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Here are the answers to the questions we're most
frequently asked about learning to fly. While they
will not answer all your questions, they should point you in the
right direction--up! For more complete answers, and answers to
other questions, contact us. Before long,
you'll be buzzing over the traffic and smiling to
yourself...because you'll be a pilot.
How long does it take to learn to fly?
Learning to fly is not difficult, but it does requires study and
practice. Federal Aviation Regulation Part 61 itemizes the
things you must learn and requires a minimum of 40 hours of
training (20 with an instructor and 20 solo) to earn a private
pilot certificate. Few people complete their training in the
minimum time, however. The national average is slightly
over 60 hours.
How long it will take you
depends mainly on how often you fly. If
you do anything every day, you'll learn it quicker than doing it
once or twice a week because you won't have to
"re-learn" what you "forgot" between lessons.
If you fly every day, or at least several times a week, you may earn your certificate
in 40-45 hours flown over one or two months. If you can fly
only once a week or less, it will probably take you closer to
50-60 hours flown over several months to
earn your private ticket. How much does it
cost to learn to fly?
Your flight training is billed on an hourly basis.
You pay separately for the airplane rental and for your
instructor's time. Thus, the total cost will vary,
depending on the number of hours of flying and instruction you
need. Most new pilots will spend between $4,600 and $7,000
on their flight training. For a more complete explanation
of the costs of earning your pilot certificate with Lone Star
Flyers, see
the Private Pilot Certificate page.
What is ground school?
Learning to fly is divided into two parts, ground training and
flight training. Your ground training teaches you the principles,
procedures, and regulations you will put into practice in an
airplane-- such as how a wing generates lift, how to navigate from one
airport to another, and in what kind of weather you can fly. Before
you can earn a pilot certificate, you must pass a computerized
FAA knowledge test (with a score of at least 70 percent) on this
information. Ground training used to be (and sometimes
still is) taught as a classroom course
over several weeks. But the more modern approach that Lone
Star Flyers uses a computer-based instruction kit that is
both an entertaining and easy to use ground
training course on CD-ROMs that you can work at your own pace, in
the comfort of your home or office. Each lesson includes
full-motion video instruction, interactive quizzes, and an
in-cockpit video preview of the corresponding flight in your
course syllabus--helping to make your flight training as
effective and cost-efficient as possible.
When will I actually begin flying?
You'll be flying on your first lesson, with your CFI's help, of
course. With each lesson, your CFI will be helping less, until
you won't need any help at all. When you reach this point, you
will make your first solo flight, an important milestone in
every pilot's training. After you solo, you and your CFI will
work on such things as flying cross-country (that is, to an
airport at least 50 miles away). And when you're
ready, you'll make at least two solo cross-country flights. When you
are able to consistently demonstrate all
of the FAA-required skills, your instructor will recommend you
for the FAA checkride.
How long does a flight lesson last?
While most lessons are based on a 1.2- to 1.5-hour flight, they
will usually take about 2
hours from start to finish, because there's more to it than
flying. You'll spend about 10-15 minutes before the flight
checking your aircraft inside and out for safety. There are
also pre- and post-flight discussions, where you
and your certificated flight instructor (CFI) talk about what
you're going to do, how you did, what you did well, what needs
work, and what you'll do on your next lesson.
Will I get airsick?
Probably not, but it's possible. Just as most people do
not become motion sick when they are driving a car (even if they
are prone to motion sickness as a passenger), most pilots do not
experience airsickness when they are controlling the
airplane.
If you do become airsick, it will most likely come early in training,
when you're getting used to the new sensations of flying. The
important thing is to not worry about it. In most cases, if you
are affected, it will quickly pass as you get comfortable.
Let
your instructor know how you feel, look out the window, and open
an air vent or window.
What is the checkride like?
The FAA checkride (which is actually called a "practical
test") is broken down into two parts, an oral quiz,
where the examiner will ask about knowledge you learned in ground
school, and the flight test, where you will demonstrate your
ability to perform the skills you have learned in the aircraft.
The test is given by an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner: a
highly experienced pilot, usually with tens of thousands of
hours of experience, whom the FAA has authorized to give
checkrides. But don't be intimidated. The examiner isn't out to fail
you--in fact, unless you give the examiner reason to think
otherwise, he or she assumes you are qualified, or else we would not have recommended you for the test.
