Private Pilot Syllabus and Lesson Plans by Philip Greenspun; updated March 2006 Site Home : Flying : Private Pilot Instruction

The fact that my students are older and wealthier means that being comfortable and having fun is more important than spending the absolute minimum number of hours. It also means that we actually go places in the airplane, e.g., islands, art museums, airplane museums, etc.

Summary of Requirements for a Private Pilot's Certificate

• 40 hours of flight time of which 20 must be dual instruction, 10 must be solo, and 10 may be either
• 3 hours cross-country training (a landing more than 50 nautical miles from the departure airport)
• 3 hours night training, including 10 takeoffs, patterns, and landings at an airport and one cross-country flight (at least 50 n.m. away and then back)
• 3 hours of instrument training
• a three-leg solo of at least 150 n.m. total distance, with one segment being at least 50 n.m. (plus enough additional cross-country flights to total 5 hours)

As a practical matter, younger students who fly 2-3 times per week require close to 60 hours to complete a certificate. Older students or those who stretch out their training can take 80 or more.

Lesson Plans

1. Ground: Introduction
2. Dual Flight: Breakfast or Lunch at MidField Cafe in Nashua (KASH)
3. Dual Flight: Up, Down, Left, and Right; Normal Approach and Landing
4. Dual Flight: Flying Slow (power off stalls only so as to avoid interference), then some landing practice
5. Dual Flight: Precision Takeoffs and power-on stalls
6. Dual Flight: Boston City Tour and landing at Marshfield (3B2)
7. Ground: Pilotage and VOR
8. Dual Flight: The Long Runway at Pease (KPSM) (no-flap landings, wake turbulence avoidance, refining the flare, flying 5' above the runway)
9. Ground: Weather
10. Dual Flight: VFR advisories, Class Charlie Airspace, and the airplane museum at KBDL, S-turns across a road on the way, turns around a point on the way back
11. Dual Flight: Block Island (KBID and its perpetual crosswind), short-field landings and takeoffs, work on rejected takeoffs and go-arounds
12. Dual Flight: Hills and the MassMOCA art museum at North Adams (KAQW), forward slips at airports on the way out, crosswind landings on the way back
13. Dual Flight: Handling Emergencies over the closed airport at Fort Devens, then power-off landings at Fitchburg
14. Dual Flight: Soft-field takeoffs and landings plus intro to instrument flying
15. Dual Flight: to Keene, NH (KEEN), mostly using instruments and with a demonstration ILS approach
16. Dual Flight: Review for check flight
    
    
17. Pre-Solo Check Flight with a senior instructor
    
    
18. Supervised Solo Flight: Bedford
19. Solo Flight: Pattern work at Bedford
20. Solo Flight: Practicing slow flight and ground-reference maneuvers in practice area, then patterns at Bedford
21. Dual Flight: To Lawrence (KLWM) and back
22. Solo Flight: To Lawrence and back
23. Solo Cross Country Flight: To Keene, NH and back
24. Dual Flight: Night landings at Bedford
25. Dual Flight: Night flight to Lawrence
26. Dual Flight: Night cross-country to New Bedford (KEWB)
27. Solo Cross-Country Flight: To New Bedford and back
28. Solo Cross Country Flight: 150 n.m. three-leg cross-country. KBED - KPWM - KPSM - KBED (alternative KBED - KBDL - KPVD - KBED)
    
    
29. Pre-Test Check Flight with a senior instructor
    
    
30. Dual Flight: Review for Practical Test (content based on check flight report)
31. Dual Flight: Review for Practical Test along the way to Provincetown, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and back (every New England pilot needs to be comfortable with the Cape Cod area)
32. Solo Flight: Review for Practical Test

Other Stuff

• Questionnaire
• Lesson Plan Shell