I don't know if it's a good sign for aviation or not, but within the last month I've had a couple of friends mention to me that they were interested in learning to fly. And in both cases, I'm a little chagrined to admit, my first reaction was concern for their health. Their financial health.
One of the people was a new acquaintance, though as the longtime friend of a close friend and colleague of mine, I'd already heard a lot about him. When we met while out for a festive group dinner recently, I got to talking with him. My first impression was, he was every bit as great a guy as I'd been led to believe. He was smart, funny and quick on his feet. And listening to him talk about his professional life in educational support, I was impressed by his knowledge of his field and experience. He was an impressive guy.
And he comes from an aviation family. His father, like mine, was a military pilot--though a generation-and-a-half removed, so think afterburners instead of alcohol injection--and he grew up listening to stories about flying, as I did.
And my first reaction was . . . to warn him.
But I didn't.
And here's why.
First off, my concern was largely, though not completely, over his financial health. Learning to fly costs a lot. Thousands of dollars. And there's no way around that. As those of us who owned or have owned airplanes know all too well, having your own airplane is a great thing, but it can be a financial challenge, even for high earners, as those of you who've read Dick Karl's recent ruminations on the coming need for new engines in his Cheyennes have read.
But there's more. There's the challenge of staying current, the risk involved when you go off on your own as a new pilot--the learning to fly part is extremely safe--and the ongoing, lifelong issue of medical certification. There are no two ways about it: Flying is a big commitment, and when someone mentions to me that they're interested in learning to fly, it's like a young person mentioning that they want to start a family. My first reactions are, one, that they probably don't know enough about what they're thinking of getting themselves into and, two, that it's going to cost a lot more than they think it is. (Braces and college are two new spreadsheet items for our family this year.)
But before I started in on warning my new friend about flying, I caught myself. I listened to what he was saying, that it had always been something he'd wanted to do for a long time, that it was something that he'd been seriously thinking about for the past few years, and that he'd already started looking into it at the airport near where he lives.
As I said, he's a smart guy. He'll figure out soon enough that flying's not free. And by the time he gets his certificate, if indeed he goes that far, he'll probably already have some good ideas about how to keep flying. If he doesn't buy an airplane, maybe he'll rent, maybe he'll join a club, and maybe he'll get into a partnership. There are a few good ways to do it. I trust that he’ll figure it out.
And if he winds up only taking a few lessons, well, there’s a lot to be said for at least doing that. There’s are many lessons to be learned in those first few hours.
So what did I actually say when he was done telling me about his dream?
"Sounds great. I can't wait to hear how it goes."
I really can't.
Comments (14)
Post a comment
All Comments
Submitted by InvestmentTeacher on January 05, 2010.
The idea of flying is indeed an expense in both time and money. Many hours on the kitchen table studying charts, weight and balence,the E6B for the answers you need. Lets not forget the time going to formal classes at the airport or at a college, to continue your ground school studies, for the written exam.
Then your first flight instruction, and the studying that is needed to understand all that is needed to keep both you and the airplane in good flying condition. Two questions need to be asked and answered. Can I hurt myself doing this, and can I break an airplane? You will be told yes to both of these questions, and all the instruction you receive is to prevent you, the new pilot from hurting yourself or hurting the airplane. Both your friend and his aircraft have limitations. His limitations are physical, and the aircraft limitations are structural.
Much of the instruction is to learn procedures, and good safety habits (like not flying beyond your training, or experience) and becoming a statistic. The harder your friend studies the more confident he will be, and a more skilled pilot he will be.
Sometimes when money was an issue, I would pay for a half an our of flight time and do five touch and goes for the practice of ground reference, communications and traffic avoidence procedures (money well spent).
Your friend can do a flight introduction that many flight schools provide, and get to know the instructors and pricing. I like the" pay as you go rate" with gas included (wet rate). He needs to have the time and money for at least two hours of flight time a week. Any less flight time requires the student to spend money relearning what was forgotten.
His first solo, and cross country will make all the time and money invested worth while. Later he might get his commercial, instrument rating or become a certified flight instructor if he likes teaching others.
I continued on and learned to fly tail-draggers for the purpose of competing in aerobatics. I would encourge him to do so if he wishes some day. The IAC, International Aerobatic Club is a great place to get started...Good Flying.
