Author Topic: Private Pilot's License  (Read 47653 times)

Offline yehuda S

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Private Pilot's License
« on: November 17, 2014, 05:25:02 PM »
Does anyone here have one?

I was wondering how far a pilot could fly himself and/or family for vacation. Could he theoretically go cross country?

I tried searching online but not much info.
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Offline chucksterace

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2014, 05:29:54 PM »
Does anyone here have one?

I was wondering how far a pilot could fly himself and/or family for vacation. Could he theoretically go cross country?

I tried searching online but not much info.

My brother has one.. Going to work on mine hopefully in the next year or two..

Depending which license you have, the most basic one you can fly however far the plane gets you. And yes, you can fly family..
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Offline Achas Veachas

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2014, 05:33:26 PM »
Does anyone here have one?

I was wondering how far a pilot could fly himself and/or family for vacation. Could he theoretically go cross country?

I tried searching online but not much info.
Theoretically you can fly across the country (assuming the plane lets you or with stops for refueling). Practically you are bound to come across weather and a long trip and may want to get your instrument rating first.

Offline Emkay

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2014, 05:35:12 PM »

the most basic one you can fly however far the plane gets you.
which isn't very far, usually a couple hundred miles at best

Offline yehuda S

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2014, 05:38:55 PM »
Theoretically you can fly across the country (assuming the plane lets you or with stops for refueling). Practically you are bound to come across weather and a long trip and may want to get your instrument rating first.
Do people with license actually use it to go places? Or is it generally to go up on a sunday and do loop-de-loops?
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Offline coralsnake

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2014, 05:39:56 PM »
Do people with license actually use it to go places? Or is it generally to go up on a sunday and do loop-de-loops?
I had a friend who had one and used to rent a plane to fly to FL for the day.
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Offline meshugener

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Offline coralsnake

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #7 on: November 17, 2014, 05:42:18 PM »
Does anyone here have one?

I was wondering how far a pilot could fly himself and/or family for vacation. Could he theoretically go cross country?

I tried searching online but not much info.
You can get all the info you want by calling the flight schools at the smaller airports. Farmingdale in NY and Teterboro in NJ are 2 examples.

The flight school websites have info as well.
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Offline VacationLover

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #8 on: November 17, 2014, 07:39:48 PM »
which isn't very far, usually a couple hundred miles at best
Actually a "Bush" plane, which is a tiny 4 seater and is a very popular plane, can fly 2k+ miles without refueling.

I have a National Geography video at home about a pilot who flew with his bush plane around the entire world in 2 month.   

Offline VacationLover

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Offline ilherman

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #10 on: November 17, 2014, 07:57:45 PM »
About how much does the training cost?
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Offline Achas Veachas

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #11 on: November 17, 2014, 07:58:33 PM »
About how much does the training cost?
Between 6 and 10K around.

Offline ilherman

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #12 on: November 17, 2014, 08:02:34 PM »
Between 6 and 10K around.
Huh? I would assume it costs much more... Just renting out the aircraft and paying fuel every time you actually take a lesson in the sky would cost that much...
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Offline Achas Veachas

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #13 on: November 17, 2014, 08:06:34 PM »
Huh? I would assume it costs much more... Just renting out the aircraft and paying fuel every time you actually take a lesson in the sky would cost that much...
Dunno that's what a Pilot Instructor friend of mine told me. Maybe he was giving me a price but it didn't sound like it.

Offline chucksterace

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #14 on: November 17, 2014, 08:08:49 PM »
Huh? I would assume it costs much more... Just renting out the aircraft and paying fuel every time you actually take a lesson in the sky would cost that much...

Nope..

You need around 40 hours, 20 with a instructor. The place I know is $80 a hour for the plane and $50 for a instructor per hour.

Plane - $90/hr x 40 hours = $3,600.
Instructor - $50/hr x 20 hours = $1,000.

Plus a little more for books, test, etc...

For all in could be less than $5,000. But you might want to put in extra hours, extra instructor time, etc..
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Offline VacationLover

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #15 on: November 17, 2014, 08:10:11 PM »
Huh? I would assume it costs much more... Just renting out the aircraft and paying fuel every time you actually take a lesson in the sky would cost that much...
Don't you know that fuel prices dropped lately? Just kidding!!

A majority time of the courses are not in the air.

Offline Achas Veachas

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #16 on: November 17, 2014, 08:11:01 PM »
Nope..

You need around 40 hours, 20 with a instructor. The place I know is $80 a hour for the plane and $50 for a instructor per hour.

