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General Thoughts

As a new student, you will be asked to spend a considerable amount of money to acquire a Private Pilot License. In the neighborhood of $3,000 in todays prices.

It is with some trepidation that I attempt to answer that question, and I would preface what I
say below, with the statement that there are many excellent independent flight instructors, who can do an excellent and thorough job of turning you into a properly qualified pilot.

Many of these people I would have to say are among the “best of the best” and I have had some of them as my instructors. I am grateful for the knowledge they have imparted to me, often for free, sometimes in rotten weather, late at night, and under dangerous conditions.

That said, I will go on.

Whether you go through an approved school or work with an independent flight instructor, either way, you will get equivalent training. The cost and time however, will probably not be the same.

If I had it to do over again, and wanted to get things done in the quickest and least expensive manner possible, I think I would go to a Part 141 FAA Approved School as opposed to simply hiring a flight instructor to work myself through a private pilot rating.

Most flight schools in the typical small Fixed Base Operation (FBO) are NOT FAA approved Part 141 schools and the regulations are far less stringent as to how your flight instructor goes about preparing you for the flight and written tests.

In either case, I would be particularly careful of the flight instructor(s) I chose, and ask some rather probing questions BEFORE I started to spend money. In the final analysis, it is the instructor, not the school that will make the difference.

I would also try and get a good understanding as to what I hoped to accomplish and the time frame I expected to accomplish it and how much money I could devote to the task within the allotted time. Setting goals with your instructor will give you a way to measure your progress. If you don’t know where youare going, when you expect to get there, and what it will cost, means you are very likely lost (a not uncommon feeling among new students.).

I say this because, in my humble opinion, the typical small Fixed Base Operator (FBO) operation is not particularly well equipped to do anything but string out your lessons for any number of reasons most of which are unintentional, which have the net effect of costing you unnecessary dollars before you get your license.

National statistics show that the average private pilot turned out by a Part 141 school has 63 hours when they get their rating as opposed to 73 for similarly taught but non-approved schools. The schools have lower required flight hours as well, because of this. The minimum legal time is 35 hours in an approved school or 40 hours in a non approved school. The rest is what, in the real world, it takes to do the job.

Believe me. The FAA does not give away pilots licenses. You have to earn them with demonstrated knowledge. If the school program did not work, the FAA would never allow a reduction in anything required.

At $50/hour for a Cessna 150 even if you get the instruction for free, this adds up to $500 extra dollars spent to get the license. That says a lot.

My belief for this disparity is that the FAA has laid out the rules and requires an approved school to have a printed, bound curriculum, spelling out each and everything you do, which in effect is a checklist, and again, in my humble opinion, a very good thing, not only ecause it saves you money, but it ensures you get what you are paying for, which is very important to your long term safety.

You have a way to measure what you are receiving, and the flight instructor has a way of measuring your progress against a strict standard.

In the typical non approved school, you arrive at the airport, the flight instructor tells you what the lesson is all about, then you go out and fly. The instructor is usually paid for the time the propeller is turning so he is anxious to be in the air. If he is building time for an airline job, he has a second agenda that he is concerned with that is not directly your problem.

Often this turns into a sight seeing trip rather than directed instruction. In either event you pay the bill and come back for more lessons. This goes on, and sometimes on and on, until eventually you get to take the written and the flight test, but you never have a standard to measure your progress by, except to see how other fellow students are doing (about like you) so no one \ really is aware of the losses that are occuring, until, many years later, you have acquired enough knowledge / experience to reflect on a better way, but by then, it is too late. You have already paid the bill and there is no recourse.

The way to answer this specific question is to ask the owner of the business “Is your school a PART 141 Approved School?” . Then, if he says yes, VERIFY this answer with your local FAA Flight Standards District Office.(FSDO) in the phone book listed under United States Government. There is usually one at most large airports.

There are also a number of other factors which play into this disparity, such as a mandate for adequate training space and adequate flight training aids, all of which cost the school money and makes the school much more serious about giving you good value. Schools also tend to have better equipped airplanes and more of them, so you have a spare airplane available when one is down for maintenance. Your training does not have to stop.

Another factor that plays into the time required is your instructor. Many instructors are new at the game and while being excellent pilots, they may have a different agenda which can cost you a lot of money.

