Accelerated PPL vs Gaining Hours

[mjwtaylor]

Hi all! I've hung round these parts a while, especially the last month or two, as I have started getting serious about obtaining my PPL.

In October I am finishing up my current job, and plan to move to Hong Kong in January. This leaves me free as a bird for a couple of months!

Originally my plan was to travel to the US and go through an accelerated full-time PPL course, and hope to finish it in 4-6 weeks. This is an aggressive time frame, I know, but how aggressive?

If it is too much, I have also thought about driving around the States a bit (something I also have some interest in), and spending a week or so in different cities, and spending the time to gain hours this way. As a total non-expert, my gut tells me the downside here is not working with the same instructor throughout the PPL course. Is this a fair assumption?

I am now leaning toward the latter, as it also seems to be more flexible economically (i.e. if it is taking longer than I had hoped, or I am not loving it). I gain the ability to generate a good number of hours, but don't commit myself to completing PPL immediately.

Any advice or input is greatly appreciated!

[Jbrownie]

I think a full-time course would be great both for saving $$$ and progression, I think the majority of people would agree.

Part time PPL has traditionally been for people who cannot commit to a full-time course, if you do full-time I would say go for it!

JB

[340drvr]

Your idea of travelling here and there taking lessons at different locations, though it sounds fine, is really not very workable. Even if you were a US citizen, at each stop, there could be several hours with every new instructor, to "catch up" as it were, from where you were before. Even though your logbook might show everything, a CFI would have to see you do many things for themselves before the next level of "sign-off." The more efficient way would certainly be the "accelerated" program, 6 weeks or less is not unreasonable if you can jump in to total immersion.
But, here's the real kicker: If not a US citizen, you must go through a complete security vetting, which includes fingerprinting and background checks, to obtain approval to begin training towards a PPL. This "approval" is attached to a particular training location/flight school, and as such, is not readily transferrable to other schools. Also, this process takes a bit of time, with back-and-forth communications between a candidate, the flight school, and government security agencies (Homeland Security/TSA), October is approaching, you may not have enough time.
This link from AOPA should provide you with the necessary info leading to the process:
https://www.aopa.org/advocacy/pilots/alien-flight-training-program/aopas-guide-to-tsas-alien-flight-training-citizenship-validation-rule
Good luck, it's all do-able, just a lot of hoops to jump through.

P.S. Once you have your US PPL, then you could travel around, renting a plane here and there, as any other licensed pilot could, without additional security burdens. Most FBOs/schools require a minimum 1-hour checkout with an instructor (usually an insurance requirement) for any new renters, no matter what your experience level.

[no_one]

Provided that you are committed 6 weeks is very doable for a PPL in the USA. I got my PPL in 34 days from first training flight to passed exam over there at a small town flight school. I had been solo in gliders about 10 year prior so wasn't competently new to flying but was not current or active. I few on the weekdays when the weather was good and if the weather was bad used the time to study for the theory test. It took a few days to schedule the examiner for the test.

The security thing took about 4 or 5 days to sort out and was actually pretty quick. You basically fill out the form and send it off with the right fee and then they send you a preliminary approval and you have to provide them with finger prints. When they get those they respond saying all good. You need to work out what visa type you might need. Most small flight schools cant help you get a visa.

I was really lucky in that it was a relatively small operation. There was really one full time instructor and one part time. All my flying was with the full time one. He was pretty flexible with the lessons so if the weather didn't allow for something we would do something else. For instance there was a day where there was a fair bit of low cloud around. For the PPL in the USA you need 3 hours of instrument flight, either simulated or real and so he logged a IFR flight plan and we set of into the cloud to do an hour or so of turns and climbs and other maneuvers on instruments. ( We did the unusual attitude recoveries under simulated conditions later). Another example, I was flying pretty well pre solo but there were some days of strong cross winds. Not the best days for a first solo. Rather than not flying we went off and did some dual cross-countries. This meant that when the time came I went solo one day and then off solo cross country the next. I suspect that the larger organisations would be less flexible with this and so the weather might have a bigger impact.

After I had the licence I traveled around and rented from a few other places. They were generally only interested that you could handle the aircraft ok and recover from a stall and get in and out of their airspace with embarrassment if they were at a major airport. I did a few of these checkouts and while they said an hour it was usually less than that.

If you get the opportunity go for it!!!!

[Licence to Learn]

I think a full-time course would be great both for saving $$$ and progression, I think the majority of people would agree.

Part time PPL has traditionally been for people who cannot commit to a full-time course, if you do full-time I would say go for it!

JB
Hi Jbrownie - sorry to hijack the thread but I've sent you a PM!

Cheers!

[Andy_G]

Try Canada, easy as pie to get a six month holiday visa. Flying in Canada is about as cheap as it gets anywhere, a hell of a lot cheaper than Oz. Go an live in the provided accommodation that some of the flight schools have on-site and you can immerse yourself without any outside world distractions, that should accelerate your licence really quick. You would be remiss not to do a float plane endorsement while you're there as well, they've got plenty of 'em up there. And the CAD to AUD is better than the USD exchange rate normally.