I'm going to add something that noone else has offered up yet. Go down to
your local flight school, wherever it is, and talk to an instructor, ask
questions.... take notes, you may or may not like what you hear. Think
practical here.

If 3mil is too much to spend for a jet and training, don't bother wiht the
jet. Even if you got one for less then a million, the fixed annual
inspection/maintenance costs are outrageously high, figure in fuel and other
variable operational costs and you can easilly be spending in excess of 2
thousand bux an hour to fly depending on how much you fly the thing.

As far as training... Learn in a single engine piston aircraft, trust me, it
will make you a much safer pilot. Frankly I don't want to fly in the same
piece of sky as a jet with a pilot that has little or no piston experience.
Why do I say that? In the jet you learn how to operate a machine, punch
buttons, occasionally handfly. In the smaller planes you really learn how
to AVIATE, not simply a matter of "driving the airplane" but FLYING the
airplane in an everchanging environment where everyone IS out to get you (or
so you should tell yourself so you keep your head on a swivle to make sure
they miss). Also consider an instrument approach, in a small play you could
easilly have as long as five minutes to execute the inbound portion of the
approach and landing, which means you have five mintues to correct for any
minor deviations in coures and altitude, much easier to learn to fly in
(even then it will feel like you are trying to catch up to the airplane),
cus there WILL be deviaitons in course and altitude, even for a guy with
thousands and thousands of hours of flying. In the jet your inbound course
and landing can happein in less than two minutes, meaning if you "Eff it up
a little" your responses should be more then twice as quick, WITHOUT
overcorrecting, much better to learn this in a small plane, and step it up
to faster and faster planes as you gain profeciency. (Tell me, would you
ever expect success in sacking an NFL quarterback without lots and lots of
practice and intermediate steps?). Figure on around 3-6 months to get your
private pilot and instrument ratings. Once thats out of the way I would
actually suggest you go for a multi-commercial-instrument, its not a route
many people take, but is a very good option, basically you have to learn all
the multi engine manuevers, and execute them to commercial standards, may
have to learn seperate commercial manuevers depending on the particular
aircraft (I know you probably won't have to do a Power Off Precision Landing
in a multi engine plane, but you may need to do a chandel or something
similar if its safe to do so in that particular plane), add on a single
engine instrument approach in there somewhere and you've got your Commercial
Multi Instrument. Regs also require you to have 250 hours (and several
other requirements) to take your commercial checkride, excellent
oppertunities to learn some aviation on your own time without an instructor
holding your hand the entire way, I would hate to see your first solo
instrument approach happen in a Jet. You can easilly get all of this done
in less than a year if you suck it up and do it.

I don't like pilots that are afraid to fly, at the same time I REALLY dont'
like pilots that think they can fly..... Don't let yourself get into these
two catagories, find a nice happy medium of safety minded caution and
confidence in skills, don't be an aviation pussy that is afraid of the
airplane, but at the same time don't be cocky to the point you end up dead,
or worse, end up haveing to live with the fact that you made other people
dead).


Also the advantage of doing the commercial multi route would insure that you
have at least 250 hours by the time you start flying jets (and completing
the appropriate type training course). Consider that you will likely have
to have an instructor or other qualified pilot sitting in the right seat
of the jet to keep the insurance company happy till you get to at LEAST 500
hours total time, and possibly to 1000 hours JET TIME. Having that 250 out
of the way may reduce how long you have to have that seat warmer with out
(and concidentally that seat warmer may like to get paid for his/her time!)

Also consider a multi or single engine turboprop aircraft instead of the
jet, they will likely be cheaper to buy and fly then a jet, and true, you
may not be able to fly coast to coast in a single leg, but you can still do
it a hellova lot faster than driving, AND you can fly into airports a
turbojet/fan may not be able to get in and out of (there are a lot more
runways out there less than 5000 feet long, then there are runways 5000'
long or greater) For this reason my ultimate millionare fun toy would be a
Beech C-90 King Air, reasonably quick, excellent utility, small enough to
fit in most hangers, plus they sound cool.


Damn... i don't post often, but when i do... i get a bit long winded...




"Steve" wrote in message
. ..


I'm considering taking up flying as a hobby. It's something I've been
wanting to do
since I was a kid. The ultimate goal is to learn how to fly lear jets or
should I say private
light jets. What flight training classes would I have to take and how many
hrs would I
have to perform. I can pretty much fly as many times a week as necessary
to get the
training my job schedule is highly flexible. I have noticed that most
courses run from 5
to 7 k. To get a private pilots license. But what would it take to have
the licensing to fly
a lear. And can those courses be taken right after getting my PPL. I saw
where I could
get a PPL for 8,000 and get instrument training for another 6,000. Is
there another
course needed to fly a lear and can all the classes be taken concurrently.