PRIVATE PILOTS LICENSE – PPL(A)

WHY CHOOSE ANTHELION FOR AIRPLANE TRAINING?

We are an approved FAA Part 61/141 flight school. This means that all our flight and ground syllabuses under part 141 have been approved by the FAA. All our aircraft, instructors, and our facility have also been independently scrutinized and approved by the FAA and have been shown to adhere to their extremely high standards of safety. The same teaching standards are also applied to our Part 61 programs to ensure quality consistency even though they are not directly regulated by the FAA.
Whether you have never been in an aircraft before or you are an airline captain looking for an add-on rating, Anthelion has the right program for you, for a private airplane license.
Through our combined 50 years of experience, we know what is most effective and efficient in the flight training industry. We understand that our students lead busy and often complicated lives. Therefore, we customize each airplane pilot training plan to work around our students’ busy and varied schedules.

FOR NEW STUDENTS

Your flight training will be broken down into the following stages:

STAGE 1: THE FOUNDATION

Your flight training begins with learning the fundamentals of flying and the aircraft you are manipulating. As your skill develops, so does the depth of your flight training by establishing your knowledge both in the air and on the ground. You will learn what it takes to fly an aircraft without the presence of your instructor. Stage 1 ends with a pre-solo test, a check flight, and a review of your ground knowledge by the Chief Instructor.

STAGE 2: SOLO FLYING

You will go through a series of solo flights designed in your personalized instructional plan to meet your solo requirements under Part 61 of the Regulations. At this point, the skills and confidence needed to complete flights on your own will advance. Stage 2 ends with a check flight and a review of your ground knowledge by the Chief Instructor.

STAGE 3: THE CONSOLIDATION

This stage is a consolidation and fine-tuning of the skills you have learned, which allow you to safely and proficiently manipulate the aircraft controls in preparation for taking your FAA Private Pilot check-ride. Stage 3 ends with a mock FAA check-flight and a review of your ground knowledge by the Chief Instructor.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?

Under FAR Part 61, 40 hours of flight time is the minimum required by the regulations to take a check-ride (see below), but the actual time it takes students to meet the Practical Test Standards varies for a variety of reasons – frequency of flights, speed of learning, financial constraints, etc. Typically the majority of our students pass between 50–65 hours, with the national average being between 60–75 hours.

COMING SOON — PART 141 TRAINING: We’re currently training every Private Pilot – Airplane student under FAA Part 61, which gives you a flexible, one-on-one syllabus you can shape around your own schedule from day one. Behind the scenes, we’re building a Part 141 curriculum for the Cessna 172 program that mirrors the same structured, stage-based training that has worked so well in our helicopter program for 12 years — and we’ll open enrollment as soon as it earns FAA approval.

FAA REQUIREMENTS – 14 CFR § 61.109 (PRIVATE PILOT CERTIFICATE, AIRPLANE SINGLE-ENGINE LAND)

40 hours total flight time, including:
- 20 hours of flight training from an authorized instructor, including:
  - 3 hours of cross-country flight training in a single-engine airplane
  - 3 hours of night flight training in a single-engine airplane, including one cross-country flight of more than 100 nautical miles total distance and 10 takeoffs and 10 landings to a full stop at an airport
  - 3 hours of flight training on the control and maneuvering of an airplane solely by reference to instruments
  - 3 hours of flight training in preparation for the practical test, performed within the 2 calendar months before the test
- 10 hours of solo flight training in a single-engine airplane, including:
  - 5 hours of solo cross-country time
  - One solo cross-country flight of 150 nautical miles total distance, with full-stop landings at three points and one segment of at least 50 nautical miles straight-line distance
  - 3 takeoffs and 3 landings to a full stop (each involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport with an operating control tower
Ground instruction covers the aeronautical knowledge areas in 14 CFR § 61.105 — regulations, weather, navigation, aerodynamics, weight and balance, radio communications, aeronautical decision-making, and preflight planning — and, unlike a Part 141 course, Part 61 sets no fixed minimum number of ground-school hours, so we can tailor the pace to you.