What to Avoid While Flight Training (My Story)

I have a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Aerospace Engineering plus 10 years of experience being an aerospace engineer. I am the founder of Part Time Pilot which helps new student pilots navigate their training in a cost-effective way. Six years ago I decided I wanted to get my Private Pilot’s License. After four years of stress and ~$24,000 spent, I got my license. What a relief it was. I was told it would take 6 months and only cost me $10,000. Boy were they wrong. Was it something that I did? Why did it take me so long? I thought I was smart. Turns out… there was a TON I did wrong. However, none of this had to do with the actual skill or flying or knowledge that a pilot is required to know. It was due to a lack of understanding of how the pilot training industry works and the lack of understanding that flight schools are out to make money, not to get you your license quicker. So in order to help out some new students navigate this process much better and save themselves from wasting money by knowing exactly what to avoid while flight training, I am just going to tell my story. Once I get it all down on paper, I will go back and put what I have now learned I should have done and how that would have saved me time and money (these will be bold and in Green… because money is green).

My First Flight Training Mistake

To be honest, I thought that because of my knowledge of aerospace and my background that it would be relatively easy. I saved up some money and even got my company to pay $600 for my ground school. On my second flight with my instructor, I landed the aircraft by myself. Things were going great! I was flying 1-2 times per week on the weekends. I couldn’t fly during the week because the airport was in the opposite direction of my job and I was working full-time and already spending an hour or two in traffic per day. Then, the winter started to roll in. It became much more difficult to find time on the schedule during a sunny weekend day. Simply too many students were trying to fly at the same time and my training slowed drastically. Months later I was able to complete my first solo flight. The training remained slow and I was about ready to take my first dual cross-country but this was even tougher to find time for due to the weather and availability of myself and my instructor on weekends. More months went by. Then, I decided to make a life decision that I had no idea would hurt my pilot training as much as it did. I moved states.

My first mistake was not saving up enough money. I saved up only $1000 which is only 5-6 lessons. Once this ran out there was an additional limiting factor to my training and that was simply having the money to pay for lessons. This meant that there were some sunny weeks where I could have flown multiple times but didn’t because I simply only had the money for one lesson.

There isn’t much you can do about the weather. But one thing I wish I had done more of was scheduling more backup flights. For some reason, I felt bad if I put myself on the schedule too many times. I felt I was taking time slots away from other students. Be selfish, schedule multiple backups. Especially if your flight school uses a first come first serve scheduling system. Also, schedule as far in advance as possible and every time you come into the flight school check your current scheduled flights and update them as you find out more and more about your immediate schedule. So many things can cause a student pilot flight to be cancelled. You want to make sure you are covered so that there are no interruptions in your training. When there are interruptions there are re-dos and re-dos cost money and time.

I got a good job opportunity in a state and city I had always wanted to live. Not to mention my fiancé wanted to live too. These types of things happen. However, if I were to do it again I would have never started my flight training until after the move. At the time when I started, we were casually talking about moving. This should have been enough for me to think about the consequences. CHANGING FLIGHT SCHOOLS IS EXPENSIVE and missing time during the move cost me re-dos and re-dos cost money.

Wasting Money

The move took my time and money for a good month and it took me another month to save enough to pay for a few flight lessons. I started looking for flight schools but to be honest didn’t look that hard. I looked for airports close to my home because it was important that I wasn’t waiting in traffic all day trying to get to my flight lesson. I needed to be in and out to maximize the time in my day. I worked 9-10 hour days and really could only fly on weekends or early mornings. The first flight school that said “we can get you right back to soloing in no time” had my money.

Since I could only fly on weekends I was up against the most competition for scheduling an aircraft. Everyone wants to fly on the weekend. A flight school makes more money the more students they have. Their hourly rates can also be lower the more students they have and they can advertise for even more students. This can be a problem when it comes to scheduling an aircraft and the availability of an instructor or aircraft.

Just because a flight school has an hourly rate less than another doesn’t mean you are going to pay less in the end. They likely have a lower hourly rate because they have more students per aircraft. This makes it harder to schedule flights and harder to schedule backup flights when unforeseen cancellations inevitably come up.

I should have asked the flight school before I chose them “How many students do you normally have?” “How many aircraft do you have?” “How many instructors do you have?”. If they have anything less than a 4-1-1 ratio of student to aircraft to instructors than it is going to be difficult to schedule flights.

Troubles with Part 141

Little did I know that this new school was a completely different structure and curriculum than my old school. They had much more stringent requirements for getting a solo endorsement and many more to keep your solo endorsement because they were a Part 141 school. The sucky thing was that they could have taken me on as a Part 61 student (all Part 141s can do this) like hinted at when I spoke to them, but they didn't. While this was all good for safety, it was not good for my pockets. It had also been ~4 months since I had last flown but after just 2 flights I was feeling good again. In my mind I was ready to get back to soloing and continue on my training like the flight school had told me I would be.

