I agree with skychaser’s post above. Sure, it can be done, but it will depend on you. It will take a lot of discipline and self motivation. If you completely tune out aviation during your work week and try to cram during your short weeks, then yeah, it’s going to take a long time and lots of money, as your first training flight of the week will be nothing but getting you back up to where you were on your previous flight.
But if you really want it, and can buckle down and focus, then you can get there on two flights every other week. To reiterate what skychaser said, it will require a lot more hours; 80 to 100 hours flight time would not be inconceivable. You could think of this as an upper level college course with a lab… most of your work will be, or should be, done at home and you go to the course and lab to demonstrate what you have learned and get answers to anything you don’t understand.
There are a lot of tools you can use to help you learn at home. First and foremost is to immerse yourself in the material and dedicate time every day, even on long work days, to learning. The PHAK and Airplane Flying Handbook are free to download from the FAA. Every single test question will come from these two books, word for word. You can download them and study them cover to cover, and fully understand the material inside them.
Another tool at your disposal is “chair flying.” Chair flying is simply what it sounds like…mentally flying the plane while sitting in a chair. On your first day of training, or even on a discovery flight, you can take pictures of the cockpit of the plane…take a lot of pics, of every instrument and gauge, circuit breaker panels, throttle/mixture assembly, rudder pedals, compass, interior, door handles, fire extinguisher, everything. Then study those pictures and memorize the location of every button, switch, handle, and display. What you are trying to do here is to memorize and know where everything is so you are not paying money to find it. You could be paying up to $5 a minute while that prop is spinning…you don’t want to spend that money learning where the silly vacuum gauge is. Then start chair flying. Find someplace quite, sit in a chair, close your eyes, and completely fly your last flight and your expected next flight. Go through every motion from reading the checklist and touching the (imaginary) checklist item in front of you. Go through engine start, taxi, make all your radio calls, imagine a response and respond to that, fly the entire flight, land, taxi back, shut down, and park. You get the idea. You can also use some item in your hand to simulate the flight controls. Don’t forget to move your feet for rudder use. And the hardest part, you need to do this at least once every non-flying day, even on weekends, even when your tired.
Yet another tool is home flight sims. These can help with learning procedures, how to read and understand instruments, and button/knob switchology. I personally prefer chair flying, but flight sims certainly have their place.
*i’m not an instructor. These suggestions may or may not work for you. I’m only suggesting them as they are what worked for me.
Hope this helps, and good luck.
