Alot of flying. What's your opinion?

[Okie_Pilot]

Ok. Here's the situation. I'm a Junior in High School with about 50 hours. I plan on finishing up my PPL the first month we're out for summer. I took a trip to OSU (Oklahoma, not Ohio) and looked at the flight line and talked to an instructor. He said they had around 20 instructors. I asked if you were responsible for getting your own students, or you were assigned students. He said they were assigned students and flew on average 20 hours a week.

While going to college full time, I would also like to instruct. It's going to be pretty hard to go into college my first year, hold a part time job, and try to go through instrument, commerical, CFI, and CFII. I would like to walk in with at least my commerical in hand. So then all I would really have to do is study up for the CFI and hopefully have that by the end of my Freshman year.

I had a thought about flying maybe a whole bunch this summer. Maybe something like 8 hours a week? Then when school started back up, fly at least 2-3 hours a week.

My goal for the next year is 200 hours. My FBO's rental prices:
C-150: $70 + tax= $76.30/hour
C-172: $95 + tax= $103.55/hour
OSU's 152: $76 + tax= $82.84/hour
OSU's 172P $89 + tax= $97.01/hour

I'll try to have a talk with the FBO manager to see if he can match the price on the 172, since I'll be dropping quite a bit of money there. Say if I flew the 150 on Mon., Wed., Fri., two hours each day, and on the weekend I flew the 172 for two hours.

6 x $76.30 = $457.80
2 x $97.01 = $194.02
8 hours = $651.82

10 weeks in the summer of this flying is 80 hours and $6,518.20

When school starts back up, say I fly the C-150 for 2 hours, and the 172 for 1 hour a week. September 2007, through May of 2008 would equal 117 hours.

39 x $97.01 = $3,783.39
78 x $76.30 = $5,951.40
117 hours = $9,734.79

10 hours of instructor time? x $35 = $350

So 197 hours with 10 hours of instructing = $16,602.99 (hopefully).

And I'll be sitting right at 250 hours.

Yes, I also know I haven't included the commerical license test prep material, hopefully I'll get it for a cheap price from some JC'er here.

I'm not really interested in going to a flight school for at least 6 months when I get out of high school before I go to college because I'll probably be going to technical school anyway...

What do you guys think? Is this reasonable? Please tell me your opinions, this is quite a bit of money, and also my future.

--Okie_Pilot

[v1valarob]

What about instruction time for instrument flying? Why not just fly the 150/152 the whole time?

-Rob

[subpilot]

I got confused reading that. I think you are over-thinking this.

[MichaelCPS]

Originally Posted by Okie_Pilot

Ok. Here's the situation. I'm a Junior in High School with about 50 hours. I plan on finishing up my PPL the first month we're out for summer. I took a trip to OSU (Oklahoma, not Ohio) and looked at the flight line and talked to an instructor. He said they had around 20 instructors. I asked if you were responsible for getting your own students, or you were assigned students. He said they were assigned students and flew on average 20 hours a week.

While going to college full time, I would also like to instruct. It's going to be pretty hard to go into college my first year, hold a part time job, and try to go through instrument, commerical, CFI, and CFII. I would like to walk in with at least my commerical in hand. So then all I would really have to do is study up for the CFI and hopefully have that by the end of my Freshman year.

I had a thought about flying maybe a whole bunch this summer. Maybe something like 8 hours a week? Then when school started back up, fly at least 2-3 hours a week.

My goal for the next year is 200 hours. My FBO's rental prices:
C-150: $70 + tax= $76.30/hour
C-172: $95 + tax= $103.55/hour
OSU's 152: $76 + tax= $82.84/hour
OSU's 172P $89 + tax= $97.01/hour

I'll try to have a talk with the FBO manager to see if he can match the price on the 172, since I'll be dropping quite a bit of money there. Say if I flew the 150 on Mon., Wed., Fri., two hours each day, and on the weekend I flew the 172 for two hours.

6 x $76.30 = $457.80
2 x $97.01 = $194.02
8 hours = $651.82

10 weeks in the summer of this flying is 80 hours and $6,518.20

When school starts back up, say I fly the C-150 for 2 hours, and the 172 for 1 hour a week. September 2007, through May of 2008 would equal 117 hours.

39 x $97.01 = $3,783.39
78 x $76.30 = $5,951.40
117 hours = $9,734.79

10 hours of instructor time? x $35 = $350

So 197 hours with 10 hours of instructing = $16,602.99 (hopefully).

And I'll be sitting right at 250 hours.

Yes, I also know I haven't included the commerical license test prep material, hopefully I'll get it for a cheap price from some JC'er here.

I'm not really interested in going to a flight school for at least 6 months when I get out of high school before I go to college because I'll probably be going to technical school anyway...

What do you guys think? Is this reasonable? Please tell me your opinions, this is quite a bit of money, and also my future.

--Okie_Pilot

1) Get your Instrument Rating this summer.
2) Fly the crap out of the 152. No reason to take the 172 unless you are taking two buddies with you.
3) Get your Commercial Cert when you turn 18.
4) Immediately start studying for your CFI. If you can get this done before college, you are golden.

-Michael

[Okie_Pilot]

Yeah, I was going to try to get my instrument this summer too. I guess I could just fly the crap out of the 150....

[Swen]

Yes, fly the crap out of the 150. Get the comm and inst asap.