Looking for some guidance.

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odie451

Pre-takeoff checklist
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odie451
Hello POA'rs,
I am having an issue with deciding on getting a ppl. I have not taken a discovery flight. My spouse offered to get me one for my 52nd birthday; but I told her to wait until I could do some research.
I would prefer to not be contracted into a flight school. I do work full time. From doing some research, my understanding is it is best to go 2-3 times a week, and fly from 1-2 hours each time.
The following airports are within driving distance from either my work or from my home.

Redlands 22 minutes from home
Banning 15 minutes from home
Flabob 36 minutes from home, 31 minutes from work
Riverside 39 minutes from home, 29 minutes from work
Hemet-Ryan 27 minutes from home
Cable 11 minutes from work
Chino 16 minutes from work

I would rather not finance anything, if possible.

I do understand that it is best to get an FAA medical before I do anything.
I also understand that i need to complete my ppl in 2 years from getting medical.
I know that King Schools is having a promo going on right now because of Oshkosh.
Can someone recommend a way to start my aviation journey, thought it does seem late in life.

odie451
 
do not...repeat...do not take a physical until and unless you are sure you will pass. i'd recommend you make an appointment with a flight doc for a "test physical". this should tell you if you will pass or not. if you take and fail a physical for all intents and purposes you're grounded. period.
 
What @rk911 said! If you can't pass a third class it still leaves Sport Pilot open...

The only other advice I would give is to look at any clubs in the area. I was in a club for 25 years and training was usually a bit cheaper and then there were airplanes available to fly. We had a lot of new members get their PPL from other schools and end up joining our club anyway because there were only one or two aircraft available to them to rent from the flight school and the flight school/FBO rates were always higher...
 
I would add understand you are not likely to learn as fast as you might think and you need to be realistic about has fast you learn and under what conditions. I completed my PPL when I was 58. For me, ground school was fairly easy but there were several in my class near my age that struggled. Flight was another issue. While I conceptually knew what I was supposed to do, it didn’t really “click” for me for quite a while. The other thing is forget about completing the flight portion in 40 hours or soloing in 10 hours or some other benchmark. You will get there when you get there. When you begin comparing yourself to these benchmarks, particularly if you are well past 40 hours, you will begin to develop lots of doubts, lose confidence and begin to obsess about the costs. There are pilots who do it in 40 hours or under And solo at 6 or so hours, but that’s not the majority. There are several threads on this topic that you can search on POA where this is all fleshed out in greater detail.

Good luck!
 
It’s just a discovery flight. Who cares where you do it. Go fly. Then come back and tell us how you don’t care how much time or money it takes. Just do it.

Pay as you go. That way it’s not a chore or slog and you fly when you want. There’s a lot of “mental” when you fly as an older dude (work, money, home, wife, kids, older parents), you don’t need to have “wasted money” on your mind if you just need a rest but have paid up front. Screw that noise.

I did self study for the ground portion with books. King vids are great. Worth it.

Yes, more often is better. But there were times I flew once a week or every other week. (I even took 3 months off after a mission trip that had me reconsidering the insanity of every luxury we have in the US). Took me 58 hrs over 13 months. I was 48 years old when I started.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
It’s just a discovery flight. Who cares where you do it. Go fly. Then come back and tell us how you don’t care how much time or money it takes. Just do it.
Click to expand...


This. Go do a discovery flight first and see if the rest is a moot point or not. A discovery flight doesn't lock you into anything with a flight school.
 
Good advice already. I'll echo the suggestion to look into local flying clubs. In addition to cheaper plane rental, you'll get a built in support group and help finding a CFI. Sounds like you're looking to do what is called part 61 training as opposed to a 141 flight school. Part 61 can be more challenging as its less structured and more dependent on finding a good cfi, but it is often cheaper and can be better.

Your research is correct on the hours. I really tried to do 3 times a week, and knocked it out in 5 months, around 65 hours at age 37. I've heard half your age as a benchmark for hours to solo, and then another 40 to finish up. Im a little slow (landing is hard!), so I took almost 20 to solo, but it held pretty close for me.

You'll find that after 1-1.5 hours, you'll be mentally exhausted and not able to absorb any more for the day. A good instructor will see that point and say 'let's go back'.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!
 
Forget the issue of it seeming late in life. If it’s your dream and goal just give it a shot. Can’t help you with locations you mentioned, but I’d visit several of the airports that have flight schools to see the airplanes and instructors. Finding an instructor that you click with can go a long way in helping the process.

