In this article, I will discuss the steps you need to take to get a private pilot license in 4 weeks or less. You’ll find that with the right mindset and a few prerequisites, this goal is completely realistic and will have the added benefit of saving you a lot of money while building your self-confidence and his self-esteem.
Regulatory requirements for private pilot licenses vary from country to country, but generally a minimum of 40 hours of flight time, a written or computerized test of aeronautical knowledge, and a flight test are required. A medical certificate is also required.
Although I have had licenses from several member states of the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), I have made most of my flights with validations of my license from the FAA. Therefore, I will discuss the aeronautical knowledge, skill, and experience requirements to obtain a private pilot license from the FAA in the United States. The Federal Aviation Regulations, Part 61, Certification of Pilots and Flight Instructors, states that an applicant must meet the following requirements:
• Be at least 17 years old
• Be able to read, speak, write and understand the English language.
• Obtain at least a third-class medical certificate from an aviation medical examiner
• Pass a computerized aeronautical knowledge test
• Accumulate and record a specified amount of training and experience, which includes the following:
• At least 40 hours of flight, including 20 hours with an instructor and 10 hours of solo flight.
• 5 hours of solo traverse time, including a flight of at least 150 nautical miles with full landings at a minimum of three points
• Three solo takeoffs and landings to a complete stop at an airport with an operational control tower.
• 3 hours of night flight training and 10 takeoffs and landings to a full stop at an airport
• 3 hours of instrument flight training
• Pass an oral and flight test administered by an FAA inspector or FAA-designated examiner.
A private pilot’s license allows the command of any aircraft (subject to the appropriate ratings) for any non-commercial purpose and grants almost unlimited authority to fly under visual flight rules (VFR). Passengers may be carried and flight in pursuance of business is permitted. However, a private pilot cannot be compensated in any way for services as a pilot, although passengers may pay a proportionate share of flight expenses, such as fuel or rental costs.
Many people, for one reason or another, qualify for a private pilot’s license over an extended period of many months. This leads to a burst in training costs. Then there is another group of people who like to achieve their goals in the shortest time possible. Here is a summary of the procedure for those who wish to qualify for a pilot’s license in four weeks or less:
• Obtain at least a third-class medical certificate from an aviation medical examiner. The medical certificate you will receive is also a student pilot’s license which allows you to start flight training immediately.
• Purchase a comprehensive basic education course that you can study at home on your computer.
• When you are doing well on the practice tests and feel confident, make an appointment at your local Flight Service District Office to take the computerized aeronautical knowledge test.
• After you pass the test, contact the fixed base operators at your local airport, request a quote, and tell them you have a student pilot’s license/medical certificate, have passed the aeronautical knowledge test, and want to complete your flight. . training in four weeks.
If you come across a training organization that tells you this is not possible, keep going until you find a flight school with a positive and supportive attitude. You should also make it clear that you will be available to fly every day, weather permitting.
There will be some days when you will not be able to fly due to bad weather. This presents an ideal opportunity to review certain areas of your basic course. You can also familiarize yourself with the Aircraft Flight Manual for the aircraft you are flying. Many of the questions asked on the FAA oral exam pertain to aircraft systems and performance. The other obvious reason to do this is that you need to know the systems and performance of the aircraft you are flying.
• This scenario assumes that you can finance the full cost of the flight and that you have 4 weeks available. Realistically, you should allow an excess of 10%. In other words, budget for 44 hours of flight instead of the minimum 40 hours specified by the FAR (Federal Aviation Regulations). The national average in the US is over 60 hours. One of the reasons for this is that people who fly only 1 or 2 hours a week lose money, causing them to have to repeat maneuvers to satisfy their instructor.
• If we assume that adverse weather keeps you on the ground for 20% of the 28 days you have projected, that means you will be flying 44 hours in 22 days. That works out to just 2 hours of flying per day on average. This is eminently achievable and more particularly because you won’t have the stress of preparing for the aeronautical knowledge test that you would have already passed before getting on a plane. You are free to focus on flying! I know from my own experience that concentrated flying results in a rapid development of self-confidence.