In particular, flight instructing has, for many pilots, been a stepping stone up on the ladder to an aviation career, which moves on to charter flight operations and and for some lucky ones, an airline career.

I would particularly recommend that you inquire of your instructor’s career plans, his flight time, and how he expects to be employed for the next two years (about twice as long as you think you will need him as an instructor). If it sounds like he will be off to the airlines or a better paying job before you complete your training, I would suggest you give serious consideration to interviewing other prospective instructors.

You are establishing a long term professional relationship, and it does you no good if the professional is “not available” for whatever reason.

When you lose your instructor, or have to change one in midstream, before you solo,

you are in an expensive predicament

And I will PROMISE you, no flight instructor will rely on what you may tell him, or your log book says, another flight instructor has taught you, when your life and (maybe more importantly to him, his pilot license, is on the line). The FAA holds instructors accountable for the actions of the students when they have an accident, get lost, violate some regulation, or other things that make them stand out from the crowd.

Also, in a situation which is “loose” it is not at all unheard of for a student’s scheduled lesson to be cancelled because the instructor (and oftentimes the only pilot) gets a better paying charter trip and you, the student, come in a distant second for his or her attention that day.

It is an unfortunate fact of economic life, that bills have to be paid and this rule seems to prevail, to the detriment of the student population in general because they are a captive audience.

For this reason, I would have a heart to heart talk with the instructor/school owner BEFORE you start your lessons and find out what their policy is regarding cancelling a student in favor of a charter flight.

I think, if you make it known in advance, that you expect to be present for your lesson and you expect your instructor to be present also, you will go a long way to deter this sort of rude behavior and disrespect for you. It happens all too often and it ends up costing you money, in many ways.

I also do not think you would be out of line, to

have an understanding

1. You would expect to pay for your lessons anyway if you have to cancel for some reason. ( He will like this. If you show up, you don’t cost yourself anything, you gain a lot because of the consistency, and he will think you are serious and give you better service because of it. Many people are not respectful of his time, cancel on short notice, and don’t pay for it. This makes it hard to pay bills. He has to live too.).

2. You expect your flight instructor to be available if you have scheduled a flight and you expect him to be there. Your time is just as valuable as his is and it should not be wasted without a really good reason. In my mind cancelling a student for a charter flight is not a good reason. I am sure there are people who would disagree.

3. You are going to go to another flight school if they cancel on you even once, for a charter flight.

While you represent $3000+ in potential income for this license, a lot more for future licenses, you may buy multiple airplanes after you learn to fly and he might sell them to you, and then there would be ongoing maintenance, fuel and oil, radio upgrades, etc. Do not be intimidated because you are a lowly student. Aviation needs you. Without new students, new planes don’t get sold, airlines don’t fly. You are a very important member of the brotherhood as well as the aviation foood chain

Now, I recognize that this is easier said than done, but having a polite discussion shows that that you recognize the problem and don’t want to be taken advantage of in that manner, that you will go a long way to avoiding the problem in the first place.

How does this delay cost you money?......Here’s how. When you are low on flight experience, you need steady reinforcement of your lessons. A delay of even a day means that you get rusty. It also may cause you lost time from work, or mean that you don’t have another opportunity to fly for several days, a week, or even a month in which time the problem of forgetting gets worse and worse and worse. Weather has a way of intervening and cancelling flights on top of this. So the problem compounds itself. Stay ahead of it and don’t let it happen.

The next time you fly, you end up reviewing things instead of learning new things, which you would have if your appointment had been kept. Over the period of getting a Private Pilot license, this adds up to many extra hours flown and dollars cost.

A school on the other hand, has a regular schedule, just like any other school. The instructor has been contracted for and he is expected to show up for work. There are also class groups, so you make new friends, get the learning experience and other things that are often lacking in a less formal environment.

I believe the school approach ends up saving you a lot of extra money.

Take your prospective flight instructor(s) to lunch. (He needs a good meal. The T-Shirts that say “Will Fly For Food” are not really a joke.) The information you get will be revealing and you will get your money’s worth. He probably won’t charge you for the time.
Let him sell you on the program.
Ask him some questions. You really want to be friends. This is a good opportunity to learn who he is. He is going to be a very important mentor in your flying career, perhaps the most important one. It is important that you know him well and know what he can teach you, and equally important, what he is not qualified to teach because this is sometimes not clear.
 

