Private Pilot COURSE

A Private Pilot Certificate is the first step for all pilots. The process often begins with an introductory lesson—a great way to learn that flying is as much fun as we say it is. The next steps happen away from the airplane as we guide you through the applications for a Student Pilot Certificate and a Medical Certificate. There are two parts in the training process—the academic or classroom side and the flying or flightline side.

Madison Flyers offers a traditional classroom style ground school, usually in a night-school format to help our customers gain that all-important background knowledge that they will need to become competent pilots. We also offer an online ground school course for the flyer whose schedule won’t accommodate an in-person course. All flying is done on the customer’s timetable (mostly daylight hours), but we do strongly recommend scheduling no less than one lesson a week. It is all a building-block process, beginning with straight-and-level, turns, climbs, and descents.

We move on to exploring the edges of the performance envelope. At that point, we begin to spend more time in the traffic pattern perfecting takeoffs and landings in preparation for the first solo flight. Post-solo flights introduce navigation and night work. While only a minimum of forty hours of flight time are required for the Private Pilot course, a more realistic expectation is 55, or more, hours of flying. The final stage of the process targets preparations for the Private Pilot check ride where the Private License is awarded.