Summary Ensure family is fully prepared for pilot journey - career entails lifestyle changes & financial considerations. Find a flight school that fits your flying goals - smaller schools for hobbyists, academies for aspiring airline pilots. Locate flight schools in areas to avoid weather disruptions, and prioritize schools with good maintenance for efficient training experience.
There's so much to know about becoming a pilot . It can be rather tricky for aspiring pilots to wrap their heads around the amount of information presented at the outset of an aviation journey. Here are just a few considerations that might prove helpful to folks who are thinking about flying, whether as a hobby or as a professional career.
Make sure everyone is on the same page The number one piece of advice for an aspiring pilot is to ensure that their family is fully prepared for the undertaking ahead. This applies much more to someone who is eyeing an airline career than to someone who is curious about getting a pilot's license for recreational purposes, though this, too, comes with a lot of financial considerations. Aspiring pilots who are single don't have so much to worry about.
Still, individuals with partners (and children) should thoroughly plan for a somewhat different lifestyle from many other professions. Flight training might allow someone to stay at home, but their first airline job will more often than not necessitate commuting to work by plane or moving. Even if someone lives in a city where multiple airlines have crew bases, there's minimal guarantee that they will get hired and based in that city a few years into the future, assuming they get hired by their desired company.
Moreover, enrolling in flight training is a bit of a shot in the dark. There's no true tell as to whether someone's aptitude is geared toward being a pilot. People from many walks of life, backgrounds, cultures, etc.
, thrive as pilots. Still, it's nearly impossible to know whether or not someone has the natural aptitude to fly before they enroll in flight school and start working towards their private pilot certificate. Starting flight school is akin to betting on oneself—there's a lot you can do to assure a positive outcome, but there's not much certainty.
The people closest to you must understand this and be fully prepared for the journey. Find a flight school that suits your needs Determining the proper flight training environment is one of the most impactful things a new pilot can do to enhance their learning experience. More specifically, an aspiring pilot should determine whether they want to pursue flying casually or professionally.
A smaller flight school may best serve individuals who wish to fly as a hobby with a slower-paced curriculum. This kind of flight school might also encourage self-studying instead of the more formal ground school classes required under Part 141. The smaller school, go-at-you-own-pace methodology, and self-instruction are usually money savers if someone is interested in earning a private pilot's certificate.
Aspiring pilots with airline ambitions are often better served by finding a flight school specializing in complete training courses. These schools are usually called flight training academies because of the expeditious syllabi they utilize to guide students through training from zero experience to the commercial or flight instructor level. Flight training academies in the US operate under either Part 61 or 141.
The modus operandi changes a few of the hours requirements for specific certificates, but the result is the same. It should be noted that flight training academies almost exclusively use Part 141 because they allow the school to tailor their syllabi to meet the needs of airline-oriented student groups. These Part 141 schools are audited and approved by the FAA regularly to ensure their methodologies are working as intended.
Smaller flight schools tend to teach under Part 61, but this doesn't mean that the quality of the training is lower than that of a Part 141 counterpart. Finding ways to train efficiently Finding a flight school in the right place is also a significant undertaking. Students willing and able to relocate for their training are best served by finding a school in a predictably sunny part of the world.
Places like Australia, the Middle East, Arizona, and Florida are hotspots for aviation training because of their year-round sunshine. Low clouds, fog, and instrument conditions are perhaps the most significant slowdowns to flight training. There's not much students or instructors can do for private or commercial pilot students when the weather doesn't allow for visual flight since most flight training consists of practicing visual maneuvers.
The academy is the largest flight training company in the United States. Most maneuvers (ground reference aside) require flying 3-4,000 feet above the ground for safety. This isn't possible in many places during the fall and winter months, which can dampen training.
Even if the student is in instrument training, where flying through clouds and low visibility are bonuses, the planes that students use to train need to remain outside of icing conditions. Suppose the temperature is near or below freezing. In that case, clouds and other forms of precipitation are an immediate disqualifier for training flights, even if the student is working on an instrument rating.
Maintenance practices Another essential flight training element is finding a school with a strong maintenance department. Aside from the weather, good maintenance (or a lack thereof) is an enormous indicator of how efficient student training will be. Planes are complicated machines, and those used for training are put through countless engine starts, takeoffs, landings, and maneuvers daily.
Training aircraft require the most maintenance every month out of the general aviation fleet, so flight schools must have their maintenance sorted out to deliver a predictable student experience. It's recommended that prospective students visit potential flight schools and ask about their fleet maintenance programs. Some of the best schools have "progressive" inspections where their planes are pulled off the line at pre-defined hour intervals to conduct preventative maintenance in compliance with letters of agreement from the aviation regulator (FAA, for example).
Large schools also have line maintenance to address maintenance issues during day-to-day operations. This keeps the fleet flying and students moving through their training syllabus at predictable rates. Nothing is more deflating than preparing for a lesson only to show up and have the plane offline due to maintenance.
Proper maintenance protocols can significantly reduce the likelihood of this occurring. Anyone can learn to fly Learning to fly is one of the most exciting things anyone can do. The allure of becoming a pilot can be dampened by the effort it takes to figure out all the information, but with the proper research and mentorship, there's no limit on who can become a pilot.
With this in mind, one last tidbit: find a mentor you trust who understands the aviation world and has walked the path you're curious about embarking on. There's perhaps no more valuable resource than a mentor. Flight instructing is one of the most fulfilling professions, and new challenges keep things interesting.
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