Trusting a flight school that makes money off of me flying more and for longer was probably the worst mistake I made. Instead of taking their word for it I should have come prepared with questions. A question like “Do you have any added requirements for solo pattern work or solo cross-countries and if so what are they?” or “What specifically will it take me to get flying again” or “Are you a Part 61 or Part 141 school?”. I was stupid and only looked at their prices per hour. I should have gotten a quote from them. I should have sat down with my log book, told them what I had already accomplished and gotten a quote for what it would take me to finish up. I should have researched a Part 61 school with more leniency on training schedules and material.

That’s the thing about flying… it’s easy to get back the skill of flying and honestly, it’s not hard to fly. What’s hard is having the discipline to perform your checklists, correctly speak with ATC, know your emergencies down to the last step, know your maneuvers down to the last step, know your instruments, and react quickly and correctly to unexpected events, etc. etc. In other words, it’s the little things or the details and unfortunately, when you don’t use these, you lose ‘em. So I needed some refreshers on the little things but most of these things I could work on at home or during my solo’s.

But they wouldn’t let me solo until I had completed all their requirements. One of these requirements was to complete 15 different 25 question quizzes and have them reviewed and corrected to 100% with my instructor. This took easily 4 ground sessions. And because I was working full time and traveling for work, I could only meet my instructor on weekends and at the same time I needed to keep flying to stay up on my skill. But I couldn’t fly solo so I had to fly with my instructor. The instructor was always booked up on weekends and it costs more to fly with the instructor.

This is easily understood but I seemed to forget it too many times during my training. If you have to fly with an instructor, you have to pay for their time and it costs more than flying solo. So anytime you need practice in the pattern you should be doing it solo to save yourself money. Avoid having to fly with your instructor and losing currency on the requirements from the FAA and your flight school.

Finding the Right Flight Instructor

By the time I had gotten solo current at my new school, I had burned through all the money I had saved up and now had to fly on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis. This only added to the things limiting my training and meant I could only afford about 2-3 hours of flying and an hour of ground instruction a week. That’s basically one flight lesson and the before and after ground that comes with it. But I was determined and pushed ahead. Progress was slow but was progress. THEN, my instructor left for a commercial pilot job and I had to get familiar with a new instructor. This cost me at least a flight. Unfortunately for me, I did not choose this instructor and the instructor was not a good fit for my personality. He would yell and talk down to me while I was flying. Any small mistake was amplified and my positives were never highlighted. I was already stressed with the time and money that flying was taking from me. Flying stressed is NOT A GOOD thing. I powered through… and after about 6 months I was taking my first cross-country solo. Yippee!

I really wish I would have asked questions about their instructors. Questions like “How many instructors do you have?” “How long has each instructor been teaching here?” “How many instructors have goals to become a commercial pilot?” “How old are the instructors?” would have all helped me get an understanding of how likely it is that there would be instructor turn-over.

This also brings up a good point about flight schools having a standardized teaching curriculum among instructors. You should ask this before choosing a school as well. If it’s standard for all instructors at the school (it’s an FAA rule) then getting a new instructor shouldn’t change anything. That new instructor should be able to come in and pick right up where the previous instructor left off.

This was when I found out that the cross-country solo destinations are pre-determined by my flight school and the last 2 of the 3 required were to a desert location. The time gods were not on my side because guess what… it was July and the desert in July is hot (damn hot). That’s when I found out something else I never thought to think of! Airplanes have an upper operating limit for temperatures! And to make things better my flight school had one that was even more conservative. The school would not allow students to land at a location where the ground temperature was above 100° F. The two locations for my last 2 cross-country solos were getting to 100° F by 10-11 AM or earlier. So for a 2 hour cross-country this means I have to leave by 8-9 AM. But there was another problem. My flight school was located near the beach and gets a morning low-level cloud cover in the summers on most days until 10-11 AM.

I should have thought about the weather in both locations where I trained. In my first location, the weather from November to April was extremely cloudy and overcast. I should have waited another year and saved so that I could bust out all my training over the spring and summer. In the second location, I should have tried to avoid my cross-countries being scheduled in the dead heat of summer. However, I am not sure how much control I had over this. But if you are thinking about starting your training you can look ahead and estimate when you will be taking your cross-countries and plan ahead according to the local climate.

One thing I definitely should have done was ask the flight school “Do you have pre-determined cross-countries, if so where are they to?” This would have given me the foresight to possibly choose a different school that had more flexibility in completing the cross-country requirements.

I must have canceled my cross-countries 15-20 times due to these weather issues. Since I was only flying about once a week anyways that means 15-20 weeks with no progress. Then, once again, my flight instructor left for a commercial pilot job and I was now moving to my 4^th instructor. Luckily, my 4^th was my last and was a great one. The change in instructor and weather issues cost me a good 4-5 months of flying. But this didn’t mean I wasn’t flying and spending money. I had to! I had to meet the requirements for a solo cross-country endorsement and at my flight school this meant I had to meet their added requirements as well. Remember those 15 quizzes I mentioned? Well, I had to review all 15 of these every 60 days with my instructor in order to remain solo current. During this time I also had to travel for work. At one point I had to travel for two straight weeks. When I got back my quizzes were no longer current, my solo cross-country endorsement was not current, my solo pattern endorsement was not current, my cross-wind training was not current, and my “good for 6 months” solo endorsement was no longer current. This meant I had to review all the quizzes with my instructor, do pattern work with my instructor, do cross-wind training with my instructor, and do a dual cross-country with my instructor just to be allowed to schedule another attempt at the desert solo cross-country.

