Thread: Learning to fly

Congratulations. I learned to fly on sim and I'm probably ready for the real deal. As soon as I get back to the states and have a little money in my pocket, I'm gonna go for my PPL.

I'm assuming that was a transition thru Bravo airspace.

You're absolutely right.. it is a lot of fun.

If you don't mind me asking... approximately how much has your lessons cost? How close are you to your PPL?

Nice pick of the escort. Did ATC warn you he was there? There are a few websites I know of where you can listen to ATC traffic from various airports. I was dying laughing listening to Boston one night. The controller was kindly asking aircraft to exit the runway at Foxtrot. I could only imagine these pilots jamming on the brakes and cutting onto a taxiway as fast as possible. Several times he would say something to a departing aircraft like "Have fun in the Carribean, wish I could go"

I got my private in 3 weeks from start to finish, and that included an entire week where it was raining. cost me ~$3500 with all the books and the fricken $400 I had to pay for a checkride because there aren't any free government checkride fellas within 150 miles of here.

So, I have a question for you Chairboy: WTF are you doing learning in a low wing retractable? Here that plane would cost about $100/hr, plus $25/hr for the instructor. I trained in a Cessna 152 for $49/hr plus instructor, and I can go back and get complex (retractable gear) and high performance (more than 200hp engine) in like 2 hrs.

You look like you might be a big guy so a 152 may be too small, but a 172 still would be much cheaper.

Here's the 152 I like to fly:

You lucky bastards in the US!

I don't even know where to go to get information on getting a license, let alone I know pricing here in belgium!

Just you guys wait, I'll be over there soon!

The plane I'm learning on IS a low wing, but it's not a retractable gear. The Piper Cherokee Warrior is a great plane since I'm a big guy, and it's got plenty of power.

The school I picked has two Cherokees and a Grumman, no Cessnas. I picked these guys because the other places were either a lot more expensive or had some weird stuff associated with them, plus I met the instructor and got along with him better then the other instructors.

I'm learning to fly at a very expensive airport. Santa Monica airport is primo real estate, and the planes rent for a lot. I picked it because it was close to where I'm staying and my work and I knew that if I didn't pick a place that was close, I'd never get around to flying. Traffic in LA is crazy sometimes.

Consequently, the plane rents for $93 an hour and I pay $45 an hour for the instructor. The total cost to get my license if I finish here (moving to Eugene, OR in a couple months) will be around $5000-$6000, and so far, it feels worth every penny.

I've got 9 hours so far, and my instructor says that I'll probably be solo'ing pretty soon. THAT'S scary, and exciting at the same time.

One advantage to a higher horsepower plane, btw, is that it climbs faster. With both me and the instructor, it can climb around 1,000fpm. If I was in a plane with less power, I'd spend a lot more of my hour climbing to altitude, so the costs sort of even out.

I still haven't figured out how to kick in the afterburners yet, still working on that.

Ah, now I see That ain't such a bad deal then.

Yeah, that first solo is scary as hell. Actually, the first solo LANDING is scary as hell. Being that the 152 is such a small aircraft, the first comment I made to my instructor after I took off was "hey, this thing flies a lot better without you in it!"

For your solo cross country, as well as just being something nice to have, you might want to get an explorist 200 GPS. It's like $120 shipped and has EVERY AIRPORT in it's database. Even the grass strip around here is in there. You can hit the "goto" button and it will plot a straight-line route to wherever you wanna go.

You can't use it for your checkride since it isnt panel-mounted, but like I said it's nice to have.

Another question for y'all...

What experience did you have of flying before taking lessons?? Did you have any basic understanding or even some advanced understanding of flying an aircraft??

WizardPC, that's funny as heck about your instructor not being in the plane.