Teenagers: How to Become a Pilot — AviatorCast 134

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA3qtv1qhu4

So, you’re a teenager and thinking of becoming a pilot? Maybe you’ve been looking up at airplanes with awe all your life, and now you’re thinking of doing it as a career, or even just for fun. The steps are unique, and you have a great opportunity to get ahead.

In this podcast we will discuss:

▪ When to start getting your flight training
▪ How you can plan ahead and study well
▪ A brief bit on getting your medical
▪ The big 3 for you as a teenager (time, money, and work)
▪ Saving for your training
▪ The importance of commitment

I hope you take the opportunity to go after this dream, and start by planning now for that process.

[vc_toggle title=”Episode Transcript”]
On this Episode of AviatorCast, How to Become a Pilot for Teenagers.

Welcome aviators to another episode of AviatorCast. Load up your flight bag with useful flight training topics, interviews and aviation passion. Let’s kick the tires and light the fires. Coming to you from Angle of Attack Headquarters in Homer, Alaska. Here’s your host and flight instructor, Chris Palmer.

Welcome aviators. My name is Chris Palmer from Angle of Attack coming to you from Homer, Alaska. I’m excited to be with you today because this is a subject that has come up a handful of times in the last several weeks. And I decided it was time to focus in and narrow in on just one single demographic, and that is teenagers. So if you were a teenager, and you’re looking to getting into flying, or maybe you’re even mentoring a teenager, this is going to be a podcast about How To get into flying and the steps that a teenager can take to prepare for flight training.
Now I have a little bit of my own backstory and I’ll go through and share that with you, what I went through as a teenager. And maybe you as a teenager, you’re thinking of doing it for a career. Maybe you just want to become a pilot for fun, and you’re not really sure about the details or how to get into this. Now, this may bring up more questions than answers, but at least is going to get you on the right track to start to move down the road and plan a little bit. At the end of the day, regardless of how you become a pilot, it does take a plan. It takes a lot of hard work, but it is a rewarding experience. And I think that out of all the things out there you could choose as a career in the world, aviation is one of the most rewarding careers.
So I’m excited that you’re looking forward to this, that you’re maybe looking into this. And I hope that today through this podcast I can answer some of your questions, and perhaps inspire you to come up with a plan and start to work the problem to become a pilot because it is a very, very rewarding career. So a little bit about my backstory. So my story definitely started as a young kid, even a child falling in love with aviation. So I just remember as a kid, I remember looking up in the sky. I remember seeing airplanes approaching the airport and landing. I remember going to several air shows. I remember seeing, maybe I was maybe like seven or eight, I remember going and seeing a B-17 at a local airport. I remember going to the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC when I was 11 years old.
I had all these touch points of loving aviation, even did models as a kid putting together like World War II models while I was watching discovery channel and in history channel on the subject. And just always loved aviation. But I never really put anything together in terms of a career because really I was just doing it for fun. I was interested in airplanes. And as I became a teenager, and more interested in girls, and I was in a punk band when I was a teenager. I fell away from those hobbies and those things that I had loved. And life had just changed a little bit as well. So as you know, as a teenager, once you start into high school, especially your second year in high school, they start talking about careers a lot more. And start asking you, what you want to do for a career? How you’re going to prepare for a career? And you start going down that path. You may even meet with a career counselor.
So as I was doing that, I realized that I did have this love for aviation. And actually had this love for the military too, but in talking to the military recruiters that were at my school, I found out that I could not go to the military with a physical or rather like a medical condition that I have. And so I knew that that wasn’t my path. And then, my cousin of all people who I grew up with and really liked ended up picking professional pilot as his college degree. And he was like a four years older than me. So he was already deep into or not… he was already in his early 20s by the time I was thinking of a career at like 16 years old.
So he chose professional pilot, but it wasn’t in the military. It’s like all these things started clicking in my brain. Like you don’t have to go to the military to be a pilot. And you can actually just go to a local school and become a pilot. And I never really knew that. I thought you had to go through the military. So I knew right away when he went into it that is exactly what I wanted to do. The light bulb went off. I knew right away that was a passion I had had for a long time. I enjoyed putting those things together and I just loved airplanes. And I knew just right away that’s what I wanted to do.
So I went down the road a little bit, worked through some medical stuff. I mentioned that earlier with the military thing, got that all figured out, and then I started work real or rather school released my senior year of high school. I only went to high school like half the time. And then the other half the time, I went to Private Pilot Ground School and Human Factors. And so I actually took only half the time because I had been a good student, had all my credits done basically. I took half the time to go and study for private pilot before I even left high school.
