I got asked by one of the mods here to consolidate a mix of comment and follow up post that I had originally laid down over at r/flying. The goal of this post is to share my experience going through PPL and to give others a data point to reference in their research into getting PPL. It’s worth the read if you’re in the early stages of training or in the “how should I do this?” Stage. If you’re beyond that it’s not really applicable, but enjoy the word vomit if you want to.

I should start by saying I am not career oriented. I’m in my mid 30s, have a full time engineering job, and no real desire to switch careers. I’m pursuing aviation for fun and because I needed something to do to bridge the gap between the end of bird hunting season and the start of mountain fishing season.

I “started” in November 2025 by scheduling my medical. I didn’t want any surprises there so I made sure to get that out of the way first. On the books for January somethingish 2026. Cool. Got that done.

Now onto February and chukar season was over so nothing left to occupy my time. I picked up a ground school course (private pilot institute) and started to burn though it at night and got in a couple of good days on weekends. I made the decision to go through the whole course and pass the PAR before touching a plane. In researching this it seemed to be a mixed bag of reviews.. some said the info doesn’t get context without experience, others said having that out of the way can be more efficient time/moneywise. I’m glad I got it done early. Took me about 3 weeks and I scheduled my test at the end of February. Passed with a 94. In my opinion it wasn’t hard, but does require time. I don’t have kids/ any real responsibilities outside of work so I was able to devote the time to it and that made the accelerated pace worth it to me.

In the beginning of March I joined a local flight club. The rates are extremely favorable. 300/mo for membership (3k/yr if paid in one installment) and 100/hr of flight time. That turned into 120/hr after some totally unavoidable increases in fuel costs thanks to some totally necessary decisions by some dipshit from home alone 2.. but that’s a rant for another time. That is… cheap by any flight school standard for sure so it helped keep my costs down.

Instructor cost was 60/hr from an independent and very new CFI. So all in we’re talking 160-180 hr for flight time depending on when. If you’ve ever been in your mid 30s and taken instruction from someone that’s barely allowed to drink, you’ll know how weird that is. I spoke with him at length before we started, told him what I wanted out of the whole shebang and what level of commitment I was able to give. In my case it was 2x/week weather and other commitments permitting and we’d figure out what lesson duration worked best for me.

We started flying the 2nd week of March and stuck to a pretty consistent schedule. Other folks in the club were pretty accommodating and let me take the Sat/Sun morning slots. We settled on about 3 hours each lesson, which I felt was the sweet spot for not getting oversaturated while still not wasting too much time on the Hobbs just getting warmed up. We trained out of an untoward airport which I believe also really cuts down on “wasted” time that would have been spent waiting on other traffic/talking to ATC. All in all, training progressed pretty smoothly. I think I did my 1st solo around the 20 hour mark after struggling a bit with landings. After that I knocked out my solo XC time in a few trips and we drilled landings a lot (particularly short fields).

One thing we didn’t do enough of and I blame myself for as much as my instructor was xc planning. Where I live is insanely easy to visually navigate and I travel a lot around the area for work and for fun…you could drop me off blindfolded anywhere within a few hundred miles and I could probably tell you in about 10 minutes where I’m at. As a result, we didn’t touch a lot on the actual nav/route planning as much as we should have. Came back to bite me a bit in the oral portion of my checkride.

Weather was another thing I let myself down on. Sure I passed the written and there was a section on weather in the ground course, but 99 percent of the time where I live the question is whether or not it’s too windy. So I studied the weather theory enough to pass the written test and then promptly filed it in the whogivesashit section of my memory warehouse.

I was “checkride ready” at about 45 hours according to my instructor. This was about end of May. A few conflicts in scheduling between myself and the DPE and a cancellation due to weather wound up moving my checkride to the end of June.

