7 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Flight School

You don’t know what you don’t know, right? 

Most pilots have a list of things they wish they’d known before they started flight school, such as how long it would take or how much it would cost. 

There are tons of questions swirling around your mind before you take your first flight lesson.

Here’s a collection of advice from flight instructors about what you should know before you start flight training. 

7 Pieces of Advice for New Flight Students

Flight school will teach you everything you don’t know about flying a plane, but who will teach you about flight school?

During your first few flight lessons, you’ll get a feel for what’s expected of you and how flight training works.

Not only are you accomplishing your first few maneuvers in the plane, but you’re also learning what to study, from where, and when. 

But there are many little things that go into successfully getting your pilot’s license.

Here is a list of things we wish we’d known — or realized — before we started flight lessons. 

1. You should start with an FAA First-Class Medical 

The first thing you should know before launching into a career in aviation is just how important your medical history is to the whole thing.

While the medical standards aren’t terribly strict, and there are workarounds available for some things, you should be aware if there are any limitations before you begin.

Some people might need to work on getting further paperwork from their medical providers, switching medications, or researching how any possible limitations might affect your flying.

The classic example is color blindness: Many people never know they are color deficient until they apply for their medical. 

Starting with an FAA First-Class Medical certificate is important if you intend to fly professionally.

You don’t need it for your flight lessons — you only need to start with the lowest level, a Third Class — but knowing any issues in advance is good.

It would be a major bummer to find out that you have a disqualifying condition for a First Class after you’ve already spent tens of thousands of dollars on flight training. 

2. Pick your flight instructor very carefully

Most students show up at a flight school and are assigned to a flight instructor. Most of the time, this works out fine.

Sometimes, however, it doesn’t.

Any experienced pilot will tell you that students should put much more time and research into picking their first flight instructor.

You are going to spend tons of time with this person, and you’re going to put a lot of faith in their abilities as a pilot and as a teacher. 

Ensuring your flight instructor is worthy of that trust only makes sense.

Most of them are, but they all vary in their communication styles and teaching methodologies.

Every student learns differently, and sometimes, the way one instructor explains things won’t work for you. If you find this to be the case, chat with the school’s Chief or Assistant Chief Flight Instructor and see if you can arrange a flight with a different instructor. 

The long and the short of it is this: You need to find an instructor you “click” with, who has a solid mastery of the material and a proven track record for teaching new students how to fly.

It often benefits you to find the most experienced flight instructor you can find, especially for your first few hours in the cockpit. 

3. The type of plane you’re flying matters not

Students often want to fly one type of plane over another, so much so that they let it affect their choice of flight schools.

Maybe they don’t like high-wing Cessnas and want to fly a sporty Piper. Or they want to fly a sleek Diamond more than any other type of plane. We all have our preferences.

When you start, you don’t realize how little this matters.

What matters far more for your training and pocketbook is the quality of the instruction you receive from your CFI and the flight school. 

4. You need to dedicate a lot of time to flight lessons

Many casual students start flying with the idea of flying once a week on the weekends.

It’s okay to dip your toes in the water this way, but in the long run, it will take much longer to complete your license and cost you more money, too.

When you fly infrequently, much of each lesson is spent remembering and relearning what you did on the previous flight.

A better approach is to dedicate at least three days a week to your flight lessons, which can be very hard to do if you’re going to school or working a full-time job.  

Besides how frequently you fly, new flight students seldom realize how much time outside their flight schedule they need to spend thinking about flying.

Unlike other activities and classes you might have taken, there’s a lot of homework and study time required outside of the ground and flight lessons.

You’ve got to set aside time to study before and after each flight lesson. 

If you’re looking for a good ground school to help you through training check out our post on the best online ground schools.

5. Flight school is really expensive, so be prepared

Everyone knows that flight school is expensive. Students can pay for their lessons in several ways, including cash, flight training loans, or aviation scholarships. 

However, the best advice for new students is not to begin lessons until you’ve got enough in the bank to finish them.

Students who try to work their way from one flight to another often pause training to build up funds. That leads to the previously mentioned problem: Breaks in training and infrequent flight lessons cost you more money in the long run. 

You must also realize that each flight won’t be the same price.

During your early lessons, you’ll usually spend less time in the air and more on the ground. That means these lessons cost less than your later flight lessons, which are the opposite: more time in the air and less time on the ground.

Cross-country flights are especially taxing on your bank account since they often mean two or three hours of airplane time in one lesson. 

You should keep a budget for your flight training, but be flexible about it.

Expect it to take a little longer and be a little more expensive than originally planned. If you need to save up funds, it’s better to do so before you begin training.

6. You’ll spend way more time studying the books than you will flying 

Your success in flight training really is connected to how much studying you can accomplish on your own.

Under the guidance of your flight instructor, you’ll be given tasks to learn before each lesson.

This is just part of the process, and if you don’t take the time to review the flight books, your instructor will have to spend extra time going over things before your flight.

Not only is that a less effective way to learn the material, but it’s also paying for something you could’ve done for free. 

Taking this self-study mentality to heart will serve you well throughout your career as a pilot.

Professional pilots are expected to show up to new aircraft checkouts and transition training having studied the books and memorized the systems before class.

During your early flight training, taking the initiative and studying for (and passing) your written exams early on will free you up to spend more time nailing the flying skills and the practical exams.

The good news is that it’s fun to learn about aviation. So even though it takes a lot of time and effort, it’s never boring or dull. 

7. It really is worth it

All that said, it really is worth all the hard work, study, time, and money.

There’s no feeling like being at the controls of an airplane.

And, as career options go, few offices have a better view than the cockpit of an airplane. Flying is just — awesome.