2strokes

Hello folks,

I have a full time and have begun my PPL training at a local club 4 years ago. I initially booked 1 - 2 flying lessons a week with a CFI. Weather conditions often meant that I would fly 3-4 times in a given month.

After about 7 months at this pace and about 45 hrs on my clock I was endorsed for solo. Over the following 8 months I went on to log 5 hours of solo and began cross country training. I was able to log about 10 hours of CC before adverse financial circumstances lead me to interrupt my training.

About 2 years later I resumed my training. Passed my written exam, logged another 10 hours with my CFI, saw my solo endorsement renewed and went on to train for CC again.

I now have 80hrs of flying and can't seem to see my PPL in sight, especially with winter around the corner, meaning less opportunity to fly. I fly in the San Francisco Bay Area, arguably not the easiest place to learn.

I would like to get your advice on the best way forward. I am considering taking a couple weeks off to go train full time in a place with more clement conditions. Once my PPL obtained, my plan is to fly recreationally, and take occasional lessons to improve specific skills.

Thanks for your help

2strokes

Read: " I have a full time JOB"

rcfd13

Flying only once a week or less is why your PPL has taken so long. Try to find the time to fly at least 2 and ideally 3+ times per week and with your hours you'll get your PPL done in hardly any time. It ends up costing a lot more money to fly once a week than it does to fly 3-5 times per week in the long run as you've seen.

I was busy when I did my PPL training too. There's nothing wrong with flying at night. I was flying at 6pm most days after school or work. In the winters that meant logging lots of night time. It's still entirely possible to get it done and you can use your weekends or days off for solo flights and your checkride.

Cubdriver

The ideal learning rate for most people is minimum 2 lessons per week and indeed you are violating the basic learning rate principle the way you are presently doing it. You may be a normal learner but you are throwing water on it with all those gaps. 3 lessons per week is better, more is overkill for most people. If you take less than 2 lessons a week you are barely retaining what you had, if not losing it. There is a momentum that gets established not only for you but for your instructor who may forget where your skills are.

There are several "pilot mills" offering rapid PPL training, I suggest you save up some cash and buy one of those courses. AllATPs, Sheebles, American Flyers, there are a bunch of these schools. The general idea is you go where they are for a week or two and leave your other life behind. When I have had conflicts in the past with long job hours and my flight training, I have made use of fast courses. The way to do it is to save up the money while you study using a self administered program for the written exam. Take the written, then schedule your flight work during your vacation. These courses are best viewed as concentrated finishing courses, so you should go to it up on your knowledge and ready to knock it out quickly. Showing up cool will make you end up having to buy extra hours at a steep rate.

MALB

ATP no longer offers just a PPL, only "singles" offered are Instrument, Multi-Engine add-on and CFI (be it FOI, FII, MEI).

2strokes

Thank you for the feedback and recommendations.

Weather has been the biggest issue in increasing the # of flight/week. I now typically book 2-3 flights / week, but 1-2/week get cancelled due to poor weather. A full time job means I cannot jump into a plane as soon as the skies are clear.

It seems like a good approach would be to try and get a custom finish-up plan for my PPL with one of the "pilot mills" you are suggesting. American Flyers seems to offer such option, while others to MALB's point only have add-ons.
Do you guys have any recommendations?

Until I am able to take a week off to go to a "pilot mill" it might make sense to continue my current training, to at least maintain my skills.

On the topic of skills, it feels that a lot of my instructor feedback boils down to "It's not good enough, you need to practice more" which while it might be true does no point to specific ways to address my shortcomings.
Do you have any suggestions for a more targeted and focused training?

Thanks again for your advice

Timbo

First off, you instructor is a tool, get a new one, who can tell you exactly WHY 'it's not good enough', and tell you how to fix it.

Second, so you spring $$$$ for a Pilot Mill, and you take a week off work, thinking you will fly every day....but then the weather is crap for that week and you don't fly at all... Then what?

Third, what do you do after work and on the weekends? THAT's when you need to be at your local airport getting this done. You can fly more than once per day, yes? Fly after work and if the weather is good on Saturday, fly 3 times, and twice on Sunday or make that your cross country day.

If you want it bad enough, you can do anything, but you will have to put other after work and weekend activities on hold until you finish up. Once you get your PPL you can start taking your friends up for sight seeing rides and making them help pay for the airplane so you can fly and build time and experience.

Cubdriver

AOPA has a list of flight schools, I am not sure where you are but if you run a thread asking for a "good flight school near (Kalamazoo)" you might get a good response from people here. The other poster said why go to a pilot mill like American Flyers if the weather can be crap during your stay, and if you choose a local school that may be true depending on where you are. This is why a lot of pilot mills have locations in Texas, Florida, So California and other sun zones. Go there.

Well I agree your instructor should do better than just say not good enough, but you may also be doing things that point to a lack of practice rather than any one bad habit you need to break. Sounds like that is the case, and I have had many students do the same thing usually for the same reason (too much work). They expect to make progress developing a difficult set of skills with 1-2 hours a week, not gonna happen. I am not sure I would even bother doing it at that ineffective rate, save some money and go to the pilot mill in sunny TX or wherever it is on your next vacation.

The subject of what to do with students who like flying but cannot devote the time to pass comes up occasionally. I discourage them from doing this. They usually get their solo signoff and want to fly around the patch or local airport indefinitely while developing all sorts of bad habits making no progress towards anything. They like the thrill of being half way there without the stress of actually getting there. It's a pitfall, don't do it. Any instructor who allows frivolous soloing without flight-by-flight targeting of student performance goals is wasting your time, even if they will allow it (and many do). There is no such thing as a perpetual student pilot, and the misuse of a solo signoff to allow screwing around by the student is just that, a misuse of the privilege.

JETUPANDGO

Don't get caught up in the amount of hours you have, especially as someone who envisions the goal of flying recreationally. Since you are not a professional student in perfect geographic area, I feel that 100 hours or more is about right. I have been involved in a 141 school out of Teterboro,NJ. Your surrounding airspace and weather is not exactly the same as TEB, but similar. TEB may be slightly less conducive to blowing through your PPL then San Fran. Even though 141 says that a student could have been eligible for a PPL with 35 hours, it was very unrealistic in our part of the world. Our students with a similar lifestyle to yours averaged 80-100 hours easily. Like others have said, the more you fly the quicker you will finish, but don't get caught up in the rush to finish. Especially for a someone who will be flying recreationally, treat the process of learning to fly as a journey. Good luck.

rickair7777

Go to AZ. Or FL in the winter. SOCAL in the late summer/early fall is a safe bet too.

Clear skies exist if you're willing to travel.

I agree your instructor should probably give more detailed feedback than "you need to practice more", but he's probably right...you need to practice more often.