Practical Flight Training

I've done all the ground school training, how do I take off to the skies now?

Many of the visitors to my site ask me about practical flight training. What I usually have to answer is that the focus of my site is on PPL ground school training. Why?

For a couple of reasons actually:

First - I am not a professional flight instructor myself. I am just a regular guy enthusiastic about flying and who wants to offer others a stepping stone into flying.

Second - my visitors come from all over the world. I simply do not know any flight school in India, for instance, let alone recommend one. The same is true for almost any country in the world. Even in the few countries where I had the opportunity to fly, I don't know nearly enough schools to recommend a particular one.

Anyway, I do realise that while ground school might be interesting, it is not the main thing about flying. I know, you guys want to sit in a real cockpit and take off to the skies. What you have found on this site will take you maybe half way to your PPL license and have given you a good foundation for your life as a pilot. If you studied well, you should be ready to sit the PPL theory exams now.

At this point you are probably asking yourself one of two questions: Where can I take the exam and what's next?

Well, the answer is the same for most of you: find a flight instructor or flight school near you to enrol in practical flight training.

They will be able to propose to you a specific plan to finish your education. Since you know everything about PPL theory after studying this site (right?), the first step will be to register with the authorities as a learner and for the theory exams. At the same time, a local flight school can enrol you into a practical flight training program.

Some schools offer a cheap or even free trial flight. Ask them about it and if they do offer it, take it before doing anything else. This might be the most memorable step in your flying career. Trust me, you don't want to miss it.

Of course, from now on matters get more expensive. More expensive than free for sure. If you have a choice of flight schools nearby, compare prices before you sign on the dotted line. As flight schools usually charge for ground school training, let them know that you have done the training with the free-online-private-pilot-ground-school.com. It is at their discretion, of course, but they might credit you for this training if you can convince them that you have understood all the materials presented on this site and enrol you to the theory exam without further training (and costs).

Right, I hear you say, how do I find a flight school nearby offering practical flight training. Well, this depends on where you are located. Since you are sitting in front of a computer right now, you might want to try a few of the links below.
If these don't help you out, you might want to check a few obvious local resources such as the telephone directory. Your local airport might be the next best bet. It is well possible that local flight schools make landings there, so ATC will know about them. It is also possible that they use the repair service shops at the local airport so check them out. Finally, most flight schools are actively looking for pupils, so check out the adverts in local papers or the national flight magazines. Remember, the flight community is not that big - if you found somebody offering sightseeing flights, chances are he knows some flight school nearby.
If you are, however, inclined to do your homework on the computer, here are some resources that might be a good starting point:

The aircraft owners and pilots association operates world wide.
They have a few interesting pages on their website in particular if you want to become a professional pilot.

bestaviation.net maintains a large international listing of flight schools.

If you are Arabic speaking, this site is for you. Amongst many other things including practical flight training, it features an Arabic translation of our site.

Here is a site I like for all you brits: PPLMania. It features quite a large directory of flight schools and practical flight training in the UK.

If your German is better than your English, you might want to check this link for flight schools and practical flight training in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.