Archive for the ‘Real Life Flying’ Category
Step by Step to Flying
The initiative if you would like to get rolling with a career that requires flying a aircraft is to acquire a pilots license that enables you to fly as a private pilot. To place that in context, there are lesser pilot’s licenses such as the student’s license or the sports or recreational licenses but there are a lot of restrictions on those licenses. Whenever you would like to be able to fly in support of your business (just not as your business) or to be able to aviate with more or less freedom as part of your private life, a private airplane pilot license is a beneficial step and it has a natural opening move even if you plan to go on to train to become a commercial airplane pilot down the track.
Like any other certificate, the route to acquiring a private pilots license is fairly carved in stone. You’ll have to be in the correct age range because you can’t become a pilot if you’re younger than sixteen. With that simple necessity out of the way, the step by step method towards eventually realizing your ambition of having a private airplane pilot license is…
1. Research the flight schools in your country and be sure the one you utilise bears a good reputation, a well developed programme and equipment to support it and education staff that both knows how to fly and knows how to educate. Be sure the flight schools that make your cut are certifiable to provide airplane pilot training that will issue a FAA accredited pilot’s license.
2. Be sure your finances are in order because flight school will run between $3000 and $5000. There are scholarships available and you could be able to apply federal student loans through FAFSA if the school qualifies.
3. Enroll in flight school and clear up your agenda. Acquiring your airplane pilot license had better be your life’s passion for the following few months.
4. Acquire a medical examination certificate that’s particular to aviation. A full general health check is not enough so work with the school to find oneself a doctor who can help you pass the medical exam requirements to be able to fly.
5. Go through the ground training to be able to pass the written pilot’s license exam that is required by the FAA. These classes will take about four to five weeks to complete.
6. Take AND PASS the written exam required by the Federal Aviation Administration at any FAA testing center.
7. Work with the school to complete thirty to forty hours of required flight time with a certified instructor. You can move through his requirement at your own pace which means as fast as you can afford to get through it and schedule the time with the school and the instructor. The school will provide the airplane as that is part of the fees you paid.
8. Your next to last flying “exam” is a solo flight with no instructor on board.
9. For the final “big” exam, you will go on a flight with an FAA tester who is certified to validate that you know what you are doing in an airplane.
10. Don’t get nervous, you know what you are doing. Pass that final exam and you are home free to receive your private pilot’s license nice and legal.
You are going to learn a lot during this process. Don’t be fooled, it is a lot of new stuff to learn and you are basically learning an entirely new physical skill similar to when you learned to swim or ride a bike. So throw yourself into those test flights and get as comfortable controlling an airplane as you are driving a car.
You can do a lot not only to speed up the process but to cut costs by working hard on your own to conquer the skills you need to become a great private pilot. You can study the written the test on your own and complete the FAA test whenever you are ready. But once you have that license, you will be glad you worked hard to get through the process successfully so that from now on you can honestly say to people, “I am a pilot”.