And then along the way I also got into flight simulation, which is like video gaming, but I got a set of controls. I had a nice computer or at least a computer that could run it. And I started to get involved with flying there just for fun, find different types of airplanes. And that’s where everything led to where I was 18 years old, and I went to my first year in college, my only year in college, and got my private pilot license there. But along the way I had a passion. I found out that that’s what I wanted to do for a career. I started to put the pieces together. One thing led to another. I got into ground school, and I’m sure I received a lot of mentoring there. It’s been many years now. And eventually got into becoming a pilot.
Now, my journey is different from there. It’s more of an adult journey of how I went through my other ratings, but I think there’s a lot to learn from my story and how I would suggest doing it now to you as a teenager, as you’re going through high school and preparing to do this because truly the better you prepare, the more likely you are to succeed in this career. So let’s maybe fast forward a little bit and tell now where I am. And just really quickly, I’ve flown many different places in the United States. How many have the opportunity to fly much overseas. I’d love to do that someday. I really enjoy being part of the aviation community. Of course, I have a business, where I do online ground school and I’m a bit of a social media influencer. I do this podcast for example. And I get to meet a lot of people and be involved in the community. And I would say that that’s something that everyone can be a part of.
I get to fly greater craft. I get to fly in amazing places here in the US. And I feel really fulfilled with my career choice. I’m not planning on going to the airlines. I’m going to be an instructor as far as I know for the rest of my life. I’m just really enjoying where I’m at. It’s been a really rewarding career so far. I’m still fairly young. And I’m just really grateful for the path that I followed that has led me to where I’m at now. And I wouldn’t have changed a thing to get me here other than perhaps getting my training faster, and getting into it at an earlier date. But that’s okay. That is what it is. So even if you aren’t planning on doing this for a career like myself and many others, and it’s a very accessible career, you can still get into this for fun. And so as I go through this entire podcast, we’re going to have the main view of doing this as a career, as a pilot. And then we’ll have a secondary view of just doing it for fun.
Now, regardless of what direction you go typically for the private pilot license, which would be the first license you get, you are going to be doing it the same way regardless if you’re going for a career, or just doing it for fun. There are may be several differences in terms of if you take out a loan or not, I don’t really suggest taking out a loan for just doing it for fun, but all of the other aspects of it are pretty much the same. The training is the same, and we’ll get into that now. So let’s talk a little bit about the end in mind, and some of the structure that happens with going through the training, and the steps in which people take like the large steps. And then we’re going to get into what you need to be as a person, what you need to do as a person, some of the individual steps you need to take in order to get to that final career or just doing it for fun. We’ll talk about all those aspects kind of polish up the podcast.
So first off, starting with the end in mind, mile markers. So you can solo an airplane at 16 years old. That means that you can begin your training whenever you’d like. And literally on your 16th birthday, you can solo an airplane. Now, soloing an airplane isn’t necessarily getting a license to carry passengers, which is what you do as a private pilot, but if you’re ready for solo at 16, you’re way ahead of the game and you can do that on your 16th birthday. You cannot get your license until you are 17 years old. So on your 17th birthday you can get your private pilot license. I even know of someone that got their private pilot license and what is called an instrument ticket on their 17th birthday. And we’ll talk about those steps here in a second. But he ended up preparing and doing Q licenses and one on his birthday.
And then you can become a commercial pilot at 18 years old, which means that you can get a job as a pilot at 18 years old, which is very, very young and not a lot of people do that. Now, just as a, again, a big picture view, if you were to do things in this order, solo on your 16th birthday, get your license on your 17th birthday, and your commercial at 18 years old, you are setting yourself up so far ahead of your competitors, your cohorts, your compadres, whatever you want to call them. You are ahead if you follow that path. That is just a really aggressive path to getting your licenses way far ahead of where I was. Even though I felt like I was ahead as well, comparative to other people. I think I was only one of three people in my ground school class out of maybe 20 people that ended up getting a pilot license. So yeah, you’d be very ahead of the game in that case.