A few years ago, I was living on the Italian Riviera, where I was lucky enough to meet an Italian spray pilot who sprayed vineyards in Piemonte, Northern Italy. He held an Italian-validated FAA commercial pilot’s license. He very kindly gave me the textbooks he had used to obtain his commercial pilot’s license at Ag Aviation Academy in Reno, Nevada. I studied the textbooks assiduously every day for about two months during the summer of 1969.
When I thought I knew the stuff well enough, I flew to Frankfurt, where I took a first-class FAA medical exam. My medical certificate was also a student pilot’s license. It was during the Frankfurt Book Fair and there were no hotel rooms available. At the main train station I was lucky enough to meet a train driver who rented me a room and whose wife provided me with good German food.
The next day I went to the Rhein Main air base, where the FAA’s district office for Europe and the Middle East was located. I showed the FAA inspector my medical certificate and student license and told him I wanted to take the commercial pilot written test. He had zero hours of flight time, but they weren’t worried about that. They gave me the test, told me I had six hours to complete it, and took me to the testing room. At that time pocket calculators could not be used. Basic arithmetic was the norm for solving weight and balance questions. I fought for the full six hours and then flew back to Italy to await Airman’s test report.
After a very anxious couple of weeks, I finally received my FAA Report with a passing grade which was mostly due to good luck getting the questions right rather than any innate ability on my part. The following week I signed up for a 35 hour CAA approved PPL (Private Pilot Licence) course in Southend-on-Sea, at the mouth of the River Thames in the UK. The technical papers weren’t too difficult because they were lower level than the FAA commercial pilot written exam I had just taken in Frankfurt.
Most days the weather was not good with low cloud bases and precipitation – typical UK late autumn weather! This meant having to deviate from the rhumb line I had drawn on my chart to stay clear of clouds, and in doing so risking getting lost. Most of the time I found it relatively easy to capture railway lines, highways, reservoirs, etc. to help get back to normal. There were a couple of instances where I got disoriented while flying to grass airfields with no nearby navaids (naids). My instructor told me that cross-country flights at the PPL level were supposed to be done by piloting, that is, looking out the window and identifying objects on the ground, rather than referencing radio navigation aids. It was all very well for him to say that, since he had intimate knowledge of the area, while I was seeing it for the first time in a marginal climate. Airports like Biggin Hill had a chaotic traffic pattern with tiger moths from the Tiger Club at Red Hill spinning at the base leg and metal everywhere going every which way. The airfield was probably more orderly during the Battle of Britain with a couple of spitfire squadrons.
I had some difficulty on the long triangular solo cross-country flight that was one of the license requirements. On the last leg from Biggin Hill to Southend-on-Sea I ran into a strong crosswind on landing and had to turn around. On the way back I flew over a graveyard which did nothing to ease my anxiety. On the second try, I came close to a landing and nearly broke the landing gear. The problem was that because the training was going on so fast, my instructor hadn’t given me any instruction in crosswind landing techniques, and I had no idea how to do a cross-controlled forward slide.
The problem with my GFT (general flight test) was that they launched a plane that had never flown before: a fully aerobatic Beagle Pup with a joystick. It didn’t give me any joy! The examiner commented that he would take into account the fact that he had never flown in the Beagle Pup. After he had completed the required maneuvers, including turn recovery, he took over the controls and demonstrated the limits of the flight envelope. By the time he finished rolling around the clouds and performing “chandeliers” all over the sky, I was feeling pretty dizzy and regretting having eaten that steak and kidney pie followed by apple pie with creme fraiche. He knew the flight had been successful because he sent one of the instructors to London with the paperwork and license application.
I began training on October 31, 1969, and took my general flight test at Southend-on-Sea Aerodrome on November 10, 1969. The total time recorded was 37 hours and 25 minutes. The only reason I mention this is to show that if an average person, who isn’t afraid of a little hard work, can get a private pilot’s license in 11 days, then they shouldn’t have a hard time doing the same thing in 28. days, especially in a place with pretty decent weather.