Interested in getting my PPL. Any pilots out there?

[Ez556]

Growing up I’ve always been around planes, my dad would always take me to the airport to watch planes take off and land, we would go to the EAA pretty often (I live about 1.5 hours from Oshkosh) and I even flew a plane as a kid at the EAA through the Young Eagles program. I’ve always seen people who fly/own planes as people who fly/own planes though, kind of a “them vs me” mentality, like people who own a race horse or people who own a vacation home in Hawaii. But then I ended up discovering a guy named Trent Palmer on YouTube and through watching various videos, it suddenly opened my eyes to the idea that people who own planes can look like me. Owning a plane doesn’t mean hopping from airport to airport, but you can explore the country, go camping, land places that don’t look like airports and have fun with a plane without being a millionaire. I found that you can do all these things with a plane that costs under $100,000, and if you get one with wings that fold you don’t even need to worry about hangar fees. All this led me to looking into getting my pilots license. Funds are always pretty limited, so all this is sort of a 10 year plan, but right now I’m looking at taking ground school through a highly rated course called Sporty’s Learn to Fly to take my FFA exam, get my medical done and then as I can afford it get my flight training done here with an instructor. My end goal is to build a Kitfox and see where that takes me as there are so many options and configurations you can build them in. I’d love to hear any advice from any general aviators on here, or just tell me about yourself and what you fly!

[Pinetreebbs]

I'm interested in watching this topic. I never got a PPL, just spent a few hours in a rented Cessna 172 with a buddy that was licensed. He let me fly the plane, the basics were pretty easy and while I wanted to fly more I decided a pilot needed to be 100% focused and knew that sooner or later I would probably change focus and decided not to pursue a license. It was also costly and I had a family to take care of first, so I stuck with my knife and firearm habbits.

Trent Palmer's videos are very good, though those pilots in his videos are very experienced and some of their planes are set up for performance over endurance and reliability, something Palmer does mention.

[bgcameron]

GPL, PPL, and then CPL and a float rating here. I owned a Cherokee 140 for 10 years which was a lot of fun but just turned into a financial headache in the end. The cost of maintenance and fuel went way up, and I ended up losing interest in making a career out of it so I sold it in 2014 and haven't flown since. I used the profits for a down payment on a house so I can't see me flying again soon!

The guy I sold it to died in a crash in his other aircraft, a Piper Malibu, because someone filled it with jet fuel instead of avgas. After that happened I remembered all the times that numerous aircraft mechanics made some big mistakes on my machine that could have cost me my life.

So my first piece of advice is this- pay attention and don't trust anyone. Complacency kills. I have lost a few friends now because of complacency. In the end YOU are the final person who is responsible for your own safety.

Second- Learn your machine inside and out. It is safer for you to know HOW everything works and not just "why". This will also help you when maintenance is required.

Third- give yourself lots of time in every aspect of a flight- from planning to parking your machine at the end of the day. It is so easy to miss crucial tasks when you are in a rush.

Lastly, learn as much as you can and have fun! Find a niche that you really enjoy and run with it. The most fun I ever had was in a float plane, because it gave you freedom to go places where nobody else could go.

[Ez556]

Trent Palmer's videos are very good, though those pilots in his videos are very experienced and some of their planes are set up for performance over endurance and reliability, something Palmer does mention.

Yeah, the frequent engine-outs and other “emergencies” they experience probably attest to that! I’d likely build/buy a tri-gear first and get a few years of experience with that before I convert it to something more difficult like a tail-dragger or a float plane. Eventually though I want to more back country type flying, probably never to the extent they do it though. I’m also thinking getting my PPL, gaining experience and logging hours now while I’m still somewhat young (24) would be extremely beneficial if I ever wanted to change careers down the road, as I’d be able to step pretty easily into it. It would be fun to accumulate various ratings such as IFR, seaplane, tail-dragger etc, and because I’d be logging hours just owning my own plane, if I ever wanted to get my commercial license I’d just have to do the 20 or so instructed hours and I could jump into any part of the industry I want. Or at least I think!

[Ez556]

So my first piece of advice is this- pay attention and don't trust anyone. Complacency kills. I have lost a few friends now because of complacency. In the end YOU are the final person who is responsible for your own safety.

Second- Learn your machine inside and out. It is safer for you to know HOW everything works and not just "why". This will also help you when maintenance is required.

Third- give yourself lots of time in every aspect of a flight- from planning to parking your machine at the end of the day. It is so easy to miss crucial tasks when you are in a rush.

Lastly, learn as much as you can and have fun! Find a niche that you really enjoy and run with it. The most fun I ever had was in a float plane, because it gave you freedom to go places where nobody else could go.

