Motosaki

Also I just saw on this website that a medical exam is $80. Is that the copay with insurance, or the uninsured rate? (I am the latter)

The Flight School of Gwinnett - Learn To Fly Here!

Cubdriver

Non-insurance funded, cash and carry. That's about the right price and it lasts for 5 years now, they just changed it from 3. I have to keep a commercial medical and it only lasts for a year. I feel like I just did one, now here I am again. Ask an airline pilot how he or she feels about this.

Motosaki

Really? $80 without insurance gets a third class physical? Wow, that is a fraction of what I was expecting. Thanks for clearing that up.

Motosaki

In addition to this, what do you think of this school?
Advanced Aviation Diamond Flight Center - Full Service Flight School

Cubdriver

Ah... you're getting your money's worth out of me.

Don't get a loan is my emphatic recommendation. Your flight training will not drag out all that much without one. Your instructor today was right. I did most of my tickets as a hobby while taking a full load of classes in college, and I worked off the cost driving trucks. I did have to quit for a few months at one point due to dental bills, but generally I stayed in flight training the whole time. I never took any loans. It does drag it out a bit but no more than twice as long as with loans.

Yeah that's true for some, but there are others out there like me who are saying it is necessary or prudent. The ones who generally are good fits for loans are airline track professionals that wait until the hiring market is good, which it isn't now. AllATP's is one of the schools, and ATP is firing instructors at this point.

Do this without any loans and you will be debt free when it's all done.

He is right, you should pick a model and try to stay with it. However 6'6" is too tall for the 152 I think. I am not going to make a judgment on that but I was a tad uncomfortable in 152's during my own training and I was 6'0"- 175 lbs at the time.
That fixed rate will go out the window if you don't learn fast enough to fit their syllabus. In addition, since I recommend you work and not borrow, you are going to need some flexibility in terms of pace.

Keep an open mind about Flight School of Gwinnett. They can save you a lot of money. They have some good instructors at times and a fairly reasonable reputation in the area. Any flight school that minimizes cost is going to have an old fleet of Cessnas. You do not need a fancy airplane to learn to fly one. Tell you what, if you go there to look at it and take a discovery flight, and decide it is a possibility for you, I will call an old friend of mine who runs an air taxi business on the field there and ask him what he thinks about it.
Those are reasonable rates for newer Cessnas, but you can save a lot of money by using older Cessnas and Pipers. Flight School of Gwinnett is advertising a club rate of $76 an hour for an old well maintained 152. FSGwinnett I agree flying is a great thing but you have to shave down the costs in every way you possibly can. Debt is really not what you want in addition to your flight tickets these days and a little hard work and patience will do the trick.

-Cub

de727ups

If you can't fit into a 152, try to find a school with something similar rather than paying such a high price for a newer 172. Look around and see if you can find a school with a Piper Tomahawk or Cherokee 140. If you can fit in a Tomahawk, I'd go with that, and they will be as cheap as a 152. Heck, go buy one. You could probably find one for 25K.

Motosaki

Cubdriver, thanks a lot for all the help. I appreciate it more than you know.

Motosaki

Advanced Aviation Diamond Flight Center - Full Service Flight School


Any feedback on this school? I am going up with them at two this afternoon. They are tempting me because they are close to my house and have reasonable rates, and offered financing through Sallie Mae is a nice plus as well.

Cubdriver

Moto, their rates are fair for glass cockpit DA20's but glass cockpit airplanes are not required for getting a private pilot certificate, instrument rating, multiengine rating, commercial certificate, CFI or CFII. Don't be wowed by the Garmin G1000 system- the airlines if and when when you apply are not going to ask you if you got your private pilot training in a Garmin G1000 airplane. They are not going to care if you know anything about a Garmin G1000 panel whatsoever and as a matter of fact, they are not going to hire you without 500 hours of dual instruction given in any airplane at this point in time.

Save your money and find an old Cessna 152 or an old Cessna 172 and train in that bucket of rivets until you have your CFI and CFII plus about 500 hours of dual instruction given.

Ok we go that part behind us (I hope). Next point is, do not borrow money for flight training, period. It's not worth it in the present economy with the recession coming, furloughs going on all around, and jet fuel prices bobbing all over the place. The regional airlines are struggling just to stay in business. They are not hiring quickly enough for it to be worth the trouble for you to get there sooner by taking out costly flight training loans. Most regionals are laying people off right now. Few to none are hiring. Loans are not the thing to be getting into right now.

But ok so let's say you want to learn to fly real bad and gave in to the temptation to get a loan for flight training. You decide to go for that Sallie Mae loan. Do you know what the interest you will pay will be on a large flight training loan, at only 5% APR? If you borrowed say $60,000 you are going to have to pay $3000 a year for that loan in interest alone. The second year another $3000, and so on. That's $250 a month for nothing more than the privilege of continuing to pay $250 a month. Your unpaid principal (the amount you originally borrowed) will see no reduction at all. You are on a hook that stretches into eternity.

If you paid that $250 a month that whole first year you would only be back to the point of being allowed to start the process all over again the next year with a $60,000 principal staring you in the face like it never happened, a bad dream that just won't end. All that money you paid the previous year was for naught because this is this year is this year and times marches on.

Loans are evil for an hourly wage earner unless they can pay them back fast and furious style. They are not worth having unless there is a high likelihood of getting hired at a yearly wage that is nearly equal to the original loan. For example, if you can make $50,000 a year from a job, then ok take out a loan for that amount to get such a job. Such wages are simply not available right now from jobs as a pilot. You will not get high enough wages from flying for pay right now to justify the crushing debt you will definitely be in if you take out Sallie Maes to the tune of $60,000. I have no doubt they will waste your time asking you to fill out applications for them.

You should see those Sallie Mae's as slave labor waiting to happen. I am trying to get through to you that you are going to regret it if you take out loans for flight training. You will not get a job strong enough to pay them back.

Once again, what you should do is keep working for ten bucks an hour or whatever it is you make and fly on weekends when you have the money. You should rent cheap airplanes like the 30 year old Cessna 172's at Flight School of Gwinnett, or some such place, for your training. There are rich people out there who can rent those Garmin G1000 airplanes, and there always will be, but you are not one of them. You will be one of the best pilots out there maybe but you will not be in debt.

Motosaki

i think the reality is starting to kick in. loans are bad. i did the math and if i were to get another job part time and dedicate all the income i made from it to flying, it would be several years before i got my my licenses and all my ratings i need. i am starting to strongly consider joining the navy. it is something i have always wanted to do and there are countless reasons why i think it is right for me. i know they cover college, but would flight training be something they would cover?