PPAER Flight Hours Advice
Posted by asandhu@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 6 comments
I'm located in Canada and currently doing ground school online. I have an established career in an unrelated field, just doing this in my free time as a learning experience/for fun. I don't have intentions of becoming a career pilot but at some point in the future a PPL/rec license may be of interest to me, but at the moment my objectives are really just passing the PPAER for achievement's sake.
My understanding is that to write the PPAER I'm required to have 10 flight hours and I've contacted all three of the flight schools around me regarding this (Edmonton, AB area) and none of them really want anything to do with me unless I'm committing to do the full PPL flight hour program with them. Just wondering if this is typical, and if so, is there any other path to getting those flight hours?
While it's understandable they prioritize full time students it's a bit discouraging already being a decent amount of the way through ground school. It has been very interesting and I don't regret it, was just hoping flight schools would be a bit more interested in teaching without a huge financial commitment. I don't have $20K to drop on a casual learning activity at the moment and without that it seems to be a bit of a non-starter for actual flying around here.
threeleafcloverspy@reddit
I’m going to echo some other people and say it’s not clear what you’re trying to achieve.
ThePrambler@reddit
Technically you only need 5 hours now. Regulations changed a couple of years ago, post Covid...
Why not tell them you're signing up for a full PPL closer to your ground school completion and then get the 5 hours, do the written and then complete your PPL at your own pace?
asandhu@reddit (OP)
I suppose I could do that, but it seems a bit disingenuous to tell them I'm doing PPL when I don't really have intentions to do so. Their waitlists are also 12-18 months out so timing is another tricky part if I'm going to be done ground school in a couple months. Perhaps the real PPAER isn't in the cards and I should just be happy passing the practice exams.
ThePrambler@reddit
If you're not doing a PPL within 2 years of the PPAER then you might be better off just doing the online exams I guess. To be very honest, some of these online ground schools like The Wise Pilot and Pilot Training.ca are able to make their practice exam almost exactly the same as the real deal. So you're benefiting from that.
The real TC exams at schools can cost in the ball park of $200-300. You will need a Class 3 or Class 1 aviation medical and the previously mentioned 5 hours of flying time. So if you're not going to finish up within 2 years, that's easily an additional $250 for the medical exam, plus 5 hours of flight training costs you save in addition to the exam fees.
cody_hates_reddit@reddit
I'm struggling to understand what the point of this is. There's really no reason to pay for ground school just for fun. The PPAER itself isn't a huge achievement by itself in the grand scheme of things, and it's only valid for two years. So if you wait longer than that to get your license, you're likely going to be paying for and doing ground school again just for the recommendation to write it again.
If you really want to do this, you could I guess just lie and say you want to do your PPL, and quit after you get your hours. You don't pay for flight school up front, but this still isn't going to be cheap. You also can't even write the exam without a TC file number which means you need to go get your medical too. Why anyone would do this though just to write an exam you can't use for anything is beyond me.
If you want an exam result for result's sake, why not just go do the dispatcher exams? They're harder than the PPAER (there's far more theory from the commercial/ATPL exams), but you don't need a recommendation to write them and they do give you something marketable.
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
I'm located in Canada and currently doing ground school online. I have an established career in an unrelated field, just doing this in my free time as a learning experience/for fun. I don't have intentions of becoming a career pilot but at some point in the future a PPL/rec license may be of interest to me, but at the moment my objectives are really just passing the PPAER for achievement's sake.
My understanding is that to write the PPAER I'm required to have 10 flight hours and I've contacted all three of the flight schools around me regarding this (Edmonton, AB area) and none of them really want anything to do with me unless I'm committing to do the full PPL flight hour program with them. Just wondering if this is typical, and if so, is there any other path to getting those flight hours?
While it's understandable they prioritize full time students it's a bit discouraging already being a decent amount of the way through ground school. It has been very interesting and I don't regret it, was just hoping flight schools would be a bit more interested in teaching without a huge financial commitment. I don't have $20K to drop on a casual learning activity at the moment and without that it seems to be a bit of a non-starter for actual flying around here.
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