Username Protected wrote:
I’m totally new to BeechTalk. I am also new to aircraft ownership. I purchased a 1975 Cessna 172M in order to complete my PPL. My plan in the future is to move up to a Cessna 206 (maybe turbo). My mission is really just family and friend trips. I live in a small town in Louisiana and me and the family travel to Phoenix about 2-3 times a year, I travel to Myrtle Beach once a year to play golf with my friends, and now I have a daughter in Indianapolis for the next 5 years doing her residency (so about twice a year to visit her). I am over 50 and learning to fly. I am lucky to have a lot of knowledge about aircraft systems. I worked on avionics systems in the Air Force for 17 years. Currently doing my ground school on line and understanding aerodynamics, instruments, and different altitudes and pressures thus far has been a breeze. I hope the flying will be a good learning experience as well. If anyone has any advice I would surely welcome it.
1) Keep doing what your doing and knock out that PPL. If you're not already flying at least 3 times per week try to get there, you'll finish in less total hours and less calendar time. In most flight schools, in order to fly at least 3 times/week you need to schedule 4-5 times/week to mitigate instructor/airplane availability and weather issues. Owning your own airplane usually helps with that but if yours develops a problem that takes a few weeks to resolve you will lose ground unless you rent in the meantime.
2) If you want to be able to make trips longer than 100-150 miles on any sort of schedule you'll need to get an instrument rating and the 172 is a very good platform for that. Note that even with an IR you will often need to wait a day or two for adverse weather (fog/TRW, Ice, heavy snow). Without an IR you will occasionally find that you can't fly for several days in a row in most parts of the country.
Although this forum isn't limited to Beechcraft, it does lean that way. You'll find a great storehouse of information about Bonanzas and Barons here along with a fair amount WRT other makes and models.
3) Welcome to BeechTalk.