Dreaming of becoming a private pilot? The first step is to join a flight school, where you will take ground classes and accumulate the minimum required 40 hours of flight time. (However, most students will get about 60 to 80 hours.)

It isn’t easy, though… but you can do it!

You’ll have to learn how to maneuver the air craft, navigate, and handle cross county flights. You are then given exams (called “check rides”) which includes an oral exam and a demo flight. Only then will you be given a pilot’s license.

Some pilots can get frustrated by the process. Arthur Hayssen, one of Northern California’s most respected flight instructors and aviation safety advocates in Northern California, gives these tips to help aspiring pilots “stay on course”:

1. There are no shortcuts.
While new programs promise the fast track to a license (charging thousands of dollars, of course) Hayssen says that there’s nothing like old-fashioned studying and practice. You’ll have to understand the plane, go through exercises that teach you how to handle everything from turbulence to a broken engine.

Understandably, you won’t automatically be allowed to fly solo. Don’t be impatient. One day, your passengers will be placing their lives in your hands—your skills, experience and confidence will come from knowing the plane inside out.

2. Don’t be discouraged by the costs.
First of all, following your dream is priceless. Second of all, there are many affordable courses. “The ground school’ at our local college, which prepares students for the academic part of the licensing process, costs about $40.00. The same amount of class time, privately tutored, would cost $2,400.00,” says Hayssen.

3. Prepare for each class.
Learn everything you can about your aircraft, memorizing the performance number and coming to each practice session with a basic idea of the controls or strategies you’ll be tackling that day. You can’t just “wing it”. Showing up completely clueless is a sure way of throwing away the money you spent for that session.

4. Schedule your training.
Don’t let a lot of time lapse between sessions. You’ll just forget everything, and spend more training and re-training.

5. Don’t give up.
Training can get frustrating, but that’s just part of the emotional ups and downs of mastering any new skill, or facing a worthwhile challenge. “Stick to your goal,” says Hayssen, who knows what it feels to encounter difficult circumstances—especially in rough flights to anywhere from the Antarctic to the Amazon.

“Realize that you WILL feel discouraged at times, but that persistence will facilitate achieving your goal.”

6. Choose your teachers well.
You need a coach who really cares about aviation and his students. Unfortunately, there are many who just become a flight instructor to build experience for other jobs. “These people find little joy in teaching,” says Hayssen. Frustrated by this attitude, he actually set up North Coast Air, where he gathered instructors who shared his passion for teaching.

“Facilitating student pilots in achieving their dreams of flying and becoming licensed pilots provides great satisfaction to me,” says Hayssen, whose students include captains of major American airlines.

For more information on becoming a pilot, renting aircraft or other serious aviation inquiries contact Art Hayssen at North Coast Air: 707-542-8687 or norcoast@sonic.net