Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane

Re:Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane by retroafroman on Thursday February 20, 2014 @12:35PM (#7272215)

The FAA also created a new license class called 'Sport Pilot' about 10 years ago that only takes 20 hours of flight training, which makes it much easier and cheaper to get into flying [1]. However, this comes with limitations like only able to take one passenger, only able to fly during the day, in good weather, only in a small aircraft, etc.

[1] http://www.aopa.org/Advocacy/Regulatory-,-a-,-Certification-...

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Re:Questions People Ask When I Tell Them I Own an Airplane by lake_rogue on Friday February 21, 2014 @12:43PM (#7278169)

When I decided I was going to get my pilot license I planned to do so efficiently, without burning cash unnecessarily (yeah, right) -- I was prepared with my own plan for every flight... I'd heard numbers in the $8k to $10k ballpark and thought "I'll target that".

It still cost me $15k (in 2012 -- airplane $11k, instructor $4k) to get my Private Pilot License -- plus another $2k in optional expenses like a good home simulator set-up, iPad software, books etc. -- some of which arguably should have made my training more efficient.

While I don't know the costs of getting a Sport Pilot license, I have wondered if it would have been the better route for me.

The difference between the times I fly with a VFR Private Pilot license is virtually no different than I would with a Sport Pilot license. I rarely have more than one passenger (one is limit for Sport Pilot license), and I rarely fly at night ('engine out' at night is beyond the risk I'm willing to take), I've never been above 10k feet.

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