Funding PPL

Donny Boy

Well-Known Member
Alright everyone,
Here's the deal. I'm 17, and have just entered the cross country phase of my training. As you all know, now i'm paying more each time i go up, because each flight is longer. I work at a local FBO on the weekends, but with other expenses such as gas, dates, etc. i find myself saving a few weeks every time i wanna fly. At this rate, ill be 19 or 20 before i get my ticket. I work my butt off, 7 days a week in the summer, and during the school year, i do anything. Shoveling, yardwork, you name it. But it still doesnt balance out. I've done a search for scholarships and stuff, but it seems, at least from what i've found, that at this point, it's to late to hop on one of those. I'm in NH if that helps any...im willing to work, i'm hungry to fly..... how do you all go about paying for your training?
 
Alright everyone,
Here's the deal. I'm 17, and have just entered the cross country phase of my training. As you all know, now i'm paying more each time i go up, because each flight is longer. I work at a local FBO on the weekends, but with other expenses such as gas, dates, etc. i find myself saving a few weeks every time i wanna fly. At this rate, ill be 19 or 20 before i get my ticket. I work my butt off, 7 days a week in the summer, and during the school year, i do anything. Shoveling, yardwork, you name it. But it still doesnt balance out. I've done a search for scholarships and stuff, but it seems, at least from what i've found, that at this point, it's to late to hop on one of those. I'm in NH if that helps any...im willing to work, i'm hungry to fly..... how do you all go about paying for your training?
You just do what you can to earn money and pay as you go, just as you are doing. I didn't earn my PPL until I was 30 years old. (though I didn't start at your age, nor was it even in my mind at that stage) It sounds like you are doing everything you can to get those hours in. Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with making your PPL at 19 or 20 years old. I don't know if you are on a career path, but if so, you would be well ahead of the game if that is the case. It couldn't hurt to look at scholarships offered to highschool students. Some may be able to offer better advice in that area, but I would do a search online to see what opportunities are out there.
 
make sure you have enough money before you start training. That is the key, if you have to pay for one hour of flight and wait two week for another, then that going to take forever because believe me you do get rusty when you sit on the ground.
 
There are a lot of smaller and less known scholarships out there.

Ask around, maybe ask your CFI, look into some local aviation museums if there are any, and also look at how you can make your training as economical as possible, with a lot of research and ways to kill a few birds with the same flight (stone).

Scholarships helped me a lot, I have won 6 or 7 of them within 100 miles of me, that only a handful of people applied for.
 
Get a job at a bank, some do hire under 18 year olds. Seriously I made a lot of $$ there, in fact I made twice my CFI's salary working part time.
 
Maybe borrow money from parents, family member, etc. They can give you the money now if they have it and you pay them back cause you already have a job. You'll save money cause you wont get rusty. It is also tax return time...
 
Don't forget that you can go in the other direction and look for ways to save on your flying costs if making more money is getting hard. I work A LOT of overtime hours at the FBO in order to afford my flying, and it works out to being able to afford to fly once a week.

As far as cutting costs...look into joining a flying club in your area. Most of the time, they have CFIs in the club. To give you an idea of the cost savings...I fly a C-172P for $90/hr wet charged on the Tach. My instructor costs $35/hr. Tach times are typically up to 30% less than Hobbs times. For a C-172 at one of the flight schools on the airport here, you're looking at anywhere between $126/hr to $140/hr wet charged on the Hobbs. Flying my club's airplane, I can log typically 1.5 hours of Hobbs flight time for every Tach hour I get charged. If you do the math, that's like being charged $60/hr Hobbs, or more than a 50% savings over renting from a flight school. Even after club dues are factored in, I'm still paying less than $80/hr to fly a C-172. It makes those overtime hours stretch A LOT further.

Also don't forget to ask some of the Part 135 operations at your airport to see if they want to pay you to wash planes for them. I've made several hundred dollars doing that to fund my flight training. Come summer and when school's out for you, by all means get yourself a full-time summer job to help pay for this.

