8 ms·

How to get a Pilot's License in (just about) a week

180 points by joshwa 16y ago

noonespecial 16y ago
I learned to fly at Winchester Regional. All of these places are familiar. The Shenandoah is a fantastic place to learn to fly if you can. Once you get the stones to go in and out of Front Royal, drop me a line, we'll go out for a beer and talk about those power lines...
rubyrescue 16y ago
I spent more money than i should getting my license north of Seattle, and i don't regret it. it was a confidence builder and something i really recommend to hacker types - learning to fly is such a perfect combination of the technical and aesthetic, satisfying the need for beauty, freedom, and aventure and challenging your mind at the same time. Flying, after a while, can become routine and at a certain point the marginal value is low - it's expensive and if you're not going to be a professional pilot, it begins to seem like a very expensive and pointless hobby. but the experience of learning to fly is worth it. At the time i got my license it was a minimum of 40 hours so the sport pilot rating makes it a lot easier. however, i'm not sure that at 22 hours it's very safe to go up with someone else - it's easy to get overconfident in the pattern, make a turn a little too tight, and stall, and at 1000 feet above the ground, it's generally not recoverable. i didn't feel super confident in pretty much any situation (crosswind, busy airport, low clouds, etc) until around 80 hours. edit: pattern is the nice little box you make when you're flying around an airport, preparing to land... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfield_traffic_pattern http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfield_traffic_pattern
- diziet 16y ago
  How expensive is expensive?
  - spitfire 16y ago
    a cessna 172 burns 8gallons of 100octane fuel an hour. add min $60K for an airplane, depreciation, insurance, etc. Unless you go the homebuilt/experimental route. In which case you can fly something like a quickie q2 ($20-30K) and burn ~4gallons/hr of autogas. Oh also, the zenair zodiac 601 recently had a problem with its wings folding up in flight. Check that they've been corrected before you take a trip in one. Personally the sport pilot license bores me to death. Can't fly into busy airspace, can't fly more than 120mph or so, vfr only, single passenger, essentially overgrown ultralights.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    - jodrellblank 16y ago
      Can't fly into busy airspace, can't fly more than 120mph or so, vfr only, single passenger, essentially overgrown ultralights. I don't understand what any of those restrictions have to to with making flying boring. Flying is only fun when you can fly into busy airspace? Why?
      - ehnus 16y ago
        It's not just that you can't fly into busy airspace, it's that you can't fly into airspace where you need to talk to an air traffic controller for VFR flight (class B-D). If you live in or near a big city chances are that the airports out of which you will want to fly will be close to airspace into which you cannot fly. It a hassle if you have to drive out to the boonies in order to start your flying trip or if you have to take the long way around a large block of busy airspace.
  - rubyrescue 16y ago
    i spent around 15K and i have about 150 hours, in cessna 172s, a bit of time in mooneys, some time in a piper or three, learned how to fly in mountains and was about 80% of the way toward an instrument rating. So, i spent about $100/hr on average but i had about $120/hr of fun :)
    - raminf 16y ago
      Let's not forget the $100 hamburgers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$100_hamburger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$100_hamburger) :-)
      - jamesbkel 16y ago
        I was aware of the $100 hamburger, but from that article I found the link to 'Fantasy Flight'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_flight http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_flight "Fantasy flights are charity flights operated by a host airline for locally disadvantaged and terminally ill children to fly to a fictitious destination." I'm still mulling this over, but my initial reaction is very mixed/slightly negative.
- dotBen 16y ago
  Of the people I know who have a pilots license, the ones who seem pleased/proud/positive about it are those who are (lucky enough) to own/co-own a plane. As was pointed out with me, the right planes don't loose value/much value and so once you own a plane your running costs are low. Then you can book a weekend in Tahoe (I'm in SF) and just fly the plane out. The people for whom flying is expensive is, ironically, those who don't own a plane and have to rent. By the time you've rented (paid + time to organize that, you might as well just fly commercially)
  - bbatsell 16y ago
    It is absolutely impossible to fly somewhere cheaper than commercial whether you own or rent — it's pretty basic economies of scale. Private pilots do not do it to save money; they do it for the love of flight itself.
    - MichaelGG 16y ago
      Love of flight, or dislike of how dreary the TSA and current airlines make it?
    - Vivtek 16y ago
      This is something I've wondered about for a while. We have a family of four - where does that economy of scale start to tip the balance? At what point does the increment of cost for private flight get small enough that you say, "OK, for being able to fly out of the local airport on a day's notice, that's worth it?"
      - benofsky 16y ago
        I think it's unlikely that you're ever gonna reach a point where it's reasonable for a family but with say 10 executives who are paid thousands of dollars an hour, then it starts to make sense.
      - neurotech1 16y ago
        Try buying a plane ticket for business at the last minute, it isn't cheap. A Group of 2-4 business people, for a shorter flight, I'd imagine it would be cheaper to fly a Cessna. No queue at airport security.
- todayiamme 16y ago