Bruce Cortez
Submitted by Recordo on January 06, 2010.
Endangered species generate more interest than, say, mule deer or squirrels because of an ancient human instinct that basically says "I want to get some before they're all gone."
GA is endangered, everyone knows that. It's a tradeable commodity on the media table which is why the 19-car pileup on an LA freeway doesn't cause a ruffle, but any aviation mishap is immediate news. Between the TSA's metastasis and the spreadsheets for carbon trading and Alqaida's PR campaign, aviation as we know it has a short shelf-life. Eventually the military will fly American's Dreamliners, and American knows it.
I wouldn't hesitate to encourage friends and acquaintances to learn to fly any more than buying a power mower. If Joe the Dentist can afford a Cirrus, go for it--your life will be better for learning to fly. But don't count on keeping the privilege.
Submitted by skymachines on January 07, 2010.
There are definitely ways to keep the cost of learning to fly down. One is to stop now with a Light Sport certificate and add a Private cert. later. Another is to buy an older airplane for around $25,000, learn to fly it, then sell it right afterwards...but then you have to become a renter. Flying clubs, if available, are another. The best way to keep overall costs down is to go to an accelerated program and get it all done in 2-3 weeks. But, no matter how you slice it, it's going to cost about $6500 for a light sport cert and $9000-$10,000 for a private cert.
Submitted by Skyhawk29 on January 07, 2010.
I think your friend would benefit most by starting with the Sport rating to see if he likes it and if his preferred style of flying and learning is not hampered by the limitations of that rating. He will get an idea of the amount of commitment of time and resources involved, and he can step up to higher ratings later on. For the kind of flying I do...low and slow...kinda like Lane Wallace writes about, being a Sport Pilot satisfies my needs and desires. And although I am middle aged and healthy, I did not want a possible failed flight physical to ground me. So essentially, it would depend what his goals are.
Submitted by Bigbaddad on January 07, 2010.
Always be honest and encouraging. Flying is a passion for most pilots and without a genuine passion the requirements of hard work, discipline, and commitment will be too much for most people. Flying is not a hobby and doing it for a living is not just a job. Certainly the cost is high and will mean limitations but considering many folks get into boating, or having an expensive car, etc. it still can be experienced by many people. If the passion is real then the will to find the way can get you there. The passion for flying might be hard to articulate, but that is unnecessary if your friend has it.
Submitted by krimsten on January 07, 2010.
I spent 20 years of worrying about the cost of learning to fly and owning an airplane before I finally made the plunge. Dang, I wished I would have done it sooner. Money is a renewable resource, time isn't.
Submitted by Bigbaddad on January 07, 2010.
Always be honest and encouraging. Flying is a passion for most pilots and without a genuine passion the requirements of hard work, discipline, and commitment will be too much for most people. Flying is not a hobby and doing it for a living is not just a job. Certainly the cost is high and will mean limitations but considering many folks get into boating, or having an expensive car, etc. it still can be experienced by many people. If the passion is real then the will to find the way can get you there. The passion for flying might be hard to articulate, but that is unnecessary if your friend has it.
Submitted by RHalstead on January 07, 2010.
I think we scare off potential pilots and conversely bring in those who can't afford to fly by emphasizing the wrong things to the wrong potential pilots.
I think we vastly over emphasize and over estimate what the cost of flying needs to be and often end up paying far more than needed. I still fly the world's oldest Debonair on a pension and SS...and a few investments. The point is the old gal has given me over 1300 hours at well less than what many 172 pilots are paying. I included all fixed and variable costs with a progressive maintenance program. At present the 14.5 gallons per hour is the greatest cost. But like was mentioned, the engine is going to need to be majored in another year or two and although the panel was great when I purchased the Deb it is now dated and it's time to replace the KNS-80 RNAV, the AI is giving out, The tip tanks need replacing, and it's going to take a chunk of cash to get everything up-to-date again.
There are many ways to reduce the financial cost even when you are sole owner of an airplane, but getting the license and staying "PROFICIENT" does take time. The monetary cost varies widely. I really dislike the term, "staying current" which has very little to do with staying proficient, unless the pilot works to become and stay proficient.