Pay as you go. Schools can try to entice with advanced payments and discounts, but I’d avoid that. You don’t really contract with them. It’s more of a flight by flight commitment.

When I actively taught years ago, students that were older would do OK if they didn’t have too many stressors going in in life. Throw in stressors and a very busy schedule and it may cause issues, one of which is it taking longer to get the PPL. Your work load and life happenings may determine you’re training frequency for you. I’d say once a week minimum, twice a week is better.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. I will look into discovery flights. Is there a certain length I should go for, or is 30 minutes plenty of time.
 
Unless things have changed, it’s usually a prepackaged flat rate deal shorter than a real lesson, you don’t really decide. If you can decide, I’d say 1/2 hour or so, maybe a little longer if you are having fun. Just don’t try to accomplish much, just enjoy it.
 
I remember seeing a post on the medical portion of this site mentioning to tear off the confirmation number the FAA AME website gives you and put it in your pocket. Then when doing the consultation with the AME, give him the confirmation number only after he says everything looks good. I was unable to find it, I thought it was stickied.
 
Haven't heard of that one. The best advice I saw was to just ask for a consultation on the initial call. If all looks well, you can then get signed off right there.
 
The others have covered the medical aspects. The learning side depends on your preferences for study. If you are self-motivated and a self-learner, you can do the book work yourself as you train. (That's what I did, but I'm also an academic--aka "professional student"--where self-learning and periodic re-training is a career skill.) If you are not a good self-student, then some sort of training course, online or in person as your learning style suits, may be necessary.

On the flight training side, I think the sweet spot is probably 1-2 times per week. Lessons last about an hour, not much more than that. More often or longer than that and you may become learning-saturated. Less than that, and you may have too much erosion of physical and mental skills between lessons. I think the "average" student pilot takes about 70 hours or so flying with an independent instructor. You can knock that out in about 6 months. I could have done mine a little quicker and a few hours less than the average had I started in the warmer months. I wound up doing most of my training in winter, which played hob with finishing XC requirements. Started just before Thanksgiving, took my checkride in May. Enjoyed every bit of training, and looked forward to "lesson" days. I highly recommend paying as you go with an independent instructor you get along with.
 
TrueCourse said:
Forget the issue of it seeming late in life. If it’s your dream and goal just give it a shot...
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totally agree. i first started training when i was 30. then that nasty ole life thing got in the way for the next 30-years! took and passed my ground school and started SPL training with a 'school'. i use quotation marks becuz it was a school but no contracts and no staged learning or exams. there was a syllabus but the training was more individualized. i had been putting $ aside each month for the 30-yr layoff so that was not an issue but it allowed me to fly 2-3 times a week (on average and i was retired). took a while and i has to overcome a couple of mental plateaus but i did it.

my advice?

- take at least a couple of discovery flights in different make/models of aircraft. find one that fits you best.

- knock out the physical. can you pass it? do a test run and if you can pass it take it. if you can't then don't. if you pass go for the private cert. if you can't go for the sport.

- get your ground school out of the way. your CFI will be going over ground issues with you before and after each flight anyway. for me, having completed the ground first rather than doing it simultaneously with flying made it easier for me to concentrate on the flying.

- start flying. it will take as long as it takes. you'll likely hit one or more plateaus but push through and you'll be fine.

good luck to you and remember...this is supposed to be fun, not work. enjoy!
 
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odie451 said:
I do understand that it is best to get an FAA medical before I do anything.
I also understand that i need to complete my ppl in 2 years from getting medical.
Click to expand...

If you're not done in 2 years no problem, just get a new medical, or go basicmed.
 
I started a bit later in life, too. After kids, established career, etc. Did the discovery flight after I had been talking about flying for years and years. Finally my wife booted me out of the house and said, "Go fly dammit. I'm sick of hearing about how you want to to this... just go do it and quit talking about it..." I think she used some other four letter words, too... she's good like that. Anyway...

Yeah, just do it. Go fly the discovery flight and get hooked. Or find out you don't like it.

After you are hooked, go with the flight school that will allow you to fly closes to what fits on your schedule, but more importantly find a CFI who you click with. Someone who's teaching style matches your learning style. This is important. Don't be afraid to fly with two or three CFIs to find the right one. It will save you money in the end.

Get your medical like some others have recommended. I didn't go the consult route, but I hear that is a good idea.

