I’m seriously considering obtaining my Private Pilot certificate. I’ve done a bit of research so far, reading a student pilot book, and planning on starting lessons this fall. Any suggestions or adive would be greatly appreciated.
Alright we have a fellow T-pilot in here! Im a student pilot myself. You’ll love it, trust me.
Remember, you'll probably be nervous, and well, a bit scared in your first 3-4 flights. This isnt a big Airliner youll be flying - itll be a very small cessna, which will shake at the slightest shift of wind or turbulence. You'll notice some flights the aircraft shakes from take-off to landing because its a particularly turbulent day - the tail shifts from side to side, the wings bounce a few inches up and down, and you just feel it tremble down in your feet. It's normal.
Youll learn a whole host of cool stuff, which would take me pages to write on.
You'll be able to do a host of cool stuff most people cant - heck you can join the mile high club with your girlfriend if you wanna, lol.
I did a host of neat stuff. I live in Connecticut, so I flew to Block island a lot - this little tiny island 10 miles off the coast of CT. I made a video flying to New York city, which is really neat - we flew along the Hudson river JUST high enough to clear the GW bridge (in the video it looks like we were headed straight for the bridge. We had to stay at 500 feet AGL in order to stay out of LaGuardia Airspace, for which you need a special clearance to enter). We made 3 turns around the statue of liberty and headed back, with a real nice view of the Twin towers. Obviously you cant do that anymore, so its nice to have a video of the Twin towers and the statue of Liberty.
You'll learn as a pilot that the KEY word is SAFETY and PREPARATION. Youll follow checklists for everything and youll prepare very thoroughly for each and every flight. You will have some stressful moments up there, and some which youll see as close calls, but most of the time youll just have a normal fun flight.
Remember, being a pilot is pretty challenging. You're not driving a car, and everyday is different. Youll hear a few bad stories of incidents, but dont let it get to you. Youre much safer in an aircraft then in a car.
I made a few blunders myself at first, but to preserve my self-respect Ill keep those to myself. I can tell you though I scared the living shit out of my flight instructors more than a few times. Probably took a few years off their lives because of it too. Just as an example - while making a landing approach we realized we were too high and our descent would have to be too steep, so my instructor tells me to go around and make another approach instead. There's a procedure to do this, but since I was a little fresh on it, the first thing I did was pull the flaps all the way up, and only afterwards add full power. Here's the situation: We were 30 feet above the ground flying just above stall speed. The flaps was what gave us enough lift to stay in the air, and the power setting at that point was idle for a touch down - the FIRST thing I did was rid us of the extra lift we got from the flaps BEFORE adding full power, making sure our speed was over 65 MPH, and that we had a positive rate of climb. Let me tell you this, flight instructors have a short temper... Phrases like 'What the fuck are you doing' and 'Are you trying to kill us both' were common while learning a new maneuver.
They're a weird bunch too. My instructor would tell me 'ok , we're flying to 3,000 ft AGL, heading 330 to the practice area'. Sometimes thats what we'd be doing. Other times, as soon as we reached 3,000 feet the guy pulled the power to idle and said 'Ok you have an engine failure, what are you gonna do'. I would scramble to remember the procedure and just as we reached 100-200 ft AGL he would say 'Ok...you just killed us both and destroyed a perfectly good aircraft', and only then hed show the correct way to do it.
You could see the guy try to hold in an evil laugh as you were flying the traffic pattern to land at the airport - he'd do something weird such as turn on strobe lights and emergency lights, say something on the radio like 'Cessna five four zero downwind for three six, has an engine failure, we'll be making a power off approach'. At the same time the power was pulled to idle - but see, you were PARALLEL to the runway you're supposed to freakin land in, and a measle 1000 ft AGL. This means I had to make a VERY steep turn to try to touch down on the runway. Its a very tricky procedure, and I never got it as well as I should.
You will do a lot of cool stuff.
