Flight training costs

[bluevoter4life]

This is worth a shot here. I don't post much, simply because I enjoy lurking and don't have much to say. I do have a good paying job, but unfortunately bills and other expenses have left me with very little money left over to cross an item off my bucket list. Plus I am now the sole bread winner for my wife and I. I have about 15 hours in my logbook and have enough money to cover maybe 10 more. I am asking for help with the rest of my training. It will help me advance my career, as when I put in a bid for a new position, it will give me additional points to be used in the selection decision. Any amount helps. I appreciate your support and generosity.

https://www.gofundme.com/z5bchggk

[Major Nikon]

1. It's an expensive hobby

Even after you get your PP-ASEL, it takes a considerable amount of money to stay current and proficient, and the instrument rating doubles all of that.

It's also cheaper to save up your money and do your training all at once. If you are doing it as you have the money for lessons, you will spend a lot of hours relearning things you've already learned. This is even more true for the instrument rating.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I agree.

I've been in aviation for a long time, as a flight and ground instructor, and a pilot instructor for a major airline (now retired). I've watched how the costs of flying have exploded - it has become very, very expensive, for a variety of reasons. I got into it almost 30 years ago when it cost me only $36 an hour, wet, to rent a C-152. But these days flight training can run $100/hour or more (not even including the instructor fees), depending on the airplane you use.

And then once you have the license you have to stay current or your skills will deteriorate and you'll have to pay even more to get them back. You've really got to want to do it, and you need to plan ahead how to finance it over the long term. I don't mean to be a party pooper, but anyone who wants to get into aviation these days needs to work out a realistic way to do it.

I hope the OP finds a way to do it, since it can be a lot of fun. But a long-range plan will help a whole lot.

[Major Nikon]

3. I've been doing it as a hobby for about the same amount of time

I learned in an old straight tail C-172, which cost about the same at the time I did it. I'm up to about 3,500 hours now, and just about all of that I paid for myself. I wouldn't trade my experiences for the world, but it's definitely something you have to budget for in order to pay as you go. Many are the prospective pilots who quit before completion due to lack of funds and many more quit soon after learning because they can't afford to stay proficient. It takes a lot of hours and a lot of ratings before you can get to the point where someone else is paying for your flying.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. And even when someone else is paying for your flying

you might not be making much. When I was instructing at a local flight school I was making $9 an hour while people tried to kill me. The goal of a lot of the instructors in those days was to log enough hours as a CFI to get hired by a regional airline, where they'd make $25K a year. It's a weird business...

[Major Nikon]

5. I never had much desire to fly for a living

While I can certainly understand the people who do want to do so, it just wasn't my cup of tea. I couldn't see investing that many years eating ramen noodles in hopes of getting the aviation equivalence of being a bus driver. So instead I'm my own captain of my own airline and I fly where and when I want. It's a lot more fun flying in and out of small airports anyway.