  I can't afford to learn how to fly, but I've always wanted to do it. So, when I was a kid (8ish) my parents hooked me on aeromodelling, and I loved it like anything. I used to spend hours sanding away wood, which is quite incredible for an 8 year old. I know that isn't a substitute for the real deal, but for those of us who can't fork out 15K regularly for something it's worth it. Moreover, it's possible to make a drone these days. So, a lot of people over here could design a suitable balsa aircraft that could handle the payload and attach a battery with a small video camera to it and an arduino to control it. The biggest problem IMO would be the radio communication, but a lot of solutions exist for that too. I think that if someone is fairly dedicated they could make one for under $300 using spare parts, and it should be worth it too. As it scratches that itch in a much much cheaper way, and learn a lot about design too. A huge plus is that if you crash it your or other's life isn't, necessarily, on the line.
  - elliottkember 16y ago
    I used to fly slope-soaring gliders back in Auckland, and I can't recommend it enough. A slope soarer is a little indestructible foam-and-tape plane that you hurl off a mountain - the wind against the slope provides lift, and you're off. The basic kit was about NZ$300 including the radio - you had to glue it together, sand it and tape it, which no time at all compared to balsa. Aerial combat was the best. Plus, running up and down hills all day got me quite fit.
    - MarkBook 16y ago
      I upvoted you because i thought people were in these things a belief sadly shown to be false by http://www.shallowsky.com/planes/weasel/slopetips.html http://www.shallowsky.com/planes/weasel/slopetips.html Aerial combat should have alerted me!
- davidw 16y ago
  > such a perfect combination of the technical and aesthetic, satisfying the need for beauty, freedom, and adventure Nice phrase - I feel the same way about cycling:-)
- mcritz 16y ago
  I agree that 22 hours is a ridiculously low number of hours to be allowed to fly. At 40 hours you’re still a danger to yourself and others because of lack of expertise. It’s interesting calculus. Who is willing to rent their planes to Sport Pilots? What will this do to insurance costs? At the same time, this might be beneficial to the general aviation community. GA gets fucked by airports, insurance companies, and oil companies. Maybe if there were more GA pilots, there’d be more members of AOPA (a lobbying group for GA). Maybe Sport Pilots will continue their education and get more advanced certificates. More people flying is both a blessing and a curse.
  - ratsbane 16y ago
    I remember reading somewhere that pilot accident rates are high for very low-time pilots, then begin to decrease around 100 hours and then increase again between 500 and 1000 hours, perhaps as pilots become more confident than their skills deserve, and then from 1000 hours on, slowly decrease.
    - maigret 16y ago
      I can confirm hearing that also from flight safety experts.
- amazon8848 16y ago
  >Flying, after a while, can become routine and at a certain point the marginal value is low - it's expensive and if you're not going to be a professional pilot, it begins to seem like a very expensive and pointless hobby. but the experience of learning to fly is worth it. VERY well said! Exactly my experience!
maxklein 16y ago
What I'd like to do is learn to fly in South Africa. Think about it - travel somewhere exotic, explore the place not only on the ground, but also from the air, and go back home a pilot. Also, I heard South Africa is cheaper and have pretty high quality flight instruction.
- heresy 16y ago
  Hoedspruit in the Limpopo province is a good place to go for this, it has flight school due to it also being the location of an air-force base. It's also in a central location if you're the type of person who enjoys doing outdoor stuff. It's close to the Drakensberg mountain range (awesome hiking), like 100km from the Kruger National Park (recommended at least once), there's a lot of rugged touristy stuff to do. Weather is great. If you're coming with Euros it will be pretty cheap, just don't go to the tourist traps or decide you need to go do one of the package "safaris" as those are priced to what rich people can bear. Disclaimer: I am biased, I grew up 3 hours drive from this area.
bengl3rt 16y ago
This is really inspirational. I've always wanted a pilot's license, and now it seems that at least the first step is easier than ever. I am terribly afraid of single-engine planes, though. I'd probably get to sport pilot and immediately keep going to whatever the next level was that allowed me to fly twin-engines.
- snom370 16y ago
  You're far more likely to kill yourself due to inexperience, than due to engine failure or any other technical malfunction. You might also consider getting a glider license to fly motor gliders, as they give you more time and options to land if you're worried about that. From http://www.schiratti.com/humour.html http://www.schiratti.com/humour.html: Control: You're unreadable, say again. Motor-glider: I've turned off the engine, is that better? Control: (looong pause) :)
  - sohooo 16y ago
    I don't know the pilots DSL, but that link was fun to read :)
- jrockway 16y ago
  Well, there are no twin-engine sport planes; you have to get a regular private pilot's license and then get a multi-engine rating. Having an extra engine doesn't mean you are going to survive an engine failure. If you don't react quickly to the failure, you're in trouble. And remember, although a multi-engine plane decreases the chance of all engines failing, it increases the chance of an engine failing. So you increase your risk of Something Bad happening. People don't fly multi-engine light aircraft for safety, they do it for better performance. (AFAIK, anyway.) Single-engine planes have quite good glide ratios, and there are a lot of good places to land them. Try it in the simulator some time.
  - tom_b 16y ago
    Any recommendations on PC based simulator setups?
madair 16y ago
