Grayson Enterprises Ltd. A!! Rights to Best Pub!. Page 1 Approximate!y 1,302 words FLYING:THE NATURAL HIGH Written by June Grayson If you have always dreamed of soaring with eag!es, wait no !onger. There is a f!ight instruction program to fit your schedule at an airport near you. In a few weeks you can make your chi!dhood dreams come. true. The day is !ong past, however, when you cou!d just drive up to an airport and find a barnstorming pi!ot !ol!ing around ready to take you up in his p!ane whenever you appeared. Flight instruction is now a professiona! service. If you are a young person who hopes to make flying a career, it makes sense to attend a co!lege which coordinates the fu!! range of f!ight training with a bache!or degree. In professional flying jobs, as with other occupations today, the edge often goes to the person with that forma! degree. But your degree does not have to be in f!ying. If you have some or all of your co!!ege behind you when you opt for a flying career, you can attend fu!! time f!ight schoo! to attain all of your flight ratings in the shortest possible time. This wi!! take four to five months and cost between .. ''.$15,000 and $20,000. You wi!l end up with 230 loggable flight hours and 200 hours of ground education,, a!l of your f!ight ratings including multi-engine, and a marketable skill. Military flight programs coordinated with college also provide excellent training to young students who qualify. In fact, commercial air!ines have always depended on retired military pi1ots whose##kills'were honed# in war oombat or military maneuvers. But the average flying student today is in his thir- ties or.forties with fu!l time fami!y and business responsibi!ities. He wants to f!y for persona! p!easure or business efficiency. Since no o#e ever h#s enough time and it always seems as though "you can't get there from here", f!ying your own p!ane can make fami!y vacations feasib!e and business hours more productive. The three usua! methods by which you can get your private pi!ot license are through a f!ying c!ub, a fixed base operator (FBO), and a f!ight school. At sma!!er airports, !icensed and student pi!ots may form a flying c!ub so that they can afford to buy their own plane and hire part-time f!ight instructors for the benefit of their members. -. .-=- - The FBO is the backbone of the f!ight instruction industry and you can find one or more !ocated at !arger airports. The FBO is a franchised dea!er of one of the three sma!! aircraft used for flight training - the Beechcraft, Cessna, and Piper. He operates !ike your !oca! auto dea!er and provides a fu!! range of flying services. He wants to se!l airp!anes and to do that he needs licensed pilots. He keeps top-qua!ity air- Aircraft manufacturers have brought uniform!ty to f!ight training by providing their dea!ers with the !atest instruction programs geared to the planes they manufacture. The dea!er hires !oca! pi!ots who have their f!ight instructor rating to staff a training program that usua!!y operates seven days a week. You wi!! use f!ight manua!s and audio-visua! materia!s that a!!ow you to study at home at your own speed. Even though timing is f!exib!e, you wi!! !earn most effective!y if you can schedu!e at !east two f!ying !essons a week. You can expect to so!o after about ten hours of flight time and attain your private pi!ot !icense in 50-60 hours at an average cost of $3,000. To qua!ify for your !icense you wi!! have to pass the two examinations required by the Federa! Aviation Administration (FAA). In the written FAA exam you wi!! show what you have !earned about aviation regu!ations, piloting procedures, and cross country f!ying# During the actua! f!ight test, you have to show your ability to control the airplane in a safe and confident manner. You must a!so pass a physica! examination performed by'an Aviation Medical Examiner (AME), a !ocal physician author- ized by the FAA to perform airman physicals according to FAA '''-. specifications. Chronic medical conditions that are incompat- ible with the safe operation of an airplane, such as heart disease or epi!epsy, are disqua!ifying. If you have any questions about your abi!ity to pass the physica!, your f!ight instructor can direct you to a !oca! AME who can advise you before you start f!ying. If you find it hard to discip!ine yourse!f to study at home and to work your f!ying !essons into your busy schedu!e, you may want to investigate the concentrated instruction provided by .. a flight #choo!. Leaf through any f!ying magazine to see their ads and decide which one sound right for you. American Flyers, with facilities in Ca!ifornia, Texas, F!orida, Illinois, and New York, is such a schoo!. You can master ground instruction and pass your written test - all in a threeday weekend at one of their !ocations. If you can get away for a two or three week vacation, you can get in enough f!ight time to be eligible for your private pi!ot license through a training program tai!ored especia!ly for you. Most private pilots plan to go on and get their instrument rating. Your 1icense and p!ane won't do you much good if you can only fly in perfect weather. Instrument training is far more demanding than that Grayson, F!ying, page 5 needed to secure the private pilot !icense. Ground simulators are often used to teach ho!ding patterns, radio navigation, and approaches. F!ight schools and some FBOs offer training so tnat you can qua!ify for your instrument rating. If you can't !eave your office even for a few days, hire the school that comes to you. Professional Instrument Courses, for examp!e, will send #you a f!ight instructor - usua1!y. a retired mi!itary pi!ot with over 10,000 hours of f!ying time - who carries his own portab!e ##und simu!ator. You pay his transportation# lodging, and the ten day professiona! fee of $2,750. You a!so furnish your own p!ane and eight hours of your time every day - and Eureka! You are ready to take your instrument rating tests. Peter Dogan, PIC's founder, says that their typica! student is 56 years o!d, a high!y motivated entrepreneur, and the president or CEO of his own company. You may have heard of one of their recent graduates - Tom Landry, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. Who hasn't heard the story of the brave spouse who safe!y lands a p!ane after the pi!ot has died of a heart attack? If you don't want to !earn to f!y but you want to be prepared for a f!ying emergency, the Aircraft Owners and Pi!ots Association (AOPA) has a course just for you. Their PINCH HITTER program wi!l teach you enough about a p!ane and its contro!s so you cou!d !and it safely if necessary. As a spouse or friend of an AOPA member, you are e|ig- -. . .- - ible to take the four hour ground instruction course and,if you have an airplane available for your own use, four hours of flight time during which you will actual!y !and the p!ane. If you drink a!coho! or do drugs, don't f!y. '''' Statistics show that 40% of flying students wash out of training programs because of alcohol or drug problems. And one in ten f!ight fata!ities is due to alcohol abuse. There is even a case where second-. hand inhalation of marijuana fumes was deemed the cause of a crash that ki!!ed the two pi!ots. #!ying is different from other ski!ls in that mistakes can be fatal. You can't pu!l off to the side of the road and read your owner's manual. Because attaining and upgrading your ratings is a major investment of your time and money, demand the best of yourse!f and your instructors. # Then all of your !andings wi!! be happy ones. #######