Look into the scholarship and grant possibilities, but do not, I REPEAT, DO NOT take out a loan to fund your flight training. There's tremendous doubt that a bank would loan a 17-year old any money to begin with without a pretty impressive and consistent work history. There's also not a single person on this forum that would encourage you to put yourself into debt to fund your flight training.

Don't worry about how long it takes you to get your PPL. I started back at the end of 2005, had to put it aside for a couple of years for financial reasons, and basically had to start from square one back in June, and I'm now in the home stretch to get my own PPL. I'm twice your age, and looking to make flying a career, and it's not too late for me to do it. You most certainly have the time to take your time.

Congratulations on getting as far as you have and your dedication. It'll pay off in the long run.
 
See if your airport has any sort of a pilots' association; I got most of my pre-UND training funded by scholarships from the pilots' association at my local airport.
 
Man, are situations are practically identical. I got through solo, VORs, and was about to start X-Cs - I finally just ran out of money. I'd been saving for 3 years, working pretty much full-time each summer. I have no help from the parents, the grandparents are either broke or dead, and there's no way in HELL I'm taking out a loan for my PPL.

I've paid $4000 and have an estimated $5000 to go. No idea where the money is going to come from. I've been thinking about making a switch to a cheaper flight school (with a sketchy reputation, but I'm about to shove that bit of knowledge aside and go cheap), but it'd take some serious catchup training to go from 141 to 61.

Best advice I can offer is to keep optimistic. Who knows what kind of opportunities will come rolling your way?

Hope this post helps, even if it just shows you you're not the only one having trouble.

Good luck.
 
Thanks guys, i guess i gotta keep on doing what i'm doing. I know that i'm young, and go plenty of time, but it seems that by the time i get my ticket, college, military (I wanna serve my country) and get my commericial ratings and so on, i'll be halfway dead! My instructor is very thorough, he won't sign off on me, or anyone for that matter, until he is utmost confident in them. I know this makes me a better pilot in the long run, but i feel like i'm paying for more dual than i need to. I'll have to search around for scholarships and such. As far as grants go, some one had mentioned that...how would i go about applying for one?
 
... college, military (I wanna serve my country) and get my commericial ratings and so on...

You could enlist and use your GI Bill to pay for flight training. One of my former students paid for his entire flight training by using his GI bill. After your enlistment is up, you could go to college, get your ratings, then try to become an officer and fly for the military.

One thing that you have going good for you is that you are very young. I started at 22 and finished all of my ratings at 26 while concurrently going to the university.

But it is good that you are not planning on taking out a loan. I had to, but I got a 6% rate, which was acceptable to me. They were all student loans from the government through my college.

But lastly, you need to save up enough money to finish your Private license BEFORE you fly anymore. I know that is very hard to do, but you'll spend a lot more in the long run if you try to pay for each hour of flight as you get it.
 
Thanks guys, i guess i gotta keep on doing what i'm doing. I know that i'm young, and go plenty of time, but it seems that by the time i get my ticket, college, military (I wanna serve my country) and get my commericial ratings and so on, i'll be halfway dead....!

What, you only planning on living until you are 55?!?

Last i checked, the military seems to have a few ways to get people up in the air on the taxpayers' dime....perhaps waiting a bit would serve you well. Murphy's law would seem to dictate that if you get your PPL now, when you join the military, you will end up on a submarine.;)
 
As far as grants go, some one had mentioned that...how would i go about applying for one?

Here is a start... http://www.grants.gov/applicants/apply_for_grants.jsp

Grants helped me through my flight training. I would suggest going to the nearest college and ask the financial aid office there. If they can't help then they can point you in the right direction. I went to an instate college and their aviation program was part 141. I don't think it matters if you attend a part 141 or 91 flight training school to get a grant. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

Murphy's law would seem to dictate that if you get your PPL now, when you join the military, you will end up on a submarine.;)
:yeahthat:
 
It took me four years to do it all, but I still did it in 41 hours. Just work, save up and go when you can. I know it's crap advice, but there's not much you can do. Just don't put it on a card you can't pay off within the month (when you turn 18 anyway) or on a loan.
 
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