I was in Japan when I got my first drivers license. It took two weeks of expensive instruction, four separate official tests (two written, two behind the wheel), and I was told I was lucky I wasn't automatically failed on at least one of them which apparently is a common practice. I find it an interesting comparison, not as a value judgment necessarily. I guess I prefer difficult testing for both drivers and pilots considering that a awful lot of people kill & die all the time as both.
MarkBook 16y ago
Paramotoring looks more accessible http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlbQ0xbbpOQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlbQ0xbbpOQ
- nir 16y ago
  The electric one seems promising: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XagtVoAQuEw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XagtVoAQuEw
- astrec 16y ago
  I fly a paraglider which is essentially the same thing only unpowered. At around $10/hour it's within reach of most people. Takes around 7-9 days to get a restricted license in most countries. Then you just grab a friend, walk your back pack up the hill and, if the weather gods are agreeable, launch.
DavinCoburn 16y ago
Wow guys, thanks for the link! My tiny site just went from 100 hits/day to 3,800 last night. As an update to that story, I have continued flying — larger things, to more distant places. (Helping build a Sportsman 2+2 and flying to the Yukon were life highlights.) In fact, as rubyrescue said, that newfound sense of confidence has been key in trying for my latest adventure: Living for a month at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry (http://j.mp/9gtIuc http://j.mp/9gtIuc). If you’re curious, my application video — with stuff about flying — is here: http://j.mp/a7ESd0 http://j.mp/a7ESd0 /shameless plug Thanks again, Davin Coburn
- mhartl 16y ago
  Dude, that application video is awesome! Thanks for linking it.
dws 16y ago
The title is a bit misleading. The author mentions in passing that he took an at-home ground school course and passed the FAA written exam before flying. Studying to pass that test, and studying to retain some knowledge that can be useful when actually flying, can take more than a week itself. The other major omission is learning to fly in or through heavily controlled airspace. There are a lot of rules and procedures, especially radio procedures, to learn and practice, and they really need to be practiced with an instructor to get some of them to stick. An instructor can teach to you to communicate effectively with air-traffic control in ways that home-study courses won't. Expecting to learn that in a week and retain it is nuts.
jmg 16y ago
an amazing gift I received for a birthday one year was a gift certificate for a beginner flight. Something to keep in mind (or to ask for!)
unclebob 16y ago
This is a bunch of BS (just ask Ted Stevens and his fishing buddies). We might have fewer small plane accidents if people realized that flying a plane isn't as simple as it seems. Just knowing how to operate the controls isn't enough. It's also a matter of experience and the sound judgment that results from experience.
Groxx 16y ago
I've been interested for quite a while in investigating flying ultralight / microlight planes, maybe gliders or even pedal-powered planes. Haven't ever done so though, nor do I know at all where to start looking, and have nowhere near the money I'd need to actually do any of it. Until then, however, anyone here have experience with any of the above? Is it worth it? Anything major to watch out for?
cameldrv 16y ago
If you're looking to get into flying, and put off by the expense, try sailplanes (gliders). I learned first in gliders, and then got my airplane rating a few years later, but I still go out to fly sailplanes on the weekend, because gliding is more of a sport, and more engaging once you already know how to fly. More importantly, for a lot of people, it's much cheaper than flying airplanes -- typically less than half the cost. It's also a more social type of activity, as gliding is mostly organized around clubs, which exist to provide instruction and tow planes. You'll meet lots of great people in the club. In airplanes, you typically don't have a whole lot of routine contact with other pilots, because you just drive out to the airport, get in, and go. If you're interested, ssa.org is the national organization, and they have a list of local clubs.
clueless123 16y ago
By far the cheapest way to experience flying for the true love of it, is to join a soaring club. Sailplanes require far less maintenance and are cheaper to operate (try flying 5 hours for the cost of a tow + $20/hr rental) (in the US) Flying them is enormously rewarding as you are 100% concentrated on what you are doing, is quiet, peace full and depending on where you fly, you may be rewarded with spectacular views of the world from way above. Finally, for the inner geek, flying gliders competitively is a highly technical/mental activity, top pilots tend to strongly correlate with engineering and science professionals.
clueless123 16y ago
Flying is not inherently dangerous, but is terribly miss-forgiving of your mistakes. IMHO, getting a license in a week is just not enough enough time to get scared enough times to understand the risk/responsibilities involved with flying. You really need to give your brain the time to assimilate the reality of what you are doing , before you can really be a safe pilot. (Same goes for any other non-forgiving activity.. Skydiving, Paragliding, etc.)
run4yourlives 16y ago
He made a major mistake with his little "forget the plan, I'm going south" adventure on his last solo. What really gets me is I don't think he knows how much of a bad idea this really was... and more importantly how much this attitude could burn him in the future. Admittedly I don't know the eastern US well enough to understand how much of a detour this was, but a mid-flight change with limited daylight hours into unknown weather patterns is a good way to get yourself into trouble fast. A perfect example that suggests you should take longer than a week to fly an aircraft.

