Fly bi-weekly or stop

BCTAv8r

Well-Known Member
Let's say a student pilot who has about 15 hours left to go can no longer afford to fly on a weekly basis, would flying bi-weekly be enough to maintain some skills or would it better to just stop and pick it up at a higher frequency when able?
 
Let's say a student pilot who has about 15 hours left to go can no longer afford to fly on a weekly basis, would flying bi-weekly be enough to maintain some skills or would it better to just stop and pick it up at a higher frequency when able?

What are the students long term goals? Is he/she aiming to go all the way to the Commercial/CFI ticket?

Bi-weekly - as in once every 2 weeks? Then might as well stop; and get back when the finances are in order. I speak from personal experience here.
 
As someone who has had to face this issue many a time over the last year or so.... flying bi weekly is only enough to keep current not build towards another rating. So as shift alluded to above it really depends on what his/her goals are.
 
I don't think I've ever flown more than every two weeks for ANY rating, and I'm a CFI in more than one category now.

I wouldn't tell them to stop based on that.
 
I would tell the student to stop flying and save up his money so he can finish the ticket all at once. While he's saving up he can be studying for the oral and taking his written. Flying every other week will get him nowhere. I've had this conversation quite a few times with students and prospective students. This is just my opinion. Maybe he can ride in the back some while he is saving up as this seems to keep the student's eyes set on the goal which is to get his license. If the student doesn't study and take his written while he's off then he isn't really willing to do what it takes to get his license. It's frustrating when students run out of money but there are things they can do if they are really dedicated to getting their license.
 
I don't think I've ever flown more than every two weeks for ANY rating, and I'm a CFI in more than one category now.

I wouldn't tell them to stop based on that.

Speaking of students who are working towards their ppl, I have NEVER had a student finish that only flew once every two weeks. Even flying once a week has never worked out that I can remember. Could a person do it, of course. I haven't met that person yet though. I sure couldn't have done it myself.

Are you seriously saying that when you were working on your instrument rating that you only flew once every two weeks?! And this was enough to get you ready for a check ride?
 
I would say stop.

Bi-weekly flying is usually not effective for training purposes, and generally the longer you draw out training the more is it is going to cost. If you have the discipline to sock the money away and then continue in a straight shot later on I think you would be better off.

Just my .02
 
I did write the post in the 3rd person, but the student is me. I started my PPL many years ago but had to stop in 2008 when I was laid off due to the recession. I started back again this year and it took a while just to get to the solo phase. I was putting everything on my credit cards. Now I have two credit cards that are nearly maxed out and I have to choose between continuing to ruin my credit or stop flying and spend a bunch of money in the future getting back to where I am now. I'm still looking for full-time work, and what I make is just enough to pay the bills and fly once in a while.

My goal is to apply for ANG/AFRES/USCG, so I'd be happy with a PPL for now.
 
I did write the post in the 3rd person, but the student is me. I started my PPL many years ago but had to stop in 2008 when I was laid off due to the recession. I started back again this year and it took a while just to get to the solo phase. I was putting everything on my credit cards. Now I have two credit cards that are nearly maxed out and I have to choose between continuing to ruin my credit or stop flying and spend a bunch of money in the future getting back to where I am now. I'm still looking for full-time work, and what I make is just enough to pay the bills and fly once in a while.

My goal is to apply for ANG/AFRES/USCG, so I'd be happy with a PPL for now.

NO NO NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
 
Let's say a student pilot who has about 15 hours left to go can no longer afford to fly on a weekly basis, would flying bi-weekly be enough to maintain some skills or would it better to just stop and pick it up at a higher frequency when able?

Let him fly bi-weekly and invite him to the back seat with other student once a week for free. This will do magic if he is motivated.
 
Are you seriously saying that when you were working on your instrument rating that you only flew once every two weeks?! And this was enough to get you ready for a check ride?

It was probably closer to once a month to be honest. Maybe less.

Some people can do that, some can't.

For the OP- if you think you are making progress - keep at it. If flying more often works better for you, save up. You know better than anyone here.

I personally would worry about the steady job situation first, flying ain't going anywhere. I always had the money, but not the time off from work.
 
I wasn't able to fly for a couple weeks because of the weather and instructor availability. Now that I have my solo XC endorsement, it's just a matter of finding a nice day to head out. This is a challenge in summer.

As far as experience and learning, I feel like I haven't gone backwards at all by any means. I'm not losing skill. Then again, I've played a flight sim my whole life.
 
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Two different questions there. Here's my input on both:

1. Flying every other week is inefficient, but some students do OK with it, others stagnate or go backwards. It is very situation dependent, thus the true answer is "it depends".
2. Haven't pulled this out of the dust bunny pile in ages, but here you go: http://forums.jetcareers.com/threads/stevecs-accumulated-loan-rant-posts.27591/

Man, that is GOOD stuff. Too bad people aren't figuring this out until AFTER the house was foreclosed on, the BMW repo'd, the loans defaulted on, and they declared BK.....

I am so glad the banks aren't loaning money anymore. Let things hit the bottom.

My advice to the OP is do whatever it takes to keep flying, without incurring debt. "If the dream is big enough, the facts don't count...." If he wants to fly badly enough, he'll figure it out.
 
I did write the post in the 3rd person, but the student is me. I started my PPL many years ago but had to stop in 2008 when I was laid off due to the recession. I started back again this year and it took a while just to get to the solo phase. I was putting everything on my credit cards. Now I have two credit cards that are nearly maxed out and I have to choose between continuing to ruin my credit or stop flying and spend a bunch of money in the future getting back to where I am now. I'm still looking for full-time work, and what I make is just enough to pay the bills and fly once in a while.

My goal is to apply for ANG/AFRES/USCG, so I'd be happy with a PPL for now.

As someone else pointed out; do not put it on the credit card. Worst thing you can possibly do. By, the time you are done paying it off, your training would have cost you three times (or more) as much.
 
I'll probably be putting a good chunk of my training on credit card, but then, we pay ours off every month. We have oodles of available credit, but no carryover. We use our credit cards as cash to take advantage of points. Pretty sure that my flight training will earn us a few flights on Southwest. :)
 
I don't think I've ever flown more than every two weeks for ANY rating, and I'm a CFI in more than one category now.

I wouldn't tell them to stop based on that.

Two of my students right now can only afford 1 hour per week, and have missed a lesson here an there and they are both advancing fine.

It'd be great if they could fly twice per week, and surely they'd retain more, but in the real world you do what you can do.
 
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