Where should a beginner start???

Welcome Aboard, It's great to see your interest in flying.

On my 16th birthday I was at the DMV taking my drivers test. Six months later drove to the nearest airport asked where do I learn to fly? The pilots told me to go to an airport 30 miles away. I commuted three times a week for lessons. The flight school instructor directed the training including ground school.

I came from an area where there was very few pilots and no one in my family was a pilot. About three lessons in I told my parents. Once they saw I was serious they helped me out $. Today there's so many scholarship opportunities. It will save your parents tons of money. Several people on this forum can help direct you to scholarships in your area.

Good Luck :blueplane::thumbsup:
 
Klaus M said:
Welcome Aboard, It's great to see your interest in flying.

On my 16th birthday I was at the DMV taking my drivers test. Six months later drove to the nearest airport asked where do I learn to fly? The pilots told me to go to an airport 30 miles away. I commuted three times a week for lessons. The flight school instructor directed the training including ground school.

I came from an area where there was very few pilots and no one in my family was a pilot. About three lessons in I told my parents. Once they saw I was serious they helped me out $. Today there's so many scholarship opportunities. It will save your parents tons of money. Several people on this forum can help direct you to scholarships in your area.

Good Luck :blueplane::thumbsup:
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Thanks!!! I'm definitely interested in scholarships, I'll be needing to come up with all the money myself, so they will almost be necessary.
 
Is there a way that me studying on my own now can shave time and money off of whatever I have to do later, or is it like I have to take the whole course no matter how much I know? In what ways could I save money?
 
Speedster said:
Is there a way that me studying on my own now can shave time and money off of whatever I have to do later, or is it like I have to take the whole course no matter how much I know? In what ways could I save money?
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You can do self-study for all your ground school work. I did, then took a few online practice exams. When I showed my instructor that I was scoring high enough on the practice tests, he signed my endorsement to take the real one. With free FAA books and lots of YouTube instruction available, you can do all the ground stuff for next to nothing.
 
Speedster said:
Is there a way that me studying on my own now can shave time and money off of whatever I have to do later, or is it like I have to take the whole course no matter how much I know? In what ways could I save money?
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My suggestion is to read everything you can. Old issues of Flying magazine. Old copies of any aviation periodical. Library copies of "I learned about flying from that". The FAA publications. Learn the terminology and what it means. VFR, VMC, IFR, IMC, GA, etc.

Immerse yourself for a couple of months. You'll have a better foundation for your private license and it'll go faster and cheaper.
 
Being involved with R/C models (the glow engined planes of the 1970s, not the micro electric things common nowadays) gave me a huge head start in both learning to fly and in engineering school.
 
It’s awesome to get started this early.

You have your whole life to learn, might as well start as soon as you can!

Whenever you do find a CFI and start training, remember to ask “Why?” a lot. Young people tend to want to learn quickly and seem to repeat a lot of what they’re told without really understanding it fully. Make sure to ask “why” instead of just taking the CFI’s word for it. You can learn a lot of the “why” from the FAA books and training materials.

Plus, there will always be something your CFI will show you that he or she learned from experience that isn’t necessarily in the book. Don’t be shy about asking why this particular method works or doesn’t.
 
Matthew said:
I’ll add: as long as you’ve never been prescribed anything like Adderall or Ritalin.

Way too many people don’t realize there’s a diagnosis attached to that.
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I've never taken or been prescribed any medications. Well I was given a prescription for pain meds one time, but I didn't take them lol.
 
kyleb said:
My suggestion is to read everything you can. Old issues of Flying magazine. Old copies of any aviation periodical. Library copies of "I learned about flying from that". The FAA publications. Learn the terminology and what it means. VFR, VMC, IFR, IMC, GA, etc.

Immerse yourself for a couple of months. You'll have a better foundation for your private license and it'll go faster and cheaper.
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I definitely plan on doing that.
 
Half Fast said:
You can do self-study for all your ground school work. I did, then took a few online practice exams. When I showed my instructor that I was scoring high enough on the practice tests, he signed my endorsement to take the real one. With free FAA books and lots of YouTube instruction available, you can do all the ground stuff for next to nothing.
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That's reassuring. Thanks!
 
I looked around but couldn't find anything on this, does it ever get to the point the mods don't have to approve your posts?
 
