Requirements

You have to be 16 years old to solo and at least 17 to receive a private pilot certificate. You must be healthy enough to pass a simple medical examination. At some time during your training, before you take your final flight exam, you must score 70 percent or better on the 60-question multiple-choice private pilot written test administered by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA offers a combined medical certificate and student pilot certificate; to solo, you must have it, but you can start your training without a medical.

How much will I fly?

To earn a private pilot certificate, you will fly a minimum of 40 hours in training, including at least 20 hours of solo flight time. These are minimum figures. In reality, most students have somewhere in the vicinity of 55 to 65 hours at the completion of their training. The first few flight lessons usually run about an hour and are dedicated to familiarizing you with basic aircraft control. Next, you will explore the airplane's handling in other realms of flight such as the slow-speed range (which a pilot experiences in every flight, during takeoff runs and landing approaches) and at steeper angles of bank (an airplane in banked, i.e. a wing is lowered, to make a turn; the steeper the bank angle, the quicker the rate of turn).

Once a trainee is familiar with these basic ideas and has mastered them in the airplane, it is on to practicing takeoffs and landings and airport traffic pattern operations, where all of the skills recently learned come into play. Usually after several hours of practice the student's landings take on a consistently acceptable quality--and when that happens, the first solo flight is not far down the road.

Now that you are soloing in the local area, dual flights with your instructor will enter a new phase: point-to-point flying in the air traffic control system, known as "cross-country" training when the flight exceeds 50 nautical miles. With your instructor, you will begin to plan and fly across counties in preparation for doing at least 10 hours of cross-country solo flying en route to earning your private pilot license. Night flying, including at least three hours of flight time and 10 takeoffs and landings, is also part of the training.

How do I complete my training?

As you close in on the required flight-time minimums for each of the various required flight operations, it is time to focus on your upcoming flight examination, which is a combined oral and flight test. During the "test prep" phase, you will put the pieces all together. Armed with a written recommendation from your flight instructor, next comes your flight test, or "check ride," as pilots call it, during which you demonstrate your knowledge and skill to an FAA examiner.

At the end of it all, with the flight test behind you and the newly issued temporary pilot certificate in your pocket (the permanent one will arrive in a few weeks), you can look back on a rewarding experience and ahead to a lifetime of enjoyment.