Paying for flight lessons

9 Answers

1. 
   

   
   

   Derek Schwalenberg on Jan 23, 2012

   The advantage of a loan is you can fly like everyday (weather permitting) until its done. However, paying as you go and going up once or twice a week has worked for plenty, myself included.

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2. 
   

   
   

   Micah on Jan 23, 2012

   I would save up the money before you start or, if you have a good grasp of your budget, save up a significant portion ahead of time with the expectation that you can put aside the rest before you finish*. But go ahead and get involved in as many fruitful ways as you can. It’s not such a bad idea to take a groundschool course (they’re cheap and should only encourage the desire to fly) and you should try to get to know some pilots and instructors in the area (an informed choice of instructor is best). You may even walk into some free offers (who doesn’t want to right seat for free?). But what I think you should definitely pursue is (with the acceptance of both the student and instructor) backseating other instructional flights. There are some things that you must perform to learn, but I think this observation is an undervalued experience. (You may want to wait until you start training yourself before you backseat; there are several reasons why this may be preferable.)
    
   *I usually advise my students not to start training until/unless they have enough money set aside to complete training. Using round, conservative estimates, you should expect to spend $150 hr x 80 hrs to finish training for your private pilot’s license. You may certainly be able to finish for less (than that $12,000 estimate), but it is foolish to start with a small budget (unless you don’t mind not finishing). If you are certain that you can save $500/month (for example) and you have a significant portion saved already then you may be able to determine how long you can fly with the funds you have and take a sensible approach to it.

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3. 
   

   
   

   Michael Ladd on Jan 23, 2012

   In a lot of cases, “paying as you go” means a couple times a month, not a couple times a week.
   Kevin, I did 2 things that helped me a lot. 1) I saved up a good chunk (about 1/3) ahead of time and 2) Our flight school offered “block time”. Basically, if you pre-paid 10 hours, you received an hour free (if memory serves). So I was able to keep saving up for the next block (about once per month), while I was using my existing, already paid for, block time.
   I know not all flight schools offer this, but it is something you can ask for.

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4. 
   

   
   

   Earl Kessler on Jan 24, 2012

   Training sporatically is like going to the gym once a month. It is better than not going at all, but not much.

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5. 
   

   
   

   Jim Foley on Jan 24, 2012

   I agree with everything above, and want to add something that has not been mentioned.  I (unfortunately) did fly whenever I had the money.  This meant that sometimes I would go a month or two without flying.  This caused me to repeat many lessons, since I forgot alot of it. 
   Also since I did take so long, many of the my flight instructors were just out of college, building hours, meaning that they were leaving after a few months.  Due to this, I had about 8 instructors throughout my private training.  Each time I got a new instructor, one or two flights was just so they could see what I knew.
   Lastly, by spacing the flights, my particular flight school bought and sold aircraft, as well as some aircraft were taken off of lease-back.  Meaning that I had to adjust to and get checked out in several different aircraft, which definatly threw off my game.
   All-in-all, I think you should save until you can have enough to be able to complete the training within about 6 months.  As Micah stated, waiting to begin FLIGHT training does not mean dealaying training.  Enroll in ground schools (I have seen some that are about a hundred bucks, and last a few months; great deal), go to seminars, and try do some rides in the back.  By doing these, you are being introduced to and learning what you need to know, before you put up the big bucks to rent the plane and instructor.
    

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6. 
   

   
   

   Wes Beard on Jan 24, 2012

   One word… Budget.  Figure out how much a single lesson is going to cost and multiply that by the frequency of lessons you want per month.  For example, if each lesson is going to cost $200 and you want to fly twice a week or eight times a month you will need to budget in $1600.  I would budget more for those cross country flights that are higher than the usual lesson.
    
   You may think this is a lot of money… and it is but you take on a second job in the evening to pay for it.  Delivering Pizza for example and you can easily cash flow this expense.  Unfortunately, unless you are planning on flying for a career, the expense of flying is a luxury on the budget.  Meaning it should come last out of the budget.  
    
   I admire your desire to fly and cash flow it.  It is going to save you thousands later on.  I have known people who are now debt free who delivered pizzas at night to achieve their goal.  THis is no different.  (The point isn’t that delivering pizza will keep you flying but that any second part time gig that brings in money will do the same.) 

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7. 
   

   
   

   John D. Collins on Jan 24, 2012

   I would agree with others that suggest that you save a good portion of your expected training expenses before you get started with the flying portion.  To keep your training costs to a minimum, you should plan to fly at least three times a week. For most people, flying less than this will mean you will be repeating lessons to get back up to speed. Flying involves building muscle memory, familiarity, comfort, and confidence. The longer time between flights works against these factors. I would expect someone with average abilities and flying three times a week would finish in under 50 hours.  Flying once a week would push this to 60 hours +/-, and once a month, to 80 +/- hours.
    
   Winter is not always the best time of year for working people to get your training.  The days are short which tends to force training to the weekends. Weather can be more problematic, especially if the weekend is a washout as it can mean that time between flights can span multiple weeks. 
    
   Finding a flight school that follows a curriculum, uses standardized training, and manages the students solo activity to a minimum will produce the best results in my experience. If at all possible, I would avoid schools that permit their instructors to fly charter, as this often creates a conflict of interest and you will find your lesson cancelled when the instructor has an opportunity to fly the charter.
    
   You ruled out a loan in your original question, and this is admirable.  But, if you are credit worthy, a loan may permit you to fly more times per week and easily be more a efficient way of keeping your total costs down.
    

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8. 
   

   
   

   Matthew Waugh on Jan 25, 2012

   So I’ll take a slightly contrarian view. Why are you learning to fly?
    
   If you wanted to play golf we wouldn’t tell you to save up your money so you could play every day because that was the cheapest wasy of getting on the PGA Tour. Most of us play golf for fun, and when we can afford a game of golf we go and play, and we may not be much better, we may even be worse, but we enjoy the game anyway.
    
   If learning to fly is the goal, you’re not on the fast track to the airlines, or some other driving force then fly when you can – it’s fun – it’s what you want to do. So it takes longer, it takes more money before you have a Private license. Flying is for diposable income for most people anyway. Dispose of it!
    
   If you want to fly, go and fly. It’s not a game to see who can do it cheapest, if you want a cheap hobby look elsewhere. If you want to have fun learning to fly, fly when you can afford it.

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9. 
   

   
   

   Bill Trussell on Jan 30, 2012

   I have long thought of the cost to learn how to fly as the equivalent of a good used car, or a semester at a reasonable university. Both of these items are typically paid for by a loan, the cost of which is spread across either the life of the vehicle or your lifetime in the case of education.  As flying is tyipcally considered a lifetime skill, I would encourage you to reconsider the idea of a loan to pay for your “education” when it comes to flying.  Have you considered a “friends and family” loan?  These can be formal or informal, but you can set the terms to be a very reasonable amount spread out over a longer period of time.  I agree that credit cards are typically not suitable for a long term purchase such as learning to fly, but there are other methods better suited for this opportunity.  I financed a lot of my initial flying by a job with a flying club, doing the billing and other financial tasks.  I received 3 hours a month in exchange for this service which helped a lot.  I borrowed the rest and paid it back over time.  That was 30 years ago, when an hour of flight time was $25.
   There are ways of getting this done, you just have to be inventive.

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