Frequently Asked Questions

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 Once you’ve taken to the skies at the controls of an airplane, you’ll never look at the world in quite the same way. Imagine leaving the New York metropolitan area on a busy Friday afternoon, speeding over the choked-up highways below, to a destination of your own choosing. In fact, once you have your Private Pilot’s License, you can pretty much fly anywhere in the world you want. You set your own schedule, enjoy the freedom of the skies, and witness gorgeous views that are far better than those you’ll get on an airliner. And if you share the cost of the flight with your friends, you can often fly somewhere for less than you’d pay for a coach-class ticket. 

 No human activity is perfectly safe. But despite all the overblown news stories to the contrary, flying is simply the world’s safest form of transportation. General aviation fatalities occur approximately once every 100,000 hours of flight time, which means you’d have to stay in the air for eleven straight years (that’s 24 hours a day, 365 days a year) before you’d be likely to die in an accident. To put that in perspective, even senior airline captains don’t log much more than 20,000 hours in an entire lifetime, while most non-professional pilots will log much less. At Tail Wind, we pride ourselves on our perfect safety record. Our aircraft are stringently maintained to FAA standards, and our veteran instructors have logged thousands of accident-free hours. 

 Flying isn’t as difficult as most people think. While it’s admittedly more complicated than driving a car, it’s still within the grasp of most people. Of course, experienced flight instructors make a huge difference. Our seasoned instructors have taught hundreds of people how to fly, ranging from 15-year-old high-school students to 75-year-old retirees. If you’d like to see for yourself, take an introductory flight with us. You’ll fly the airplane from the pilot’s seat, with your instructor assisting you. It’ll open up a world you probably never knew existed. 

 That depends on how often you fly. The average person logs 65 – 75 hours of flight time before earning the Private Pilot’s License. If you fly once or, twice a week, and log 1.5 hours of flight time per lesson, you should be finished in about six months to a year, depending on your performance. Of course, you can fly more often if you prefer and earn your certificate quicker. 

 Since every student has different skills, it’s difficult to provide an exact cost number. Our hourly and package flight instruction rates will allow you to gauge your charges as you’re progressing with your training.