The idea of acquiring a pilot’s license usually calls to mind a hobby reserved for the rich and famous who manage to squeeze in private lessons during their free time. However, flight schools are an option for people with career aspirations to become pilots. It’s not your typical educational experience, offering a much more intense and challenging curriculum than you may realize. If you’re considering flight school and are curious about what it entails, you’ll find that it’s a demanding experience.
Flying an aircraft is a complex process. Planes are expensive machines and can be dangerous in inexperienced hands. Naturally, flight training is comprehensive, and at times, the pace can feel overwhelming. It takes dedication and discipline to follow the program through to completion, but the reward is worth the sacrifice. What should you expect as a student in flight school?
It’s not just flying.
Although the main objective of flight school is the ability to fly a plane physically, there’s a good deal of classwork and studying involved with multiple written exams along the way. This tends to be the most challenging part of the process for many people and drives a high percentage of the drop-out rate. Luckily, schools like Fly Aero Guard understand that this portion of the training can be tough, and they have the tools to help you through it without losing your passion for flying. Extra support from instructors who are sensitive to the inevitable stressors that impact students during the program is vital.
Full days
The typical amount of time spent on training is ten hours a day, six days a week. You might think this hectic pace could easily lead to burnout, but the excitement of flying generally ensures that the days go by fast, leaving most people feeling that they finish their certifications in the blink of an eye. While there are multiple opportunities to fly a plane over the course of the day, there are also briefings, study sessions, and prep for actual flights or a flight simulator. Then, at the end of the day, it’s routine to review everything that transpired. This extreme pace means you have to stay on top of the classroom component because the nature of flight training doesn’t lend itself to last-minute studying.
Motion sickness
Oddly enough, motion sickness can be a factor that appears in an unfortunate few during training. For whatever reason, the students may not have experienced similar conditions that caused the symptoms before enrolling in flight school. If it becomes a persistent problem during training that can’t be easily mitigated, it will interfere with flying lessons. Ultimately, the affected trainees will be forced to reevaluate the investment they want to make in flight school, and perhaps look into what other capacities they can be involved in the industry.
Clearly, flight school requires a constant commitment to the part of the students. Anyone interested in learning to become a pilot by enrolling in a flight school program should be prepared for a significant investment of time and money to realize their dream. Lord Chesterfield wrote, “Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.” Flight schools offer thousands the ability to achieve their goal of becoming a pilot if they are willing to put forth the effort required.