Just remember this is not your typical bachelor's degree, and this is not your typical law degree. It is very challenging - MENTALLY challenging, but much more rewarding without a doubt. You will be completely absorbed in what you're doing, and youll feel an adrenaline rush. In fact, if nothing else, it teaches you how to REALLY focus on something, because the slightest distraction and poof, you're altitude is 100 feet off, you're heading is 22 degrees to the side, your speed is below what it should be, youve lost sight of that other aircraft that was flying just a mile in front of you, you missed a radio call directed to you... so you learn to be very focused and prepared to do something different from what you thought.
The first 4 times are usually the hardest, but its very rewarding.
Is this what you want to do? If so buy this year's FAA-issued FAR/AIM, which contains regulations and procedures which are the basis for flight in the US. Familiarize yourself with it.
Visit your local Airports and flight schools. See which ones have the aircraft you want to fly, and see which airport is the best. Dont choose a poorly maintained airport. Also, try to choose a state-run or sponsored airport, as private airports are usually poorly maintained.
The best aircraft you can choose to fly is a cessna for several reasons: it has the best safety record in general aviation; its landing gear struts just wont collapse even in extremely hard landings; it's a high wing aircraft, which means you get a clear view to whats going on underneath you. This is especially important in landings as you get a good view of how close you are to the runway (low-wing aircraft do give you a good view above you, but this is only helpful if theres an aircraft above you that might stirke your plane). Cessnas have electrical-activated flaps, which also makes it a risk if the electrical system malfunctions, as it means you lose control over the flaps. Piper warriors on the other hand have mechanically activated flaps, which you deploy by using a handle that sits in between the two seats.
If you can afford it, by all means fly on a cessna 172 SKYHAWK (not the old 70s version which looks identical but isnt as good or nearly as comfortable). The warrior is real neat aircraft but uses regular miles per hour in the airspeed indicator as opposed to the nautical miles per hour. This makes it more complicated as charts and FAA books and such usually refer to nautical miles, not regular miles - and forces you to convert one to the other (1 mile=1 nautical mile)
Once you choose your aircraft by the owner's operating manual. Most flight schools sell it. Study the operating procedures, emergency procedures, and MEMORIZE the preflight and takeoff checklists.
Be prepared to spend a TON of your income in learning to fly. Expect to spend 6 grand in your private license alone. In CT the cheapest aircraft I can rent is 70 bucks an hour, which means adding flight time to your log book comes slowly. If you want to earn your commercial pilots license and flight instructors license youll need 25 grand for the whole thing - which will include private license, instrument flight license, commercial license, flight instructor license, and instrument flight instructor license. You can then earn your multi-engine rating and complex aircraft rating (complex aircraft have more than 200 or 250 horsepower if I recall - could be wrong - and retractable landing gear).
Your private pilots license will allow you to fly during clear weather ONLY. You are expressly prohibited from purposefully flying in clouds, inclement weather and such as you are not trained in it - you dont want to become another JFK incident. The instrument rating which you shou-ld get as soon as practical will allow you to fly in the middle of clouds with ZERO visibility, and navigate and fly solely with the use of navigation equipment such as the VOR, the GPS, the AFL... The commercial license is nothing but a fancy private license with complex maneuvers such as a lazy eight, and more complex emergency procedures, such as descending in circles during an engine failure just right so you reach the runway and make a safe landing. After you get this you technically can fly for hire, although no one will still hire you. After you get your instrcutors rating you'll easily get a job at a local airport for a flight school as an instructor. At this point the most valuable thing for you will be to gather all that pilot in command youll gain as an instructor, and getting flight time in a twin engine aircraft if you want to get into the airlines.
If you can afford it, Id recommend you fly 4 or 5 times a week. If you wait 4-7 days to fly again youll have to spend part of that lesson to go over what you did last time again. If you fly almost every day, itll be much fresher in your mind. A week off from flying for me always meant my next lesson would be 2 steps forward one step back. Becoming a good pilot is much like learning to play guitar - the only way to get good at it is by doing it over and over again. You will learn that landing an aircraft is more of an art than a science - you will need to get 'the feel' for when you should flare the aircraft when landing.