It is very much a worthwhile endeavor and a great
experience. The time required is often somewhat longer than
the minimum times listed in the regulations, often taking
50-100% longer and costing more money. There are many
things to learn and skills to develop and each student is
different.
Getting books and videos and studying before you begin the
flight portion will save money and time once you begin to
fly. Try to have the money available so you can fly at
least every other day [3-4 times per week]. Try to devote
this as a full-time schedule, don't mix up your time with a
family vacation, or start any new businesses, in other
words, focus on the flying.

There many obstacles, mostly time and money and more things
to learn every day that passes, as new regulations are
added, new navigation technologies develop. The weather is
always a factor in flying and that includes pilot training,
schedules are often hard to meet. It is possible to get a
private pilot certificate in as little as a month or so ,
but many people take a year or more because of time and
money issues. If you get the test passed in one season, you
won't have learned about the other three seasons yet. If
you learn to fly in Florida, you won't know about Kansas
winds or Colorado mountains.

If you want motivation to begin, get started. Get the
catalogs from Sporty's and Aircraft Spruce, join the AOPA
and the EAA. Go to Oshkosh for the national flying of the
EAA [July 24-30 this year]. Checkout the FAA website
http://www.faa.gov/ where you can download all the current
regulations and many text books at no cost. You can get a
PDA or laptop computer and save the cost of printing these
documents which are mostly PDF files.

Buy some commercial text books and get two copies of some of
them, keep one at home and carry one with you to work and
read it instead of the newspaper.

You will need a medical exam before you can solo, unless you
want to learn to fly gliders or get the new Sport Pilot
certificate as a stepping stone or even final goal. You can
find which doctors in your area are FAA DME [designated
medical examiners] by calling the nearest flight school or
looking on the Internet at the medical link on the FAA site,
or the AOPA.

www.aopa.org www.eaa.org www.aircraftspruce.com
www.sportys.com

Don't be concerned about whether the airplane is high wing
or low wing design, don't forget to have fun.


wrote in message
oups.com...
| I'm considering going in for a private pilot license. Just
wanted
| general feedback from anyone who has one or is considering
opting for
| one.
|
| Cheers
|