180 points by joshwa 16y ago

I learned to fly at Winchester Regional. All of these places are familiar. The Shenandoah is a fantastic place to learn to fly if you can. Once you get the stones to go in and out of Front Royal, drop me a line, we'll go out for a beer and talk about those power lines...

rubyrescue 16y ago

I spent more money than i should getting my license north of Seattle, and i don't regret it. it was a confidence builder and something i really recommend to hacker types - learning to fly is such a perfect combination of the technical and aesthetic, satisfying the need for beauty, freedom, and aventure and challenging your mind at the same time. Flying, after a while, can become routine and at a certain point the marginal value is low - it's expensive and if you're not going to be a professional pilot, it begins to seem like a very expensive and pointless hobby. but the experience of learning to fly is worth it. At the time i got my license it was a minimum of 40 hours so the sport pilot rating makes it a lot easier. however, i'm not sure that at 22 hours it's very safe to go up with someone else - it's easy to get overconfident in the pattern, make a turn a little too tight, and stall, and at 1000 feet above the ground, it's generally not recoverable. i didn't feel super confident in pretty much any situation (crosswind, busy airport, low clouds, etc) until around 80 hours. edit: pattern is the nice little box you make when you're flying around an airport, preparing to land... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfield_traffic_pattern http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfield_traffic_pattern

