[seagull]

Originally Posted by nosehair

A lot of people think it is smart to 'get it out of the way' first, and I understand the thinking, which is wrong, but I understand it.

I don't get how you think it will save you money. It costs the same whenever you do it...??

But...to the meat of it. You said that "things will come easier" when you have some flight time first. And that is important. Probably more important than is generally recognized. The industry tends to put money and convienence ahead of good training philosophy.

In the Instructor's Handbook, you will learn that the study of theory and practical should go hand-in-hand. Read/study a little, then put it into practice.

Trying to read/study a whole system of theory that requires practical experience to fully comprehend will, I repeat, will, cause some level of mis-understanding. When the mind has no experience in the practical, it 'makes up' a visualization of the practical experience, which may have some level of incorrectness, which has to be 'found', and corrected by the instructor when you later begin to try to put the theory to practice.

Ground school along with and coorelated to flight training has always been the best way to learn how to do this stuff. You learn mis-conceptions when you put all the ground training up front.

I STRONGLY disagree. If this were true, then why would the airlines and military do the writtens and ground school FIRST? These are organizations that have spent a LOT of time and money to research the most efficient way to teach people. Just because the civilian world tends not to do this (flight schools are in business to make MONEY on the training, not SAVE it!), does not mean that is the best or correct.