• Overview:

  • You can begin flight training at any age.  The two things that generally affect whether someone can start, is their size/ability to reach the controls properly, and the flight school imposing their own personal limitations. 

  • Although you can start at any age, you will need to be at least 16 to obtain a student pilot permit.  You will need this to fly without an instructor.  This is important since some of your training requirements will be to fly solo, so if you're younger than 16, your training would be delayed at this point.  You could still continue to fly and gain experience, you just can't move to the next phase yet. 

  • In addition to the age requirements , you must be able to read, speak, write, and understand the English language

  • You will also need a third-class medical certificate (click here for details on the process and requirements)

  • You must be at least 17 years old to obtain your Private Pilot certificate.  Consider this the completion of this phase.  Once you obtained at least 40 flight hours, met all the flight proficiency requirements, have the appropriate endorsements from your instructor, and are at least 17, you will take knowledge and practical tests.  Successful completion of those will result in a Private Pilot Certificate.

  • That certificate will allow you to continue flying without an instructor and allow you to carry passengers.  (although you can carry passengers, you can't make any profit from them until you have a commercial certificate which I'll cover later)

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• Find a flight school near you:    https://www.aopa.org/learntofly/school

  • Compare prices

    • hourly rental fee

    • instructor fees

    • total estimated price

  • Compare assets

    • number and types of planes available

    • number of available instructors 

    • type of equipment  (antiquated gauges vs glass cockpit)

  • Read online reviews of the flight school, pay attention to:

    • maintenance concerns

    • complaints about the school dragging out training 

    • comments about high failure rates

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     Here are some important considerations: 

            Some flight schools, or specific instructors, have been known to delay students check rides in order to increase their profits.   Although this is not as common as it use to be, its something to watch out for as you read the reviews.

            The number of available planes and instructors is critical to your success since these will dictate the frequency of your training.  The more frequent you fly, the more information you'll retain and the more proficient you'll be in the airplane.  This translates to fewer total flights and associated cost savings.  Be sure to ask the school how often you can expect to fly and compare that answer between schools.   This is obviously dependent on your availability as well.  If you can, we recommend flying at least once a week, any gaps long than that and you'll forget too much from your previous flight.  We think an ideal number would be 3 or 4 times per week.  This maximizes your retention of information learned as well as allows time between flights for additional study and comprehension. 

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• Time to go shopping:

your flight school will most likely sell these items so you're welcome to compare prices, usually they will have a pretty decent mark up since they know you want to start flying without mail delays.  Plan ahead and have what you need.  Some of the links below are for Amazon.com.  We are an affiliate and may earn from qualifying purchases.  This does not affect the price you pay however does help us cover the operating costs of this site. 

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• Logbook:  Basic logbook, tracking your flight time is critical to ensuring minimums are met for your qualifications as well as proving your flight experience when applying for a job.  This is also where your flight instructors will record your endorsements as you progress through training. 

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• Headset:  your flight school probably has these available for rent and a few schools may even provide them for free.  Typical price is around $3 a day however some charge by the hour.  If you use the schools headset, we do recommend you bring alcohol wipes to clean the mouth piece and ear cups prior to each use to help avoid some common illness.  If you want to buy your own headset, we have a few recommendations.The least expensive headsets have proven reliability so no reason to shy away.  These may be a good choice if you are not 100% sure this is the career for you.  budget headset. If you do go this route, we recommend adding the gel ear pads for additional comfort on your longer flights.Higher end options that could bring you all the way to your airline career would be significantly pricier but have added options like active noise cancellation, blue tooth for phone and music, and are generally much lighter and more comfortable.   Our recommendations would be for the Light speed ANR, Bose A20s, or the Clarity Aloft headset for those of you that prefer the in-ear headset or don't want to mess up your hair.  One last option, and the one that the owner of this page uses, is a Bose music headset with a microphone adapter.  This is the lightest option and one that is great if you tend to commute and need the headset for music while riding as a passenger.  (the link for the adapter is the one we use and can recommend.  There are cheaper options on amazon but we don't have any feedback for these products)

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• Fight Bag:  There are hundreds of options for flight bags, and yes, we do recommend you have one at this level of training.  You will need a place to secure your headset, pubs, study/cheat guides, and potentially an electronic flight bag (tablet).  A good starting bag would be the crosswind since its big enough for your required items but wont feel bulky in the small training planes you'll be flying.  If you don't buy a bag like this with its own headset pocket, we recommend you buy a small headset bag to help protect your headset (most specifically the cable connection to the headset).

