A330Fan1 From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 856 posts, RR: 17 Posted (5 years 7 months 1 week 18 hours ago) and read 1455 times:
A.netters,
This is probably a really rudimentary question to you all, but I'll give it a shoot anyways. Can you tell the process by which I can acquire a license to operate a small aircraft? (Cessna? Is it different for different aircrafts?) I'd like to know what's involved, like hours in class, in the air, costs, and essentially all the important details. How many different kinds of licenses exist? And do most people typically rent planes to fly? I would only assume so given the costs of owning a plane.
CO737 From United States of America, joined Dec 2000, 143 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (5 years 7 months 1 week 12 hours ago) and read 1429 times:
Quoting A330Fan1 (Thread starter): Can you tell the process by which I can acquire a license to operate a small aircraft?
The easiest way is to go to the FBO (Fixed Based Operator) at your nearest airport and talk to a flight instructor. At smaller airports, most FBO have some form of a "Learn to Fly Here" advertisment.
Once you have your private pilot's license (which for a Cessna would be single-engine land) then you have the privelage to fly any single-engine land airplane, so long as you don't require any additional endorsements. So even though you trained in a Cessna you could techinically go and fly a Piper Cherokee without any additional training.
Quoting A330Fan1 (Thread starter): I'd like to know what's involved, like hours in class, in the air, costs, and essentially all the important details
I got my license through a flight school (University of North Dakota) so my experience is a little different than just training at your local airport, but I can tell you that you are required to log at least 40 hours of flight time prior to applying for your license. I don't have any idea about ground lesson time. As far as costs go, I'd say $6,000 would be a good ballpark figure, although that cost can increase fairly rapidly (my training was $9,000, but flight costs are more expensive here).
The first step in your training would be to chose between a Private Pilot license, a Sport pilot, or Recreational pilot. I would suggest the Private as the Sport and Recreational carry a lot of restrictions. Once you have your private, you can then go on and get your Commerical, Flight Instructor (CFI), Instrument Instructor (CFII), and Airline Transport (ATP). Some additional ratings you can recieve are Instrument and Multi-Engine (I think I'm forgetting one in here).
AirWillie6475 From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 2448 posts, RR: 2 Reply 3, posted (5 years 7 months 1 week 12 hours ago) and read 1428 times:
Private
Instrument
Mulit engine
These are licenses you might get if you want to fly. You need a private, the others are for more serious flyers. Private is 40 hours of flying and 30 hours of class. One hour of flying with an instructor costs about 100 if you fly older planes. And instructor rates are 25-50. So at the minimum you will spend about 4500 for a private at your local flight school. Private is universal for all the planes, you just need to take a flight with an instructor every time you switch planes so you become familiar. And yes people rent. The best way to start is do what I did, I went to beapilot.com and registered. About a week later I got a few local flight school packets in the mail. And did the intro flight.
Pilotallen From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 656 posts, RR: 4 Reply 5, posted (5 years 7 months 1 week 7 hours ago) and read 1405 times:
heres another approach which might be a bit slower but has its benefits. I suggest trying to get a job at an FBO and/or flight school as a line tech or what have you. This is a super easy way to meet pilots and there are lots of eager pilots out there who enjoy having company in their plane/s. It will give you some quality time in the air even though you can't log it unless of course they have their CFI....the other perspective on this is that the FBO might have a flight school and being an employee of this flight school could have its discounts or even free flight time. Here's what I did: When I wanted to start flying I went to our local airport (3B5, in Maine) asked if there was any work I could dofor flight lessons. The owner suggested that I paint hangers for the summer and he would give me credit for flying, so with that in hand I painted hangers all summer.
Im not saying this can or will happen on the first try but it saved me a few grand at least and I ended up making some forever lasting friendships with pilots at the airport. Take every advantage you can to fly, use your judgement with people who ask you to go flying with them...Ie: if they are drinknig a beer and asking you at the same time, don't go Seriously though, killing the summer/s by doing odd jobs at an airport could save you money, depending on where you stand in that department. Hope that gives you another idea, e-mail me if you got more questions because there are many cheap ways of doing this. Good luck! -Josh A.
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From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 856 posts, 
Seriously though, killing the summer/s by doing odd jobs at an airport could save you money, depending on where you stand in that department. Hope that gives you another idea, e-mail me if you got more questions because there are many cheap ways of doing this. Good luck! -Josh A.
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