Thread: Aviation newbie, looking for advice.

Hey everybody! my name is Sean I'm 21 years old from Ventura, Ca. I'm a total aviation newbie, and its been a dream of mine too make a career out of being a pilot. I'm just looking for a good place too start gathering information, taking classes, and doing flight training. if anyone could help me out and shoot me any advice that would be more then awesome! Thanks in advance everybody!

Sean

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Call up or go check out the local airports letting them know your interested in getting started flying. I'm only a few hours away from my license! Good luck to you

best advice i can give you is DO YOUR RESEARCH before you spend all the money on your certificates. most people get into this career field having no idea what it is actually like. spend a lot of time reading on Airline Pilot Central - HOME do you have any family members or close friends in the industry? networking is huge just like in most other businesses and can make a big difference in where your career goes. start researching flight schools online. do you have a college degree already? if you have any more specific questions let me know ill try to help as best i can.

I know Camarillo airport is near you so try calling some of those schools for information. Also if you need any help just PM us Good luck!

like others have stated, find a local airport and a qualified instructor. Save up and spend as much time as you can in and around your home field. Get the hours and your on your way

I know its not as easy as it sounds but if you have the passion, gitr done pal.

continued good luck to you pal

Get in contact with your local airport, preferably a small municipal one and look for a flight instructor or even better a small flight school. Everything starts with a discovery flight which you can usually do for under $100.00, after that you will usually sit down with your instructor and talk about possible routes, plans, etc. Typically speaking, you will start your private which will cost roughly $6,000.00 give or take a couple hundred dollars. That is your first step. Good luck.

Access Custom said it right, start with either Camarillo or Oxnard and check out a few different schools. Any one of them will probably lure you in with an Intro flight which should be free and will give you that first 1 hour in your logbook of flight time and get you hooked to flying. My best advice to you though would be to put money aside (approx $8K for your PPL) and if you are really serious, finish all your Ground School first, and take the written FAA exam right after. Once you pass that you have more than enough time to do all the practical work in an airplane with an Instructor. That way you can save some money and finish quickly.

Also if you like a more fun environment over a strict one, look for a Part 61 school. Usually Part 61 schools are more about making it fun but getting flight time might be tougher with your instructor since they are usually really busy or too few of them around. It all depends on where you learn and the flight school.

Feel free to PM me if you need any help getting started. Also if you don't mind the drive to Van Nuys Airport, I'd be glad to put you in touch with some people out there.

All the best and make sure you enjoy it, if you are not, change instructors or even the school

Welcome to L4P!