Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site avsdS.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!hplabs!hpda!fortune!dsd!avsdS!rlr From: rlr@avsdS.UUCP (Rhode L. Roberts) Newsgroups: net.aviation Subject: Re: Advice on obtaining pilot's license Message-ID: <107@avsdS.UUCP> Date: Thu, 15-Aug-85 22:24:07 EDT Article-I.D.: avsdS.107 Posted: Thu Aug 15 22:24:07 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 19-Aug-85 21:27:38 EDT References: <360@tektools.UUCP> <489@cepu.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: Ampex Audio-Video Engineering, Redwood City, CA Lines: 95 > I am interested in getting my pilot's license, > but I need some advice on what to look for in a > flying school and what is a reasonable price to > pay for lessons. Thank you for the help... [please excuse the nroff ( spaces savings )] Average price around $2000. Could be as little as $1000 or as much as $5000 for a private pilot license. It all depends on how you WANT to approach it. Some flight schools have highly polished and clean new aircraft with instructors who all wear suit and ties ( $5000 ). Others have a rag wing champ thats seen better days and an instructor in a T shirt. ( $1500 ) Both will probably teach you the ropes equally well. Most instructors who work for a flight school full time and as their only source of income typically want to get you into the craft, start the clock, get you back in as close to an hour as posible so they can get the next stu- dent on the clock. They really need to build the hours for themselves so they can quit the school and get a cor- porate flying job. No REAL intrest in what you are learning. There are a few rare good ones out there work- ing at the schools. ( my opinion ) The instructor who has a regular job and teaches in his/her spare time is ususally intrested in seeing that YOU get all of the REAL information DIGESTED. And also, that you pass the written with high marks and pass the flight exam with no fear ( hee hee ) and good comments from the examiner. (There may be sombody at your place of work who is an instructor, ask around, they usually don't charge as much either as they get their rewards from seeing you take to the sky). Go shopping, take a few demo rides from different schools, go to the aviation book store at the airport and browse through the books, mabey buy a Jeppesen Private Pilot Ground School book ( around $30 ). Talk to pilots at the airport, they don't bite. Build some knowledge to ask questions with, so that when you talk to an instruc- tor you get more out of it ( cause it get's expensive ). Find a friend who might want to learn with you ( the gem- ini system ). This is good for brainstorming and such, also when you are learning the skills while in the air, if your friend is in the back seat while your sweating it out at the controls, later when you talk about it your friend will have a real clear picture of all the events that happend ( because he/she was not sweating ). This is good for [de-briefing] after the flight. On the next flight lesson your friend gets to GRIP the controls and you take the back seat to get an overview. It's amazing how much more you comprehend when your not under THAT pressure. ( Not to mention when you go for your instru- ment and your under the gun AND the hood ). I learned to solo at the cheapest flight school I could find, renting the cheapest aircrift they had using a Com- mercial Flight Instructor who is a personal friend. This cost a whopping $20 an hour for 8 hours. I then put $1500 down on a cherokee 140 and shopped around for good financing and paid $175 a month for 5 years. The In- structor gave me lessons for no charge and I let him use the aircraft for his own PERSONAL flights and he replaced the gas. Maintinace runs about $400 year, insurance $500 year, tie-down (parking) runs about $50 a month ( in the San Francisco area ). It drinks about 8 gallons of fuel an hour at approx. $2 per gal. I paid $10,000 for the plane, 6 years ago, got my private and instrument ticket in it, have flown over 700 hours in it all over the 48 states, and could sell it today for around $10,000. Add it all up and devide it by the hours flown to get the cost of flying for an hour, then compare that to the cost per hour of renting. The nicest part about it is that I KNOW the mechanical condition of the entire plane, I KNOW it's there WHEN I want it, and I KNOW that somebody didn't leave it out of gas, and oil, leave candy bar wrappers all over the floor and cigarette butts in the ash trays ( or ground into the carpet ), or didn't return on time leaving ME standing around waiting. Most important of all, have fun. R.L. Roberts ...{ucbvax}!atd!rlr@avsdS Ampex Corporation (One of the Signal Companies) Audio Video Systems Division Redwood City, Calif.