Welcome to a New Student Pilot!

t0r0nad0

t0r0nad0

Pattern Altitude
Joined
Apr 11, 2007
Messages
2,078
Location
Houston, TX
Display Name
Display name:
PJ Gustafson
So, I'm not sure how she found me - we're probably in some of the same pilot groups on Facebook, but last week a lady added me as a friend on Facebook. Through her subsequent status updates, I found out that she is just getting started with learning to fly, and she shows a lot of excitement and passion for it. I had a great phone conversation with her yesterday about what it takes to become a pilot, and her different options. One of the things that I told her about was this forum, so she did sign up here. At this point, I'd like to introduce everyone to and welcome Chrisy to POA!

I'll let her tell her whole story, but her late father was a fighter pilot in the Navy and became a pilot for American Airlines. She recently lost him, and as a tribute to him she decided to learn to fly herself, and she's loving it! She has not decided on a flight school yet, but she's in the Dallas area and has been doing some flying at American Flyers at ADS (where IMO she is getting ripped off). Given the type of flying she'll be doing (pleasure flights with family/friends), I recommended she go to US Aviation at Denton and get her SP license, which she can upgrade to a PPL in the future if she'd like. Does anyone from the DFW area have any input/suggestions on flight schools or independent CFI's in the area?
 
Welcome to Chrissy!

If she is interested in moving to full private pilot privileges some day, she needs to obtain any sport pilot training from a CFI with private pilot training privileges. A CFI-SP's training cannot apply to the requirements of private pilot when you apply the definition of "Authorized Instructor."
 
KennyFlys said:
Welcome to Chrissy!

If she is interested in moving to full private pilot privileges some day, she needs to obtain any sport pilot training from a CFI with private pilot training privileges. A CFI-SP's training cannot apply to the requirements of private pilot when you apply the definition of "Authorized Instructor."
Click to expand...

Um, yeah, that's not true, and I'd like to see a reference on where you got that information.
 
KennyFlys said:
If she is interested in moving to full private pilot privileges some day, she needs to obtain any sport pilot training from a CFI with private pilot training privileges. A CFI-SP's training cannot apply to the requirements of private pilot when you apply the definition of "Authorized Instructor."
Click to expand...
This is not completely true. A CFI-SP is an authorized instructor for sport pilots. If she gets her SP ticket, then all dual she received was from an authorized instructor, and is perfectly applicable. Only if she starts out with a CFI-SP and then goes straight to private without getting the sport ticket would the instructor not be authorized.
 
Wrong, Kenny, as has already been said.

As to which rating to get - I would suggest that she go ahead and go straight for the PPL rather than the SP, since it has additional privileges that are still neat for pleasure flights. Even if you stick to flying an LSA (which can be plenty capable, as Jay has proven), I'd say the PPL is worth getting, but she'll have to weigh the costs/benefits for herself.

Most importantly - welcome, Chrisy, and I'm glad you're enjoying your flying so far! :yes:
 
Welcome, Chrisy. Should have said that last time...

Which rating to get? Good question. That, as with so much else in making aviation decisions, depends on the flying you plan to do. The SP ticket is limited in two important ways for someone making pleasure flights:

1) You have to fly light sport aircraft (LSA). That means, most importantly for this discussion, two seats and no faster than 120 knots. Are two seats enough? There's also likely to be a limit on how much stuff you can take with you; that's not an issue for just flying off for the stereotypical $100 hamburger, but if you want to go somewhere for a weekend, it might be.

2) You can only fly during the day. Flying at night is something you might not want to give up.

The tradeoff is that you can get your SP ticket in half the time you would a private. That's probably true even though nobody gets their ticket in the minimum time called for in the regulations. I haven't seen average times for SP tickets, but I'd be surprised if it were very much over 35 hours or so.

You can definitely get your SP ticket and then get additional training should you choose to go for the private. That would be just a few hours, and primarily would involve training for flying at night and on instruments. You could fulfill the minimum requirements for that and then go on and get the private ticket in fairly short order, especially if you'd been flying as SP for a while. That may be an avenue you could pursue.

In any event, good luck! We all have gained a lot from aviation, and you will too.
 
Okay, Chrisy is having problems with making a post - what was that hoop she needs to jump through to get her account activated? Her username is chrisco222.
 
I am not sure about that, but imagine Jesse will sort it out.

Tell Chrissy to PM me (or feel free to give her my cell number), and I'll mention a couple of flight-training options. Flyers is fine, but they are expensive, it is true. She can get it done very well, and for a lot less money.
 
jmaynard said:
This is not completely true. A CFI-SP is an authorized instructor for sport pilots. If she gets her SP ticket, then all dual she received was from an authorized instructor, and is perfectly applicable. Only if she starts out with a CFI-SP and then goes straight to private without getting the sport ticket would the instructor not be authorized.
Click to expand...
Agreed. 61.413(e) allows a CFI-SP to teach only for SP privileges, no further.

First, most folks casually obtaining training aren't doing it hard and heavy so that the certificate is obtained in a short time. My thinking is if a student thinks they may want to proceed to a private pilot certificate before completing their sport pilot certificate, they need to do that training with a CFI-A. Otherwise, that training time has been lost. I've been involved with only two folks who started out going for the SP because it would "take less time." Both decided to move forward with a private pilot certificate. Fortunately, they began with a CFI-A with private pilot privileges.
 
Welcome, Chrisy! PJ's put you onto a great resource here.

(BTW, when I check the member list, chrisco222 isn't in there yet.)
 
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