When most people think of someone with a private pilots license, they think of the rich or famous who can afford the huge amounts of money it takes to get your license. Truth is, flying lessons are considerably less than most people think. They’re still not cheap, but they’re not out of reach. For most people, like me, it’s a matter of priority, not affordability.

So, what does it cost to get your private pilots license? It’s a combination of aircraft rental fees, instructor time, classroom time and equipment. I’ll take a look at each one separatel but, I recommend you call your local flight schools and ask them for a rough estimate of the total cost. It can vary by region.

Equipment - $250

Before you buy your aviator sunglasses and Epaulets, you’re going to need a few other practical items. The flight schools I’m looking into right now (April 2007) have a pilot kit that includes everything you need in one complete package for $249. What’s in the bag? Basically everything you need to make it through flight training.

• Jeppesen Bag - This is your flying companion. You’ll put all your “pilot stuff” in this bag and use it regularly. Plus, it’s cool to have a pilot bag.
• Books & Manuals - Every manual you’ll need including your basic pilot manual, exam books, record books, test guides and more.
• Metal Slide Computer - Used for calculating your navigation tasks. It’s not a computer, like a PC or Mac, but rather a tool for computing.
• Navigation Plotter - Not really sure what this is for yet. I hope I figure it out. Sorry.
• Pilot Logbook - Something you will have for many years to come. Everytime you’re airborne, you’re going to be logging those minutes and recording everything you did.
• Other stuff - I believe there ’s a fuel tester in there among other things.

Ground School - $135

Ground school will take you from “this is an propeller” all the way up to plotting and planning a cross-country flight and more. This is the “book knowledge” you’ll need to pass your written test. The real learning comes in the air, but this will teach you WHY you do what you do when your in the air.

Medial Exam - $70

You’ll need to have a physical performed by an FAA certified medical examiner sometime early on in your training. To obtain your private pilots license you’ll need to a class 3 certificate. You can find a local doctor at the FAA website.

Aircraft Rental - $80 to $110 per hour

If you’re going to learn to fly, you’re going to need an airplane. I’m assuming you don’t already own one, so you’ll need to rent something. The school you’re attending will most likely have aircraft available. On the low end, you can rent a Cessna 150 but most people are using a 172. The 150, I’ve heard is a bit more difficult to fly and not as comfortable. But, if you’re looking to save as much as possible, it’s the best way to go.

The FAA minimum to get your Private Pilots License is 40 hours. The average person takes about 50 hours before they’re ready for their checkride (flying test). That puts your total cost for aircraft rental between $3200 (40 hours @ $80 each) and $7000 (50 hours @ $140 each)

Certified Flight Instructor - $40-45 per hour

I believe you’ll need to have your instructor for the entire time you’re flying. Though, some of the flights will be done “solo”. If anyone knows differently, be sure to let me know. 40 hours @ $40 per hour is $1600. 40 hours @ $45 per hour is $1800

Total Cost - Between $5255 and $8855

If you want to keep your costs down, I highly recommend taking as many lessons as you can, as rapidly as possible. If you can go up 5 or more times a week, you will dramatically decrease the number of hours you need to pass your checkride. The more time you leave between lessons, the more you’ll have to relearn on each lesson.

As I’ve mentioned, from the time I was very young, I’ve had a dream to fly. I’ve watched planes and helicopters, and even birds and been fascinated by flight. I love flying. I had called the local flight schools so often, I was probably becoming a pest.

As I got older, I considered a career in aviation and wanted nothing more than to be a Navy pilot flying an F-14 over the skies of my hometown, San Diego. I remember taking one of those career profile tests in middle school and writing down my career choice as Airline Pilot. The test suggested social worker. I thought it was a stupid test.

At some point in my life, my mom told me she thought I was color blind. I didn’t like the thought of that, but I didn’t really care. I could color and get myself dressed and most of the time the colors weren’t an issue. Sometimes my clothes didn’t match, but I marked it up as my bad sense of “taste”.

