Hey guys/girls,
Question, If you had to go back in time and talk to your younger self when you were working on your PPL, what advice would you have? Things to avoid or things that made your training/career take longer or more expensive then necessary? Anything helps! I’m currently working on my PPL in Seattle and love seeing the advice from you mentors on here. Thank you
-Daniel
Daniel,
That for me is an easy one. Started my career earlier in life and trained with ATP from day 1. Now I know that might sound like a commercial but it’s true. I wasted so much time and money training locally and literally lost over a year of this career that I love and will never get back.
If you want to fly professionally you need to train like one.
Adam
Daniel,
I would have gone to ATP for my private license instead of the small school that I went to. That school took twice as long as it should have and cost significantly more than they originally quoted.
Chris
I really wish I could start from no flight time at ATP but unfortunately I don’t have the college hours I would need for that. ATP was definitely my preference for my private pilots license but unfortunately I’m gonna have to take it with a local school here in the city but I do plan on attending ATP as soon as I get my PPL. I appreciate the help and everything that you guys do for potential new pilots. It helps a lot having a mentor in such a self-sufficient career choice.
Daniel,
Let us know how else we can help you. Keep in mind that if your goal is to fly for the majors, you will most likely need a college degree at some point.
Chris
Daniel,
For me I would tell myself to take more initiative on the ground knowledge. When you’re first starting out, it’s easy to put too much trust in your CFI to teach you everything you need to know. So, if I were to do it all over again, I would have held myself accountable by grabbing a copy of the PTS (now ACS) and every piece of text that the ACS references and read them and then retained that information.
Retention would have saved me time later as I progressed through training because since there were gaps in my knowledge, I was reviewing my private pilot knowledge while learning instrument and commercial stuff.
When you go through training, everything builds on top of itself. When you get to the CFI phase, your knowledge should all be there except for the new subjects like endorsements and fundamentals of instructing. When I became a CFI, I made it a point to not let them make the same mistakes I made. I gave them the tools and the resources and we worked together as a team to maximize their potential.
Tory