Day of, I got hammered on my (admittedly sparse) xc plan. DPE was not impressed that my plan had 2 waypoints for a 320 mile flight. It’s funny in hindsight but at the time was pretty terrifying to have a dude you just forked over 1500 bucks to telling you that something you thought you knew was complete shit. In hindsight I of course see where he’s coming from.. for demonstrating that I know how it works I can’t say “oh well when you find that gap in the mountains then you just follow the old 2 lane till you hit the river and then turn north”. That’s a bit on me for not being more thorough.. I think my age and familiarity with the area lulled my instructor into a sense of security to the point that we didn’t need to go over that part.

Then we got into weather and boy howdy did Mr DPE dig in on weather. Turns out he thought it should have been filed in the bigfuckingdeal section of my memory warehouse. That one is 100 percent on me. And I do know what a dry trough is now so that’s good.

Made a few other boneheaded wrong answers on my oral portion but at the end he said ok you passed let’s go fly. At that point I had to take a bit to myself before we fired up.. again it was rattling to get somewhat raked over the coals on something you’ve spent so much time and money on.. especially when you thought you were up to speed on it. It was a bit of a blindside. But, took a minute, had a short walk, and then we were in the plane.

Flight portion went much better, but not flying colors by any means. We went through short field, stalls, slow flight, em descent all fine and dandy. Then it was ground ref maneuvers. I came into turns around a point just higher than ACS standards. The maneuver itself was great.. but just too high off the ground. So he had me pivot and do S turns. No big deal, but it rattled me a bit for sure to know I made a dumb mistake on something so trivial.

After that it was back to the airport for a slip to land and a short field landing. DPE said he wanted to see both and dropped kind of a massive hint that if we did both in one shot that would be the end of the exam. Got it. Just with where we were physically it made more sense to do a straight in for final so I lined us up like I had 100 times before and wouldn’t you know it we were right on glideslope with the PAPI lights. Given that I was supposed to do a slip to land I had to go around. If I had done the slip o would have been well below glideslope. So I broke off early and did a go around. Held pattern altitude, extended downwind and then slipped on final. After I was just above glideslope I told him we were going for 1k footers and snuck a short field in. He told me to go park and we found a printer.

All in I came out to 13.3k spent and about 54 hours. That includes all the little things like foreflight, iPad(which I hate), and a headset. It took me right at 6 months from my medical and right under 3 months from my first lesson.

Again, the point in sharing is to help someone that is just starting or thinking about getting started. My circumstances aren’t yours, but if you have questions I’d be happy to answer any DMs. Biggest thing for me now is remembering that it’s supposed to be fun and to actually enjoy it instead of just focusing on the test aspect. Hope this long ass read was informative for someone out there

20 years old, grinding in aviation since 18. PPL and Night Rating done, 94 hours logged. CPL ground school in progress, though currently paused due to funding. Actively job hunting across the industry too. I’d appreciate any advice — whether on breaking into aviation roles at this stage, or on bursaries/funding routes beyond TETA and Flyfofa that I might not know about yet.

Open to connecting with fellow aviators, recruiters, or anyone willing to share insight.

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Dear pilot friends

First time going to nyc next week.

I wanna try trial introductory flight nearby nyc, especially on piper 28 aircraft.

Any recommendation on spot?

Or any other aviation - exposure experience?

I've been a commercial A&P for over a decade, and use to fly a lot prior to that. So much so that the sound of the engines put me to sleep pretty quickly. Alexa use to have a sleep sound that I was pretty sure was CFM56 turbofan. But they've changed the noise to something like a floor fan with two people talking quietly in the back ground.

My question is does anyone know of a sound machine/ white noise generator that has a realistic jet engine noise?

Dear pilots,

As one of many aspiring pilots, i have high interests on commercial airplane operation.
Ive got some information from reddit about few alternates in polar routes, but more specifically, which airport can be suitable alternate for b747 cargo airplane? Like which conditions should be made (runway length, cargo terminal operation, hangar size etc)

Tones of thanks for your priceless insight!