diziet 16y ago
How expensive is expensive?
- spitfire 16y ago
  a cessna 172 burns 8gallons of 100octane fuel an hour. add min $60K for an airplane, depreciation, insurance, etc. Unless you go the homebuilt/experimental route. In which case you can fly something like a quickie q2 ($20-30K) and burn ~4gallons/hr of autogas. Oh also, the zenair zodiac 601 recently had a problem with its wings folding up in flight. Check that they've been corrected before you take a trip in one. Personally the sport pilot license bores me to death. Can't fly into busy airspace, can't fly more than 120mph or so, vfr only, single passenger, essentially overgrown ultralights.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - jodrellblank 16y ago
    Can't fly into busy airspace, can't fly more than 120mph or so, vfr only, single passenger, essentially overgrown ultralights. I don't understand what any of those restrictions have to to with making flying boring. Flying is only fun when you can fly into busy airspace? Why?
    - ehnus 16y ago
      It's not just that you can't fly into busy airspace, it's that you can't fly into airspace where you need to talk to an air traffic controller for VFR flight (class B-D). If you live in or near a big city chances are that the airports out of which you will want to fly will be close to airspace into which you cannot fly. It a hassle if you have to drive out to the boonies in order to start your flying trip or if you have to take the long way around a large block of busy airspace.
- rubyrescue 16y ago
  i spent around 15K and i have about 150 hours, in cessna 172s, a bit of time in mooneys, some time in a piper or three, learned how to fly in mountains and was about 80% of the way toward an instrument rating. So, i spent about $100/hr on average but i had about $120/hr of fun :)
  - raminf 16y ago
    Let's not forget the $100 hamburgers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$100_hamburger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$100_hamburger) :-)
    - jamesbkel 16y ago
      I was aware of the $100 hamburger, but from that article I found the link to 'Fantasy Flight'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_flight http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_flight "Fantasy flights are charity flights operated by a host airline for locally disadvantaged and terminally ill children to fly to a fictitious destination." I'm still mulling this over, but my initial reaction is very mixed/slightly negative.
dotBen 16y ago
Of the people I know who have a pilots license, the ones who seem pleased/proud/positive about it are those who are (lucky enough) to own/co-own a plane. As was pointed out with me, the right planes don't loose value/much value and so once you own a plane your running costs are low. Then you can book a weekend in Tahoe (I'm in SF) and just fly the plane out. The people for whom flying is expensive is, ironically, those who don't own a plane and have to rent. By the time you've rented (paid + time to organize that, you might as well just fly commercially)
- bbatsell 16y ago
  It is absolutely impossible to fly somewhere cheaper than commercial whether you own or rent — it's pretty basic economies of scale. Private pilots do not do it to save money; they do it for the love of flight itself.
  - MichaelGG 16y ago
    Love of flight, or dislike of how dreary the TSA and current airlines make it?
  - Vivtek 16y ago
    This is something I've wondered about for a while. We have a family of four - where does that economy of scale start to tip the balance? At what point does the increment of cost for private flight get small enough that you say, "OK, for being able to fly out of the local airport on a day's notice, that's worth it?"
    - benofsky 16y ago
      I think it's unlikely that you're ever gonna reach a point where it's reasonable for a family but with say 10 executives who are paid thousands of dollars an hour, then it starts to make sense.
    - neurotech1 16y ago
      Try buying a plane ticket for business at the last minute, it isn't cheap. A Group of 2-4 business people, for a shorter flight, I'd imagine it would be cheaper to fly a Cessna. No queue at airport security.
todayiamme 16y ago
I can't afford to learn how to fly, but I've always wanted to do it. So, when I was a kid (8ish) my parents hooked me on aeromodelling, and I loved it like anything. I used to spend hours sanding away wood, which is quite incredible for an 8 year old. I know that isn't a substitute for the real deal, but for those of us who can't fork out 15K regularly for something it's worth it. Moreover, it's possible to make a drone these days. So, a lot of people over here could design a suitable balsa aircraft that could handle the payload and attach a battery with a small video camera to it and an arduino to control it. The biggest problem IMO would be the radio communication, but a lot of solutions exist for that too. I think that if someone is fairly dedicated they could make one for under $300 using spare parts, and it should be worth it too. As it scratches that itch in a much much cheaper way, and learn a lot about design too. A huge plus is that if you crash it your or other's life isn't, necessarily, on the line.
- elliottkember 16y ago
  I used to fly slope-soaring gliders back in Auckland, and I can't recommend it enough. A slope soarer is a little indestructible foam-and-tape plane that you hurl off a mountain - the wind against the slope provides lift, and you're off. The basic kit was about NZ$300 including the radio - you had to glue it together, sand it and tape it, which no time at all compared to balsa. Aerial combat was the best. Plus, running up and down hills all day got me quite fit.
  - MarkBook 16y ago
    I upvoted you because i thought people were in these things a belief sadly shown to be false by http://www.shallowsky.com/planes/weasel/slopetips.html http://www.shallowsky.com/planes/weasel/slopetips.html Aerial combat should have alerted me!
davidw 16y ago
> such a perfect combination of the technical and aesthetic, satisfying the need for beauty, freedom, and adventure Nice phrase - I feel the same way about cycling:-)
mcritz 16y ago
I agree that 22 hours is a ridiculously low number of hours to be allowed to fly. At 40 hours you’re still a danger to yourself and others because of lack of expertise. It’s interesting calculus. Who is willing to rent their planes to Sport Pilots? What will this do to insurance costs? At the same time, this might be beneficial to the general aviation community. GA gets fucked by airports, insurance companies, and oil companies. Maybe if there were more GA pilots, there’d be more members of AOPA (a lobbying group for GA). Maybe Sport Pilots will continue their education and get more advanced certificates. More people flying is both a blessing and a curse.
- ratsbane 16y ago
  I remember reading somewhere that pilot accident rates are high for very low-time pilots, then begin to decrease around 100 hours and then increase again between 500 and 1000 hours, perhaps as pilots become more confident than their skills deserve, and then from 1000 hours on, slowly decrease.
  - maigret 16y ago
    I can confirm hearing that also from flight safety experts.
amazon8848 16y ago
>Flying, after a while, can become routine and at a certain point the marginal value is low - it's expensive and if you're not going to be a professional pilot, it begins to seem like a very expensive and pointless hobby. but the experience of learning to fly is worth it. VERY well said! Exactly my experience!