There are many questions a prospective pilot needs to ask him or her self. Will the sport pilot category be sufficient, do they plan on hauling a family around, do they expect to go all the way to an instrument rating and fly in the soup, do they eventually plan/hope to go multi engine, do they want something for play, a people mover, a fast people mover with long legs, or an aerobatic capable hotrod? What about a simple used tail dragger, or home built. Two passenger home builts with good performance are now available in kit form that will not take the next 20 years to finish, or cost your marriage because all of your time is taken up trying to finish something too complicated.
The point is that a person of modest means can get a pilot's license and fly a reasonable amount, IF they set realistic goals.
Submitted by highfly on January 08, 2010.
Manufacturers and alphabet organizations take note!
The aviation community can do a lot to make getting a certificate easier and less costly. The price of rentals and instruction won't change much (except by going up), so how can we do it?
We need to get together and innovate. Learning to fly is somewhat like learning to drive or learning to operate any piece of equipment. The problem is that society is not good at teaching these skills. Look at the 15.8 year old who is just on fire to start driving. Do we have a good plan to funnel this energy? No.
What might that plan include? Well how about reading the owners manual from cover to cover before strapping on the new apparatus. How about learning what the normal maneuvers are for that equipment. Once you've read the manual once then put on your spurs and mount the operators space and observe the controls and look under the hood. Then read the manual again! Lets give suggestions to newbies on how to read the manual and what to look for, then some followup to determine how good the understanding has become.
Now about those maneuvers whether for a car, boat, ( or dare we suggest) an aircraft. Might the PTS be a good starting place? Well the PTS is free on line.
Speaking about operating manuals, we need to encourage GA manufacturers to make owners manuals (AFM/POH's) available for free viewing on line. After all it may help to sell more aircraft! Isn't that what we want in this economic atmosphere?
So let's encourage interested folks to get into aviation. And let's make it so it will be safer than ever before, but more importantly cheaper than ever before by coming up with a little internal innovation. How about more simulator use for a Private or other initial certificates. Let's be professional as a group. Let's get the alphabet organizations involved. Let's help our potential aviators before they spend their first dollar! No one wins in the long run when folks drop out after getting 2/3 done financially, but 1/4 done from a skills view. Its not hard, but we know it takes a lot of effort. Let's spell out the process in an honest and more importantly, a helpful way before they spend the big bucks. Let's get together as GA and do it! Let's make those bucks work by getting more enthusiastic pilots in it for the long run.
Don Knight
CFI
Submitted by tampapilot on January 09, 2010.
Flying has always been expensive and will always be expensive. That is just a fact. We do it because we love it, it is a passion. Money spent pursuing a passion is well spent in my opinion. We spend the money because of the thrill we get on every take-off, breaking free from the bonds of earth and soaring with the eagles. For a period of time we meld together and become one with our machine. It takes on life as an extension of our soul and we defy gravity to dance in the clouds. All of our troubles, worries and pains are left behind in the beauty and wonderment of what we are able to do, what so few others are able to do. Then when we are ready we bring ourselves down to reunite with mere mortals with a that tell tale little "urp urp" as we touch down. After unharnessing from our airbourne chariot we always look back as we walk away with a smile in fond memory of our just ended experience and begin to long for the next. It is our passion....it is priceless!
Submitted by tshaub on January 10, 2010.
Not so fast. Flying is expensive. But it should not always be expensive. In fact, it should NOT be expensive. Hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions, like me, have wanted to be pilots their whole lives but don’t see an efficient and economical way into the general aviation world.
The whole pilot training infrastructure is the most inefficient process it could possibly be. Currently a single instructor can crank out what, 10 or 15 pilots a year? Hence the $6000 to $10000 price tag. And of course each instructor’s curriculum, temperament, trainer aircraft, availability and so on are different and further deter potential students from signing up.
Why is GA pilot training and licensing still such a boutique offering? I have looked into getting a certificate. I don’t see any “program” I like. It’s all private instruction and each CFI’s approach being different. So I have no idea what is best and worth my investment.
Gee... If only there were a business model that could increase new pilot output and create an enormous demand in all aspects of General Aviation. Including plane production, accessories, and so on. Something along the lines of mass production, high volume, low mix, lean manufacturing.
