Todays Cost of getting a PPL

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have no money, and no time.

When I learned to fly, I had no time, and EXACTLY the amount of money
needed to get my PPL -- no more, no less. I actually drained my
savings account the same week that I took my checkride.

There was no money in the budget for flying. None. We flew when we
could based solely on bonus commission checks from my job, and
birthday/Christmas gifts. (My mom knew that all I wanted was "flight
time" for any gifts...)

That's exactly what I've told my family I want for Christmas and Birthday
presents from now on! LOL!
Oz/Crash Lander

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
news
One thing which helps is to accelerate your training. 90 hours over 2.5
years is 3 hours a month. It is hard to make much progress at that rate,
because you tend to forget things in that week or 10 days between lessons.

People make this comment all the time, and I'm sorry, but I don't
necessarily agree with it. I'm not going for my PPL, rather, I'm going for
my R.A. certificate, which is our (Australia) equivalent of the US Sport
class. Due to budget and family constraints, I cannot fly more than once a
week, and only on weekends. Some weekends the weather is bad all weekend, so
I don't get to fly. I've got 4.9 hours total now, which I know isn't much,
but I started back in September, and can say that I haven't experienced any
lessons that have required me to 're-learn' anything before progressing. My
instructor says I'm progressing very well, and she estimates I'll be solo in
about another 4-5 hours at the rate I'm going. With only 4.9 hours under my
belt, in 2 months, I've got 16 landings and 18 take offs in the bag!
Whilst I agree, some people may forget things in the gap between classes, I
haven't, and don't believe that 'most' people would. Maybe I'm just some
'natural flyer' but I seriously doubt it.
Oz/Crash Lander

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
news
Judah writes:

It's a rich man's hobby.

No it's not. It's a hobby for people who know how to manage the money they
have.
I'm married, with 2 kids. We have only 1 income, which is by no means large.
I pay rent, have personal load and credit card debt, and no, repeat NO
savings what-soever, yet I am still able to fly.
It's all about budgeting what resources you do have, and as long as you are
prepared to for-go a lesson should something urgent come up that demands the
funds be spent on it, anyone can do it.
Oz/Crash Lander

In article .com,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

When I learned to fly, I had no time, and EXACTLY the amount of money
needed to get my PPL -- no more, no less. I actually drained my
savings account the same week that I took my checkride.

"If you have the money and you have the time, do it!"
Richard Bach, A GIFT OF WINGS

I was reading the book at the time and that statement is what drove me
to start my lessons.

Mxsmanic wrote:
It seems that only about one in a thousand pilots are female.

Your claim is off by almost two orders of magnitude. You can find the
number of female pilots in the U.S. the same place you can find the total
number of pilots and the percentage that are instrument rated, another
question you asked less than a week ago.

If you had taken my advice then you would not now be posting incorrect
information. The correct information is easily found by going to the FAA's
web site and following the obvious links (i.e. clicking on the "Data and
Statistics" tab, and so on).

Since I knew where to look for the correct information and you didn't, are
you willing to concede that I am more intelligent and/or more experienced
than you and my advice be taken in the future?

Did you just make up your "one in a thousand" number? Where did you get
that number?

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...

I agree ... but just finding the money up front is difficult. And
young people are far less likely to have spare money than older
people.

This makes no sense to me. Pick any group of 30 'young people'. Guaranteed
at least 28 of them will have an iPod, a car with a stereo in it that cost
about $400 more than it's worth, $400 running shoes, the latest computer
with all the bells and whistles etc, etc.
Most young people have far too much disposable cash, which is half the
problem! They buy whatever they want, and have different priorities. They
have never learned to budget, and appreciate what money can buy them. If one
truly wants to fly, he can.
You make financial decisions every day. Do I buy the brand name ice cream,
or the generic brand ice cream. The generic brand may save a few cents, and
all those cents add up, but then you must ask yourself, "Do I really need
ice cream?".
For me? I'd gladly sacrifice ice cream and all the other little un-necessary
luxuries we take for granted if it will give me another hour in the sky.
How much was your flight simulator? About an hour in flight training I'd
guess! What about the computer system you run it on? Probably just under one
third of the cost of a PPL I'd reakon.
It's all about priorities and managing what you have.
Oz/Crash Lander

mike regish wrote:
Huh?

