Money for Flight Training

Someone who was trying to figure out how to pay for flight training recently asked how I paid for my flight training and if I had any suggestions. I wish I had a good answer, but I don't. I have some suggestions that may help, but the bottom line is this; FLIGHT TRAINGING IS EXPENSIVE! I was fortunate enough to get some support for my primary flight training from my family. For the rest, I worked at Jiffy Lube on weekends, and got into a lot of credit card debt.

Here are 4 pieces of advice on funding flight training:

1. Join CAP and become a mission observer (no pilot certificate needed), then fly for free whenever possible. If I could do it over again, I would join Civil Air Patrol much earlier. That way, I could have taken rides on training missions and try to absorb whatever I could.

2. DO NOT start training if you don't have the time or money to finish in one shot. You'll end up spending a lot more that way. Save your money so you can do all of your training at once (about 6 - 8K these days).

3. When you start flight training, get the ground school and written out of the way first. You'll get more for your money with each hour in the aircraft if you already know the basics.

4. Save money by getting your training materials from AviationLogs.com. AviationLogs.com specializing in low cost flight training materials.