday afternoons and weekends).

5 Months= 20 weeks= 60 Lessons or 60 Hours. By December you should be pretty close to done with private pilot training.

• January–April: Reduce training to weekends only (1–2 times a week).

Should be easy to finish all the requirements or catch up if you fell behind. Need to be studying for Practical test.

• April: Complete my check ride. (No budging on that, school)

Hopefully this means you can go back to 3 or 4 time per week for a few weeks prior to the check ride.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL

 

[alula-sky-aviation]

My proposed schedule is:

• August–December: Train 3 times a week (weekday afternoons and weekends).

• January–April: Reduce training to weekends only (1–2 times a week).

• April: Complete my check ride. (No budging on that, school)

Is it realistic to train 3 times a week for 4 to 5 months, and then reduce to once or twice a week for the final 3 months? I am particularly concerned about information retention and staying on track for an April check ride.

That schedule can definitely work!

and if you need any study material.
we have free study material on our website (alulaskyaviation.com) and we have a checkride activity workbook as well that is unique and different compared to anything else that is out there for study material for Private Pilots!

 

[NODAK9120]

That timeline can work! 3 flights per week can get a bit intense as a student pilot, so be careful to avoid burnout.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!

-Craig
CFI/CFII/MEI/AGI/IGI