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...

Remember that most of the cost of getting your PPL is the cost of flying.
If you don't want to pay for flying, then why the hell are you getting a
PPL?

What Paul is saying corresponds with my attitude during training. If it
takes a few more hours to get my PPL, those are hours that I'm *flying*.
It's not like you can't start flying until after you pass the checkride -
I spent my dual time *flying*, which was the whole point of even starting
the training.

Granted, there are limits on how/where/when you can fly, and with whom,
until you pass -- which is a good reason to finish -- at least you're
flying. So one way to look at it is that the cost of the aircraft --
which would be the same whether dual, solo, or post-PPL -- doesn't count
as "cost of training" in the same way as instructor time, materials, fees,
and so forth.

.... Alan

--
Alan Gerber
PP-ASEL
gerber AT panix DOT com

I can tell you from personal experience, that leaving your jacket back at
the hotel and having to borrow one of the Blue Angels' flight jackets for a
Chamber of Commerce dinner worked damn well for me once. I can't remember
her name, but she was a "Miss somebody"
:-)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

You dawg, Dudley!

And you were giving *me* crap about flying to Tulsa?

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In a previous article, Alan Gerber said:
What Paul is saying corresponds with my attitude during training. If it
takes a few more hours to get my PPL, those are hours that I'm *flying*.
It's not like you can't start flying until after you pass the checkride -
I spent my dual time *flying*, which was the whole point of even starting
the training.

Exactly. Sure, you want to find aircraft that aren't too expensive to
fly so you get more hours for your AMU, but if it takes 75 hours instead
of 60, what's the problem? It's time flying, and that's what you want the
license for.

I've got to admit that sometimes when I was supposed to be training, I
would just go out flying for fun.


--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
To ensure privacy and data integrity this message has been encrypted
using dual rounds of ROT-13 encryption.

"Crash Lander" wrote in message
...
"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
news
One thing which helps is to accelerate your training. 90 hours over 2.5
years is 3 hours a month. It is hard to make much progress at that rate,
because you tend to forget things in that week or 10 days between
lessons.

People make this comment all the time, and I'm sorry, but I don't
necessarily agree with it. I'm not going for my PPL, rather, I'm going for
my R.A. certificate, which is our (Australia) equivalent of the US Sport
class. Due to budget and family constraints, I cannot fly more than once a
week, and only on weekends. Some weekends the weather is bad all weekend,
so I don't get to fly. I've got 4.9 hours total now, which I know isn't
much, but I started back in September, and can say that I haven't
experienced any lessons that have required me to 're-learn' anything
before progressing. My instructor says I'm progressing very well, and she
estimates I'll be solo in about another 4-5 hours at the rate I'm going.
With only 4.9 hours under my belt, in 2 months, I've got 16 landings and
18 take offs in the bag!
Whilst I agree, some people may forget things in the gap between classes,
I haven't, and don't believe that 'most' people would. Maybe I'm just some
'natural flyer' but I seriously doubt it.
Oz/Crash Lander

What you most likely forget is touch or feel. Back when you were a new
driver, did you ever go a week or maybe a month when you didn't get behind
the wheel? That was my situation in college - I didn't have a car, so I
could sometimes go for weeks or months between opportunities to drive. When
I did get back behind the wheel, it was obvious to me that my skills had
regressed and it took a couple of trips before I got "back in the groove".

The same thing applies to flying. You forget the subtle points and lose the
fine motor skills when you're away from it. If you're a new aviator, it
takes less time to lose "the touch". If you have more experience, it takes
longer before your touch diminishes, but I assure you, it does...

And maybe you are a natural flyer. Half the people in the world have above
average motor skills, after all. ;-)

Good luck with your training...

KB