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Private Pilot Training Status

Old 08-15-2019, 05:08 PM
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I am currently working on my PPL and am hoping to be completed by the end of September. I wanted to make a post to give some info and timelines to prospective flight students as well as current PPL students.

I started training around mid-May (2019). Generally speaking I have been flying between 3-4 times per week. I fly at a 141 school.

So as of right now I have been training for about 3 months and have about 43 hours of flight time. If I finish by the end of September it will have taken me roughly 4.5 months to get my PPL.

The school I fly at uses king schools for a lot of the ground school. The program is pretty good but there are definitely holes/poor explanation on some topics. I definitely use a lot of YouTube videos from 8MA and some M0A. (YouTube CFI channels). I just finished my progress check today for my solo cross country flight. I signed up for the prog check almost 2 weeks ago. So technically I would of been around 36-37 hours when I signed up for the cross country prog. check.

The things that I have struggled with the most have been landings. For someone of my flight time I am pretty decent at all the other items (based on what I have been told). I could definitely be doing more ground school study at home, but between work, wife and life I have not been studying as much as I should.

I have spent about $9,400 so far on actual flight training. (Not including my kneeboard, flight bag, Bose A20’s, and other misc. items). I would recommend to any flight student to get a ANR headset. I flew a few times with passive headset from the school when I first started. The Bose does such a good job protecting your hearing from a noisy piston engine. Whenever I am take my headset off at shutdown, it always blows me away at just how loud the airplane is... and that is with the engine idle and no wind noise. Also, the radio communications are easier to understand.

When I first started my training, I thought I would struggle the most with the radios. I fly out of a class D airport. So I have been getting lots of experience talking to ATC. My radio work is actually pretty good for the most part. The plane I fly is a 1978 C172N. It has no GPS. Only navigation onboard is VOR.

By the time I finish my PPL, I am expecting to of spent $12,000-$13,000 on flight training alone.
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Old 08-15-2019, 05:11 PM
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I think it would be helpful to mention what part of the country you're in to account for cost of living, weather, dpe availability, etc
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Old 08-15-2019, 06:13 PM
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I live/train in the Houston area. I’m in a rental house in a nice neighborhood in the metro of Houston. Cost of living is not bad. $1525 in rent for a 3/2 house, 1450 sq./ft.

Weather overall has been pretty good. It’s been a dry summer so we have not been affected too much by rain. Regarding DPE’s availability I am not sure. I have not had a check ride yet so I don’t know first hand, but from what I have been told the DPE’s are pretty busy in our area.
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Old 08-22-2019, 06:06 AM
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I'm in Louisville, started same time as you. I finished all of the flight requirements about 2 weeks ago, got a 90 on the written last week, but can't get a DPE any earlier than September 24.... guess I'm just going to start my instrument rating stuff in the meantime.
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Old 08-23-2019, 10:37 AM
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Originally Posted by kylecivicsi View Post
I'm in Louisville, started same time as you. I finished all of the flight requirements about 2 weeks ago, got a 90 on the written last week, but can't get a DPE any earlier than September 24.... guess I'm just going to start my instrument rating stuff in the meantime.
How many flight hours are you at? Are you at a 61 or 141 school?

I am trying to get caught up and get my written knocked out. I waited too long.... now I am going to be held up with prepping more for the written then focus on checkride prep.
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Old 08-24-2019, 02:08 PM
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Originally Posted by Douglas89 View Post
How many flight hours are you at? Are you at a 61 or 141 school?

I am trying to get caught up and get my written knocked out. I waited too long.... now I am going to be held up with prepping more for the written then focus on checkride prep.
part 61, will probably have ~60hrs by the time my checkride rolls around on Tuesday.
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Old 08-25-2019, 12:59 PM
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Hi, I have had my private for quite a while. I see a couple of you are prepping for your checkride. The one thing many people mentioned to me but I failed to handle adequately on my first check was:

--the examiner will pull the power on the engine at some point

--always be ready for this

--always have a spot picked out where you can make a safe approach for an emergency landing

I thought I had this in top of mind awareness, but when it happened, I set up my approach with a first turn out over water.

As he told me, "I'll take the aircraft."

I made sure of that next time.

Good luck to all of you!

Mark
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Old 11-10-2019, 05:42 PM
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For any prospective PPL students, I just got my PPL yesterday. Below are the specifics on my training as a whole:



1. I did my training at a Part 141 school.

2. My first flight was May 15th, 2019. So about 6 months from start to finish.

3. For most of the training I flew about 3-4 days per week.

4. Part 141 requires progress checks at several points throughout the training. There was a total of 3 if I remember correctly. I accrued more flight time because of the wait time to get the prog checks scheduled with the chief flight instructor. Additionally, I was not ready for the written test by the time I finished the required hours. Between both of these issues I probably tacked on about 4-5 additional weeks on the total time from start to finish and at least 10-15 hours.

5. I had 69 hours prior to taking checkride.

6. I have not calculated my expenses yet, but on instructor/prog checks/plane rental/checkride I probably spend around $14k-$15k.

7. I fly in the Houston, Texas area. So we did not have too many delays from weather. However, now with winter approaching the weather will not be as good. Thankful I was able to finish PPL prior to winter really starting.

8. I worked full time (typically 45-55 hours) during my training. I would fly in the evening at 5:00 p.m. -7:00 p.m.

9. Training to get my PPL was substantially harder than what I was expecting. Growing up racing motorcycles, cars, etc. I have felt I have a good understanding of machines and controlling them. The reality is there is just so much information to learn for flying and there are a lot of things that are not intuitive. I feel that training for my PPL was more difficult than obtaining my college degree. (Business Management.... not exactly a difficult degree) but the amount of studying I had to do seemed more. Perhaps this is because I am married now and have much less time and much more stress for pursuing this endeavor.


For all the prospective students out there working on their PPL my advice would be as follows:

1. Have adequate funding so there are no gaps in your training.

2. Keep on top of your studying. Make sure you are prepared for each lesson. (i.e. if you are going to work on steep turns, make sure you have read about them, understand them, etc. prior to showing up to fly them)

3. Get a written test prep. I used the Dauntless Aviation Written test prep. I think it was around $40 or so... was VERY helpful for getting the written done. I made a 92% on my first try. Scoring well on the written will help in your checkride. You may not get grilled as much as someone who scores in the 70s.

4. Be VERY organized. Have all your books, tab them out for relevant sections. Tab our your FAR/AIM, etc. Have a binder with the ACS printed out. Being organized in general will benefit you in life/career.

5. Don't get down on yourself if you are struggling to learn certain maneuvers or knowledge. Just keep practicing.

6. I wanted to finish in like 50 hours. Don't get hung up on finishing by XX hours. Just make you have quality training and are a competent pilot. You do not want to have any holes in your knowledge/skills.

7. Watch 8MA youtube channel and also Cyndy Hollman on youtube. Both have great material that is very helpful. There are other aviation youtube videos that are good to watch too. Just search.
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