The examiner wants to ensure, just as your instructor did, that you
are a safe pilot. And although it's not the examiner's job
to teach you, you can't help but learn something useful from
flying with a pilot of that caliber.
How safe is it?
General aviation is as safe as any other mode of travel, if not
safer. Although there are potentially more risks in flying
than, say, driving, those risks are also more subject to your
own control. In other
words, flying is as safe as you make it. The Cessna 172
Skyhawk, which we use for all of our training, is statistically
the safest and most reliable general aviation airplane ever
built, with multiple redundant systems and very forgiving
handling characteristics. How to fly safely, and
to deal with the rare emergencies that are beyond the pilot's
influence, will be covered in your training. The number one
safety question among new pilots and passengers is, "what
happens if the engine stops?" First, modern aircraft
engines are incredibly reliable: if one quits, the most
common cause is because the pilot let it run out of fuel.
And even if the engine does stop, you'll probably be surprised
to learn that airplanes (and helicopters, for that matter) do not
just fall out of the sky. An aircraft without an engine, even if it's supposed to
have one, is a glider. In fact, the Cessna Skyhawk SP can
glide about 10 miles from a typical cruising altitude,
and stay aloft for almost 10 minutes--plenty of time to find a
road or field on which to land.
What kinds of pilot certificates are there?
Student pilot certificates are
good for 24 months; all the others do not expire. Once you earn a private certificate, you can move up the
ladder, if you so desire, to a commercial certificate, which
enables you to fly for hire. A flight instructor certificate
enables you to teach others to fly, and an airline transport
pilot certificate is needed to captain an airliner. You can add
a number of ratings to these certificates that let you fly
airplanes, seaplanes, gliders, helicopters, and balloons,
airplanes with more than one engine, and on instruments in bad
weather.
Can I carry passengers?
Yes, after you have earned your private pilot certificate.
You may even share the expenses of a flight with your passengers
(as long as you pay your share), but you may not
charge people for flying them someplace. While you're a
student pilot, you cannot carry passengers (other than your
CFI). Pilots must have a
commercial certificate and fly for an air taxi operation or
other commercial operator to get
paid for transporting people. Where can I fly?
Private pilots can
basically fly anywhere they want, so long as they follow the
applicable regulations, such as calling the control tower to
request a landing clearance or obtaining clearance to enter very
busy airspace like that around major airports. While
you're a student pilot, your CFI must approve your flights, so
you can
basically fly anywhere your instructor says you can. The
good news is that there are more than 12,000 airports in the United
States alone--many in small towns, parks and resort areas that
you couldn't reach directly by airliner--so you're unlikely to
run out of new and exciting destinations.
How do I get from one airport
to another?
Learning how to navigate from one airport to
another will be part of your training, and you'll put this
knowledge into
practice on cross-country flights with and without your instructor.
You'll
first learn pilotage, where you look out the window and compare
the landmarks you see on the ground to an aeronautical chart, and dead
reckoning (short for "deduced reckoning"), which is flying
a compass heading that has been corrected for such things as the
wind for a certain time at a certain speed.
In addition to pilotage and dead reckoning, there are several forms of radio
navigation. You'll learn how to navigate with VORs, which
are Very high frequency Omnidirectional radio Ranges. Located across the nation, VORs
transmit radio beams or "radials" for each point on
the compass, which are selected and indicated on a cockpit dial.
Certain radials connect one VOR to another and create
"highways" in the sky. You'll also learn how to navigate with an automatic direction finder
(ADF), which has a needle that always points to the selected
station, and the global positioning system (GPS), which
uses satellites rather than ground-based radio stations.
What about the medical exam?
Your student pilot certificate is also your medical certificate.
This dual-purpose piece of paper is good for 24 or 36 months
(depending on your age at the time of the exam), and you
get it from an aviation medical examiner (AME), an FAA-approved
doctor. There are approximately 6,000 AMEs in the United States,
and we can connect you with one close to you.
You will need your student/medical certificate before you can
fly an airplane solo, but it's a good idea to get it early
in your training, especially if you think you may have
a medical condition that may delay its issuance.
