My Flying Life

If you are thinking of learning how to fly, you probably have a lot of questions. The FAQ page may have answers to some of them, but that's only a beginning.

What I typically do is meet up with a prospective new student for about an hour over a cup of coffee to get to know one another a bit and talk about what is involved in the training process. During that meeting we also talk about goals, costs, timeline, schedule, study habits and any specific questions the student may have. There's no charge for this session, but you can buy me a latte if you'd like to. (Peet's please!)

Contact me at patti@myflyinglife.com to set up a coffee talk.

Private Pilot

The basic pilot license is called a Private Pilot License. The most common Private Pilot License allows you to fly small, single-engine land airplanes, and to carry passengers for personal reasons but not for hire. Your passengers can help you pay for the cost of a flight.

Private pilot training has 3 stages:

Pre-Solo - during which you learn to control the airplane, talk on the radio and make safe decisions about all aspects of flight in your local area

Navigation - also called the cross-country stage, where you learn to navigate to more distant destinations using both charts and radio aids

Test Prep - during which you refresh and fine-tune everything you've learned in preparation for your final test with the FAA

Once you've got your Private Pilot License you'll probably want to enjoy it for a while before doing any additional training. When you're ready for more, though, you have several options - you can get an instrument rating which will allow you to fly in clouds; you can learn to fly a seaplane, tailwheel or multi-engine airplane; you can transition into something with higher performance or take specialized training in mountain flying. The basic skills you learn in your private pilot training will carry over into any of these other areas.

Boot Camp

Boot Camp is a training option especially suited to the cross country stage of private pilot instruction. Rather than doing the normal same-day cross country flights, Boot Camp students plan multi-day fly-camping adventures where we are free to explore a much larger geographical area. This is a much more realistic format for the cross country navigation stage and is highly recommended for those students who can afford the time.

Boot Camp can also be a great way to dig in for that final, intensive push involved in preparing for your practical test with the FAA. This is especially true for people who find it difficult to study in their home environment due to the normal distractions of everyday life.

Instrument Flight

After you've enjoyed your private pilot rating for awhile, you might want the flexibility of being able to shoot through a layer of clouds on your way to or from a destination. Instrument training gives you that ability. It also gives you an advanced level of knowledge and safety as a pilot.

"Glass panels" represent the latest advances in cockpit instrumentation for general aviation airplanes, and they provide superior situational awareness and multiple levels of redundancy for added safety of flight both in and out of the clouds. If you are considering getting an instrument rating, this is truly the 21st century way to go.

Basic Training for Passengers

For many people, flying as a passenger in a small airplane is a little bit scary. A lot of this fear stems from the very human need to feel in control of one's environment. If you plan to conduct regular flights with a non-pilot best friend or significant other, it is a good idea for that person to get some very basic training so that the cockpit environment doesn't feel so alien. 

This is especially important for married pilots and pilots with children. You're going to want to use your license to fly to cool vacation spots. You're going to want your husband or wife to enjoy that, but it's not an entirely reasonable thing to expect. Running through your partner's mind might be the fear that, if something happens to you, she's in charge... and she doesn't know what to do. Basic flight training for passengers will help your life partner feel more secure and confident being your flight partner.

Training includes:

• basic principles about how the airplane stays in the air
• how to use an aviation chart to figure out where you are
• how to find & navigate to the nearest airport 
• how to tune a radio
• how to make basic non-emergency radio calls
• how to make a radio call in case of an emergency
• how to fly in a straight line
• how to make shallow turns
• how to climb & descend the airplane
• how to make a landing that everyone can walk away from
  

Training Syllabus

To get a sense of what the training involves, please download my...

Private Pilot Training Syllabus and Reading List, or

Instrument Training Syllabus and Reading List.

What Can You Do With A Pilot License?

From the San Francisco Bay Area, the basic private pilot license enables you to do all kinds of very cool things, like...

• fly to Tahoe or Mammoth for a day of skiing without running into traffic jams
• fly a "Bay Tour" over San Francisco & the Golden Gate Bridge (check out my student Neil's Bay Tour video)
  
• fly to Harris Ranch for a fresh steak dinner
• go fly-camping in the Sierra foothills or along the coast
• admire the beautiful Northern California coastline from above
• tour the Grand Canyon from the air before you hike it on foot
• fly to Vegas for the weekend
• fly to Shelter Cove to go abalone diving
• fly to Catalina Island to go SCUBA diving
• fly to Death Valley to watch the wildflowers bloom