What you need to know before you decide to become a Pilot

Often people ask me what it takes to become a pilot. The answer is time and money, surprised? You shouldn’t be. Like any hobby or new career there is a cost of entrance; and with that you should ask yourself “What do I plan to do with my pilot’s license”.

If one of your answers is I want to fly cross-country to visit girl/boyfriends or family instead of flying commercial airlines, you might want to reconsider that thinking. The truth is, if you fly long distances flying commercial is by far the cheaper way to go. When I fly from Kansas City to Miami alone, my fuel usage is about 120 gallons for an 8 hour flight, take that 8 hours times 15 gallons per hour equals 120 gallons of fuel used for one way, now 120 gallons times $4.00 per gallon = $480 each way, and a round trip total of $960. That’s a lot of coin when the airlines charge about $250(excluding baggage fees) for a round trip.
So why fly your own plane?

You know that $960 fuel cost? That was for a single occupant. Now if I included my wife and daughter then the cost per person goes down to $320. No connecting flights, no TSA strip search, no airline baggage fees, and I can come and go on my own schedule. Flying shorter distances like 250-400 miles flying your own plane is actually cheaper. For example if I were to fly from Kansas City to St. Louis, it’s about 250 miles, and takes about 4 to 5 hours to drive and about 1.5 – 2.0 hours to fly my own plane. Flying cuts my travel time by over half and is cheaper than flying commercial and in a shorter time. Southwest airlines flies direct from Kansas City to St. Louis for a cost of $267 and a 55 minute travel time. Most of the other carriers range from $250 - $450 with travel times of greater than 3 hours because you have to connect with them. Most of the time I can fly to St. Louis for $180 in fuel costs, with a travel time of 2 hours on my own schedule. That’s the advantage of flying, freedom.

Cost of the License:
Although there are a couple of different licenses you can get each having their own set of restrictions. A Private Pilot is the most widely held and offers the most flexibility. Recreational and sport pilot’s licenses are more restrictive and in the long run for the extra cost the Private license is more advantageous. To get your private license under FAA CFAR 61 you need 40 flight hours, while most people average around 50 hours.

Aircraft rental prices vary widely but you can expect to pay around $70 for a Cessna 150/152 and between $30 - $40 for the instructor. So for easy math you can roughly figure about $100.00 per hour for plane and instructor yielding around $5,000 for your ticket. This doesn’t account for the incidentals that you will need like textbooks, flight computer, plotters, and maybe a headset.