I really appreciate the advice! It’s cool that you are float rated, you can see I just mentioned I’m interested in that in my response to Pinetreebbs. I’ve been drooling over Kitfoxes with floats for the past few days haha. I’ve watched a few videos from the Air Safety Institute that detail various fatal and non-fatal accidents, and so many of them revolve around a mistake or something the pilot missed on his preflight, etc. That’s also a big reason I am looking at building my own kit vs buying used or ready-to-fly. In addition to being less expensive, I will literally know that plane inside and out, and as a mechanic I know how quickly a mysterious mechanism becomes simple to understand once you have all the pieces in your hand and need to put it together. From my understanding, maybe you can answer this definitively, if your plane came as a certified airplane (I think that’s the correct terminology, basically a complete factory airplane) you need certified people to perform maintenance on it, where if you have a homebuilt/experimental airplane you as the builder/owner can work on it without issue, which is what I would prefer for the reasons you stated. At least that’s my understanding.

[bgcameron]

I really appreciate the advice! It’s cool that you are float rated, you can see I just mentioned I’m interested in that in my response to Pinetreebbs. I’ve been drooling over Kitfoxes with floats for the past few days haha. I’ve watched a few videos from the Air Safety Institute that detail various fatal and non-fatal accidents, and so many of them revolve around a mistake or something the pilot missed on his preflight, etc. That’s also a big reason I am looking at building my own kit vs buying used or ready-to-fly. In addition to being less expensive, I will literally know that plane inside and out, and as a mechanic I know how quickly a mysterious mechanism becomes simple to understand once you have all the pieces in your hand and need to put it together. From my understanding, maybe you can answer this definitively, if your plane came as a certified airplane (I think that’s the correct terminology, basically a complete factory airplane) you need certified people to perform maintenance on it, where if you have a homebuilt/experimental airplane you as the builder/owner can work on it without issue, which is what I would prefer for the reasons you stated. At least that’s my understanding.

Correct, for most tasks I needed a certified AME to perform work. However, I could work alongside the AME and have him sign things off. Numerous tasks don't require any special know-how and anyone with a good mechanical aptitude can do.

Here (in Canada) there is a list of tasks that an owner can legally do without the need for an AME. Basically you can re & re any non-critical component of the aircraft. I am sure the FAA allows this as well since the CARs (canadian aviation regulations) follow FAA rules for the most part.

[yablanowitz]

My father has been a pilot for about 50 years. Instrument, commercial, instructor and multi-engine ratings, and has owned a plane since the early 70s. My observation of his hobby is "it makes my hobbies look cheap". Full blown Spyderco addiction can't compare to even a small plane for expense. Think of something you do to maintain your car, and you will have to do it to your plane three times as often and it will cost three times as much each time. The last radio he put in his Cessna cost three times as much as my home. It will give you a new perspective on "expensive" for certain.

I have flown with him and have taken a couple of lessons from other instructors as well, but I've never loved flying the way he does

[Ankerson]

My father has been a pilot for about 50 years. Instrument, commercial, instructor and multi-engine ratings, and has owned a plane since the early 70s. My observation of his hobby is "it makes my hobbies look cheap". Full blown Spyderco addiction can't compare to even a small plane for expense. Think of something you do to maintain your car, and you will have to do it to your plane three times as often and it will cost three times as much each time. The last radio he put in his Cessna cost three times as much as my home. It will give you a new perspective on "expensive" for certain.

I have flown with him and have taken a couple of lessons from other instructors as well, but I've never loved flying the way he does

It's really a rich mans game, or someone that is very well off anyway.

I have known a few over the years who are pilots, both prop and jet and they all say the same thing.

Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance.....

And that means MONEY, and that is not cheap so that means a lot of it.

Almost all of the small planes that I have ever heard of going down were the result of poor maintenance for the most part.

If a car stops running you just sit on the side of the road, a small plane stops running and nothing good will come of it for sure. It's not like they are a fighter plane with an ejector seat..... A lot of people don't even maintain their cars like they really need to, and if they have a plane......

You couldn't get me in a small plane, ever knowing some people the way that I do.

That's a NEVER..... But then I don't fly at all these days.

Only in the case that I didn't have a choice then maybe fly commercial, but I would still drive or take a boat most likely.

[yablanowitz]

Small planes are mostly very well maintained, because they are regulated far more than cars. If they stop running, most (fixed wings) can be glided to a clear space and landed safely. Helicopters are a different story. You aren't going to get me in one of those while I'm conscious.

[Ankerson]

Small planes are mostly very well maintained, because they are regulated far more than cars. If they stop running, most (fixed wings) can be glided to a clear space and landed safely. Helicopters are a different story. You aren't going to get me in one of those while I'm conscious.

Helicopters are what I used to fly in the most.

But that was in the Military.

You wouldn't get me in any privately owned plane period under any circumstances.