Flight Training Budget
10-28-2018, 12:22 PM
#1
On Reserve
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Oct 2018
Posts: 19
Flight Training Budget
Hey everyone, I had a flight training question and wanted to see what you all think.
I'm 25 and have my PPL, and about 10 hours into my instrument rating. I hope to get my instrument and commercial and hopefully CFI and fly professionally in the next couple years.
I'm paying for everything myself and am trying to avoid debt. I have low living expenses but work a blue collar job (construction) and can only allocate 500 a week to training.
Do you guys think it's better to fly a couple hours a week while working, or maybe save 30k and go to an accelerated program and fly for 3 months and get it done that way?
The thing is, I REALLY want to finish up my ratings and fly professionally, and working construction everyday adds to that even more. But, it's hard to find time to study/fly on my days off.
What do you guys think?? Right now I'm leaning towards not flying for a year and saving as much money as I can then going to an accelerated program, but I wanted to get all your opinions...what would you guys do if you had my budget??
Thanks so much for any advice, this forum is awesome.
I'm 25 and have my PPL, and about 10 hours into my instrument rating. I hope to get my instrument and commercial and hopefully CFI and fly professionally in the next couple years.
I'm paying for everything myself and am trying to avoid debt. I have low living expenses but work a blue collar job (construction) and can only allocate 500 a week to training.
Do you guys think it's better to fly a couple hours a week while working, or maybe save 30k and go to an accelerated program and fly for 3 months and get it done that way?
The thing is, I REALLY want to finish up my ratings and fly professionally, and working construction everyday adds to that even more. But, it's hard to find time to study/fly on my days off.
What do you guys think?? Right now I'm leaning towards not flying for a year and saving as much money as I can then going to an accelerated program, but I wanted to get all your opinions...what would you guys do if you had my budget??
Thanks so much for any advice, this forum is awesome.
10-28-2018, 03:15 PM
#3
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2008
Position: JAFO- First Observer
Posts: 997
Flying 2-3 times per week is optimum for retention of knowledge, skills and proficiency. Anything less frequency and you may be having to re-learn/review stuff you just previously learned. The optimum pace will cost less money in the long run.
10-29-2018, 01:53 PM
#5
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jan 2017
Posts: 106
Why wait if you can spend $500 a week on it. That is a pretty good budget. That is atleast 2 lessons a week. I would get the IFR knocked out now, and build time as a safety pilot. Split the cost with the guy under the hood, and you will be able to fly atleast 8 hours a week on $500 doing that...it will add up quick to about 235ish hours. Then it is just getting ready for the COMM and CFI....Do all your COMM CC time in a complex or TAA and kill two birds with one stone.
Right now I would get the IFR written and even CFII written if you plan on getting that in the next year or so (good for 24 months). Then at 2-3 hours a week, you'll be ready in about 2-3 months....If you are lacking on your CC time for the instrument, get someone who is already IFR to fly with you, split the time, you learn, he gets half price hours, but you have to do the take offs and landings so you can count the time as CC. Remember, only 15 of it has to be with an instructor, so if you are a proficient instrument flyer, it may go quicker than you think. The secret is to find someone else to split time with who just finished their IFR, but is still needing that 50 or so hours to get them to 250.
Right now I would get the IFR written and even CFII written if you plan on getting that in the next year or so (good for 24 months). Then at 2-3 hours a week, you'll be ready in about 2-3 months....If you are lacking on your CC time for the instrument, get someone who is already IFR to fly with you, split the time, you learn, he gets half price hours, but you have to do the take offs and landings so you can count the time as CC. Remember, only 15 of it has to be with an instructor, so if you are a proficient instrument flyer, it may go quicker than you think. The secret is to find someone else to split time with who just finished their IFR, but is still needing that 50 or so hours to get them to 250.
10-29-2018, 01:58 PM
#6
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2017
Posts: 120
Originally Posted by TaylorPilot
Why wait if you can spend $500 a week on it. That is a pretty good budget. That is atleast 2 lessons a week. I would get the IFR knocked out now, and build time as a safety pilot. Split the cost with the guy under the hood, and you will be able to fly atleast 8 hours a week on $500 doing that...it will add up quick to about 235ish hours. Then it is just getting ready for the COMM and CFI....Do all your COMM CC time in a complex or TAA and kill two birds with one stone.
Right now I would get the IFR written and even CFII written if you plan on getting that in the next year or so (good for 24 months). Then at 2-3 hours a week, you'll be ready in about 2-3 months....If you are lacking on your CC time for the instrument, get someone who is already IFR to fly with you, split the time, you learn, he gets half price hours, but you have to do the take offs and landings so you can count the time as CC. Remember, only 15 of it has to be with an instructor, so if you are a proficient instrument flyer, it may go quicker than you think. The secret is to find someone else to split time with who just finished their IFR, but is still needing that 50 or so hours to get them to 250.
Right now I would get the IFR written and even CFII written if you plan on getting that in the next year or so (good for 24 months). Then at 2-3 hours a week, you'll be ready in about 2-3 months....If you are lacking on your CC time for the instrument, get someone who is already IFR to fly with you, split the time, you learn, he gets half price hours, but you have to do the take offs and landings so you can count the time as CC. Remember, only 15 of it has to be with an instructor, so if you are a proficient instrument flyer, it may go quicker than you think. The secret is to find someone else to split time with who just finished their IFR, but is still needing that 50 or so hours to get them to 250.
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11-02-2018, 07:29 PM
#7
On Reserve
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Oct 2018
Posts: 19
Originally Posted by TaylorPilot
Why wait if you can spend $500 a week on it. That is a pretty good budget. That is atleast 2 lessons a week. I would get the IFR knocked out now, and build time as a safety pilot. Split the cost with the guy under the hood, and you will be able to fly atleast 8 hours a week on $500 doing that...it will add up quick to about 235ish hours. Then it is just getting ready for the COMM and CFI....Do all your COMM CC time in a complex or TAA and kill two birds with one stone.
Right now I would get the IFR written and even CFII written if you plan on getting that in the next year or so (good for 24 months). Then at 2-3 hours a week, you'll be ready in about 2-3 months....If you are lacking on your CC time for the instrument, get someone who is already IFR to fly with you, split the time, you learn, he gets half price hours, but you have to do the take offs and landings so you can count the time as CC. Remember, only 15 of it has to be with an instructor, so if you are a proficient instrument flyer, it may go quicker than you think. The secret is to find someone else to split time with who just finished their IFR, but is still needing that 50 or so hours to get them to 250.
Right now I would get the IFR written and even CFII written if you plan on getting that in the next year or so (good for 24 months). Then at 2-3 hours a week, you'll be ready in about 2-3 months....If you are lacking on your CC time for the instrument, get someone who is already IFR to fly with you, split the time, you learn, he gets half price hours, but you have to do the take offs and landings so you can count the time as CC. Remember, only 15 of it has to be with an instructor, so if you are a proficient instrument flyer, it may go quicker than you think. The secret is to find someone else to split time with who just finished their IFR, but is still needing that 50 or so hours to get them to 250.
That is smart and might be a way to go for me....the reason I was thinking if waiting is although I can spend x amount a week on flying, I'm really tired on my days off.
Maybe I'll fly a bit now and see if it's doable, and if not then I'll just save..
Also I kind of like the idea of going to a flight school in a rural area and knocking it out because I'm on Socal now and id have more commuting etc... I'll figure it out! Thanks for the advice, really appreciate it!
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