Want to learn to fly, add an instrument rating, looking to start making some money with flying by picking up your commercial certificate or even becoming a CFI I would be happy to help you reach your goal.
Every day you wait is a day lost from enjoying flying for fun or business. So let's get started.
This often called ground training. This is where you learn all about charts, navigation, radio communication, weather, weight and balance, etc. For the engineers amoung us this is almost more fun than the flying but for the average person this is just the price you pay to get to fly. There are a number of ways to get your ground training and it just depends on how you best learn.
Many of the local clubs offer ground schools for private pilot and instrument ratings. They typically run about 8 weeks where you meet once per week and you don't have to be a member of the club or taking your flight lessons there to take their ground school. These lessons are instructor lead which works best for some that have trouble studying on their own or like to ask questions.
There are a number of providers that offer online training, Sporty's, King Schools, etc. These are self-paced and available in multiple formats, DVD, iPad, web browser, etc. The drawback is that you don't have an instructor in front of you that you can pester with questions, but you can always call me for clarification.
All the information you need to become a pilot can be downloaded for free from the FAA. Kinda low tech but it works.
Once you have completed your ground training you will receive an endoresment that will allow you to take the written test. Nothing to be scared of here, like the rest of the docs the FAA even makes the question pools available to you.
The FAA has a list of skills you need to be able to demonstrate:
This is what you work on during your flight training portion. And it is works best if you do flight and ground training at the same time, they feed into each other.
Once you complete your training you are ready to show the FAA you know what you are doing. We scheudle you for a checkride with a FAA designated pilot examiner (DPE). Again the FAA has removed any chance of being surprised. The exact tasks you will be requested to perform and the criteria for passing are stated in a document the FAA will allow you do download for free, the "Practical Test Standards" (PTS).
The checkride starts with an oral examination where the DPE will quiz you on the ground material. The DPE will ask you the same type of questions you had on the written exam, assuming you have recently taken and passed your written this should be a slam-dunk.
Once you are through the oral it is off to the plane to go up and show your flying chops. Again the criteria for passing can be found in the PTS and your CFI will not send you to the DPE until he/she is sure you can perform to PTS levels.
In the past flight instruction was simply going up and working on a couple skills until you mastered them and then going on the the next skills. This approach works but it is makes for a better learning experience if your instruction is part of a mission.
We are going to fly to our pratice area and work on slow flight and steep turns. We will stay there until you master those or one of us gets tired then we will return to the airport.
We are planning a flight to Watsonville to attend a business meeting at noon. As part of our lesson we will evaluate the weather, the destination airport, investigate alternatives in case we run into problems like that evil marine layer. We will take off and start our flight to Watsonville and somewhere along the way we will work those steep turns into the flight. We probably won't make it to Watsonville but you will be thinking the big picture and exercising aviation decision making from your first lesson.
Scenerio based training (SBT) helps you see how the individual skills we must learn fit into the overall flight. Would you rather learn the piano by playing scales day after day or by learning your favorite song.
Learning to fly is not a cheap undertaking. There are steps you can take to control costs but understand you are making an investment into something you will use the rest of your life.
A portion of each flight is simply review. If you fly once a month your progress will be slow, flying once or twice a week and you will not waste as much of each flight getting back to where you were in your previous lesson.
But not too often, keep flights to a reasonable length and don't fly to the point you are no longer learning.
Before each flight you should know what is going to be covered in the upcoming lesson. Read up on the ground material, review the manuevers, and if you have a sim on your computer, fly a bit. All of this will improve your understanding and retention of the material covered in the lesson.
The FAA mandates a certain number of training hours to get your certification but this is not realistic and especially not here in the bay area. The average student can take 60-70 hours to get your private pilot cert. Again the goal is to emerge from training with the confidence to know you are prepared.
Everyone learns at different rates and it is common master some skills quickly and there will be times when you just don't seem to be improving. This is expect and should be anticipated. But believe me you will soon find the key and it will become second nature.
There is no magic here, the FAA has laid out exactly what you need to do to become a pilot or add a rating. What we are looking for in our lessons is for you to become proficient in the maneuvers and have a good grasp of the ground material. The Fun2Fly student portal will show you where you are in your training. The goal is to create a safe, confident, proficient pilot not to just checkoff some boxes.
If you know someone that would like to learn as well you can help each other out by allowing your buddy to ride along for your lesson and vice-versa. You will find while you are at the controls things are happening pretty fast, your flying the plane, listening to the instructor, watchting for traffic, etc. But if you are the buddy in the back everything slows down, and it is easier to "get it" so next time you are at the controls it will be easier.