Once you get your medical, go all-in on learning as much as you can in terms of ground school. I used King and I liked it. But I also got the Sporty's course and their study-buddy app (more on this later). My CFI recommended I get familiar with the FAR/AIM, airplane flying handbook and the ACS for private pilots.... I told her I wanted to immerse myself and she indulged me by recommended these... If you really want to go all-in, read these. Also, if you want to fall asleep quickly if you aren't as all-in... read these.

When you are doing flight training, clear your mind... meaning don't think about your kids or your mortgage or boat payments or whatever... just focus on and enjoy the hell out of every minute you are with your CFI flying. Realize how amazing it is what you are doing. I was only able to fly one or twice a week, but I made the absolute most out of every minute. I would go home and either chair fly a lesson, draw out on paper what we worked on, watch youtube videos of other people flying the same kind of lesson.... stuff like that. It really made the flying parts sink in.
Take the written when your instructor says you are ready. This is where the sporty's app came in handy - it was pretty much memorizing a thousand or so questions, but it got me almost a perfect score. (I missed one about VOR checks... which is an IR question....).

Note - if you don't solo after ten hours or fifteen hours or twenty hours don't sweat it. You will solo when you and your CFI are ready. Once you do, you will remember again why you are doing this and how frigging amazing it all is. It will be one of the biggest accomplishments of your life - I don't care if you made it to CEO of your company or developed a COVID vaccine, this will be up there. You flew a damn airplane by yourself!

The rest will come quickly and it will be checkride time before you know it. Set aside a couple of weeks to just study and fly mock checkrides and do mock oral exams with your CFI. Tell your family that you are pretty much going to be busy for these few weeks and not to bother you. They will understand (or they won't but you won't care because you are so into this).

Checkride day will come and you will have read all the checkride advice about getting good rest, but you won't sleep anyway. Even though you are a brain surgeon doctor who gives speeches in front of 10,000 nobel prize winners, you will still be nervous as hell. But you will be prepared. Have that FAR/AIM tabbed out. Have your sectional (lol) all neatly folded showing your flight plan. Your laptop open with all the weather products displayed. Airplane logs tabbed. AD lists out and all neatly organized. The oral exam will go more like a conversation and you will nail it. The flying portion will come and you will nail all the maneuvers because you had a great CFI who made damn sure you were ready and you did like four mock checkride flights.

You will fly back to your home airport, taxi back to the FBO, shut down and the DPE will extend his/her hand and say, "Congratulations, pilot!" You may or may not tear up at that point....

Anyway, good luck. And thanks for letting me write this down. I honestly was just reflecting on some of this recently since I haven't gotten to fly for a few different reasons and was getting a bit bummed about the whole thing.
 
Question regarding Discovery Flight.
Is it okay to take more than one. If I can, what do I do with the log books, that I will supposedly receive.

Does it matter the size of plane that I do my discovery flight in. I'm 6'4" approximately 250 lbs.
 
Sure, you can take more than one. They might not call it a "Discovery" flight any more after the first one, but just explain to whoever answers the phone what you want to do. You're wanting to test-drive different planes, and different instructors, with some short lessons. This is a completely OK thing to do; CFI's (good ones anyway) do not get "possessive" about students, and will completely understand shopping around. You'll start to pay by the hour, instead of a flat fee per flight, but this is just fine.

Keep ONE logbook -- whichever one you get first, I suppose -- and put all these flights into it. All the hours count, and never expire.

Also tell the flight school(s) your size, so they can recommend a plane. Probably a four-seater like a Cessna 172 or a Piper Cherokee. (Strangely, aviation is a field where you *do* have to ask for, and tell others, your weight!). But while you're out there, ask to *sit in* whatever else they've got, just to see how different planes feel. Two-seaters are going to be cheaper, but you may find them too small.

Have fun, and ask your CFI tons of questions,
 
odie451 said:
Question regarding Discovery Flight.
Is it okay to take more than one. If I can, what do I do with the log books, that I will supposedly receive.

Does it matter the size of plane that I do my discovery flight in. I'm 6'4" approximately 250 lbs.
Click to expand...
of course it does. you need to be comfortable and still be able to easily reach the hand and foot controls.
 
FWIW, I'm 6'4" 270 and fit okay in a Cherokee. A 172 is similar in size, and those two models probably account for 95% of the training fleet. I have to position the seat all the way down & back, but I've done 3 hour legs and didn't feel any worse than I would've in the car.
 
