On 24 Nov 2004 13:03:52 -0800, (Rob) wrote:

If you've gotten this far, thank you for following my ramblings. I
know it's a little much, but if you wouldn't mind taking some time to
answer my questions and give me some advice on how to approach flight
training, I would sure appreciate it.


If I were you I'd work toward my Sport Pilot certificate first. This
will allow you to see how you accept instruction and give you the
basics on how to fly an airplane. As a substitute, work toward solo
only as a goal (Doing this may free you up to choose from more flight
schools). After you solo, work toward the written. Most of the time
I tell people to deal with the written last for various reasons, but
given your learning situation I think it would be good to do it
earlier (you can build solo time and get more comfortable in the
airplane and enjoy yourself a little hear too - kind of a reward).
Once the written is passed, if all is still going well, continue on to
your intermediate and final stages of flight training.

Reason why I think this is a good approach:

You will see if you actually can fly and handle emergencies first. If
you cannot, or don't like the process you can stop, but no one can
take away the fact you flew. Getting to solo should give you a good
base for judgement and won't waste all your money.

Taking the written in the middle will give you more time to study for
the written. Don't stop flying, but focus on the written, and have
fun in the airplane. This would be a good time to get good at the
flight maneuvers and stalls, etc... If you have a problem with the
written material, you can either spend more time trying to fix it, or
stop. Again - you flew- and no one can take that away from you. Also
it will keep the most expensive part of the training until the end,
which saves you money if you decide to stop.

With the written and solo out of the way you're ready to finish up.
If you've made it this far, all that's left is time and money.
Finding checkpoints may be frustrating, but I think it will be minute
compared to what you've already accomplished in the training process,
and hopefully by now you've learned a little bit about patience
(probably in the landing phase of the training ).


Above is for going for the Private. If you chose the Sport Pilot
route, do the written and flying as much together as possible. Its
requires less training and you don't want to hold up progress while
studying the ground stuff. If you go for the Private after the Sport,
you will need to take an additional written (one for Sport and one for
Private) and an additional flight test. A decision you need to
determine if its worth it or not.

Depending on where you live save up between 6 and 8 thousand dollars
for a Private pilot's certificate, and a little less than half for a
Sport.

Hope this helps, and good luck to you.

z