The Associated Press is reporting that across the pond, the plunging economy has taken its toll on flight schools and pilot training (Economy buffeting student pilots, flight schools). With training for private pilot licenses costing as much as US$6,000 to $9,000, some students are being forced to discontinue or put on hold their flying lessons as their income becomes less certain. Nevertheless, there are options for would be flyers to still learn how to fly without breaking their budgets.
One option (at least for USA based pilots) is to obtain a less expensive sport pilot license. These licenses can cost as much as half the private license and they can be obtained twice as fast. However, these license holders are limited to flying smaller planes with fewer passengers and they are not allowed to fly at night, in congested air space or during bad weather.
Other options is to simply reduce the costs associated with getting a license. Back in April, Steve of Steve’s Aviation Blog posted some helpful tips that included joining the Civil Air Patrol and becoming a mission observer (again, an option for American pilots), getting all of the ground school and written activities out of the way first and purchasing flight training manuals from discount websites such as AviationLogs.com.
Of course, the best piece of advice is to NOT start flight training unless you know you will have BOTH the time and the money to finish it in one straight shot.
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