Crash Course for Private Pilot! Please help...

"Gen" wrote in message
m...
So I want to be a pilot!
After a bit of googling it seems 40-60 hours of training is needed to
obtain Private Pilot's Certificate. I have about two weeks vacation in
July.
---------
QUESTIONs:
---------
1) Is it possible to take lessons 5 hours a day and become a private
pilot in time frame of 2 weeks or so?
2) If not what's the fastest pace you would recommend?
I am an engineer and am confident of clearing the written exam.
However I need your advice/comments about the actual flying.
Thanks in advance,
Gen

I'm an engineer myself and found the written and oral exams to be relatively
easy. All you have to do is regurgitate the facts from a book written on
about a10th grade level. So, you're right, you should be fine on that
front.

On the practical front, I think a two week window is a bit aggressive for
initial flight training. Particularly on the first 10-20 hours, you won't
get a whole lot from flying more than a couple of one hour lessons a day. I
would make an analogy between learning to fly (especially how to take off,
land, and establish the other basic flying skills) to learning to drive a
car with a stick shift. Learning to drive a stick shift is best
accomplished a few minutes at a time, beginning in wide open parking lots
where the only thing you're going to harm is the powertrain of the vehicle
you're driving. Beyond maybe a half hour lesson on a stickshift, you're
probably frustrated enough and mentally overwhelmed enough that more time
simply wouldn't help. Same thing with flying. By the time you attempt and
botch your first 10 landings on a particular day, immediately shooting 20
more landings simply won't help. Better to land, take a several hour break,
and try again.

I'd say you might do OK with 2 one hour long lessons a day for the first
week, then evolve into more flying as you get the basics mastered. Getting
it all done in two weeks just ain't gonna happen.

Depending on where you plan on doing the training, the summer may not be
ideal for lengthy training days anyway. Little airplanes get hot in the
summer, particularly at low altitudes where most of the training takes
place. Add a little turbulence and poor visibility due to haze, and you'll
find that flying in the hot part of a summer day isn't conducive to a great
learning experience.

By the way, I completed my pilot training in about a 3 month period during a
Georgia summer...

KB