Just signed up for a discovery flight, will go tomorrow after work. They said i could bring another person, if they met the weight & balance requirements, but should I.
My wife doesn't care for it, plus she will be at work. I could bring a coworker, but I don't want them thinking that I am loaded, which I am not; I just have no debt and saved my money wisely.
 
odie451 said:
Just signed up for a discovery flight, will go tomorrow after work. They said i could bring another person, if they met the weight & balance requirements, but should I.
My wife doesn't care for it, plus she will be at work. I could bring a coworker, but I don't want them thinking that I am loaded, which I am not; I just have no debt and saved my money wisely.
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leave the +1 at home. too much distraction plus if she doesn't like to fly or small airplanes it will detract from your experience.
 
odie451 said:
but I don't want them thinking that I am loaded
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Once you pass your check ride, they won’t think that... they will KNOW that you are loaded. You will be a pilot for goodness sakes... and every pilot wears a big dangly Rolex and flies a new, million dollar airplane....

(All this is true in opposite land... you will get addicted and spend your life savings and children’s education funds on airplanes and avionics and iPads and more avionics upgrades and annuals and new engines and then a twin and then more upgrades and TWO new engines....)
 
I was a late bloomer finally getting my PPL at 58. Started at age 22 decades ago but as they say life got in the way and only logged a few hours. Finally had the time and resources when I was 57 to start again and got my PPL 6 years ago.

Total cost; instructor, rental, ground school, iPad, test fees, medical, dues, etc., for my VFR was $12,500. It was exact to the day 12 months later from my intro flight to my check ride. Total time was 62.5 hours. I think I solo’d around 15 hours.

There was a 3 month gap due to my instructor having a detached retina around Thanksgiving and temporarily losing his medical during treatment. We were rolling into the holidays plus the nasty winter weather here in the northeast so I did not mind waiting for my instructor to get better and get his medical reinstated. Both were taking longer than expected and he turned me over to another instructor at the end of January and flying resumed.

Here is what worked for me:

1 - Have the money put away ahead of time. Lots of people I have seen start and run out of money. I asked the people at the flight school I joined and they felt the average “old guy” like me usually takes 60 tp 65 hours. I made sure I had that much in the bank and paid after each lesson.

2 - I joined a part 61 flight school, Freeflight Aviation. There were dues associated at $45/month. Part of being a member is the instructor fees were fixed per hour. If you flew with a school instructor they could not charge more than $30/hour based on HOBBS time when flying or $30/hour for ground school classroom time.

3 - When choosing a flight school or club it is best if they have more than 1 of the type of aircraft you will be taking lessons in. For example if you will be taking lessons in a 172 and there is only 1 it will impact your flying time. The one 172 may be constantly booked making it hard to align a window for your instructor and aircraft availability. Plus sh*t happens and the airplane may be down for repairs, annual, maintenance, etc. all affecting your flying time.

4 - Lots of instructors available. Freeflight Aviation had both full time instructors and part time. Everyone played nice together and never heard of a situation where an instructor wasn’t taking any new students. Seemed a comfortable balance of instructors and students.

5 - My instructor recommended the King ground school course which he supplemented with lessons. It was a great combination for me to quickly learn.

6 - I tried to schedule lessons for 2 days, Saturday and Sunday. As great as this sounds it did not always work out due to weather, family obligations and airplanes down for maintenance. Sometimes it was mental overload and sometimes the “force” was just not with me. Other times I was in the groove Saturday and still on Sunday. My instructor would at times sense I was getting overloaded and would recommend we not fly on a Sunday since it would not be a productive lesson and cost money for no return. Most times he was right since something I was just not getting on Saturday’s lesson became easy peasy next Saturday skipping the previous Sunday lesson in-between. I was fortunate my instructors taught for the love of it and always had my best interest and that of my. wallet first and foremost, not their wallets or careers.

7 - I waited to get my medical until my instructor felt we were close to solo. I was not concerned since I have yearly physicals and had no issues. Others advise getting your medical done first in case there is an issue that will prevent you from continuing flight lessons. Not bad advice to heed.

8 - I would advise against taking anyone up for your intro flight. Your first time on the flight controls isn’t going to yield a smooth flight. I am not talking about anything violent or dangerous but a lot of wallowing around trying to stay level chasing nose up/down wing low/high etc. If your passenger is subject to motion sickness or being sea sick this will be the time it manifests itself. Even now when I take someone up for their first time and let them on the controls they wallow around until they relax and get the feel. This is even on a calm day with the airplane trimmed for level flight hands off. This is mostly due to over controlling. When it is real bad I will say “my plane” and they let go and sit back. To their surprise I don’t touch the controls and the plane settles down to straight and level by itself. They are always amazed and get it.

