Vern Torino wrote:
Can you give me your views on accelerated training for a PPL. I'm
considering this as an alternative to training two days a week for eight
months. The island in Hawaii where I'm at has one flight school, and at
their rates it'll cost me upward of $8-$9K plus! (Money isn't my best
asset.) I'm considering taking a month vacation (2wks in Dec. and 2 in Jan.)
somewhere in the mainland to take an accelerated course. Your constructive
comments and suggestions on this idea are welcomed.

If you can maintain 2-3x weekly for the long haul (easier to say than
do) then I would recommend training at home. Living in HI you have a
good climate to work with, so you won't have the rate of cancellations
I had in Boston.

Second, a lot of us are big believers in the "train the way you fly"
philosophy, and presumably you'll be doing your flying in Hawaii after
you finish. From what I hear, flying in the Hawaiian islands is an
entirely unique proposition with enormous importance on local
knowledge. Training locally you will a lot of this up from you CFI.

Third, how much does a month of vacation cost you? While it will be a
break from your job, it's not what most would call relaxing. Add in the
cost of a plane ticket in prime vacation season and you've probably got
a cost savings of no more than $3,000. That's not much money for a
month of vacation time. Not that flying wouldn't be fairly enjoyable
but after a month of primary training I might be ready to go back to
work.

-cwk.