So typically, the sequences of licenses go like this. You need to get a private pilot license first. Then typically, and you don’t have to do it this way, but typically people get an instrument certificate. The reason they get their instrument or the ability to fly on instruments is because you cannot get your commercial license, which typically comes next until 250 hours. So the minimum hours for private pilot is 40 hours, 35 and a part one 41. But typically 40 hours. And then you have all that time in between that you can be building those hours and doing something useful with your time as you get up to the 250 hours. And so people typically do their instrument reading in between. So private, instrument, commercial. And then from commercial, you have the option of getting a job, which is rare at the minimum hours or becoming a CFI, a Certified Flight Instructor, which you can do right outside of your commercial rating once you get your CFIs. And that’s a great way to build time and make money.
So you could literally be making money at 18 years old as a pilot if you followed a really aggressive path. All right, so that’s big picture. Again, private typically, instrument, commercial, CFI, or you’re getting a different type of job. So there are several different types of schools. And I did a podcast several episodes back, and it’s called Part 61 Versus 141. You’re going to want to look into that from a much more in depth look at the different types of schools. But to give you a perspective on the differences starting with Part 141 is that’s typically like a college or a structured program. You can attach it to a degree, but you don’t need a degree. Some airlines require them. I find that those requirements are becoming less and less of a requirement even at some of the major airlines.
It does take longer to do Part 141 because they string you along and fit you in with a lot of other students in a degree program. Again, at the end of the day, like a lot of these Part 141 schools that have a big budget that are trying to market their schools are trying to sell you on the fact that they can get you into the airlines quicker, or they have some sort of pathway to a job. And there’s really not a lot of truth to that. They might have like a working agreement with some airlines where they’ll get you an interview or something, but if you have the hours, you have the hours. And so there’s really not an added benefit to a Part 141 school, at least in terms of the FAA between 141 and 61.
And then when you are learning in Part 141, you’re typically learning from your peers. So you’re learning from students of your university perhaps that are several years older that have their flight instructor certificate. That’s not necessarily a bad thing all the time. It just means that they’re less experienced. And so for me, I had a really great instructor as my first instructor, and I was his first student. So it really depends more on the person than the program, but I really enjoyed that. But it can also be a problem to find or have an instructor that’s just building time and not really passionate about teaching. You want to find the right fit in other words. So you get a lot of those kids teaching kids. And I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, but kids teaching kids in a Part 141 university or a college program.
So 141. Now, there’s the opposite side of that, which is Part 61, which can be very local. So you can do this at your local flight school. It’s not a government regulated program. And so there’s a lot more flexibility. You can start this thing during high school fairly easily at your local airport. Flexible timing, typically less students in that case. And that works out pretty well. Now, you don’t have… sometimes you can have like a less professional outfit at a Part 61 because they’re not regulated, and that can lead to some issues, but I find most of the time it can be a good school. Again, it boils down to finding the right instructor no matter what you do. And you have more of an opportunity to learn from an experienced pilot. Some of that’s been around for a while than with a 141 schools.
So you’d have to balance it. It depends on what you’re doing and what your goals are. I don’t think there’s particularly any like wrong way to do it. It just depends on what’s going to fit best with your lifestyle. And I would suggest why is going to work best for you to actually get it done. So you need to know about that. Cost is also something between the tube of between 141 and 61. Reason why I bring up, like in Part 141 that there’s no added benefits. Is some schools will try to get you to go to their school, pay $300,000 over several years, and there’s really no benefit compared to a Part 61 school where you’re going to spend $30,000.
So I think you have to be really careful there and honest about what really matters and how to get the best bang for your buck. So that is part 141 versus part 61. There are also accelerated programs out there that can be 141 or 61. You can get it done really fast. You’ll definitely pay more for the accelerated program. The training isn’t as in depth because you’re going fast. It’s like they want you to get things done at the bare minimum and check a box. That can be good and bad, but I think it’s mostly not so good because I like in depth and quality foundational training myself, but there are plenty of good pilots that come out of these accelerated programs.
And then there’s also the idea of civil aviation versus military aviation. So civil aviation, like in my case, where I had a medical thing and I couldn’t do military, civil aviation, almost anyone can do it if you qualify medically. And it’s really actually not hard to qualify medically. The only reason I had an issue is because I had something serious that we had accidentally found as a teenager. So military is a great place. And I honor those that are able to get into the military and become aviators in the military. Is very competitive and you have to be a fantastic student, and the top of your game, and be tough as nails to make it through military programs. I would say it’s probably less competitive now than it has been in the past slightly, but it still is a very competitive environment, especially if you’re trying to shoot for like a fighter pilot position.