Plane - $90/hr x 40 hours = $3,600.
Instructor - $50/hr x 20 hours = $1,000.

Plus a little more for books, test, etc...

For all in could be less than $5,000. But you might want to put in extra hours, extra instructor time, etc..
Yeah he said the 6K was minimum but most people need more hours.

Offline chucksterace

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #17 on: November 17, 2014, 08:12:32 PM »
Yeah he said the 6K was minimum but most people need more hours.

Also depends where you fly, these prices are from a place about an hr out of Chicago in the middle of nowhere.. if you go to Palwaukee or someplace closer you can easily pay around $1,000-$2,000 more.
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Offline Achas Veachas

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #18 on: November 17, 2014, 08:17:18 PM »
Yeah this guy is out of KFRG

Offline shtank

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Re: Private Pilot's License
« Reply #19 on: November 17, 2014, 08:23:48 PM »
I have one. Flew some friends to Pittsburgh for a bris (2.75 hours each way), proposed to my wife on the plane, went with my wife for thanksgiving weekend to Newport, RI, and flew into JFK not to mention the umpteen trips up and down the Hudson River I've done.
You can fly cross-country, but in the basic Pipers and Cessnas, total flight time would be about 40 hrs or more (RT). The most these planes can fly is about 5 hours depending on how much you load up on fuel and a myriad of other factors. So, you're talking minimum 8 stops along the way. It would be a great "road trip" type deal. Other factors to consider include weather and cost. Assuming you have luggage and full fuel, you really can only take 2 people at a time and that would set you back about 4 grand just in flying costs even if you get what I consider to be an amazing rate of about $100/hour. So this would not be to try and save money. Flying is an expensive hobby but not too expensive if done properly. All of the metrics I have mentioned change considerably depending on what type of plane you fly, whether you own, rent or join a flying club (more on that later), how often you fly and what types of licenses you get.
If you are looking to get your private license which entitles you to fly a single engine piston aircraft during the day and at night in relatively good visibility and not for-hire, then my recommendation for 99% of people is to join a flying club. Basically, a club is like a timeshare. The club may have 1 or more planes for use of the membership based on a (mostly) first-come first-serve scheduling system. Most clubs allow you to take the plane for up to a few days with a maximum cap of total "vacation days" per year. Basically, as long as you're a mentsch about it, they will be very accommodating. Clubs usually charge an entrance fee of about $400-$600 which is non-refundable. They also require a deposit of anywhere from $500-$5000 which is refundable upon your resignation from the club. There is usually a monthly maintenance fee ranging from $50-$150 a month. This does not include any flying time. Rates on flying are either "dry", which means that you are only paying for the plane and you have to pay for fuel or "wet" which means that the rate includes fuel (fuel is anywhere from $4.50/gal - $8 or $9/gal and these planes average between 8 and 10 gal/hr at cruise). One of the great advantages of joining a club is that they charge based on Tach time (which is determined by a meter hooked up to the tachometer and at cruise will usually match actual time flown hour for hour) as opposed to Hobbs time which is completely time based - if you turn on the engine, and an hour later you turn it off, you will pay for an hour even if you just idled on the tarmac (or sat in a long taxi line at JFK) the entire time.
A few other pieces of advice: Make sure you have all the money you are going to need to complete training before your first lesson. For me, start to finish I spent $7500 but I was extremely lucky since I b"H got an amazing instructor and was able to do most of my training in one summer (30 hours worth) upstate. A more realistic estimate is at least $10k. Also, make sure you have lots of time to do the training. Try for at least once a week for a couple of hours. If you only plan on doing an hour a month, then the whole thing will take you longer and cost more money since you will have to re-learn almost everything each time you go. It will also make you feel less accomplished. I flew solo for my first time after officially 8.5 hours (but the first 1.7 hours I wouldn't count in real terms since they were intro flights and didn't teach me much) and I felt amazing. If it takes you a year to solo, you're gonna feel pretty down (BTW, 8.5 hours is only doable with a really confident instructor in a really non-congested area like upstate NY. A young instructor won't take a chance with you at such low time and even a confident instructor won't be able to get all the work that's necessary to fly in controlled airspace done in that time).
BTW, there are a bunch of frum pilots out there and we all love giving each other support.
All-in-all, flying is amazing, but don't treat it as a mode of transport unless you plan on getting a few licenses (Instrument rating, commercial rating and maybe even more) and your own plane (so that you can tailor it to your needs).
I know that was a doozie of a post. Feel free to ask me anything else :)