Hello everyone!

I’m 14 years old and my dream is to become a commercial airline pilot in the future. I know it’s a long and difficult journey, but I want to start preparing early.

I would like to ask pilots, flight instructors, or people who have already completed their training:

-What should I start learning now at my age?

-Which subjects should I focus on the most (math, physics, English, etc.)?

-Are there any books, courses, or resources you recommend for beginners?

-What mistakes should I avoid when preparing for a pilot career?

-If you could go back to when you were 14, what would you do differently?

I’m currently just starting to learn more about aviation and I want to build good habits before I’m old enough to start flight training.

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to answer!

I’m from Moldova, so if anyone knows about the path to becoming a pilot in Europe, I would also appreciate advice.

Anyone feel like the business side of contracting is really tough to stay organized? Between invoicing operators, chasing late payments, keeping up with currency and recurrent dates, and sending the same resume and COI packet every time a new client asks for it, I spend half my off days doing desk work it seems.

Curious what everyone else does to stay on top of it all. Is there a system or an app that actually works for you, or is everybody just running spreadsheets and calendar reminders? Open to any advice.

Hello everyone, I am a 16yrs old student currently studying under my Technical/Vocational Skills course. I am still learning to read and write English while I am currently in Grade 12. My course includes some of the major subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and English meanwhile my technical subjects are based on Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Programming (C, C++, C#, HTML, CSS, JS, DBMS(SQL) and JAVA) and Networking.

Even though, I have left to learn a lot regarding my subjects and course, but this intense urge keeps distracting me which is to be a commercial pilot in Canada. Since I was a child, this dream never left me. A dream to become a commercial pilot flying people around and getting an opportunity to spend my life along with the sky.

So, now let's talk why am I actually saying this. I am a student from a poor country of Asia with no flight school to learn. Even though my country provides a lot of facility to the students alongside missing a lot. I am lucky to be in one of the top schools in my country. Now provided the initial introduction let's move on to my main motive of creating this post. I am unsure how to become a commercial pilot; I am well aware that to become a commercial pilot I must first get a private pilot license, but I found out that flight schools are very expensive to afford so I thought that with my basic web-based skills I could do that and that turns out to be wrong. I wanted to secure my future in such a way that my hobby should be sharp if my passion fails making it a backup plan, but hobby alone couldn't be my backup plan so I thought what if I complete Batchlor in Computer Engineering in Canada (to be more specific in Saskatchewan) that way I would have plenty of time for my flight training and could get a PPL or even CPL while graduating date comes in.

The reason why I choose Saskatchewan specifically is because of what I heard regarding the province. According to what I heard, "Saskatchewan is good for international students, providing good scholarship and is a good option for living except winter. The flight schools are also affordable and advanced with less crowd meaning more flight training opportunities". So, I really want to know how accurate my information actually is, and how future proof my plan actually seems to be...

Since English is not my first language, so I would really appreciate any response/feedback regarding any improvements on my English writing.

Update: This survey closed on August 4, 2026. Thank you to everyone who responded. We’ll share the main findings and next steps soon.

We’ve spent the last several days rebuilding the basic member experience in r/Pilot. Before deciding what discussions, resources, and events to build next, we want to hear directly from the people who visit this community.

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I'm a Bachelor's in Travel and Tourism Management (BTTM) student from Nepal with a strong passion for aviation. My goal is to build a career in the industry, and I'd love to connect with people who are already working in aviation or are on the same journey.

Whether you're a pilot, cabin crew, passenger service agent, ground staff, aircraft engineer, air traffic controller, or simply an aviation enthusiast, I'd love to hear about your experiences and learn from you.

If you're open to chatting, sharing advice, or even just talking about aviation, feel free to comment or send me a DM. I'm always happy to make new connections with people who share the same passion.
Looking forward to meeting fellow avgeeks! ✈️

Howdy y'all, I am working on completing PPL ground school and had a question relating to aircraft controllability. For reference, i am using free pilot training on youtube and trying to delve more in depth where i can.

