Flight training is not cheap. Because flight training is not considered to be education, student loans don’t exist, and any loan you do take is either an unbacked personal loan (resulting in sky-high interest rates) or a loan backed by property you have, such as a mortgage or home equity loan (HELOC).

Further making the situation worse, personal loans are dischargeable by bankruptcy, and as a result, lenders have to offset the increased risk by having increased interest rates.

That being said, it is not all bad. Keep reading below for tips from an instructor to keep things manageable, as well as options for scholarships, financial aid, and, yes, financing.

Best practices to minimize cost

  • Establish expectations early, develop good habits, and be as productive as possible. They went through the same training you are going through, so ask them any questions that you have, and take their guidance and advice seriously. They are trying to reduce your frustrations and costs as much as possible, and it is your instructor who will be signing you off for your checkride.

  • Flying more leads to not enough time for rest and ground preparation. Unless flying is treated like a full time job, flying less than 2 times a week will cause a learning pilot to struggle to develop the required proficiency to be successful.

  • To progress your flying skill at the optimal rate, your ground knowledge has to progress just as much. If you are lacking in one area, it will negatively impact you in others and delay your training.

  • Be prepared to pivot a flying lesson into a ground lesson if weather is poor, or spend that time self-studying. Talk with your flight instructor on expectations regarding weather cancellations. It's also best practice to schedule more lessons than you intend to fly to hedge against cancellations. If you intend to fly twice a week, schedule 3 or 4 times instead. If you only schedule two lessons a week, it is very easy for that to become 0 lessons, which will contribute to further delays to your progress and additional training time being needed to relearn lost skills.

  • A good headset will not only protect your hearing, but will improve your ability to hear the instructor and ATC. Plus, good equipment will take you through your entire pilot career.

  • Nobody wants to go out and buy a bunch of textbooks early on in their training, but doing so early allows you to spend more time with the material and resources you'll have with you doing your checkride, and better enable you to prepare for each lesson. Talk to your instructor early to discuss what textbooks, resources, and equipment you should get so that you have time to get them before they are needed. Further, a good online ground school can significantly reduce the amount of time needed to pay for ground instruction with your instructor.

  • Not only does that include having done any assigned reading/studying for the lesson, but also ensure you're properly rested, nourished, and hydrated, and otherwise in the right mindset to learn. The IMSAFE checklist is a great resource to structure your decision making process.

  • Every instructor has a different instructional style and things they focus on. Some instructors might work better for your learning style, so don't be afraid to fly with other instructors and learn other ways of doing things. Your instructor should always be challenging you to become a better pilot than you were on your last flight. However, once you find an instructor you like, stick with them throughout your training, as switching instructors will introduce significant delays in your training progress.

  • When you show up to fly, you should already know what you'll be doing, and you should always be progressing your knowledge and abilities.

  • Doing them early can reduce unexpected delays, as you cannot solo without your medical, and you cannot do your checkride without the written test being complete. Either of these can, in some cases, take months to complete. Both of these can be completed prior to starting training, even.

how to Afford Flight training

There is only so much you can do long term, but what can you do short term to help afford it?

  1. Take advantage of JEDAIR bonuses, such as our 5% Deposit Bonus. Over the course of your training, the savings can total thousands.

  2. Some organizations offer great scholarship opportunities. Check out AviationStart, a helpful and growing collection of hundreds of aviation scholarships you might be eligible for.

  3. If you must finance your training, you can check out loans provided by AOPA, Lending Tree, or Flight Training Finance (FTF). Some people choose to put their costs onto a credit card, some of which offer promotional 0% interest when you first open it.

    If interest rates on unsecured loans do not appeal to you, other options can be secured loans such as a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) or a mortgage.

    That being said, JEDAIR does not recommend loans for flight training, and instead recommends a pay-as-you-go model. JEDAIR prides itself on supporting a very flexible scheduling process where the pilot-in-training can schedule themselves at their convenience to allow them to work full-time and fly when it fits in their schedules.

  4. Those with a military background and eligible for VA funding or the G.I. Bill have options to have the VA fund part or all of their pilot training after their private pilot license. While JEDAIR is not approved for VA funding, it is not uncommon for pilots to get their private pilot license with us and then continue on to an approved school such as BSU, UND, or Purdue for the rest of their training.