I also took a family vacation during this time. Although it was much needed for my mental health, it was bad for my pocket. If you can help it, plan ahead and start your training at a time where you will have 6 months of no travel and 6 months of relatively good weather (if you can help it)

Not doing Ground School First

Almost a year later (yes a year) I was able to finish up my solo cross-countries. The last portion of my training was now ahead of me and all I needed to do was simply prepare for my FAA written and FAA check-ride. I had not taken the FAA written yet (stupid) because I figured I would study for it the same time I would study for the FAA check-ride and oral exam. I guess this sounds good but it wasn’t as fluid of a process as it sounds. I had to study and schedule the FAA written, as well as pay for it, schedule it and pass it. Then and only then could I then take my in-house flight school check-ride. Then, only with my FAA written complete with a passing grade and my in-house check-ride complete could I get my endorsements to schedule my FAA final check-ride. While working full time and paying for everything on a paycheck to paycheck schedule this took another 6 months.

I should have taken my FAA written years before, after I took my ground school exam. The material was fresh at that time and I could have gotten it out of the way both financially and mentally. Finishing your cross-countries and preparing for the FAA check-ride and oral exam are taxing enough on the mind that you don’t need another test. Get it out of the way so you can focus on one less thing.

Scheduling a Checkride

I was finally able to schedule the final FAA check-ride after just over 3 years since I started this journey. My flight school had a specific FAA examiner they would have come to test their students. They did this to have familiarity and be able to tell their students what to expect from the examiner. This was helpful but it was also limiting to only have one examiner when trying to schedule a flight. Finding the right date took another month. And yes, I continued to fly and continued to study to not lose any skills or knowledge before my final check-ride. Another month of time and money spent.

Again, I could have found out more by asking my flight school a question about “Who does your FAA check-rides?” or “How many FAA Examiners do you normally use to test your students?”. You are allowed to choose whoever you want for your FAA Examiner but the school may have preferences and they may tailor their training to that specific FAA examiner.

The check-ride finally comes and the aircraft I have scheduled has an engine problem two days prior to the flight. I had prepared all my flight planning, airworthiness, weight and balance on this aircraft and now it was out of commission for weeks. My flight school, now feeling bad for me after 2 ½ years of training when they told me it would take no time at all, was nice enough to kick other students off another aircraft and let me take it for my check-ride. I still had to reschedule a week later because I needed time to get together the weight and balance, airworthiness, performance charts and flight planning for that aircraft.

The second attempt at a check-ride comes and I nail my oral exam (I mean I’ve been studying for years at this point so I should have). We walk out to the aircraft and the examiner watches me perform my check-ride. Plane looks good to me! I go to get in the aircraft and the examiner says “what’s this? Shouldn’t there be a bolt here?” Oh boy. So I go and see what he’s pointing at and sure enough a bolt is missing on the bottom of the nose cone. Luckily, he didn’t fail me for missing it but I still had to write a squawk and down the aircraft until maintenance could take a look, correct the issue and sign the aircraft off. This delayed the exam once again and we rescheduled.

Again, I should have found out more information before choosing a flight school. Questions like “Do you have a full-time mechanic?” “How many mechanics do you employ?” “Do your mechanics work weekends?”.

Also, this goes back to how many aircraft the flight school has compared to the number of students they have. Luckily, I was able to get another aircraft but since the school only had two working Piper Cherokees I was stuck with one without a bolt in the nose cone. This was both a fleet issue and a mechanic issue… as well as a pilot issue as I should have noticed the bolt.

This also added the difficulty in flying in a different aircraft than I was used to. Aircraft are different, feel different, and fly different… I don’t care what the flight school says… they are different and if you are trying to perform precision maneuvers, the differences will show themselves.

Summary

Three years and about 8 months after I started my first flight lesson was when I finally passed my final FAA check-ride. Wooof. What a relief that was. I had built up so much stress that flying was not fun for me anymore. It wasn’t until two weeks later that I flew with my fiancé for the first time as a Private Pilot did I remember why it was I started flying in the first place. It truly is a magical experience that everyone needs to experience if given the opportunity. But it made me think of all the things I didn’t know and all the things I could have done to make it so much less stressful and so much less expensive. I decided to start an Instagram with tips that can help steer new students away from the mistakes I made while also using my aerospace knowledge to make concepts easier to understand for those without an aerospace background. The Instagram (@part.time.pilot) has already gotten a lot of great feedback and it feels great to be able to share my experiences and help some people. This has led to me creating this course and the Part Time Pilot Online Ground School where students could go to get help whenever they needed it. I hope all the student pilots or future student pilots reading this do their due diligence before starting to avoid the pit-falls that I ran into. Flying is amazing and a life skill that no one can ever take from you. And trust me, it does not have to be done like me. It CAN be done in a cost and time effective way, if you listen to those who have been through it.