5 Things I Wish I Knew BEFORE My Private Pilots License

Hey everybody, I'm Scott. I am a newly minted private pilot as of this past March, and as I reflect on the experience, it was certainly worthwhile, but I also have so many regrets. So many things I could have done differently to not only save myself a bunch of money, but also just make the whole experience a lot more enjoyable and worthwhile. So hopefully if you are a prospective private pilot, or if you're somebody who's already taken the plunge and is very early on in their lessons, you can avoid some of the common pitfalls and mistakes that I made to help yourself out. So without further ado, let's get started. The first mistake I made was paying for ground school. So this may seem a bit controversial. For those unfamiliar with how the process works, once you pick a flight school, you will have lessons in air with your CFI, and you will also have the opportunity to do lessons on the ground with CFI to prepare for your written exam, which you do have to pass in order to sit for your checkride. But please understand, with the written exam, 90% of the material, it's not rocket science. It is information and value dense, so you definitely have to study and put in the hours, but most of it can be self-studied, and it doesn't require a lot of hand-holding. So YouTube is a great source of information to learn about the written exam, and you can also even go to Google and pay maybe $300 to a reputable test company that will provide you with sample tests, quizzes, tutorials to help you with the self-study process for the written exam. I didn't do that. What I did was that I fell for the flight school sales pitch, and in addition to lessons in the air, I did lessons on the ground in which I was paying about $100 an hour to sit in a room with the CFI and basically have them read PowerPoint slides to me verbatim. It wasn't very helpful, as you can imagine. So that was my ground school experience, so I would highly encourage you to think twice before you go that road. My second tip is to experiment with CFIs. Once you join the ground, once you join the flight school, you will be assigned an instructor, and you'll be spending a lot of time with this instructor. I've come across so many private pilots who really didn't gel personality-wise or teacher-student dynamic-wise with their CFI, but they didn't want to hurt feelings. They didn't want to create an awkward situation, so they just stuck it out, and not only did that make the whole process less enjoyable because they just lacked rapport, but it also required them to take more lessons and spend more money because they weren't learning as fast as they should have because the teacher's style just wasn't getting through to them. Please understand, as with any profession, there are great CFIs, there are good CFIs, and there also are CFIs who are really just punching the clock until they have enough hours to apply to the regional airlines. So if you're with the CFI and you're studying, you're putting forth the effort, and you're really not progressing as much as you think, it may not be you. It may just be that you need to a different teacher or a fresh set of eyes. So I would highly encourage you to not be afraid of the churn rate there. Number three is really ensure that you are training in either a Cessna or just a common single-engine land plane. And that may seem obvious, but remember, your whole goal once you get the license is to be able to fly by yourself to various destinations on your own terms. And that will either involve you buying your own plane, or the more likely option is you joining a flight club and having access to their fleet. What often happens is that flight schools will basically allow you to fly in their trainer planes during your lessons, which are cheaper. So for me, I trained in what's called a sport cruiser. It cost $140 an hour versus the Cessna, which cost $189 an hour. So from my perspective, I was making a smart financial decision, but the sport cruiser and the Cessna are completely different planes. So once I graduated and joined a flight club, I had to spend money on a number of other lessons. I had to spend time learning a completely different operating manual before I could fly by myself in the planes that my flight club had available. So basically what I'm saying is, be willing to spend more per hour if it means that you'll be ready to immediately fly by yourself once you get your license. My fourth tip is to basically schedule an extra lesson per week beyond what you're comfortable with. So let's say you want to fly four times a week. Well, have five lessons on the docket for that week. Let's say you want to fly two times per week. Well, then have three lessons on the docket for that week. And that's because shit happens. And when I say shit happens, I mean weather. When you're a private pilot, the wind can only be so strong, the clouds can only be so low, the visibility can only be so bad before the flight has to be canceled. And trust me, weather will occur. And it is true what they say, that it's very easy to get rusty and it's very easy to forget knowledge. So flying once or twice a week really isn't going to cut it. That's really going to end up costing you a lot more money in the long run. And it's of course also going to take you longer to get your license. So three to four weeks is ideal, but schedule additional lessons on top of that because on average you won't make all of them. My final tip is to basically study immediately after your flight lesson. So what I'm saying is it's a lot more impactful for you to study for 30 minutes directly after your Saturday morning flight than it is for you to have your Saturday morning flight and then to study for two hours on that Monday evening, for instance. So once you have your flight lesson, you're going to have a debrief with your CFI, assuming they know what they're doing. They're going to tell you what you did well, what you need to work on, and what you guys will be learning on your next flight. And that's where it's really important for you to immediately exit and do some self-study and reflection. What I did was something called chair flight, meaning I literally sat in my chair and I imagined myself in the cockpit and I would practice the steps, the cadences to different maneuvers. And that really allowed me to accelerate the learning process even when I wasn't in the cockpit physically. So those are my big tips. Really think twice before paying for ground school. YouTube and online resources can get you 95% of the way there without spending as much money. Two is don't be afraid to switch CFIs if the chemistry isn't there. Three, make sure you're training in an aircraft that is applicable to you beyond your flight school years. Four, accept that weather delays will happen and schedule additional lessons in advance accordingly. And then five, practice immediately after. Don't wait. It'll be a much more efficient process. Thanks everybody.