Oh wait, there is a model for this. Seems there is an industry right here is this country that has done it for nearly 100 years. Cranking out hundreds of thousands of pilots using a common curriculum, classroom process using a standardized approach. Hello? The US military?
Does the military not churn out good pilots?
Again, why is GA pilot training and licensing still a boutique offering?
We need a general aviation training system that employs a basic classroom approach with standard aircraft configurations as trainers. Everyone learns to fly in the same kind of plane, same instrument configuration, and essentially using the same “book” to learn from.
Get people flying, and they can go on from their to get other ratings, proficiencies etc.
If you build it, they will come!! GET PEOPLE FLYING!
Is driving considered “expensive”. Are cars expensive? Remember Driver’s Ed’ in High School?
We need to take general aviation training down a different path to make it flourish and survive.
It will not survive the “it will always be expensive” and the “pilots are special people” themes.
I want to fly. I can fly. I have flown with pilot friends who let me fly and all have told me I have the “feel” for it. I love it!
But I cannot justify spending $10,000 for an instructor, and then several hundreds of dollars a month to pursue something that really would be a “hobby“, as in something I will only do for the pure enjoyment of it.
In Don Knight’s blog above he wrote “ No one wins in the long run when folks drop out after getting 2/3 done financially, but 1/4 done from a skills view. Its not hard, but we know it takes a lot of effort. Let's spell out the process in an honest and more importantly, a helpful way…”
I think he is on to something.
I predict that a flying school will emerge that employs just this kind of model, getting students licensed for around $1000 (maybe a little more initially). The founder will become fabulously wealthy, I will get my pilot license, along with the millions of others like me waiting for this kind of school. And general aviation will survive and flourish. Plane ownership and costs will be only slightly more than car ownership and cost.
I als0 predict that if an economical flying school option does not develop. General Aviation in this country is dead within a decade or two.
Submitted by highfly on January 10, 2010.
tshaub, WA
I rated the comment above yours as yes making it 100% by mistake.
I liked your comments and added a YES to yours after I noticed my mistake.
Send me an email if I can help you get into flying.
Don Knight
highfly@jps.net
Submitted by Recordo on January 11, 2010.
Why not make the pilots license an entitlement while you're at it? If you're motivated to find the bucks to learn and get licensed and then manage to scrape up the hourly rental fees, you are a QUALIFIED model customer. If that's too much for you, try fly-fishing.
If flying, however, becomes a supermarket item subject to the notions of democracy, the romance becomes a marketable item. When Cessna, Piper, et.al. begin, as they have, writing statute to serve their bottom lines, the quality of airmen takes a hit it can't afford.
Sure, if you build it cheaply enough in China and parade enough bodies, "they" will come, and along with "them" plenty of regulation, but that's the democratic way, ain't it?
"Mister, you may conquer the air; but the birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of gasoline ." -- Inherit the Wind
Submitted by meeverett on January 21, 2010.
The problem is that there is this notion that learning to fly is always expensive and so for a lot of people it never makes it past a desire. Am I suggesting that my training was cheap? No, including everything from ground school to the check-ride, it averaged out to $175 an hour. I spent a little over 1000 dollars a month on it, 7000 in just over 6 months. All I did was walked into the flight school that was most convenient and started learning. What I am suggesting is that it is all about the balance of time, money, and effort. I made a decision that my time was better served by the extra expense of learning at the airport which I work. I could have cut down the cost more if I had gone to another airport (a time commitment), located a free plane (a significant effort), or done any number of other things to cut down the costs.
The root of the problem is the idea everyone has about planes. Everyone seems to have this idea that what we need are sexier or faster planes to hook people. Instead, what's wrong with a modest little 150, Champ or Cub? Nothing against Cirrus and others, but the plane is the most expensive part of the rating and a $300,000 plane burning 20 gallons an hour obviously costs more per hour to run than a $20,000 plane burning 5 gallons an hour. To borrow a comparison, do we teach the 15.8 year old to drive in a Ferrari or Lamborghini or do we shoot for something a little more practical like a Civic?
Top Rated
Your Comment
All submitted comments are subject to the license terms set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