We’re mostly going to be talking about civil aviation here or just going the FAA way because that’s what I have experienced. I’m not an expert in military aviation. I do know some of the differences, but we’re mostly going to talk about civil aviation here. So that’s the setup of big picture. The licenses you need to get, and the order that people typically go to. The different types of schools that you can choose. Again, there’s a podcast on 141 Verses 61 that I had. There’s also another podcast I had talking about How to Find and Keep a Flight Instructor. That’s the actual title. So you can go and check that one out as well.
So now that we’ve covered that, I have like a reality check for you as a teenager because when you decide to take this path as a teenager to do a very serious, goal of aviation, which it is a serious goal. It is a fungal, and I think a great way to spend your time, but you are going to be setting yourself apart from your peers who are vying for popularity or, or partying or whatever. You’re going to be separating yourself from a lot of the other students that you are around. So my questions are more around here, the how you’re going to be different.
So are you willing to stand out from your peers and be that person that’s actually going toward a really useful goal? Are you willing to put in the work? Are you a hard worker? Did your parents or whoever has raised you, did they set you up as a hard worker? Because this will take hard work. There are no participation trophies in aviation. This will take a lot of work on your part. Are you willing to spend differently? That means, are you willing to save your money for flight training instead of get a car or get a nice car or go on that vacation or where those nice clothes? Are you willing to make those sort of sacrifices? Again, you’re standing out from your peers in a way, but not really.
And are you willing to suffer a bit socially? Meaning, are you willing to put in this time to study rather than going out with your friends sometimes? I’m not saying give up your social life entirely. Are you willing to be really serious or have like, if you have a serious girlfriend or boyfriend, are you going to be get them on board to support you in this process and not pressure you to hang out with them when you need to do the work? So in a way, and I hate to say it this way, but in a way it’s like you’re growing up a little bit early, especially from the typical teenager. Are you willing to grow up a little bit early in some areas to tackle this pursuit of aviation? I can tell you that it’s totally worth it. It’s a lot of fun. You can still have a really great social life and enjoy your years in high school, but if you’re willing to put in the work and set time aside to do this, then I know it’ll be really, really rewarding.
So those are the sorts of questions you really need to ask yourself if you are prepared to handle as you are going into aviation as a teenager, because it will take all of those things in more. Some things I couldn’t remember or think of, but I know it’s going to be worth it if you decide to go through it. Okay? So there are three big things that challenge every single pilot, regardless of age. And I’m going to talk about them in the context of you as a teenager rather than those that are adults that are facing this sort of thing. So those big three things that help and or prevent someone from becoming a pilot are money, time, and work. So those are the big three things that no matter what happens or no matter what age you are, you have to figure out how you’re going to tackle those three things.
So let’s first talk about money, and what you need to do. So if you have parents that are financially supportive, in this case, a lot of parents that have extra disposable income, I know would be as a parent myself, I know I want the best for my child. And if my child had a worthwhile pursuit, especially one that led to a career, or one that led to them being like a more self-sustained person, I would be all for it if I had the money. So think about talking to your parents about supporting you financially in this process. What parents will usually do is they’ll say, “Hey, you’ve got to be able to do this, this, and this to show me that you’re working toward it.” They want to see you’re working hard, not just wasting money and time that you’re actually getting somewhere in this and that you’re serious about it. And I think that most parents you’ll find are going to be helpful in that way if they can.
Now, I also know and realize that not a lot of parents can do that. There are certain people, like I was one of them. My parents really couldn’t support me financially when I got my private pilot license. It was fairly easy for me to afford to go to ground school that only costs several hundred dollars. We’ll talk about that here in a little bit. But once I got on the college, I took out a loan that I co-signed with my mom, and then I took out another loan that was completely on me. And those two completed my private pilot training. And then I put in the work. We’ll talk about that here in a second, but I put in the work to make that happen. As I went down the road as an adult, I ended up paying for a lot of my training, and move that way.
So I know your parents can be supportive, but I also know that there are those of you that may have parents that aren’t supportive. And just looking ahead, like if you were to build a plan to where you couldn’t start training until you were about the age I was like 18 when you start training, you can put your name on the line for certain loans or get like a co-signer for those loans to work toward that career. Now, I would say don’t co-sign loans, or don’t do loans unless you’re actually planning on a real career. Don’t get loans if you’re just doing it for fun. But I think that’s a great thing, a great direction to go with this as well.