The exam is not rigorous. It begins by filling out an FAA
application/medical history form. Don't omit information when
completing this form. Just like your mother, the FAA doesn't
look kindly on people who lie, deceive, or don't tell the whole
truth--especially when it comes to a conviction for driving
under the influence. Medically, your vision must be at least
20/40 with glasses or contacts (20/20 for a first or second
class medical, which is needed to fly for hire),
and you must be able to see red and green. You shouldn't have a
nose or throat condition that would be aggravated by flying, you
must have proper balance, and you must be able to hear a
conversational voice from 6 feet. You can't have any
mental/neurological problems, such as psychosis, alcoholism,
drug abuse, epilepsy, any unexplained loss of consciousness, any serious
medical condition such as heart attack or chronic heart disease,
uncontrolled diabetes mellitus, or any other debilitating illness.
If you do have a problem, it's not the end of your flying
career. Depending on the problem, your medical certificate may be deferred until further testing is done. Your AME will be able
to help you in such cases, and if you and your AME can prove to
the FAA that your condition will not make you unsafe to pilot an
airplane, there's a good chance you'll get your medical. If you
have a condition that automatically disqualifies you, such as
chronic alcoholism, history of heart disease, or loss of
consciousness, you can still petition the FAA for special
issuance of your medical.
What's the difference between Part 61 and
141?
Whether you train under Part 141 or Part 61, you'll learn the
same things and take the same FAA tests. The only real
difference will be the order in which you learn things. Part 141
schools, which are designed mainly for students who train full
time and fly every day, must use a structured curriculum that teaches skills in
a specific order. Instructors may not deviate from the
curriculum. In contrast, Part 61 instructors (such as Lone
Star Flyers) are not bound to a structured curriculum,
and can rearrange the order
in which you learn things to suit your schedule and style of
learning. This approach is especially beneficial to
those who can fly only on weekends and evenings a few times a
week. Once I get my
certificate, what can I do with it?
This is a question you should, perhaps, answer before you start
learning to fly because it may have some bearing on the training
you need. Flying offers a wealth of opportunities from which to
choose. Of course, you can make local
sightseeing flights with friends and family on sunny afternoons,
visiting nearby airports and making new friends. You can travel to more distant airports for
vacations or business trips. Being able to fly your own
airplane often makes it possible to turn what might otherwise be
a full day of travel (drive to a large airport, park your car,
wait to check baggage, go through security, wait at the gate,
fly, wait for a connecting flight, fly, wait for your luggage,
rent a car, drive to your destination) into a shorter and more
pleasant experience. Because of the huge number of local,
small airports, you can often land very close to your
destination, instead of flying to a big city and then driving
for several hours. And there are no long lines at ticket
counters, security checkpoints and baggage claims to worry
about. If you're more adventurous, you
can also learn to fly aerobatics for fun or competition, build
and fly your own plane, or restore and fly antique/classic
aircraft. If you're an outdoors person, you can reach out-of-the-way
locations by learning to fly tailwheel airplanes (which are
often better suited to rough landing strips), floatplanes, or airplanes on skis. You can also fly for the good of society.
There is the Civil Air Patrol,
which conducts domestic search and rescue operations as well as
aerospace education, and a growing number of humanitarian flight organizations
like Angel
Flight that provide transportation to people in need of non-critical
medical treatment (the Air Care
Alliance is the
umbrella organization for these different groups). These
activities are just a few of flying's many possibilities. Will I
need my own airplane after I get my certificate?
Not necessarily. If you wish, you can continue to rent airplanes
on an hourly basis when you want to go
flying. The same Cessna Skyhawk 172SP that you trained in
makes a great cross-country aircraft. As during your
training, you pay only for your flying time. You can even
fly somewhere and keep the airplane overnight for two or more
days, although a daily minimum number of rental hours may apply. If
you find that you're flying very frequently, however--some
people use at least 120 hours a year as a good rule of thumb--or
that your flying needs dictate a particular type of airplane
that's not readily available for rent, then buying your own
airplane may make sense. Airplanes are available in all
price ranges, as low as $30,000 or so for a used two-seater and
up from there.
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