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• Study material:   The price may intimidate you but we think this private pilot textbook is a key addition to your library and one that should be useful for many years, you might be able to find a used copy but either way, its worth the price.  The next recommendation is for a visual flight maneuvers handbook.   These books are available for every phase of training if you feel you need them but at a minimum, we suggest you have them for your private pilot training as it will help you understand the maneuvers and the associated standards.  The third recommendation is for a check ride study guide. This will help you prepare for the FAA evaluation that will actually award you your private pilots certificate.  There are also some great resources for the kindle that are free if you have a kindle unlimited account, some of them include a maneuvers guide as well as an exam guide.  Paying for the kindle account and getting free books could save you money in the long run, short term it will definitely save you space.   Another book you will need is the FAR/AIM, this has the regulatory information that you'll need to know.  You can also download this in digital format and receive free updates annually if you prefer.

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• Kneeboard: As you gain experience, you will find that the need for a kneeboard will go away.  Starting out however, we do recommend a basic kneeboard as it will allow you to take notes from your instructor as well as record some of the longer and more confusing clearances from ATC.  Kneeboards can get very pricey and have lots of pockets but our recommendation is a very simple kneeboard that even has some useful information printed on it. 

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• Headlamp: Once you get to the night portion, you will need a flashlight of some kind at least for your pre-flight and any type of light would probably suffice for that.  We recommend a good rechargeable LED headlamp based on the following information:  If you end up needing it in the cockpit while flying, you will definitely need hands free capability.  This can be preemptively on your head or even hanging around your neck so your not digging for it in your bag or pockets in the event of an emergency.  The lamp with red lights is critical since it will allow you to see in the cockpit without bleaching out your night vision.   The fact that its rechargeable will save you a ton on battery expenses.  We recommend wearing one and having a spare in your flight bag in case your forgot to charge your primary lamp.  This is a very important piece of your flight gear that is often overlooked, you don't want to be in a situation where you need a light and don't have one!!

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• What to expect for training

1.  Ground (classroom) training to learn about the airplane, basic aerodynamics, weather, communications, and flight regulations

2.  Basic flight maneuvers:

Takeoffs and Landings

Slow flight

Stalls and Spins

Basic Instrument flight

Crosswind takeoffs and landings

Basic navigation

Emergency training

3.  Pre-Solo progress check

4.  First Solo flight

5.  Advanced flight maneuvers:

Short field takeoffs and landings

Maneuvering flight

Soft field takeoffs and landings

6.  Night flight training

7.  Cross country flight (>50nm, landing at least 1 airport)

8.  Pre-Solo Cross country progress check

9.  Solo Cross country  (>50nm, landing at least 1 airport))

10.  Night Cross country

11.  Second Solo Cross country (>100nm, landing at least 3 airports)

12.  Maneuver practice

13.  Pre-checkride instructor review

14.  FAA checkride  (evaluation of the ground information you were taught as well as all the flight maneuvers that you learned)

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The maneuvers and process outlined here correspond to the information provided in the manuals I recommended above in the study material section.   You can also find free syllabus outlines and study guides online.  One of the best I've seen is from one of the most well know flight schools in the US.  Click here for a direct link to their .PDF

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• Recommendations

There are a ton of private pilot training videos on YouTube that will help you as you progress through your training.  We want to emphasize that these videos should not replace or override anything your instructor tells you.  We recommend that you view these vidoes as a way to strengthen your understanding of the specific subjects.  Sometimes, hearing information presented in a slightly different format or with a different graphic may be all it takes for it to "click" and finally make sense.

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As your near your checkride, you could also search for "private pilot checkride" or "Oral exam" on YouTube as well.  There are plenty of the out there and provide a wide range of examples.  In addition to listening to the questions and doing a self assessment of your own knowledge, it also serves to reduce our anxiety about the evaluation since you'll have a better idea of what to expect.  The more comfortable you are, the better you'll perform.

 

Another recommendation we have is to practice your maneuvers on a flight simulator on your computer.   We caution you again to not use this as your primary means of instruction and do not attempt to learn a maneuver on the computer prior to your instructor teaching it to you.  The best use of the simulator is to review your maneuvers after you have already had a few iterations in the actual aircraft.  This will give you the ability to work through your cross-check as well as pause the training at any time to help understand your inputs and the corresponding changes to your instruments.   Microsoft just released a new flight simulator in August 2020 that appears to have some amazing upgrades over the previous versions, you can check that out here.  If you need to go a cheaper route, I recommend Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 and then adding on the 172 Skyhawk expansion disk.  look for these on eBay, you should be able to get used versions for about $15.  (current >$90 on Amazon).  Another option that we've had luck with is the Microsoft Flight Simulator X steam edition.  No disk required, you'll download from the steam site after purchasing it.

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ATC app: if you are interested in listening to the radio calls at your local airport, download this app and listen for free.  https://www.liveatc.net/

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• GI-Bill:  First off, thank you for your service!   Unfortunately, the GI-Bill will not cover private pilot training. However there were a few places that could do a fixed wing add-on if you already have a rotary wing certificate.  If this applies to you, be sure to ask your flight school if the GI-Bill will cover expenses.

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*note:   We are an amazon affiliate, and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”

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