1. Ask him about his flight time and how old he is, when he learned to fly.

You will also learn a lot that will affect your learning curve and your safety and you will be better able to make an informed decision about where you will spend your money.
 

2. Ask him how long he has been a flight instructor.

The instructor’s license is not given out lightly. It is the only license that is originally given by an FAA Inspector rather than an FAA Designated Examiner. One is a Government Employee the other is a private contractor. There is a difference.

The newly minted flight instructors generally have a good comprehensive grasp of the rules and regulations and are technically sharp. They will also have a lot of enthusiasm for flying which is important.

The highly experienced person also has a depth of wisdom that is hard to create without getting the experience. There are many airline types that instruct just because they like to teach and they like to fly. When you find one they are worth listening to.

When you make your choice, you should try and pick from the best available to you.
 

3. Ask him how many hours he has had instructing.

4. Ask him what sort of ratings his students have gotten.

5. Learn if he is a “GOLD SEAL” instructor.

6. Ask about his career aspirations?

Does he plan on flying for the airlines or is he a teacher at heart?

It is important for you to know this because you do not want to lose your instructor before you are signed off for unlimited solo cross countries. If you do, your next instructor is going to have to spend a lot of time going over things you have already paid your first instructor to do because he is REQUIRED to give you the same instruction over by FAA Regulations.

This will cost you lots of extra, unnecessary, money.

Many flight instructors are time builders. Many are teachers who do it for the love of it.. Some have the minimum required flight time. Some have many thousands of hours. It is important to know who your mentor is going to be. So don't be afraid to ask. Then you know for certain..

You have a final choice in selecting this person. Make it the best choice you can because it will be important for a very long time.
 

7. Ask him about what it takes to get a Private License, how many hours, what he expects the cost to be (real cost).

8. Ask him what licenses he has, when he got them, how he got them.

Did he go to a school? Who were his teachers? Ask him how much instrument time he has. Is it real or simulated. There is a difference.

Listen to his stories about emergencies.

9. Ask to see his licenses. (After all, you are just a student. You don’t know what a pilot license looks like and you would like to know what it looks like.. It is also comforting to actually see it.)

(There are flight instructors and flight instructors. Not every one can legally teach you every skill you need to learn without the proper rating even though they may be perfectly qualified, otherwise to do the flying. Pay particular attention to the portions of a license that require a specially qualified instructors. Some of these certificates are scarce around the average small airport.

These are FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS. It is very aggravating to learn you have been taking expensive instruction from someone who cannot legally give it. Important special ratings to be aware of are a Certified Instrument Instructor for an instrument rating and a Multi Engine Instructor for a Multi Engine Rating. If you are flying “heavy iron” over 12,500 pounds, then the instructor must have a special “TYPE RATING” in addition to the relevant flight instructor certificate.).

(You will find that many things are taken on trust in aviation circles. You will also find that there is nothing like doing your own inspections and verifying important things yourself. Like making physically sure that you have sufficient oil in the airplane, your oil cap is fastened, you have sufficient fuel (I prefer full tanks) your gas cap is fastened and the door locked YOURSELF. If you are going to be a pilot , you need to start this habit early. It will contribute greatly to becoming an old pilot someday).
 

10 Ask him about the flight training. Where he got it. What he liked . Who was the best instructor he ever had. Why.

You will get some revealing insights into his training, his likes and dislikes and personal quirks.
 

11. Ask him about emergency procedures and what sort of training routine he follows. Let him talk and listen carefully.

Ask him how low he gets during a simulated emergency landing when it is not with an airport directly underneath. i.e. a place where a real emergency can occur.

(My suggestion is to try this question on several instructors. It is helpful to know how they feel about it. Some instructors have taken an airplane below tree level in a simulated emergency in a short field and found they couldn’t climb back out and ended up in an embarassing situation. )

I think the answers you get will be informative.

After you have had lunch, tell him you want to “think about it”.
 

QUESTIONS FOR THE FLIGHT SCHOOL OPERATOR.

Here are some other questions that I would ask and look for in the flight school or fixed base operator.
 