One really great thing my instructor did for my first night flight is he let me bring my wife and he brought his wife. Being in south Jersey we would fly to Cape May for dinner. That was the first time my wife ever flew with me and by that time I was skilled enough to fly smoothly and land smoothly. It was and still is a great tradition of his but it is extremely airplane dependent to carry 4 adults. Certainly not possible in a 152 or Diamond DA20.

9 - DPE availability I hear is getting to be a problem for your check ride. 6 years ago I had 4 DPEs available when it was time for my check ride. I could get anyone of them with no more notice than 1 week in advance. 4 years later when a friend was ready for her check ride she had to schedule 1 month in advance and had to have her instructor sign off for her to fly an hour away to the DPEs local airport. Maybe the DPEs are retiring and no one is coming in to fill those positions, maybe liability insurance or maybe there just is not any money it anymore. Whatever the reason it is something to consider if the flight school has an active list of DPEs and their availability.

10 - This is the hardest and almost impossible but I will mention it anyway. Have a cousin that owns 5 airplanes and for your birthday, in my case my 60th birthday, flies to your airport a 1969 Cherokee 140 he restored and throws you the keys with 2 requests: (1) Enjoy flying the sh*t out of it and (2) Fly me back home. Yeah, it is a true story and 4 years later I am still flying the Cherokee. Can’t thank him enough and know how lucky I am.

Enjoy what will be one of the greatest adventures in your life. Who doesn’t remember their first solo?
 
I definitely plan on cash flowing this hobby. I probably won't do anything until I have my house paid off, which will be in about a year.

The place I'm going to for my discovery flight, call themselves a flying club; but they sound more like a flight school.

I was thinking about going thru king schools for ground school. I see they have a 22% discount this week, Is this a good price? Also, does anyone know if king offers a military discount.
 
WTH exactly is a discovery flight? I mean, I know they advertise it that way, but any instructor worth his salt should make it lesson #1.
 
odie451 said:
Question regarding Discovery Flight.
Is it okay to take more than one. If I can, what do I do with the log books, that I will supposedly receive.
Click to expand...
You can probably do more than one but I'm not sure why you would want to. If you're interested in trying on different flight schools and/or airplanes for size, just do a discovery flight at the first one and then when you make subsequent appointments, just tell them what you've already done and what you want to do i.e. just want to do a short flight in airplane x or just want to see how I like your school and airplanes. Those subsequent flights (even if they're short) will likely be conducted as lessons with a bit of additional material being introduced and all should be logged in the same logbook.

Does it matter the size of plane that I do my discovery flight in. I'm 6'4" approximately 250 lbs.
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It could be a factor so you'll want to mention it when you book the appointment.

Bottom line: Doing research and getting ducks in a row is a good thing. But it can also lead to analysis paralysis. Go to the airport and stop into a flight school. You don't need an appointment, just stop in and talk to them. That costs nothing and most will happily let you climb into one of the planes to see how you fit.
 
Kritchlow said:
WTH exactly is a discovery flight? I mean, I know they advertise it that way, but any instructor worth his salt should make it lesson #1.
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Usually it is. It'll be a short lesson, but most will conduct it as an intro lesson with all the very basics being covered.
 
For someone that's never been in a small plane before, a 1/2 hour intro of enjoyable flying showing what it's like isn't a horrible idea before hands on training starts.
 
odie451 said:
Question regarding Discovery Flight.
Is it okay to take more than one. If I can, what do I do with the log books, that I will supposedly receive.

Does it matter the size of plane that I do my discovery flight in. I'm 6'4" approximately 250 lbs.
Click to expand...
I too nine. Yup, 9. Different airplanes, different CFI, different airports. So what?

Pick up a logbook - order a cheap one from Sportys or Aircraft Spruce or maybe there’s a pilot shop in the area. Everyone of the discovery flights counts as training.
As for height and weight - that’s why you fly different airplanes to see what works best for you. Odds are it will be the Cessna 172, which is the most prevalent airplane.

But as pointed out - stop obsessing, get to an airport, go fly.
 
