My Struggle to Learn to Fly
Learning to fly is a unique endeavor, but I am sure that others are struggling with the same issues. So, this is my story, I hope it helps any of you trying to earn your wings. Let me tell you about my struggles to get my license, and I eventually ended up owning an airplane.
I have always been interested in aviation and built RC airplanes for many years. My education and life eventually got me out of flying RC but I always missed it. Soon I found myself 30 and married. My marriage was not so great and we had moved away from friends and family for my career. Being lonely and unhappy far from home, I went out to a local airport to see if anybody did RC out there. I ended up getting a ride in a C152 and was hooked.
Since my wife had still not bothered to get a job after we moved, I was in no financial situation to start training. It was very disheartening, and I hoped a generous benefactor would come along. I knew several pilots that could have easily helped if they wanted to. I hung around the airport on my off hours an tried to look miserable about not being able to afford to fly. Well, as you all know that got me nowhere.
My wife finally got a job a few months later and I managed to carve out $300 a month for flying lessons. I eagerly started lessons with an instructor in his Citabria. It cost me $75 an hour for him and the plane (1999). I was in heaven. I eagerly looked forward to each weekend's lesson. I purchased the Gleim private pilot study package and dug into the books. The marriage was still going badly, but at least I was flying. Then, the bottom fell out. My wife was pregnant.......
I knew immediately that flying was going to be out of the question for a long time. I am not ashamed to say that I shed tears at the ideal of giving up the one thing that was keeping me sane. However, I am a responsible adult, and I knew that a baby would mean medical bills and an unemployed wife again. I quit flying, and would later move back home to be closer to the family.
The move back home proved to be a very good thing. I was offered a job that paid %25 more, and while that didn't make up for all of my wife’s income, it helped a lot. Then about 6 months after moving back to the home territory, my father made me a very generous offer. He had a rental property very close to my new job and it was causing him a lot of headaches. He had purchased back when real estate was high and was unable to sell it until he had paid it down. It was basically a tax write off and, the renters had been really trashing the place as it was a college town. My father offered to let us live in it rent free for a few years if we would fix the place up and take care of it.
Of course, we accepted and once again, I had a modest flying budget to work with. I started checking around and found a freelance instructor that had a very nice IFR equipped Cessna 150 for rent at $40 an hour for block time. We talked and he agreed to take me on as a student. We agreed on $2100 to finish me up (I had about 10 hours dual already). I started flying with him and soloed for the first time in Feb. 2001. I continued flying with him up until late 2001. At that time he was really wanting to get out of instructing, and made me an offer on his airplane I couldn’t refuse. I had made friends at the airport and had somebody in mind to approach about being my partner in the plane. I was able to buy the plane I had soloed in, for half of the purchase price of $16k. Now I owned my own plane. My monthly payment is $160. Hanger, insurance and maintenance add to that considerably, but with a partner it is still manageable for my $300 a month budget.
I got my PPSEL on 02-16-02. It was the greatest day of my life, other than when my daughter was born, safe and sound. I have now flown over 400 hours in that Cessna 150
The moral of the story, keep on striving for your goals of flying, and it will come to pass. It may seem that you have insurmountable challenges, but you can overcome them. Even though other people have helped, I have always been the one who made the situation work. No benefactor was forthcoming, and hard work and effort was what enabled me to achieve my goal.
I have always been interested in aviation and built RC airplanes for many years. My education and life eventually got me out of flying RC but I always missed it. Soon I found myself 30 and married. My marriage was not so great and we had moved away from friends and family for my career. Being lonely and unhappy far from home, I went out to a local airport to see if anybody did RC out there. I ended up getting a ride in a C152 and was hooked.
Since my wife had still not bothered to get a job after we moved, I was in no financial situation to start training. It was very disheartening, and I hoped a generous benefactor would come along. I knew several pilots that could have easily helped if they wanted to. I hung around the airport on my off hours an tried to look miserable about not being able to afford to fly. Well, as you all know that got me nowhere.
My wife finally got a job a few months later and I managed to carve out $300 a month for flying lessons. I eagerly started lessons with an instructor in his Citabria. It cost me $75 an hour for him and the plane (1999). I was in heaven. I eagerly looked forward to each weekend's lesson. I purchased the Gleim private pilot study package and dug into the books. The marriage was still going badly, but at least I was flying. Then, the bottom fell out. My wife was pregnant.......
I knew immediately that flying was going to be out of the question for a long time. I am not ashamed to say that I shed tears at the ideal of giving up the one thing that was keeping me sane. However, I am a responsible adult, and I knew that a baby would mean medical bills and an unemployed wife again. I quit flying, and would later move back home to be closer to the family.
The move back home proved to be a very good thing. I was offered a job that paid %25 more, and while that didn't make up for all of my wife’s income, it helped a lot. Then about 6 months after moving back to the home territory, my father made me a very generous offer. He had a rental property very close to my new job and it was causing him a lot of headaches. He had purchased back when real estate was high and was unable to sell it until he had paid it down. It was basically a tax write off and, the renters had been really trashing the place as it was a college town. My father offered to let us live in it rent free for a few years if we would fix the place up and take care of it.
Of course, we accepted and once again, I had a modest flying budget to work with. I started checking around and found a freelance instructor that had a very nice IFR equipped Cessna 150 for rent at $40 an hour for block time. We talked and he agreed to take me on as a student. We agreed on $2100 to finish me up (I had about 10 hours dual already). I started flying with him and soloed for the first time in Feb. 2001. I continued flying with him up until late 2001. At that time he was really wanting to get out of instructing, and made me an offer on his airplane I couldn’t refuse. I had made friends at the airport and had somebody in mind to approach about being my partner in the plane. I was able to buy the plane I had soloed in, for half of the purchase price of $16k. Now I owned my own plane. My monthly payment is $160. Hanger, insurance and maintenance add to that considerably, but with a partner it is still manageable for my $300 a month budget.
I got my PPSEL on 02-16-02. It was the greatest day of my life, other than when my daughter was born, safe and sound. I have now flown over 400 hours in that Cessna 150
The moral of the story, keep on striving for your goals of flying, and it will come to pass. It may seem that you have insurmountable challenges, but you can overcome them. Even though other people have helped, I have always been the one who made the situation work. No benefactor was forthcoming, and hard work and effort was what enabled me to achieve my goal.