So a lot of you also at the age of 16 sometimes even 15 have the ability to get jobs. And living at home and everything, you have the opportunity to save a lot of money and work toward those goals. And I can tell you right now, there are so many people that had to do it that way and ended up achieving their dreams. When you earn the money that way, it’s going to mean a lot more. And again, that goes back to you looking different from your peers is you not using that money to buy music or buy a new iPhone or buy cool clothes or whatever, that you’re actually putting that money aside toward aviation. That’s going to look different. It’s going to feel different. You might be ostracized a bit by your peers, but you’re working toward a greater goal.
So think about getting a job as well regardless of what that job is. Some of the best places to work though, if you can work at the local airport, at your flight school or the FBO, fixed base operation that’s called, basically where they fill up airplanes at your local airport. That can be a fantastic job for a teenager because it’s typically entry level, so you can learn the things you need to know without a lot of experience. You get to know a lot of pilots around you, and learn from them and network and build that network. Who you know is super important at aviation. So it’s great to make friends.
And it doesn’t matter what age you are, even the old farts in aviation are going to be really supportive of you as a teenager getting into it. May be more supportive than any other demographics. So you being at the airport and working at the airport could be very helpful. So that’s money. That’s just a couple perspectives on money. You’re saving the money, you’re asking your parents about the money, you having a job to save the money, you taking out loans, you have the money for fight school. Just a couple of different perspectives. Of course, we could talk about that subject, this entire podcast.
The next of the big three is time. So the great thing for you is that time is on your side as a teenager. Unless you’re super involved in sports and a bunch of other things as a teenager, you actually have a lot of time available to spend on aviation. All right? So you don’t have to worry about spending money or time on a household. You don’t have to worry too much about a job. And you can have all of your available time almost if you choose to, especially if you’re not too involved in extracurricular activities too, to dedicate toward the pursuit of aviation. And that can be your extracurricular activity. All right? So that’s time, which is probably one of the best assets you have as a teenager. Whereas if you become my age where you have two young kids, I have a three year old and a 10 month old, it becomes super, super hard to find any time for anything. It’s hard enough to find time for sleep. So time is on your side. And that’s an asset that you have right now.
So money, time, and the third is work. And I talked about this already. You being willing to work, you being willing to put in the work is very, very important. So even for adults, this is the hardest thing to come by. You would think that people that have a job and a family and seems like they’re doing the adult thing pretty good, they still have a lot of… or they still have a pretty hard time by dedicating themselves to the work. Just getting in there, doing the grind, figuring out how to get this done. So it’s not just a struggle with you. It’s actually a struggle with everyone. And if you can figure it out early and train yourself, then that’s even better.
Now for me, one thing I struggled with always in school is, I struggled with the ability to, and you’re going to totally relate, with the ability to apply the knowledge that I was being forced to learn in high school to real life. And I really couldn’t connect emotionally or passionately with the subjects I was learning unless I had an instructor or a teacher that could teach me write English or math or whatever should matter to me. I remember handful of times, those teachers that did teach me subjects in that way, I did well. And when they didn’t teach me in that way, I didn’t do well. However, when it comes to aviation, everything is applicable. You’re learning a subject where the math, which is on a pretty light level, the English skills, the social skills you learn in school, all of those things, the sciences, all of those things come together into subject matter that actually makes sense.
And so I remember when I was a teenager and getting really excited about this flying thing, it was the first time in my life. I was really excited to open up textbooks and learn something. It wasn’t natural for me to want to do that at any point during my teenage years until I was passionate about aviation. I felt like my work was going towards something. It’s not that I was a bad student, it’s just that my energy wasn’t directed well. But when it came to aviation, and even what I do now, even today, I’m very directed in what I do or really enjoy what I do. And it’s very, or at least easier for me to do aviation knowledge and learn aviation things than anything else. And it was just fun. One of the first times, I really enjoyed and had a lot of fun learning something. And that’s where I am today. It’s a lifelong pursuit. Okay?
