skateafter

I am currently applying to an aviation high school at the moment (I am going to be a sophmore in high school). My age is 15

How old do you have to be to fly solo and recieve your certificate?

I read that it usually takes 75 hours for someone to get their license. Also, it said that the costs are usually around $5000-6000.

Are these accurate estimates? Is it possible to get your certificate and spending less than $5000?

Cheers,
Roman

rickair7777

You can log flight and ground training at any age, so you can do that now. You must be 16 to solo an aircraft, 17 to get a private license, 18 to get a commercial, and 23 to get an ATP. If you're thinking of airlines, you can get an airline job with a commercial, but will need the ATP before you upgrade to captain. Most airlines will likely not hire you until you are 21, but that's OK, you will want to go to college anyway.

The minumum flight time is 40 for the private, and if you made a point of studying very hard prior to each flight, you might be able to do it in 45-50, if you have some apptitude. The average time includes many working professionals who don't have the time to study much or train consistently, so they end taking 2 steps forward, one step back. You will need to perform a variety of manuevers to earn your license, but the airplane is a very expensive place to learn the manuevers. Try to learn them on the ground and use the airplane just to fine-tune your actual hand-eye skills and execution. You should know what to do before you get in the plane, then you just practice it. Make sure your instructor knows that you want to get it done in as little time as possible, and make sure you understand his training plan.

The cost also depends on what part of the country you are in and the price at the local school. I would guess it could be done for less than $5000, but average is probably $6-8K (many of these students don't train effeciently). Also, big cities are often more costly.

Good Luck

iflyjets4food

I just recently got out of flight instructing. In the past 12 months of instruction, 40% of my students finished with less than 45 hours (part 61, not 141) including one with 40.1 and one with 40.3. The characteristic that I noticed in students who finish fast is they fly A LOT. The ones who finished at 40.1 and 40.3 flew 5 days a week, and many times each day. Not saying that you have to fly that much to get finished fast, but they had no opportunity to get rusty or forget the maneuvers. The other characteristic they had was they were always ahead in the reading. Many students stay right on pace with reading, some get behind. Be one of those who stays ahead. It will help tremendously. Good luck to you!

Slice

At your age getting your license in a glider is also an option. It will build sound basic skills and is cheaper than powered flight...you can solo at 14 and get your license at 16.

http://www.ssa.org/sport/gliderpilot.asp

N6724G

[
The minumum flight time is 40 for the private, and if you made a point of studying very hard prior to each flight, you might be able to do it in 45-50, if you have some apptitude. The average time includes many working professionals who don't have the time to study much or train consistently, so they end taking 2 steps forward, one step back. You will need to perform a variety of manuevers to earn your license, but the airplane is a very expensive place to learn the manuevers. Try to learn them on the ground and use the airplane just to fine-tune your actual hand-eye skills and execution. You should know what to do before you get in the plane, then you just practice it. Make sure your instructor knows that you want to get it done in as little time as possible, and make sure you understand his training plan.

The cost also depends on what part of the country you are in and the price at the local school. I would guess it could be done for less than $5000, but average is probably $6-8K (many of these students don't train effeciently). Also, big cities are often more costly.

Good Luck[/QUOTE]

I think you may have bombared the young man with too much info at one time. Focus first on getting a private pilots lisence and see if you really like flying and i you really want to do it as a job or maybe just for fun. Dont worry about all that other stuff just yet