Learning to fly

[Chairboy]

Hi guys,

A friend of mine wants to fly, so for christmas I'm getting him the Jeppeson book, a pilots log, an intro flight, and an hour rental w/ instructor of a Piper Warrior to get him started.  I was at the place today looking at the walls, and suddenly thought 'Why the hell aren't I doing this too?'

Couldn't think of a good reason, so I got the wife's OK and think I'll be starting right away too.  Santa Monica airport is just a few minutes from where I work right now, so...

The only reason I didn't sign up right away is because I'm moving to Eugene, OR in a couple months and I want to find a flight school up there that'll accept me and let me continue my lessons if I haven't gotten my license yet.

Anyhow, wish me luck!

Regards,

Chairboy

[Maniac]

Cool.

Go for your dreams man.

[jigsaw]

If you're going to fly out of SMO avoid American Flyers. They're currently under investigation for abusing their self examining authority.

[ra]

The only reason I didn't sign up right away is because I'm moving to Eugene, OR in a couple months and I want to find a flight school up there that'll accept me and let me continue my lessons if I haven't gotten my license yet.

If your money is green any flight school will accept you.

But if you're moving in a couple of months you may as well wait.   Moving, and getting settled in, takes time, during which you won't have time to take lessons, so you will lose a lot of what you learned.  Start from scratch once you get settled in in OR.  
MHO.

ra

[ra]

Originally posted by jigsaw
If you're going to fly out of SMO avoid American Flyers. They're currently under investigation for abusing their self examining authority.

I hope nobody investigates me.

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by Chairboy
Hi guys,

A friend of mine wants to fly, so for christmas I'm getting him the Jeppeson book, a pilots log, an intro flight, and an hour rental w/ instructor of a Piper Warrior to get him started.  I was at the place today looking at the walls, and suddenly thought 'Why the hell aren't I doing this too?'

Couldn't think of a good reason, so I got the wife's OK and think I'll be starting right away too.  Santa Monica airport is just a few minutes from where I work right now, so...

The only reason I didn't sign up right away is because I'm moving to Eugene, OR in a couple months and I want to find a flight school up there that'll accept me and let me continue my lessons if I haven't gotten my license yet.

Anyhow, wish me luck!

Regards,

Chairboy

Can I be your friend too??

[Chairboy]

My family has already moved to Oregon, so most of the trauma of moving is over.  I'm sleeping on someones couch right now and flying up to be with my family whenever I can.  I've been in real flux lately, and faced some real challenges that I haven't mentioned.  My thought is that learning to fly would be a great distraction right now, and it's something I've been interested in for years, so I'd better do it now while I have time (since I'm seperated from my family).

With all that in mind, I still think I want to start lessons now while I have the momentum.  Just gotta find the right flight school in Eugene, OR that'll let me continue.  Any suggestions?

PS, I'm not going to American Flyers, I think I'll use Skyward Aviation.  It's funny you mentioned AF, one of the letters SA posted on their wall was a thank you letter from a previous student who mentioned trouble he had with AF.

[LePaul]

Good luck with it

Man, its $89 an hour for a C-172 here, add in $35 for the instructor and it gets expensive fast.  Haven't flown since 9/11 happened.  Prior to 9/11, rentals were $51 an hour (Hobbs meter, fuel included).

Love to get back into it...at some point.

[jigsaw]

Originally posted by ra
I hope nobody investigates me.

As long as you were properly supervised, you'll probably be ok.

Originally posted by Chairboy
With all that in mind, I still think I want to start lessons now while I have the momentum. Just gotta find the right flight school in Eugene, OR that'll let me continue. Any suggestions?

How long until you move?

[Arlo]

Originally posted by Chairboy
Hi guys,

A friend of mine wants to fly, so for christmas I'm getting him the Jeppeson book, a pilots log, an intro flight, and an hour rental w/ instructor of a Piper Warrior to get him started.  I was at the place today looking at the walls, and suddenly thought 'Why the hell aren't I doing this too?'

Couldn't think of a good reason, so I got the wife's OK and think I'll be starting right away too.  Santa Monica airport is just a few minutes from where I work right now, so...

The only reason I didn't sign up right away is because I'm moving to Eugene, OR in a couple months and I want to find a flight school up there that'll accept me and let me continue my lessons if I haven't gotten my license yet.

Anyhow, wish me luck!

Regards,

Chairboy

Good to hear. I take it the weight loss was a success, then. Good to hear that too. Good luck and have fun. Wish I'd finished mine. Soloed at 18 but didn't have the patience for the written exam and never went back to finish.

p.s. That sure was a generous gift, man.

[Chairboy]

He's a real good friend, so it's worth it.  The weight loss has been good, I topped out at 330 and now am down near 270.  I asked the instructor if my weight was ok, and he said yes.  I doubt I'll be flying the 152 with him, though.    I think I'll be learning in one of their Warrior's.

In regards to how long till I move, hopefully at the end of March.

[beet1e]

If you weigh 270, and your instructor weighed as much as 180, better check the runway length if you do fly that 152.

I have flown from Springfield/Eugene. The airport was called Mahlon Sweet, as I recall. There is (was) a good flight school there. Interesting terrain around there, what with the Lookout Point reservoir, Sunriver, the Cascade Mountain range - Diamond Peak and the Three Sisters wilderness area. (Each of the Three Sisters peaks exceeds 10,000ft.) I flew up the valley and landed at Bend. It was about 90 nautical miles.

When I was there in '91, it was $40/hr for the C152 and $15/hr for the instructor. One of the best flying days I ever had. I wrote it up for a British aviation magazine. I still have the .TXT file it you want it.

[SunTracker]

Flying a plane is like riding a motorcycle, it can be dangerous.

 Small single engine planes crash more than any other type.  My dad was a Lt in the Airforce auxillary and all they did was search for crashed civilian planes.  They went down alot.

But if your sensible, don't fly at night, dont try to fly over mountain ranges, don't fly in bad weather, it isnt too dangerous.

[jigsaw]

Get your medical/student certificate out of the way before you plan anything else.

The flight school should have a list of doctors in your area that can perform the exam. If they don't, let me know and I can shoot you an email with a list.

[eagl]

Although you need to primarily learn in the plane you expect to fly most of the time, and do your checkride in that plane as well, you will get some good experience if you get stick time in a few different types of planes during your training.  I found the C-152/172 to be great planes to learn and take a checkride in because it's easy to see the ground (and hence harder to get lost in!) but I also thought the couple of hours I got in a biplane, a GA tiger, and a mooney gave me a bit of extra experience and that always helps.

Slow and stable is your friend for your checkride, so avoid the trap of trying to get up in the sexy low wing higher power rides until you're done with your checkride.  Get checked out in those planes after your checkride and you'll save money on instructor time.