Learning to fly is a major decision which
should be entered into advisedly. Let's face it: Learning to fly is not
cheap and you want to be assured that you will be getting maximum VALUE
and QUALITY for your money. And since we are talking about money, the
first thing you should be settled on is that there are some things in
life that you SHOULD NOT be looking for the cheapest deal! This is
especially true when you are choosing the right
flight instructor or
flight school. Again, you want MAXIMUM VALUE and MAXIMUM QUALITY to
ensure that you complete your training in the most cost and time
efficient way possible and complete your training knowing that you have
been trained to be a safe and proficient pilot. This post (and the ones
to follow) is designed to help you arrive at an informed choice and to
also let you know exactly what you should expect when it comes to your
pilot training.
The first step in this process is for you to ask yourself: "Why do I
want to learn to fly?" The answer to this question will help you and
your flight school of choice to guide you in the right direction and
make some basic decisions to help you arrive at your ultimate goal in
the most efficient way possible. Some people want to learn to fly
airplanes professionally as an airline pilot or a charter aircraft
pilot, etc. Others want to learn to fly airplanes for business purposes,
such as sales people with large territories, business owners with
multiple locations, people who want to fly for personal transportation
and folks who just want to fly locally for the fun of it. What ever YOUR
reason for wanting to learn to fly airplanes, you should let your flight
school and/or flight instructor know exactly what your goals are, as
this can and will affect how your training is conducted. A good example
of this would be the person who just wants to fly locally for the fun of
it verses the business owner with multiple locations throughout the US.
The business person will want and need to fly long distances in higher
performance aircraft and sometimes fly in less-than-perfect weather.
This calls for an emphasis on advanced avionics, an
instrument rating, a high performance endorsement and quite possibly
some additional flight time with a qualified instructor pilot to satisfy
some insurance requirements. The guy who is happy to just "fly around
the patch" on the weekends would simply need a Sport Pilot, Recreational
Pilot or a Private Pilot License.