So those are the big three things, the money, time and work. You’re going to have to figure out what those things are all about for you specifically, and how to move forward with your particular plan. It’s going to look different for you. You’re going to have to to ping your network, and figure out how to work this out with money, time, and work. But I know that if you dedicate yourself, you can do that. Okay? So let’s talk about a couple other things here. Man, if this podcast goes over a half hour, I don’t really care. But let’s just get through some of these other things. So knowledge. And I touched on that with the work. And we’ll just build off of that. So knowledge is something that you’re going to have to pursue as a pilot. So this is a life full of learning when you go on the aviation. And that’s actually one of the really fun parts of it. Again, it’s practical.
One of the first things you have to do as a pilot is a written test. So a written test is basically, you don’t actually write it out, but it’s like a multiple choice test that you do in your license to prove that you’ve done all this study for that license. So it’s one of the first steps you do is what ground school is for. I have ground school that I do online. It’s an online video course through my website at Angle of Attack. And that’s typically how it’s done these days. Is you do it like through an online program. If you’re going to a college program, they may have their own ground school. And there’s just so much to learn in the aviation because there are a lot of different topics that we’re bringing together all under one roof and applying them to aviation.
So by you starting pretty early with ground school, like if you’re 14 or 15 years old, you’re right in that area where you could start with ground school. So 15 especially because your ground school lasts two years or at least your written tests. Once you take your written test that lasts for two years. So you want to try to time that, but the sooner you start learning these topics the better. And there aren’t any prerequisites for this. You don’t have to be a certain age or anything. You can start at any time on your ground school and start to get into it. By doing that, and by going through those subjects, your brain will just be learning those things over the years. You’re going to have years worth of headstart ahead of your peers. And regardless if you get your license when you’re a teenager or start as a teenager, let’s say before you leave high school, you’re still going to be way ahead.
So you can start that now. Is a fairly low cost of entry no matter who you go with. Again, we do have a ground school here at Angle of Attack that I’m really proud of and I think goes into a lot of depth. So that is knowledge. It’s part of becoming a pilot. It’s actually one of the most fun things of becoming a pilot. And that is coming from someone like me that didn’t necessarily enjoy being a student all the time in school. All right? Next thing is medical. So I shared that a couple of things to happen to me medically. And this is something you’re going to want to figure out early if you know that there’s something in your life that could potentially prevent you from becoming a pilot.
Now, the old rumors or folklore that you have to have perfect vision to become a pilot, that’s not really what they’re going for. They’re looking for like major disabilities or things that are really, really worrisome when it comes to the safety of you or the public. So you’ll know, if there’s maybe something potentially medically that you’d have to deal with, you’re welcome to write to me. I can give you like an opinion from a non-doctor on it if that’ll be an issue. Sometimes it’s medication related too. But if there is something there and you’re not like a perfectly healthy person or you know something’s going on, you’re going to want to go down that path as well.
But I have some warnings for you. You want to find the right doctor, and do not start your paperwork if you are dealing with something before you have an off the record, talk with your doctor. All right? Off the record means you do not start your paperwork for your license until you’ve gotten their opinion on it because the way that you initially present everything, it’s not that we’re lying about our history, but the way that you initially present everything can be super important for your timing and the FAA giving you the stamp of approval to go ahead and do this. Okay? So medical is really important. Find a doctor, typically a doctor that’s a pilot and have an off the record conversation with them before you get started. All right?
So that’s medical. Now let’s talk about saving. And I already talked about this a little bit. So we’ll just go through this fairly quickly. This will cost a lot of money, where operating airplanes that take a lot of maintenance. They take expensive and rare fuel to burn and a lot of it. They’re not like fuel efficient like the cars we have today. All in you’re going to spend between $30,000 and $40,000 if you do Part 61 school. You can go even crazier than that with an accelerated program up to $80,000, or with a university program, which can be up to $300,000 or more. I think you can find if you want to go to the university or college route, you can find some really good high quality training programs that are much less than that, like at a state school.
So don’t fall for the marketing out there in aviation. Find something local, find something cheap. And it’s all about the quality of the operation you’re dealing with versus the cost. And then that’ll help you make some decisions money-wise. So money saving. You got to find your path, how you’re going to save, how you’re going to create that money, whether you like start a business or something, and earn your way to becoming a pilot. Or if you are in partnership with your parents to earn that money through loans that they’re giving you basically and you are earning it through your hard work and actually getting this done. Okay? So that’s saving.