I don't want to throw water on the fire, but the truth is - general(private) aviation is a very expensive hobby. However, if you want to go professional later, the time spent training now will go towards the professional requirements down the road. I'm not trying to dissuade you from pursuing aviation and learning to fly. I did it when I was young, and I did some comparisons on cost methods and did something crazy.

At 20, rather than renting a plane, I bought a very cheap plane, and hired a very cheap teacher(CFI) directly and learned the req for my private pilot license. Add up the cost of your rental for 50 hours of flight time. Then add up the 50 hours of flight school instructor. You might find it would be better to buy a plane, learn to fly, then sell the plane. Not something I recommend at 16, but I did it when I was 20, so not that far in the future. If you can learn to fly this (you can unless you are overweight):

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You will be able to fly better than 50% of the private pilots out there. Seat of your pants flying!

The other thing I can recommend is that you go to your local airport, and ask to work as an FBO line boy(no offense, that's what they are called). You will be around GA planes, fueling them, checking oil, filling tires, cleaning windscreens, washing planes, maybe changing tires and brake pads under supervision. The key is - you will be around planes, immersed in the center of GA activity. Sometimes you might get a ride around the airport if you are lucky on a Sat or Sun.

Reading for your ground training and written exam is fine, you should do plenty of that, but also get yourself in a position where you are around planes, and pilots. You'll learn stuff just sitting in the FBO listening to old farts like me blather on about flying. It can be done, but it's not fast, and not easy. Thankfully, at the first solo, you will likely realize how much it was all worth the trouble and expense.
 
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I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it yet but a home copy of Flight Simulator can be very helpful. Tomorrow, the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is supposed to drop and within it are flight lessons and a "career" mode. Don't get me wrong, flight simming is not a substitute for what you do in the real bird but what it DOES do is introduce you to the concepts of flight and procedures. When I was your age, Flight Sim is what got me interested in flight. I was in your same position. Took an intro flight at the local airport and when I was older, started taking lessons. I took a 20 year hiatus (life gets in the way) and before I got back to the airport, I had been doing some flight sim work to knock the rust off and it definitely helped me.

My wife home schools our kids. Each state is a bit different in how they count your classroom hours but it's an easy translation from flight school hours to school hours. You're learning hands-on physics (Physics Lab) applied Mathematics, Mechanical engineering, and Navigation on top of all the legal stuff you need to learn. That all sounds like Vo-Tech electives to me.

One last thing on the safety part. Well, two examples. Early this summer a new commercial pilot in my area ran a Cessna out of gas on a sight-seeing tour at about 1,000 feet above ground level (AGL). He safely put the plane on the beach, everyone walked away without so much as a scratch. Second example, my wife's family is in Virginia which is about a 12-14 hour drive and mostly on I-95 including through New York City. Some of the most dangerous roads in the country. Or, I can put the family in the club Cessna 182 and get there in 3 hours and not have to mess with any traffic at all. Controllers want you to be safe, too so you have an overseer of sorts looking out for you. In my opinion, the odds of a mishap in the airplane on that trip are significantly lower than the chances of my family getting run over by some knucklehead on the Jersey Turnpike. It's a real thing when we say the odds of a mishap are higher on the drive to and from the airport than they are in the plane.
 
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I don't know if this has been mentioned, but some EAA chapters can give out a "Ray" scholarship that will pay for your training for your private. Our chapter in Colorado does this, one young man just passed his practical in September, and we have now started another young man on his training. Check with the local EAA chapters to see if they participate in this program.
 
westslopeco said:
I don't know if this has been mentioned, but some EAA chapters can give out a "Ray" scholarship that will pay for your training for your private. Our chapter in Colorado does this, one young man just passed his practical in September, and we have now started another young man on his training. Check with the local EAA chapters to see if they participate in this program.
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That would be great, I will check into that.
 
I haven't seen Civil Air Patrol mentioned yet. Sure, there's some military (well, Air Force) faffing about, but there are some great opportunities to get some free flight experience, as well as experience with drones and rocketry too. EAA is of course a fantastic option, and I agree there's absolutely no substitute for showing up at the airport, whether as a line-boy or general ramp-rat. Showing up and saying "I like airplanes" is the best first-step.
 
AvNavCom said:
I haven't seen Civil Air Patrol mentioned yet. Sure, there's some military (well, Air Force) faffing about, but there are some great opportunities to get some free flight experience, as well as experience with drones and rocketry too.
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Post #32.
 
NP, good to bring it up again.

Free flying lessons is a very good thing.
 
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