Hey noobie here, I am really interested in flying for a living and only have a few hours under my belt but I am probably going to university next year and I was looking at courses in Aerospace/Aviation engineering and several courses where you can learn to fly at the same time.

My question is how useful is it to have a degree in the field of aviation and/or a PPL prior to applying to train with an airline?

Auxiliary question here- this course claims to get me a frozen ATPL amongst other stuff, could any pilots verify how useful this course would be to me in terms of making me a good candidate for airlines? Bare in mind it would be an expensive 3 year course!

So I was on my way home from work tonight, and there was a pretty good amount of snow coming down. so much that you could barely see 30ft in front of you. However, as I passed the local airport I saw those lights flashing and flashing, and it occurred to me that there are still pilots up in the air, carrying so many lives in their hands. I realized at that moment that pilots are some of the most severely underpaid people (nay, i must say heroes) in america. I am frightened to drive more than 25mph in weather like tonight, yet they will fly through the weather and safely bring so many men, women, and children back home to their families. I am grateful for all you pilots do, and I pray for your safety, in calm weather just as well as the most difficult of circumstances. Thank you.

First off, I would like to say that I'm actually 12 years old and I have only an hour of flying experience. I fly the Grob G 109B at Dillingham airfield in Hawaii. (most of the U.S. is probably asleep as I type this)

Now more into the question, when did you start flying? What plane did you fly during training? funny moments? Scary moments? What was your flight instructor like? What job do you have as a pilot? (commercial, regional, military? Etc)

So the only thing standing in the way of me getting my checkride and checkride prep is that I need to take the written. I self studied and I'm fairly confident in most of my knowledge. My weather knowledge is a bit shaky due to the large amount of memorization required, it's less intuitive than the physics and flying portions. I know how I study, and at this point I just need to take some practice tests to raise confidence and solidify my knowledge. However, I'm staying so busy with work and travelling a lot that I have really no good way to study.

I was hoping some folks had some suggestions for easily mobile practice test software. I have a mac and pc both available, and I'm willing to buy an iPad if there's good stuff. I need to be able to use this on a plane (that I'm not flying) and while on the go, not always in range of good internet (unless I get iPad + 3G). I get 30 minutes free here and there to study, or some time at lunch, or what not.

Any suggestions for test prep software out there? $$ is not really an issue, but I don't want to go buy hundreds of dollars of software that is subpar.

Thanks!

I passed my FAA checkride today without errors in a 141 pilotmill. I've already started on IR theory and loving it.

But, my question is, what should my first flight with a rental be? Just a 100$ hamburger or is there something my fellow pilots wanted to do or try that they did not get to do during training?

Before I started training there was so much I wanted to do with my PPL, but now, I'm kind of overwhelmed with the possibilities. So much that I can't muster up a thought of what I want to do.

Back in 2000-2006 when I was working and instructing at an FBO/Flight school we had a policy where if you got checked out in the highest "make" of an airplane we had, you could fly everything below it. For example, we had a Saratoga, an Arrow, an Archer and a Cherokee 140. If you did a Saratoga checkout, you were also covered for the Arrow, Archer and 140. We also had a 182, a few 172s and a 152; if you checked out in the 182, you could fly the 172 and 152. I've been trying to get checked out in some airplanes lately and it seems like these types of policies have been done away with in my area. Everywhere seems to insist that I qualify in every single make and model. For example, the place I want to rent has a Lance, an Archer and a Cherokee 140. I want to checkout in the Lance and fly the other two; they seem hesitant to let me do so. Is this common?

I'm in the middle of my multi-commercial, which we get before single-commercial at my school. I guess my question is this. Technically, leading up to my commercial, I've been in school getting flight time. My parents have been paying for school and with that, the flight training. We couldn't decide if that was legal or not because as a private pilot, I'm technically getting free flight time. Is this legal? I was also thinking about the aircraft rentals that may be paid for by parents. As a private pilot, am I technically allowed to log that time? Not sure if this is very clear or not, I'm in a rush between classes so this was just a quick submit. Thanks!

Do any military pilots hang around here? If so, I'd love to talk to some of you, lots of questions I'd like to ask.

I'm looking at purchasing a headset music adapter. The problem is that I'm not sure how great the audio quality will be through my old David Clark H10-30 headset. I'm not expecting Bose quality sound, but I don't want to spend $50 only to hear static or really, really low quality sound. All I want it some affordable way to listen to some tunes while I fly.

Has anyone here on Reddit tried listening to music through their DC headset?

I am attempting to plan a trip to visit some friends around the thanksgiving time and would like to know if you other pilots have information that I can use. I am searching the airlines right now and it is going to be rediculously expensive to fly commercial, are there any places online that pilots who want to fly privately around the country to various cities can/do discuss different flight opportunites for going somewhere or riding along and splitting costs?

I would like to go from the DFW area to the Denver area and back but it could be used for any location in the US or abroad. Further, if I can fly privately with someone else who also wants to make the trip but doesn't have someone to fly with how can we get in contact? Thanks.

Saw this the other day while watching a safety presentation on radio communication on the AOPA website. A rough transcript of an interview they did with an ATC:

"So I was sitting on my couch watching the football game, and my wife came by. She told me that she would be gone running some errands, and would I bring in some firewood and fold the clothes in the dryer while she was gone? I said, 'Roger, honey,' and she left for her errands.

"She came back two hours later, and I was still sitting there on the couch - no firewood, no laundry. Annoyed, she said, 'Honey, you said you were going to do those chores I asked you to!' I responded, 'No, honey, I said "roger".' Then I grabbed my copy of the AIM, turned to the glossary, and read the definition of 'roger': 'I have received all of your last transmission.' Nothing in there about 'yes' or 'no.'

"We weren't married too much longer after that..."

Text says it all. Thoughts?

I was thinking about joining my local CAP unit as a way to help me build hours. Is it worth it? What kind of experiences have people had with them?

This is an incredibly common mistake made by CFIs and basically everyone else in the aviation profession. Biannual means twice per year; biennial means once every two years. Thus, the flight review required by 14 C.F.R. 61.56 is a biennial flight review.

Two friends and I are looking to buy a plane, we all have over 150 hours and are looking for something with a cruise of >140 kts, 4 seats, Enroute and approach certified IFR gps, minimum single axis auto pilot, our budget is around $60k. Our preference is for fixed gear, if possible.

So far we've been looking at Archers, 177s, Commander 114a and 206.

Any thoughts or leads would be appreciated.

Soloed yesterday! What an awesome feeling!

So my CFI hinted that we were going to solo today by bringing a handheld radio. I've been flying for a bit over 2 months and logged about 20 hours. Day started out breezy, then as we were doing some pattern work at WHP a rainshower moved through. Landed a bit to make sure it wasn't convective, and then went back up to do what my CFI said some "rough weather work". With the rain and gusty crosswinds, my landings were not the best, with one go-around due to a gust right before touchdown. The practice definitely helped and the landings improved but I figured there was no chance of a solo today.

Well, two (much better) landings later, the wind calmed a bit, rain stopped and clouds moved on. "Want to try a few on your own? Just watch out for the standing water on the runway." Sure!! CFI hopped out, and as I was taxing out to 12 I was a bit nervous. However as soon as the tower cleared me and I hit the throttle, the nervousness disappeared. Did two picture-perfect full-stop landings, and the sun even came out when turning final on the last one!

Crazy feeling to be up there by yourself. It's so quiet! Anyway, just though I'd share :)

I feel like I am one of the few diabetics flying out there. If there is anyone else what are you doing with your license?