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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.