| First, Pre Solo |
The first step in your certificate is getting signed up at a flight school or with a flight instructor. Here are your training options:
Which option is best? It depends on you. For some, the most convenient is to schedule vacation time and go for it. For others, taking a week off is out of the question, but weekend lessons will work. Still others have a plane and know a good CFI who can take them flying. The cost of local and out-of-town training will be approximately the same, except for overnight accommodations. To help you estimate costs, consider that a typical trainer aircraft, wet (with fuel), will rent for about $75 an hour (something between $50 and $100 an hour depending on the model). Your instructor will charge about $45 an hour ($30 to $60 is typical). Figure on 15 hours of dual instruction (you, the instructor, and the plane) times $120 an hour ($75 plus $45) or about $1,800. You also need 5 hours of solo (you and the plane) at $75 an hour for an additional $375. Add another $500 ($200 to $800) for ground school and you have a bare cost of $2,675. However, you want to make sure you have some extra time to feel comfortable flying on your own, so plan an extra couple of hours with an instructor and a couple of hours of solo time to practice what you've learned. That adds another $390. It's up to about $3,100;well below half the cost of getting a private-pilot certificate! Remember, that's just an estimate. If you already have a training plane your costs will go down. If you can take only one lesson a week you should plan on taking more hours of instruction to compensate for the memory loss between lessons. If you live in the Big City and need to travel to a small airport or you need to pay Big City prices at a nearby airport, your costs will go up. My advice: Be a smart consumer, but don't be cheap. A $20-an-hour instructor might not be a good teacher. A trainer plane that rents on the cheap probably is. Instead, find a recommended flight school or instructor and fly only in well-maintained equipment. There are many other ways you can bring down the cost of going up. In fact, another Flight Guide shows you how to fly at home in your own flight simulator for just a couple hundred dollars. You can practice whenever you want and even walk away from crashes. It's fun!
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