Any pilots on the green screen?

[flywise]

Sport pilot is cheaper, but limited to 2 seats and light gross weight. You can fly at night with an endorsement and into controlled airspace with endorsement's as well. If you plan to fly alone 90% of the time I'd get a SP. But if you want to take friends up. better get a private. With a private you can fly Cessna 150's and they are cheaper than most light sport planes. Just look on www.barnstormers.com. All in all, probably better get your private

[flywise]

And those Kitfox's are awsome. When I get down to building a plane one day it is going to be a KF 7 with tundra tires. I want to be able to land and take off short on beaches and mountain tops.

[RustyRanchero]

I would get my private before anything.

[Hunting Consult]

Private Single Eng Land here. I would say Sport is easier and cheeper but limitations. Depends on what you want to do with it.

[flyingfish]

long post

I have my private and fly between Angleton (Houston area) and Grand Prairie (DFW area) every couple of weeks. The sport pilot was intended to be a cheap way to get into flying but all of the new planes (non-home built) cost more than $100,000 and frequently rent for more than a Cessna 172 (what I fly).

You legally only need something like 20 hours (10 dual, 10 solo) to get your initial license but as mentioned need endorsements for night or flight into the more congested air-space and those endorsements require additional instruction.

The last report I saw said the average total flight time for students starting with no experience and obtaining their SP is between 30 and 40 hours. You don't need a medical certificate for a sport pilot and that's turning out to be a driving force for people getting the SP license. A lot of current pilots are converting to SP when they think they will fail their medical.

A private pilot's license requires at least 20 hours dual (instructor) and 20 solo but the average total time for people that get a pilots is around 60 hours total flight time. As others have said if you're not large (I dress out around 250) or don't want to travel with any passengers the SP might be useful. If you want to carry passengers you might as well go for the private pilot's license.

Most outfits that offer instruction for either a private pilot or SP license will have some form of discovery flight where you can go up with an instructor for 30 minutes or so and actually take the controls for part of the flight. I know they offer instruction at the airport on the north side of Beaumont (BMT).

There is a nice county strip in Winnie and another in Anahuac. I don't know if either offers training but Anahuac did at one time. The only business I can see from I-10 at Winnie's airport when I travel out to our Beaumont office is a very busy crop dusting outfit but they could probably tell you if anyone is offering instruction out of the field if you stopped by. Both Chambers County airports typically offer some of the cheapest fuel in the Houston - Beaumont area so that will help the cost some.

If you do decide to go forward with a private license an option is to buy a used plane. I got mine for $25000 in 2003 and the price for my 172 has dropped into the low 20's or high teens. A 150 (2 seat version) runs around $13,000. Airplanes are frequently financed for 20 years.

My payment for my 172 runs around $300 a month. Insurance the first year was $900 and that's dropped to around $600 as I got experience. I have a hange in Angleton that runs $185 per month but you can also tie-down out side for around $30 if you want to cut cost and can live with the sun's effects on the plane. Maintenance is the wild card.

A 172 is a very simple plane but its critical to have a good mechanic that's not associated with the plane do a thorough pre-buy inspection. The mechanic that did mine found $3000 in repairs that the seller made instead of me paying for it.

I found a mechanic (I&A) that will let me do a lot of the grunt work under his direct supervision and that's kept my cost for annual maintenance around $600 a year on average since I got the plane in 2003. I insist that anything that could affect the airworthiness be fixed as soon as its discovered and by helping with the work I know the work has been done.

The general rule of thumb is that if you fly 100 hours a year it may be cheaper to own a plane than to rent one. The simpler and cheaper the plane the fewer hours that are required to make the numbers work. My direct costs for my plane rund around $35 / hour. With the fixed costs and the 150 to 200 hours per year that I fly that drops to about $50 per hour. The lowest rental rate I've seen for a 172 is over $100 an hour so I feel like I'm doing well. I can also jump in the plane and go whenever I want so I fly more than I would if I rented.

I'm very fortunate that my wife loves to go with me in the plane so we do a lot of weekend runs. From Angleton New Orleans, ShrevePort, Dallas, and South Padre Island are all within a 3 hour flight in my 172.

San Antonio is around 1 1/2 hours. A lot of the small municipal and county airports also have courtesy cars so its not unusual for my wife and I to fly to San Antonio, Lufkin, or Lake Charles for lunch or one of the 3 hour runs for an overnight trip.

If you're really thinking of getting a license I'd go for the private from the start. Unless your goal is just to do solo trips you'll be able to do a lot more with the private license and I think you'll end up flying a lot more.

Good luck.

gary

[Edwards]

Gary, I think you talked me into getting my private when I decide to go foward with it. Thanks

[tommy1005]

I'm another that will vote for a private pilot license. Ofcourse mine was Part 141, so I had alot of extra hours I had to complete to get mine.

[mexecodog]

ATP, Rated in DC9, B757, B767, I would get the Private Pilot liscene just in case you want to go a little farther in aviation, however taking a bullet might be a little easier! LOL

[FIRSTSHOT]

Private Pilot Single Engine Land. Finished last January and Love.