Unkljohn said:
I would do it alone. You don’t want to be distracted.
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The nice thing about taking someone else with you is that they can sit in the back and take pictures, but you do probably want someone back there who will just shut up and leave you to it.
 
(skipping the whole medical thing...)

Here's what worked for me, and it seems like it's pretty common. I was late 40's when I started:

You have a lot of airports nearby - stop at each one and chat with a few instructors. You'll find some that fit your personality, and don't be afraid to ask about teaching style and be honest about your learning style.

Ask about the normal airplane schedule. In my case, airplanes were booked up several weeks in advance, so I really had a hard time rescheduling if weather, maintenance, my schedule, or my CFI's schedule didn't work out. Some places have multiple planes of the same type or other options that make scheduling easier. Ask the CFI about how often to expect scheduling conflicts.

Try to plan on 3 lessons a week and expect 2. Things will pop up and get in the way. There will be times when the plane is down for maintenance and out for a week or longer. Sometimes a bad batch of weather blows through that takes out another week. Sometimes you will just not feel like flying, your head just isn't in the game that day. Things happen, learn to be patient and roll with it.

The older the student, the longer it takes (usually). It seems that us older folks like to be perfectionists. In my case, I had plenty of times where I did something "good enough to pass" but not good enough to where I felt like I really nailed it. Some of this you have to be realistic about - you are being trained to be "good enough to pass AND be safe", and can use all the time in the world after you pass to get better. I figured since I already had the CFI with me I would repeat a lesson or maneuver until I really felt good about it. Looking back, that cost me more time and money than it should have, but I don't regret doing it since it really did add a lot to my confidence level.

For an intro flight, I don't see a problem with taking a passenger. It's going to be a short sightseeing trip and you'll get the chance to handle the controls and probably do the takeoff. Unless your passenger really wants to ride along, I'd probably just do it alone, though. Let the flight school know your plans, the whole weight and balance deal is important

For ground school I did the junior college group class thing. I work better in a classroom than online, but I know the online training materials generally have good reviews and good results. So it's really going to be up to you.
 
I signed up for an intro/discovery flight yesterday, my flight is 3pm today. I decided to just go by myself, to enjoy the experience and get the most out of it.

I was going to bring a camera to take some pics when I'm not flying the plane.
 
odie451 said:
I signed up for an intro/discovery flight yesterday, my flight is 3pm today. I decided to just go by myself, to enjoy the experience and get the most out of it.

I was going to bring a camera to take some pics when I'm not flying the plane.
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You'll probably be overwhelmed by the panel and avionics when you first climb in. Don't worry about that stuff, you'll learn it all a little at a time. Just pay attention to the airplane controls and what they do. Other than that, keep the window closed so you don't hang your head outside like a dog riding in a car...like I wanted to!
 
odie451 said:
I signed up for an intro/discovery flight yesterday, my flight is 3pm today. I decided to just go by myself, to enjoy the experience and get the most out of it.

I was going to bring a camera to take some pics when I'm not flying the plane.
Click to expand...
Congratulations. Expect to be flying the plane most of the flight.
 
odie451 said:
I signed up for an intro/discovery flight yesterday, my flight is 3pm today. I decided to just go by myself, to enjoy the experience and get the most out of it.

I was going to bring a camera to take some pics when I'm not flying the plane.
Click to expand...

Late afternoon in the summer. Where are you located? Be prepared for hot weather - little airplanes are flying greenhouses. I'm surprised the school scheduled you for that time. Early mornings are cooler, more comfortable for flying in little airplanes.
 
RonP said:
Enjoy what will be one of the greatest adventures in your life. Who doesn’t remember their first solo?
Click to expand...

Me.

Getting to solo was one of the most infuriating and aggravating periods of my life. This was before we had lots of online forums, and before I knew about EAA chapters and other local organizations that could provide info and mentors. As I describe it, I got to solo (and checkride) due to a healthy checkbook and being incredibly stubbon. Some of the worst CFIs I've ever known have signed my logbook. Just because the FAA has blessed someone with the initials CFI doesn't mean that person understands teaching or students. For far too many, it's a checkbox to get hours so they can stop being CFIs.
 
murphey said:
Late afternoon in the summer. Where are you located? Be prepared for hot weather - little airplanes are flying greenhouses. I'm surprised the school scheduled you for that time. Early mornings are cooler, more comfortable for flying in little airplanes.
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I'm located in So-Cal, I asked for a late time. The airport is only 3 miles from my work. I would do early, just a conflict of work.
 
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