Sunday, November 29, 2009

Beginners Guide To Getting Your Private Pilot License

By Bruce Hogan

Like most of us once, we have decided to embark on an adventure, we are anxious to get right at it. It is no different when it comes to one wanting to obtain their private pilot?s license. Once of the first questions you probably want to answer is how much of your time is it going to take to achieve your goal. There is no one answer to this. Its dependant on many factors. First, it depends on the location of your training and what is available. Are there several training facilities or just one? Do they operate full time or part time? Is there a waiting list to get in? These are all questions geared towards how long it will take.

Some of your decisions will structure the time frame. For example do you want to learn to fly in a rural setting where there is not much traffic or are you going to opt for city training where there is high traffic volume. There are good and bad points to both scenarios. It would be ideal if you could have the best of both worlds. Learning to fly in both a country setting as well as a city setting would certainly hone your skills as an upcoming pilot.

If your training is taking place in the city, you are going to be dealing with multiple runways, numerous other planes and even navigating landings via the winds. These factors are not so evident in the rural setting. No matter which setting you choose you will still have to learn the same flying techniques and skills. FAA regulations stipulate that you must be able to land and take off from a landing strip that has air traffic control via their tower.

Once you start your research for locating a flight training school, you will encounter both approved and non approved schools. This does not mean that the non approved schools are inferior. There was a large demand for pilots to carry out military operations as well as a requirement for commercial pilots. This demand created the birth of the approved flight training schools. Private Pilots remained and still do with the smaller non-approved flight training schools. The majority of these candidate want their private pilots license for recreational use or in some cases small business endeavors. All schools no matter whether approved or non approved must adhere to the same certification standards and regulations. The most noticeable difference between the two types of Schools is the non-approved have small operating budgets so they tend to teach at smaller airfields with most basic planes. They have smaller student quotas and the instructors are not paid the high salaries found at the approved schools.

When it comes down to how long it will actually take you will primarily depend on whether you can donate a full time schedule to your training or whether you can only intermittently attend training. In addition to this is available of room in the course. If flight training schools are scarce in your area then there maybe a waiting period to get in.

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