The color blindness didn’t matter until I started talking about being a pilot. That’s when someone told me I couldn’t be a Navy pilot if I had any amount of color blindness. I was very upset and started to argue with anyone who told me I might be color blind. It wasn’t until I joined the Navy and took the actual test that it was confirmed. I was color blind.

Suddenly the jobs I could do in the Navy had been severely limited. In the aviation field, I could become a parachute rigger, storeman (ordering parts for the planes), or administrationsman. No avionics, no power plants, and certainly NO PILOT!

Reality set in and I decided I would be an “Aviation Maintenance Administrationsman” A huge name better known as an “AZ”. At least I would be close to the planes and able to see them everyday. I even saw some “non-color blind” pilots walking the halls every day. It was as close as I was going to get. Someone said I could have joined the Army and been a helicopter pilot, but I heard they have a life expectancy of less than 1 minute in a combat situation. I decided I wanted to be a pilot for a little longer than THAT.

There are approximately 8-12% of the white male population who are color blind and less than 1/2 of 1% of the white females. For a guy who wanted nothing more than to be a pilot, this was definately a bad hand to be dealt. At one point I even figured I would just memorize the little cards with all the dots on them and try to sneak past the “color guards”. Turns out, that just can’t be done.

Do you see the 6, 8 and 45 above? I don’t! Seriously, it’s hard for a non-color blind person to imagine not being able to see something that is so crystal clear to them, but it’s true. I just a bunch of dots of various colors.

So, I’m color blind and I’ll never be a Navy pilot. But, that didn’t mean I couldn’t be a civilian pilot. I started to look into this option and I was thrilled to find out my color blind state wasn’t going to stop me in this area. According to the FAA, to become a private pilot you don’t have to prove your color vision… as long as you don’t want to fly above the clouds or in other IFR (Instrument Flight Regulations) situations.

That was it! I was going to get my private pilots license. That was when I was 18 years old. Today I’m 39 and I still haven’t done it. More about that in the days to come.

If you’re wondering about your color blindness I’ve included a few simple tests and a couple of links to more information.

About Color Blindness - Spend some time exploring this site. It has a lot of great information

Color Blind Kids - This is a great site if you’re dealing with color blind children. There’s a lot of information on how color blind kids struggle in school and how it often goes unnoticed and consequently untreated.

Corrective glasses - ColorView glasses state they don’t “cure” color blindness, but they do say they will help you if you have a red/green color blindness issue. I don’t know anyone who has tried these, so I have no idea if they work.

Corrective Sunglasses - These are supposed to do the same thing as the ColorView glasses, but in sunglass form. They have some “laser dye” treatment. I know nothing about them other than the fact that they cost about $300 each.

Since I was very young, I have had a dream to fly. Even when I was in Kindergarten I would love to watch the helicopters flying out of Ream Field (NAS Imperial Beach) over my house in South San Diego. I think I used to call them “Hockey-Fockters” instead of helicopters.  I was the only kid who would stop whatever I was doing to turn my eyes skyward

As I got older I would do whatever it took to experience “flight” in any form possible. Paper airplanes, kites or balsa wood airplanes. When I could talk my parents into spending a little more, I would get the ones with a wind-up rubber-band propeller (those were cool!).  I remember flying those planes for hour and hours.  Even when my friends tired of them and wanted to ride bikes, I was still winding and flying.

When I got into 9th grade, I spent a month in math class with the FAA manual tucked behind my math book. I think I got a D in that class, but I probably learned more than the other kids (just on a different subject).  I read through the entire book and couldn’t wait until I could become a pilot. I was a year away from my 16th birthday and I was counting the days.  I would call all the local flight schools to find out how much it would cost.  This was back in the early 80’s and it was about $2000.  Of course, I didn’t have a firm grasp of the value of a dollar and that sounded like a great deal.

When I finally got a job (do you want fries with that?) I was going to use some of it for lessons.  Then I got a car, and a date and eventually my money was gone.  I don’t know how it happened, but my little minimum wage job just wasn’t enough to pay for my flying lessons.