I want to get my private pilots liscense (PPL), but... ?

Question

but I am having a hard time convincing my wife... I am looking for any personal expierences on how to one might overcome this obsticle...

Answer 1

Get it.  Don't bother convincing your wife.  It's not her call.

Answer 2

I took my neighbor flying in our Warrior and he went on to get his PPL.  Though, I know his wife was scared he was going to get himself killed.

Flying is dangerous.  Life is dangerous.  She learned to trust his judgement in the air as she did on the ground.  Perhaps more so.  I think their relationship with her changed when he got his PPL  He was kind of hen-pecked until then.

I think it helped that I took him flying now and then during his training to ensure he was getting good instruction and she knew and supported it.  

I gave him a lot of judgement instruction when we flew.  You know, IFR = I follow roads.  Always scan for a landing spot flying single engine.  The realm of the Air is the most intolerant and unforgiving of errors.  Always err of the safe side no matter how much it is going to cost you with your job (can't show up) or cash.  Know the 5 Hazardous Attitudes and recognize when they are controlling you.  Always plan ahead, ie: Student pilot runs out of gas and lands safely in a cornfield.  The FAA arrives with the flight school's retrieval crew.  Student, excitedly asks FAA rep, "I couldn't remember the correct cornfield landing procedure: do you land with the furrows or against?"  The Fed answers, "The correct cornfield landing procedure is to BUY GAS AT THE AIRPORT."

I used to own a flight school and wrote 600 pages of training materials and my own syllabus, gave 900 hours of flight instruction, was a check pilot in the USAF Civil Air Patrol, am a former military pilot and, at that time, a Regional Airline Pilot.

Good luck with convincing your wife.  I'm sure she'll trust your judgement.  Just get a good Flight Instructor.  Usually when you walk in the door they assign you one based upon who is sitting on the couch at that moment.  When they ask you, "What can I do for you?"  Your say, "Nothing, I'm just looking around."  Then later, "Where are you Flight Instructor Resumes?"

Choose your own.  Go through their resumes (usually there is a book at the Flight School).  Choose a former military pilot or Comair trained (very similiar) with less than 1,000 hours instruction given.  Anything more, they are so bad they have been passed over by the Regional Airlines.  And don't be afraid to pay a lot of money for your instructor.  I hear it's up to $85/hr which is great.  That person is keeping you alive.  Look at John Kennedy, JR, he was killed because his Flight Instructor didn't teach him good judgement.

As an Instructor, I taught a rich guy with his own airplane who used to fight me tooth and nail until I let him fly an IFR holding pattern entry in actual instrument conditions (in clouds) against my instruction the wrong way.  Which is okay, because you can enter any way you like.  

After we entered incorrectly and I advised ATC, I showed him we were going the wrong direction, like going down the highway at 140 miles an hour toward oncoming traffic.  I said, "I know you're a good pilot, but I'm trying to keep you alive here.  You need to stop argueing and listen to me when I'm telling you something."

If only Kennedy's instructor had the guts to say that, Kennedy would be alive today.

Then, to assuade your wife, I would book a flight with your instructor with HER flying and you in the backseat.  Although, I offered my neighbor and his wife never accepted.

If you have any more questions email me.   If you're in SoCool, we can go up together.  Still have the Warrior.  You buy, I fly.

Answer 3

Well, ever since I was a boy, I loved planes and flying. In fact, I used to clean planes for rides at my local FBO. Here's what I did one day. I went to the lumber yard and bought some wood.  I took it home and began stacking it next to the house. My wife asked "what you gonna do with that"? I replied "I want to fly and I'm going to build my own plane and fly the d**n thing". "For Pete's sake, why don't you just take flying lessons"? she said. Ummm, what a great idea, and so I did and now have a private pilots rating:)

Answer 4

Hello pal,

I had almost the same situation, but the thing is that I love flying so much that I didn't have the need to convince her.  Now I have 200 hours on my own airplane and a 3 years old boy that flew for the 1st time when was only 5 months.

Now, I partially own a C182 with some friends and we use to go to some places (in family) just for fun or vacation.

Your wife need to know the advantages as soon as you become a pilot.

Good luck!