1. How many airplanes are available for instruction?

There should be at least 2. When one breaks having a spare means you don’t have to cancel your lesson, lose time, or get rusty while waiting to get it fixed. Sometimes this can be weeks waiting for a part. Delays of longer than a month are not unheard of.
 

2. Is there an Examiner on Staff?

The flight test takes a considerable amount of time. Some schools have an FAA Designated Examiner on the staff. Others don’t.

If you need to take a flight test and the nearest Examiner is 50- 100 miles away, then you are going to have to fly there to take the test. This is going to cost you, at the least, 2 extra flight hours ($100). If you get half way through and have mechanical problems, weather delays, or (heaven forbid) need to take the flight test over on another day, you are going to have to expend this same money a second time, or a third time, or more.

If the weather is marginal. i.e. good enough for VFR flight where you are to take a flight test, and you have an examiner on staff, then again, it means you can complete a flight test sooner (before you get rusty and need more training).

This factor is just one more reason I recommend a school. It is a lot easier to get the job done when you have all the equipment at hand.
 

3. Where is maintenance done?

If you can find a flight school that has it’s own shop, you will reduce the probability the plane will be down for maintenance when you want to fly.
 

4. Talk with other other pilots about how they feel about the quality of the maintenance done and who does it.

Quality of maintenance is very important to your safety, as well as your learning experience.

Talk to other pilots. I have seen airports where the pilots would fly miles away to have their maintenance done by someone else. I have seen maintenance so shoddy that it was unsafe. This is not good. The pilots will be aware of this and can cite chapter and verse their reasons.

Listen to them.
 

5. Talk with the mechanic who does the maintenance and make friends with him.

Start learning what to look for right away. Ask if you can come work with him sometime and help him do an annual inspection. You will learn your airplane well and maybe cut some costs. (You also might want to get a mechanics license eventually. Keep a log book. Get him to sign it evidencing things you have done. You will need this when you apply for approval to take the test.)

Make friends with the mechanic. Take him out to dinner. Make him part of your family. Make his worries your worries. Get to know his family.

It is important to your safety that he takes a VERY personal interest in your safety. (This personal interest has saved my life at least two times that I know of.)

He is poorly compensated for a difficult and little appreciated job which requires a great deal of technical training, years of study and where he is expected to work in difficult conditions, in an often cold and drafty hangar. if not outside.
 

He is

the most important link to aviation safety

Make him know he is appreciated. It can save your life.
 

6. How far away is the radio shop that performs radio maintenance?. Radio maintenance and aircraft maintenance are different operations, often performed at least in different locations on the airport, and sometimes on different airports as well.

Radios frequently fail, get out of calibration, or need either scheduled or unscheduled maintenance. If you have to fly 100 miles to get to a radio shop, this means you will spend at least a day or more with a down airplane, which costs you time and money.

If the airplane has to be left overnight or for a week, then it is not available for you to fly for a scheduled lesson. This causes you a delay in getting your pilots license.
 

7. How do the airplanes look? When did it have it’s last 100 hour or annual inspection?

Are they clean, well maintained, well maintained interior, and preferably (although probably not hangared). Unhangared airplanes collect more water in the gasoline and suffer more electronic problems with the radios due to being overheated from the sun.

A clean airplane is a safer airplane. It is easier to inspect on pre-flight. It is not supposed to have oil leaking from it. Oil attracts dirt. Dirt covers up other defects. It is SUPPOSED to be clean.

(It is a Federal Requirement that an airplane be washed and cleaned as part of a 100 hour or annual inspection. It is not always done.)

Compliance with little things is an indication of how the mechanic feels about the rules.

Look inside the engine cowling. Is it clean. Does it have oil leaks?. A properly maintained aircraft engine will have no oil leaks and be clean and dry to the touch. If it is leaking oil, it needs maintenance, and an engine bath at the very least. This can turn into a major problem on very short notice.

Feel along the leading edge of the propeller. Does it have nicks in it? Have they been properly filed out in a smooth rounded edge?. A nick in an airplane propeller is dangerous because it can quickly cause a propeller to have stress cracks and break. A broken propeller in flight can rip an engine right off the engine mounts. The airplane does not fly well if this happens.

Ask the mechanic to show you how a nick should be prepareed and what one that need maintenance looks like.