maxklein 16y ago

What I'd like to do is learn to fly in South Africa. Think about it - travel somewhere exotic, explore the place not only on the ground, but also from the air, and go back home a pilot. Also, I heard South Africa is cheaper and have pretty high quality flight instruction.

heresy 16y ago
Hoedspruit in the Limpopo province is a good place to go for this, it has flight school due to it also being the location of an air-force base. It's also in a central location if you're the type of person who enjoys doing outdoor stuff. It's close to the Drakensberg mountain range (awesome hiking), like 100km from the Kruger National Park (recommended at least once), there's a lot of rugged touristy stuff to do. Weather is great. If you're coming with Euros it will be pretty cheap, just don't go to the tourist traps or decide you need to go do one of the package "safaris" as those are priced to what rich people can bear. Disclaimer: I am biased, I grew up 3 hours drive from this area.

bengl3rt 16y ago

This is really inspirational. I've always wanted a pilot's license, and now it seems that at least the first step is easier than ever. I am terribly afraid of single-engine planes, though. I'd probably get to sport pilot and immediately keep going to whatever the next level was that allowed me to fly twin-engines.

snom370 16y ago
You're far more likely to kill yourself due to inexperience, than due to engine failure or any other technical malfunction. You might also consider getting a glider license to fly motor gliders, as they give you more time and options to land if you're worried about that. From http://www.schiratti.com/humour.html http://www.schiratti.com/humour.html: Control: You're unreadable, say again. Motor-glider: I've turned off the engine, is that better? Control: (looong pause) :)
- sohooo 16y ago
  I don't know the pilots DSL, but that link was fun to read :)
jrockway 16y ago
Well, there are no twin-engine sport planes; you have to get a regular private pilot's license and then get a multi-engine rating. Having an extra engine doesn't mean you are going to survive an engine failure. If you don't react quickly to the failure, you're in trouble. And remember, although a multi-engine plane decreases the chance of all engines failing, it increases the chance of an engine failing. So you increase your risk of Something Bad happening. People don't fly multi-engine light aircraft for safety, they do it for better performance. (AFAIK, anyway.) Single-engine planes have quite good glide ratios, and there are a lot of good places to land them. Try it in the simulator some time.
- tom_b 16y ago
  Any recommendations on PC based simulator setups?

madair 16y ago

I was in Japan when I got my first drivers license. It took two weeks of expensive instruction, four separate official tests (two written, two behind the wheel), and I was told I was lucky I wasn't automatically failed on at least one of them which apparently is a common practice. I find it an interesting comparison, not as a value judgment necessarily. I guess I prefer difficult testing for both drivers and pilots considering that a awful lot of people kill & die all the time as both.

MarkBook 16y ago

Paramotoring looks more accessible http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlbQ0xbbpOQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlbQ0xbbpOQ

nir 16y ago
The electric one seems promising: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XagtVoAQuEw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XagtVoAQuEw
astrec 16y ago
I fly a paraglider which is essentially the same thing only unpowered. At around $10/hour it's within reach of most people. Takes around 7-9 days to get a restricted license in most countries. Then you just grab a friend, walk your back pack up the hill and, if the weather gods are agreeable, launch.