Learning. So into the learning component of it now. Start learning right now. So that goes back to the ground school. It’s cheap to learn now. Really cheap to learn now. And it’s only going to help you in the future. So you listening to this podcast, if you’re listening to this, you’re already interested in aviation, okay? You already are in the right channels to learn from good people like myself and others that have been there before and have done some of those things and you’re already learning some things that can help you. So stay on that path. As you move forward, take more of an official path, which is to enroll in a ground school, and plan on taking that written test, especially before you start your training. And that will be absolutely huge for you. All right?
So again, we have a ground school here, but so many different places you can learn things, and then you can consume podcasts or YouTube like this. And just get involved with the community and learn from others. Those little bits of pieces of knowledge, even though they may be entertainment sometimes are really, really helpful and will only help you grow. So consume as much of this knowledge as you want. This is a really good time to get into it. And last but certainly not least, or at least on these big points is to commit. So you need to find out what you as an individual, what you’re made of. And again, if you are willing to be different through this process, and set aside some of the popular things that you do as a teenager or the things you spend your money on to be a little bit different and go for this dream of becoming a pilot is something that you can start right this second. I’ve shown you some ways that you can do that.
And while it may seem like a sacrifice to do not do some of the other teenager stuff or at least less of it, it’s fun. You’re going to have a lot of fun getting into this. And it’ll be an enjoyable process. And that will carry you over from being in school, which is a departure from reality in most ways to the reality of being an adult at 18 years old. So what most kids do is they just cruise through high school, and then they become an adult at 18 and they have nothing to show for it. They go get their first low paying job, or they go into college and they’re learning how to be self sufficient for the first time. But you are on kind of a different path or at least that’s what I’m saying you need to do is smooth out that transition a little bit better or [inaudible 00:39:24] commit yourself to doing some of the adult things that you’re planning to do while you’re moving your way out of high school.
So I promise you it’s worth it. It’s a lot of fun. And you really need to commit to it in order to get it to work. And that’s just the way it is. So that’s it guys. Again, we covered kind of the path that you need to take an aviation, some of the steps you need to take. Those things. Those big three, time, money, and work that it takes to become a pilot. We talked about the knowledge you need as a pilot, the medical process, saving money, learning the knowledge and committing yourself to this process. If you have any questions along the way, feel free to reach out. I’m on Instagram is probably the easiest and most direct way to get a hold of me. You can just write me through my Instagram messages. I am on Tech-Talk, but their messaging system is a little bit different. But for you teenagers that are in Tick-Talk, I have content there as well.
This is only a conversation starter today. So I’m happy to help you along the way and suggest some things. I’m not going to do the work for you, but I can point you in the right direction. And I just want you to know I’m here for you in your path as maybe your first mentor in aviation to point you in the right direction. All right. So that’s it for today. Thank you so much for joining. Again, remember that we have training courses at Angle of Attack, that’s how you can support us and all that we do. We have online ground school for private pilot and instrument soon coming, commercial and instructor licenses. And we have Checkride ACE, which is a program for preparing for your Checkride, which is a great video program as well.
So whether that’s for you, or you’re recommending it to a friend in aviation, you guys are my voice out there in the aviation community. Please recommend that to others. Help us grow as a business. Help us continue to do what we’re doing. But most of all, thank you for being here. And you teenagers out there that have listened to this, or maybe someone passed this along to you because you’re a teenager. Hey, if this is an aviation thing that you to go for, and you think you’re set for a career in this, or you even want to just do it for fun, I promise you this is going to be worth it. But you got to start now. It’ll get you so far ahead of the game. And I’m very happy to be a part of that process with you. So let me know what I can do to help. Put in the work, keep taking the little steps, and I am very excited to do that with you. All right. So thanks so much. And until next time, as I always say, throttle on!

We sincerely thank you for joining us on AviatorCast. Please subscribe through your favorite podcast service, and leave a review. Check out more flight training resources at angleofattack.com. There you can find this podcast, many free aviation training videos, as well as online ground school for private instrument, commercial and CFI. Got a Checkride coming up? Checkride ACE from Angle of Attack is your ultimate companion, guiding you through the process so you can conquer your big day. Thanks once again for joining us on AviatorCast. Turn left, contact ground point niner.
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Chris Palmer

Chief Flight Instructor and President of Angle of Attack. Founded in 2006.

AUTHOR

Chris Palmer

Chief Flight Instructor and President of Angle of Attack. Founded in 2006.