How much to get a private pilots license?
 

Lets suppose the wife and I got a notion to go out and get our pilots license.

If we paid for the lessons, and paid to rent for the duration, what would it cost us? We live in Seattle, WA if thats relevant.

Would it make any kind of sense to get into a flying club?

Speak to me gurus.

Just between you and me boys, the idea of my wife piloting a plane scares the schitz outta me.:D

Can you afford to go club racing full time? If so, you could probably afford lessons for one of you.

Figure about $100 per hour for renting the plane, including fuel and $40 an hour for the instructor. If you are diligent and hit the studying hard and go for the test(s) at around 50 hours (being a little conservative, you are looking at around $7,000 for one person.

I'd say that's about right. If you can swing it though, I'd say it's worth it.

Back in the day, I got my license by taking ground school while in college. They even had a pretty nice simulator.
Then I joined a flight club. They had Cessna 150s for lease a $5.00/per hr wet. The instructor cost $7.00/hr.
Back then it only took 40 hrs for a private license. I did it in 28 days. soloed with 6 hrs.
Those were the days

To answer your question $7-8k ea should work.

you need three things to get your pilots license

Time... to devote to study, testing and flying

Money.... that wont run out till you pass your practical test.

Intention.... to finish as soon as possible

The trick is to fly as much as you can,
as many times as you can,
in the shortest period of time.
Make each flying lesson about 1.5 Hr long fly twice a day if you can and 5 times a week,
if possible.

NOTE if you fly once or twice a month then you will have over 100 hours duel given before you will be ready for the flight test,
and this could take a year or more


Get a good instructor and tell him what your flying plans are and what your goals are.

The longer you go between flying lessons the more you will have to relearn,
the more it will cost you.

Get your student pilots flight physical first ,
then get a packet of study material ,
read it then find a ground school to attend.
Pass the ground school and take the written test

Once these things are sorted out then set up the flying schedule and stick to it.
Even if this will be a hobby for you and or your wife,
keep the iron in the fire, you should be able to get the license in about 12 weeks or less
but you gotta study and you gotta fly.
Good luck.

BTW some people simply go buy their own airplane to learn how to fly, and hire an instructor
once this is done then they either keep it or sell it and buy another one thats better suited to the missions you want to fly.

If the area you live in has weather systems moving through it then by all means consider getting the instrument ticket

Along the same lines, how many hours average, to solo? Any tests or other requirements prior to first solo?

Thanks!

It really depends on how your skills develop and how your instructor feels...

As for tests, there is a pre-solo exam, but it's rather easy and usually open book or you go over it with your instructor. The big tests are at the end - though you can take the written at pretty much any point.

Cheapest planes around here are @ $145.00 an hour. ( for a 172. 152s dont exist around here anymore)

When I did mine, I didnt look at the total cost. Who has an extra $8K laying around?
I did it by a budget of lets say $500-600 a month, and just kept doing that until i was finished. I have never added up the total since..

I looked at a couple of places at Renton. They are a bit more expensive, even with the block rate as well. If you really want to know... I pay $85/h for a Piper Warrior... :)

is that 85/h wet? if so, that is a REALLY good deal in todays market...

Yes, wet. :) The number is only good if I put down $1,000 or more at a time though. I think it is normally about $110/h (block).

Mrmerlin's advice is good overall, but I would change one thing: I would NOT enroll in and finish the groundschool BEFORE flight training. Flight and Ground training are both really designed to be conducted concurrently. The concepts in Ground School will make a LOT more sense if the student is also flying.

Also, even though I did EXACTLY as he prescribes - fly twice a day every day - I did this when I was in college and between jobs (back in '85). For the average guy who works for a living, that's nigh impossible. What I suggested to my students back when I was an active flight instructor (a LONG time ago) was to fly at least 3 to 5 times per week. At that pace, the student tends to move forward rapidly.

My credentials to make such comments: twenty six years of flying, twenty two of which are as a professional. Flight Instructor at a major southern Cal airport for more than two years back in the late 80's - 1500 dual given. Airline pilot for twenty years and current Line Check Airman. :D

My Experience
 

I soloed, but never got a PPL. The problem isn't so much the initial cost, it's the cost in time and dollars of making the long term commitment to being a proficient pilot. Flying is nothing to screw around with - you need to be competent and improve your skills constantly.