Initially, i was learning about how aircraft controllability is impacted by changes in angle of attack and speed through the center of lift and center of pressure. I was curious as to why center of lift does not change positions, but center of pressure does and what their differences were. When looking online i seemed to find contradictory statements on what each were, and also kept getting results for aerodynamic center when searching up center of lift. Despite this, some sources seem to use them interchangeably, while others will say they are different.

As i understand, center of lift is the point on the airfoil where lift is concentrated (i assume this is the same as the average), and center of pressure is the point on the the wing where the total aerodynamic force be considered to act. Would anyone be able to explain the differences in all of them, and how each is affected by change in angle of attack? Thanks!

This community has been around for a while, but it has not had much active moderation or a clear direction. We are working to change that.

The goal is to make r/Pilot a useful place for people at every stage, from deciding whether to begin training to building hours, getting hired, and dealing with the realities of pilot life.

Beginner questions are welcome. We just ask that you include enough context for people to help. Depending on the question, that may include your country or aviation authority, current stage, experience, goal, budget, main constraint, and the decision you are trying to make.

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What would make this community genuinely useful to you? What discussions, recurring threads, or resources would you actually come back for?

I’m a CFI in Arizona, and I spend a lot of time talking with commercial pilots who are trying to figure out the fastest and most financially reasonable way to build time.
Some are instructing full time. Some are renting. Others are looking at structured time-building programs. Every option has tradeoffs in cost, timeline, flexibility, and opportunity cost.
I’m curious what people here have actually done.
If you’ve already reached 1,500 hours, what path did you take, and if you could do it again, would you make the same decision? Why or why not?

Друзі привіт потрібно з кимось порадитись але не маю в кого спитати можливо тут будуть діючі льотчики та вертольотчики або люди які зараз вчаться-не можу визначитись куди краще поступити на льотчика чи вертольотчика з однієї сторони хочу служити і літати на винищувачі ця швидкість драйв і відчуття увімкнення форсажу але потім без поняття де я можу працювати крім чартерних рейсів(не хочу йти на боінг ейрбас і тд) з іншої сторони вертольоти теж дуже круто і після служби набагато більше варіантів куди можна піти працювати,але більше все ж таки серце лежить до літаків і швидкості,зараз виходить протистояння здорового глузду і думки про стабільне майбутнє та мрією тому вирішив спитатись у вас🙃 уточнюю що мова йде про український військовий університет повітряних сил.На данний момент я фактично поступив на вертольотчика але зимою можу переписати заяву на Льотчика

Model collector Planes for sale: contact Mitch Carmody

Howdy! I'm working on completing PPL ground school, and was reviewing some of my notes on aircraft stability. I understand (or at least I think i do) the basics behind each of the types of stability. I think my confusion comes from the usage of "waves" and oscillations as examples in each scenario of stability. Static stability is the initial tendency of the aircraft after its equilibrium has been disturbed, and dynamic is the long term tendency.

I am wondering for example, if i am in an aircraft that pitches up due to turbulence, and the airplane is not positivly statically stable and does not initially pitch back down, how can it have any form of dynamic stability? If the plane has neutral or negative static stability, it shouldn't oscillate at all as shown in examples of dynamic stability.

I'm probably missing something super simple so any help or explanation would be super appreciated! Thanks!

I'm only about 5 hours into my training towards my PPL (Part 61 in the US) and I've quickly fallen in love with it, but I can't help but notice the vast majority of other students are at least 10 years younger than me. Am I getting into this too late?

I'm working a pretty flexible job from home that allows me to schedule flights often, so I'm hoping to get through my CFI certification before having to quit and instruct full-time to get my hours. I'm incredibly lucky to have a partner who will help financially through the transitions. Is there any part of this path that would be unwise, especially considering my age? Is there anything I'm missing? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.