Top products from r/pilots

I see you have the Student flair but I'm not sure how many hours you have under your belt. Is it safe to assume you have some flying hours? I still haven't attained my PPL but I'm at the end (practising for my check-flight test). You remind me of myself at the beginning of my PPL - I wanted to read as many books as I can.

I saw a similar post like yours long time ago on what books to read - top comment was a CFI who strongly recommended the OP to read over & over your aircraft's operator handbook. I'm passing that same advice to you - I just went for my first IFR flight with my CFI from one airport to another. From take-off to the approach, we constantly had zero visibility. It truly made me appreciate the fact that I spent a lot of time reading and understanding all the instruments & switches of the aircraft. Just being comfortable knowing where the "Pitot Heat" switch was without having to scan for it made flying IFR easier. And when in emergency?? You will be glad you have the procedures memorized.

In addition, I found this book "The Killing Zone" to be very informative. I heard the statistics are questionable but if you put the numbers to the side, you will learn a lot of small & valuable tips that can make every flight of yours safer.

Personally, I just paid straight up cash for each lesson that I took. It gave me more peace of mind that way knowing that I only had to worry about myself and not repaying a bank back for it.

Depending on where you are, how much airplane rental time / fuel costs and the CFI hourly rate is, you're looking at maybe two lessons per month on a budget like that.. that's assuming one hour of flight time with an instructor at $100/hr for the airplane and about $45 for the CFI's time. Some flights go longer than one hour depending on the lesson or if it's a busy day with many people waiting in line to take off! That can eat into it very quickly... I had one flight from Princeton, NJ to Norfolk, VA and back with a CFI on board that cost me ~$700 for the five-hour flight(this was for IFR training). A single flight from one airport to another that's 50 miles away can easily span two hours, and that will happen multiple times in your training.

As the top poster said, budgeting $7000 is probably a good idea, but understand that it may go a bit over. The more frequently you fly, the less chance of getting rusty in lessons. Personally I'd recommend at least 3-4 lessons per month. Find out how much the rates are for the different airplanes along with the hourly charges for the CFI.

Also, study study study, too. Ground school is a big part of the cost of flying, and there is a lot you can learn on your own before ever stepping in a plane. I highly recommend picking up:

• A Used Jeppesen Private Pilot Manual
  
• A VFR aircraft sectional appropriate for your region(you can go to the airport and ask for it, usually ~$10)(don't worry about the valid dates on them: the information doesn't change too drastically, and you'll want to be able to learn all the symbology on it)
  
• An E6-B Flight Computer,
  
• A Sectional Plotter,
  
• And a copy of the FAR/AIM.
  
  The key is that the more ground school you do now, the more you can concentrate on flying when you have more saved up. You're going to need all of these things anyway when it comes time to get serious about it, so it's better to have a jump on it and come in there knowing your stuff.
  
  Good luck!

The Heavy Lifting:
The mechanics of flight by AC Kermode et al. You can generally get a 2nd hand one on amazon for notsomuch.. You'll read a lot of books on aerodynamics and principles depending on how far you plan to go. This one's a good reference to keep on the shelf that wont break the bank.


Thoroughly Enjoyable: Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K. Gann. This is probably one of the best pilot experience type biographies I've read. Ernie was one of the first American Airlines pilots way back in the day. His writing style is addictive and the stories are simply amazing, and full of material still relevant to any aspiring pilot.

That helps a lot! Thank you.
I found this set on Amazon.. is this what you'd recommend?
Saitek Pro Flight Yoke with Three-Lever Throttle
Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals

I will finish the KingSchool course and practice as much on the simulator as possible while saving up for airtime.

Wager With the Wind, By James Greiner. This is the story of the bush pilot Don Sheldon.

Flight of Passage, By Rinker Buck. This is a good non-fiction about two brothers who fly a J-3 from coast to coast in the 60's.

Final Authority

For what my opinion is worth, I'd hesitate to start out on the flight simulator route. And Helix said why in his very own post... you WILL develop terrible habits, and it's VERY different from the real thing. All that simulator time will be worthless until you get actual training in a real aircraft. (I think FSX has room to be beneficial, but only as a way to reinforce what you've already learned in the airplane.) And all of that time you spend in a simulator reinforcing bad habits will only serve to lengthen how much actual time it takes you in the air. For example, one of the hardest habits a student pilot has to break is looking inside at the instruments too much. Students get overwhelmed at all the information there and bury their heads in it, but most of what you're learning for your PPL involves sight pictures and visual reference outside of the aircraft. You won't get proficient at steep turns, S turns, turns around a point, flying the traffic pattern, or watching for traffic until you learn to look outside and only reference your instruments at a glance. FSX will reinforce that bad habit, and probably slow down your practical learning because of it.

I'd think what would be much more likely to help would be doing the bookwork ahead of time. Memorize all the procedures in the PTS. Find a POH and read it 10 times. Memorize the emergency procedures. Get a copy of Say Again, Please and learn you airspaces and radio communications. Learn to read a sectional chart and do flight planning. Learn the FAR/AIM. This, in my opinion, will be much more beneficial than FSX time. (And cheaper than buying a yoke/rudder/throttle.)

One thing I like to point out with flight training is to look at a breakdown of the costs. If your intent is to keep flying after you pass your checkride, then "as cheaply as possible" has a different meaning. At $100/hr, you're going to spend at least $4000 to fly for 40 hours. That number remains constant after you get your license, too. It will still cost $100/hr to fly, or $4000 to fly for 40 hours. So really it's a two part question: 1. Can I afford to fly at all? 2. Can I afford the extra cost to learn how to fly? If you finish training in exactly 40, which most people don't, then you'll have a maximum of 30 hours dual instruction, which is $1200. So think about it that way--the actual "learning to fly" part of flying is only 1200 bucks, the rest of the money is the fixed cost of flying that you'll be spending AFTER you pass your checkride to keep flying.

It's embarrassing that no one has mentioned Stick and Rudder yet, so I'll go ahead and do it. It's more "art of flying" than "stories about flying," but there's no excuse for a pilot to have not read it!