So, instead of going to the cars 'n coffee or kids soccer games or whatever on a beautiful Saturday morning, you really should be flying around the patch for an hour or two. Miss a few saturdays, maybe have a close call the last time that has you rethinking things? Don't put it off, you MUST do a lot more than the bare minimum in order to keep your skills up.

I have been a scuba diver since I was a teenager. As we started having kids, I did it less and less. Finally, I made a commitment to be a good diver, and keep my skills up. Drives me nuts now to see "vacation divers" screwing with no skills. Anyway, flying and diving have something in common - only a small fraction of the people who learn to do it are still doing it a year later.

I found flying fun sometimes, but not fun enough relative to the cost, risk, and level of commitment required.

My wife and I learned to dive a couple of years ago, and dive every couple of months for three to five days at a time. :) We're hooked (well, at least on warm water diving anyway)!

Skills must be attended to, for sure. Much more importantly, one MUST be aware of one's limitations and fly accordingly.

Budget $10k-$12k and you should be fine in most all cases. A lot depends on how often you can get up in the air which is a function of a lot of variables - availability of student/plane/instructor, level of commitment, weather, etc. I've had some guys bang it out in 1-2 months and others that have taken upwards of a year. It just depends. A lot of the value of a PPL is that it demonstrates tenacity and perseverance.

In addition to frequency/how often you can fly, the quality of those flights is important - how well-prepared you can be for them, how "dialed in" you can be doing them (i.e. not feeling pressured to do this, do that and five minutes after landing having to go run to a meeting or whatever - try to build in enough time around each lesson to allow it to flow at a reasonable, constructive pace that's conductive to learning and enjoyment. Far too many flight schools (more so the "academy" types) cram students into rigid time blocks and there's always a pressure feeling that IMHO makes it far less enjoyable for the kind of money you're investing. For someone who's looking at getting into it for a career, perhaps it doesn't matter so much if it's a little strained, but if you're doing this for enjoyment and enrichment, try to find an instructor/school/routine that keeps it enjoyable, enriching, rewarding and positive.

Best of luck - look around, shop around and definitely talk to other people about who good instructors/schools are - both in terms of knowledge, skill/mechanics and personality. Remember you're investing a lot of time/effort/money in this and you're going to spend a lot of time in close quarters with whomever your teacher is. Don't compromise or shrug off personality traits that disagree with you. If someone gives you a bad "vibe" even though they might be skilled or competent, you may want to look around for someone else. Personality clashes really suck at $150 an hour...

FWIW I'm a CFI and can give you some questions to ask, etc. if you want. PM me.

I seem to be on the year plan, BTW. :D It does add to the overall cost..

I also suspect you'll do very well on your checkride. Sometimes that just happens. I had one guy who didn't get his PPL checkride until he had almost 100 hours and over a year into it (kept getting weathered out, etc.) but he stuck with it and loved it. He went on to get an Instrument Rating and bought a Cherokee 180 that's on leaseback at KSMO - I fly his plane every time I'm out there looking to rent one for fun, just because... ;)

"I found flying fun sometimes, but not fun enough relative to the cost, risk, and level of commitment required."

That's about my sentiment. I got the license in 44 hours but never did break 100. Other things I'd rather do in my spare time.
Jim

A big +1......

I got my ticket in the mid 90's for about 3 grand. I did it in just a few months flying as often as I could in an old C152 that a local FBO had for rent along with a young college student CFI who was instructing to buiid hours.

I think the plane back then was about $45/hr wet and the instructor was $20/hr.

I never took an "official" ground school and basically only paid for about 45 hours of airplane rental and about 20 hours of instructor time.

Check all the small local airports (the smaller the better) to see who is offereing instruction. You do not want to take lessons in controlled airspace as it will waste expensive hobbs time that is better spent learning the basics of "learning to fly the airplane".

IMO, there is no reason to rent a "new" expensive Cessna when one is learning the basics. Learning basic airmanship in a four seat glass paneled airplane is simply a fancy way to light $100 bills on fire. ;) Find a C150/152 or an older Cherokee or an older C172 to take lessons in.