Hello All! I started on my PPL at KSNA (Orange County, CA) in 2007, moved to St. Louis and flew some more at 1H0 (Creve Coeur, MO), then stopped flying. In total, I have over 42 hours of flight time - all pre-solo - including 6 hours of tailwheel time. I currently reside in Austin, TX.
I'm finally in a position where I can financially and chronologically afford to finish my training and I have some questions about the best way to go about it. My previous training was all once-per-week without ground school. Those 42 hours took 17 months. My big hangup was the inability to consistently land the plane well, which led to me never being ready to solo.
In December of 2021 I finished online ground school and had a consultation with an AME who advised me that there were no red flags to keep me from getting either a 3rd class medical or BasicMed. I am still studying for the written exam, but I'm confident I will take that in the next 30 days.
What I'd like to do is take 1-2 weeks off of work and just fly as many days as possible, weather permitting. I think that if I can just fly frequently and repeatedly, that I'll get the hang of landing and get over that hump and be able to finish up in a relatively short time. I'm completely fine traveling to a better location (Florida/Arizona/etc.) in order to do so.
I'll be moving from Austin back to a more expensive place for flying lessons (Los Angeles) sometime between the end of April and sometime in August, 2022. Final piece of relevant info: I've called and/or emailed several local and Dallas-based flight schools to see if they would be able to accommodate me and was not thrilled with most of their responses - only one asked for log book details.
So, my questions are:
1) Does the plan to fly for as many days in a 5-14 day period in order to get over the "landing hump" make sense based on the little information I've given.
2) Should I just wait until I'm back in L.A. and try to find a CFI or school that can accommodate daily flying?
3) Does going to AZ/FL/etc. to a school that can accommodate daily flying make sense -either now or after I've moved back to L.A.?
4) Should I just assume it is going to take me 40+ hours to complete because it has been so long (I remembered a TON of stuff when I was doing ground school)?
5) Is there a better way to do it and/or something I'm not thinking of?
Sorry for the wall of text. I've been overwhelmed researching and emailing/calling for a while now and thought I should just ask people that have already been through something similar. Thanks in advance for your help!
I'm finally in a position where I can financially and chronologically afford to finish my training and I have some questions about the best way to go about it. My previous training was all once-per-week without ground school. Those 42 hours took 17 months. My big hangup was the inability to consistently land the plane well, which led to me never being ready to solo.
In December of 2021 I finished online ground school and had a consultation with an AME who advised me that there were no red flags to keep me from getting either a 3rd class medical or BasicMed. I am still studying for the written exam, but I'm confident I will take that in the next 30 days.
What I'd like to do is take 1-2 weeks off of work and just fly as many days as possible, weather permitting. I think that if I can just fly frequently and repeatedly, that I'll get the hang of landing and get over that hump and be able to finish up in a relatively short time. I'm completely fine traveling to a better location (Florida/Arizona/etc.) in order to do so.
I'll be moving from Austin back to a more expensive place for flying lessons (Los Angeles) sometime between the end of April and sometime in August, 2022. Final piece of relevant info: I've called and/or emailed several local and Dallas-based flight schools to see if they would be able to accommodate me and was not thrilled with most of their responses - only one asked for log book details.
So, my questions are:
1) Does the plan to fly for as many days in a 5-14 day period in order to get over the "landing hump" make sense based on the little information I've given.
2) Should I just wait until I'm back in L.A. and try to find a CFI or school that can accommodate daily flying?
3) Does going to AZ/FL/etc. to a school that can accommodate daily flying make sense -either now or after I've moved back to L.A.?
4) Should I just assume it is going to take me 40+ hours to complete because it has been so long (I remembered a TON of stuff when I was doing ground school)?
5) Is there a better way to do it and/or something I'm not thinking of?
Sorry for the wall of text. I've been overwhelmed researching and emailing/calling for a while now and thought I should just ask people that have already been through something similar. Thanks in advance for your help!