DavinCoburn 16y ago

Wow guys, thanks for the link! My tiny site just went from 100 hits/day to 3,800 last night. As an update to that story, I have continued flying — larger things, to more distant places. (Helping build a Sportsman 2+2 and flying to the Yukon were life highlights.) In fact, as rubyrescue said, that newfound sense of confidence has been key in trying for my latest adventure: Living for a month at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry (http://j.mp/9gtIuc http://j.mp/9gtIuc). If you’re curious, my application video — with stuff about flying — is here: http://j.mp/a7ESd0 http://j.mp/a7ESd0 /shameless plug Thanks again, Davin Coburn

mhartl 16y ago
Dude, that application video is awesome! Thanks for linking it.

dws 16y ago

The title is a bit misleading. The author mentions in passing that he took an at-home ground school course and passed the FAA written exam before flying. Studying to pass that test, and studying to retain some knowledge that can be useful when actually flying, can take more than a week itself. The other major omission is learning to fly in or through heavily controlled airspace. There are a lot of rules and procedures, especially radio procedures, to learn and practice, and they really need to be practiced with an instructor to get some of them to stick. An instructor can teach to you to communicate effectively with air-traffic control in ways that home-study courses won't. Expecting to learn that in a week and retain it is nuts.

jmg 16y ago

an amazing gift I received for a birthday one year was a gift certificate for a beginner flight. Something to keep in mind (or to ask for!)

unclebob 16y ago

This is a bunch of BS (just ask Ted Stevens and his fishing buddies). We might have fewer small plane accidents if people realized that flying a plane isn't as simple as it seems. Just knowing how to operate the controls isn't enough. It's also a matter of experience and the sound judgment that results from experience.

Groxx 16y ago

I've been interested for quite a while in investigating flying ultralight / microlight planes, maybe gliders or even pedal-powered planes. Haven't ever done so though, nor do I know at all where to start looking, and have nowhere near the money I'd need to actually do any of it. Until then, however, anyone here have experience with any of the above? Is it worth it? Anything major to watch out for?

cameldrv 16y ago

If you're looking to get into flying, and put off by the expense, try sailplanes (gliders). I learned first in gliders, and then got my airplane rating a few years later, but I still go out to fly sailplanes on the weekend, because gliding is more of a sport, and more engaging once you already know how to fly. More importantly, for a lot of people, it's much cheaper than flying airplanes -- typically less than half the cost. It's also a more social type of activity, as gliding is mostly organized around clubs, which exist to provide instruction and tow planes. You'll meet lots of great people in the club. In airplanes, you typically don't have a whole lot of routine contact with other pilots, because you just drive out to the airport, get in, and go. If you're interested, ssa.org is the national organization, and they have a list of local clubs.

clueless123 16y ago

By far the cheapest way to experience flying for the true love of it, is to join a soaring club. Sailplanes require far less maintenance and are cheaper to operate (try flying 5 hours for the cost of a tow + $20/hr rental) (in the US) Flying them is enormously rewarding as you are 100% concentrated on what you are doing, is quiet, peace full and depending on where you fly, you may be rewarded with spectacular views of the world from way above. Finally, for the inner geek, flying gliders competitively is a highly technical/mental activity, top pilots tend to strongly correlate with engineering and science professionals.

clueless123 16y ago

Flying is not inherently dangerous, but is terribly miss-forgiving of your mistakes. IMHO, getting a license in a week is just not enough enough time to get scared enough times to understand the risk/responsibilities involved with flying. You really need to give your brain the time to assimilate the reality of what you are doing , before you can really be a safe pilot. (Same goes for any other non-forgiving activity.. Skydiving, Paragliding, etc.)

run4yourlives 16y ago

He made a major mistake with his little "forget the plan, I'm going south" adventure on his last solo. What really gets me is I don't think he knows how much of a bad idea this really was... and more importantly how much this attitude could burn him in the future. Admittedly I don't know the eastern US well enough to understand how much of a detour this was, but a mid-flight change with limited daylight hours into unknown weather patterns is a good way to get yourself into trouble fast. A perfect example that suggests you should take longer than a week to fly an aircraft.