Was sitting in my flight school today, waiting for my flight instructor, and thought of some ways that I and everyone else can cut down on pricey training.

(Some tips are for students who flew for some time)

1. Be prepare for your flight lesson. Makes sense: an instructor doesn't have to sit down for an extra 30 mins and explain why you have to do things certain way. Always at the end of each lesson ask how did you do the maneuvers, what you should work on, and what will be for the next lesson. Read as much literature as possible. Write down questions, and ask them when you are already in the plane (works well if you can do two things at once). Saves you about 30 mins

2. Do a pre-flight plane check, add oil, etc BEFORE your instructor will meet you. Make friends with management of school, so they can give you keys to the plane before your instructor gets to the plane parking. If you have to fuel - have company card ready. If needs oil - put some oil. The whole idea is to make airplane ready to fly, so when your instructor gets to the plane, all he/she has to do is to get a quick report from you on what is going on with the plane, what did you do to fix it, etc. Saves about 10-15 mins

3. Try to choose slow days/times of a day at airport. It sucks to sit at hold short line because there is a line of 4 planes coming down to land, and wait for tower to give you clearance. I've learned that flying in the mornings, or during not-picture-perfect weather is the best time to fly. You can get difficult conditions flight training, and you most likely will be one of the few up in the sky. about 10 Total of waiting time

4. Try to memorize check list and instruments. On first couple of hours I had to jerk my head back and forth from check list to instruments. My instructor suggested me to memorize my check list. Now, after I went through all instruments, I just read my check list, to make sure I didn't miss anything. saves about 5 mins

5. Buy books from amazon.com. I found jeppesen private pilot book for 20 bucks in like new conditions with some yellow highliner inside. New one would cost more than 100 bucks. Same goes with Check list, study guides, etc. I've noticed that most of these books you can find online for free. Just a matter of time finding it. saves loads of money

totally you'll save about 50 mins to an hour of flight instructiong time, and on rental or aircraft. Plus, you'll learn way more better that way.

Maybe somebody else want to add something?


PS. English is my second language, plus its almot 2am. So you'll find some grammar errors