If the training airplanes are Cessnas with the red plastic fuel caps, take them both out and look at them closely. Are they cracked from the sun?....are the rubber gaskets secure and tight. These things leak water and water in the fuel can easily cause an accident. While most water will drain to the lowest point on the fuel system, sometimes rubber fuel cells have wrinkles in them which trap water. (You guessed it, often you don’t discover it until you have crossed the fence). An ounce of prevention with a cheaply replaced fuel cap is better than an unscheduled, off airport, landing any day.

Look at the engine intake air filters. Many of these filters are paper, especially on Mooney Aircraft. Flying will tear small holes in them. Flying in the rain will tear bigger holes in them. This lets in dirt which causes high wear on an engine. A tablespoon of dirt can ruin an engine and cause an engine overhaul.

If the shop does not carry these specialized filters, they tend to go longer periods between maintenance. While it is not likely they will cause an engine failure in themselves, they should be replaced whenever there are holes big enough to see.

Look at the rubber hoses. Are they old and cracked. Do they have worn places on them because of cables vibrating and starting to wear through them.

They are inexpensive to replace properly at the first notice of wear, so you should never see them. Unfortunately, people try to keep them going, sometimes too long.

When rubber hoses break, a few dollars in deferred maintenance can turn into an engine failure. When it happens over water in mountainous terrain or at night, you have a serious problem you may not be able to fix. Don’t allow them a chance to happen in the first place. Ever. Take this responsibility on yourself and be very particular about the airplane you fly, whether you are renting it, are riding in one owned by a friend, or your own.

The way these small items are maintained will tell you whole lot about the company you are dealing with. They cost relatively little to fix early and properly but they are easy to neglect. Are they properly maintained or are shortcuts taken?

This item by itself, is something you can do, very easily, with your own two eyes. It will save you time, money, and greatly enhance your safety.
 

9. Do they allow smoking in the airplanes.

Cigarette smoke is very damaging to aircraft gyroscopic instruments. It clogs up the gyro filters, make them run slower, and gums up the bearings so they slowly proceed to a point they are totally unreliable.

If you are going to use them for real instrument flight, you don’t want them giving you misleading information because it can kill you, very quickly, with little or no warning.

It is worh knowing if the airplane is smoked in.
 

10. When you get to the stage of actually flying, note if everything works. Radios, Gyros, Vacuum System, Lights, Stall Warning Indicator.

Everything is supposed to work on EVERY flight, unless it is placarded as inoperative and on a Minimum Equipment List as an approved item that may not work if properly placarded.

Many older, light aircraft do not even have a Minimum Equipment List, and it is not unheard of for flights to occur with inoperative equipment, even in violation of Federal Regulations.

Ask the flight school if they have a Minimum Equipment List available for every airplane they use. Look at it. Know what it says. Call the FAA and ask them what to do if one does not exist.

My suggestion is that you obey this rule very carefully. It is there for your protection. It is not worth cutting corners for and it is not worth getting a violation written up.
 

11. Look at the navigational equipment of the airplane you will be learning in. While it is not a requirement to learn in an IFR equipped airplane, I would suggest that it is money well spent if you do.

The airplane should have, in addition to all legally required equipment, an Artificial Horizon, Directional Gyro, Gyroscopic turn indicator. There should be two independent communication radios, two VOR navigational radios, an ADF, ILS and three light marker beacon receiver. And a transponder.

Now, many airplanes have global positioning system equipment which is icing on the cake.

We live in a different world now, than when I started to learn 39 years ago. Almost all of the airspace is radar controlled. Two way communication is required if you are going almost anywhere.

Having the proper equipment on board, means you have more time to learn how to use it, what it does, and to practice with it.

You will be able to proceed to an instrument rating sooner.

I believe it is also safer. If you know how to use your radios, you are less likely to get lost and you have backup systems if something fails.

Most well equipped flight schools now have instrument equipped aircraft. Not all do. Not all airplanes are fully instrument equipped. You pay a small premium for the use of the complete package.

Unless it really wrecks your budget, I would suggest that you pay the price.

Now that you have completed a preliminary interview, I would suggest you go to another flight instructor and another flight school and do it again, even if you have to drive to another nearby city.

After a couple of rounds of this I believe you will be an informed and knowledgeable consumer and will have a better idea of what you are buying, what to expect, what to look for.