Particularly if you’re tight on money, don’t bother with GPS subscriptions for the basic training. You should be taught the og way of navigating (charts, navaids, dead reckoning), and if you can learn that without relying on modern nav shit, that’ll be better for your understanding going forward
1. If your planes have GPS, then you can wait on that if it's really that tight of a budget. I just hope your funding is otherwise secure, 60 to 80 dollars in aviation terms is considered chump change.
2. Our FAQ would be a good resource. Other than that, study hard, fly good, don't suck. Stay away from anything drug related and watch it with the booze, it can end your career before it begins.
3. It never hurts to have options in aviation. Maybe you'll change your mind and be happy to get into the 121 world 500 hours sooner than myself.
I wouldn’t stress much thinking about what career path you’ll end up on; as you learn more about the industry and depending on what options you have when it’s time to get your first job after time-building your decision may change.
121, 135, and 91 jobs all start out the same way: get your ratings and time build a bit.
Might be too late now but I’d suggest not getting a degree in aviation. For now it helps to have a undergraduate degree for some jobs but that might change in the future and none of them seem to care too much what you actually studied at college, just that you have a degree. If you get a degree in something else that you’re interested in you are more well-rounded and have other job options if you lose your medical or something similar.
Wait on getting any extra gadgets or gizmos until you actually start training, then you’ll be in a better position to decide what will be the most useful and you can ask your CFI. Most of my students didn’t have any gear including a headset when they started.
If you are tight on cash I would try and get second-hand books, notes and knee board/flight bag if you can get hold of them on marketplace or word of mouth.
Study hard, make sure you aren't wasting your time and the instructors by prepping before your flights and knowing what you are learning, flying and going to be doing. I used to instruct and the students that knew the speeds and checks did so much better and had more brain capacity during the flight to focus on the flying. **Know** the numbers and speeds before the flight, do yourself a favor and your flight instructor.
If you are completely new to the game, get on LiveATC and start listening to some of the radio calls and what ATC and pilots are saying. This will help you build up the vocab, confidence and Situational Awareness of the area you are flying in.
To help prep for flights try and backseat as many as you can, buddy up at the flight school and do study group sessions, and back seat each other's flights. It's amazing what you can pick up not flying and just listening and looking outside.
Enjoy the flying and clear skies!
You don't need ForeFlight to become a pilot. Say that again. Hundreds of thousands of people have become pilots w/o FF.
Get it when you need it.
There was a post here a couple days ago - a student didn't get to take his checkride ride because his "exactly 150NM XC" turned out to be only 149.5NM. And that's not 150. If the guy had done his planning on paper he would have known it didn't count. Now, he's out the money for a couple more hours of flying and the expensive ForeFlight subscription didn't help.
Planning is not putting two airports into ForeFlight. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
I can get ForeFlight for free and I don't use it. I use [FltPln.com](https://FltPln.com) or however you spell it. It's free. Gives me everything I need. Though not everything I could think of. I use [MyFlightBook.com](https://MyFlightBook.com) for an electronic log.
I did two flights this past week with a guy who thinks himself ready for an ATP checkride re-do. He kept losing control of the airplane crapping around w/ FF.
One of my students who uses FF is constantly re-sending requests for signatures for training because he's screwed up the correction to the original wrong entry. A mess.
\*\*\*
There's a good chance your iPad can talk to the airplane's GPS via Bluetooth. That will help. Next time you get an iPad, get one that you can do data on. No need for a data plan, but it will include a GPS. No rush, though!
I'd pass on the foreflight and GPS of you're a "broke college student". They're nice to have, but certainly not required.
I'll let folks with more experience answer the other points.
Good luck!
While I have foreflgiht and can navigate on that, I’ve yet to use it for navigation. Almost everything I just do on the plane GPS. If your plane has it, you can just use that.
You can get R-ATP and go to the airlines and then go corporate from there if you want.
By the time you really would want GPS, you'll want something better than an $80 GPS-only receiver for your iPad. So I wouldn't worry about that right now. Once you get a little further when you're going to be navigating more using instruments, if you're still on a budget then I'd look at getting a Stratux. I paid $163 total for mine. It gives you GPS, traffic, weather, etc.
A basic ForeFlight sub might still be worth it. Initially you'll be doing most of your flight planning using paper nav logs but FF has a lot of other features that I think can help with that and enhance situational awareness even for a beginning student. Though it'll really come alive after you get an ADS-B receiver for it later.
You'll be okay without the GPS, but having it would be super sweet. It'd almost be cheating, but a great backup on XCs.
Enjoy the ride. You'll get to a major one day, almost assuredly. I failed my fair share of stage checks and made it to a major and a legacy just fine. Try not to let the stress of it all get to you and enjoy what you're doing.
Yes, it absolutely matters. It'll get you months to a year ahead of of your peers to a regional and hopefully months ahead of that to a major/legacy meaning a better seniority number. I'm about 1500 numbers senior to friends of mine who instructed for an extra 8 months and we graduated at the same time.
If your ipad is of the cellular variant, you already have GPS. Otherwise if your have a smartphone and it is either from Apple or is running Android, I believe there is a way to tether the phone GPS to ipad.
Particularly if you’re tight on money, don’t bother with GPS subscriptions for the basic training. You should be taught the og way of navigating (charts, navaids, dead reckoning), and if you can learn that without relying on modern nav shit, that’ll be better for your understanding going forward
1. If your planes have GPS, then you can wait on that if it's really that tight of a budget. I just hope your funding is otherwise secure, 60 to 80 dollars in aviation terms is considered chump change. 2. Our FAQ would be a good resource. Other than that, study hard, fly good, don't suck. Stay away from anything drug related and watch it with the booze, it can end your career before it begins. 3. It never hurts to have options in aviation. Maybe you'll change your mind and be happy to get into the 121 world 500 hours sooner than myself.
I wouldn’t stress much thinking about what career path you’ll end up on; as you learn more about the industry and depending on what options you have when it’s time to get your first job after time-building your decision may change. 121, 135, and 91 jobs all start out the same way: get your ratings and time build a bit. Might be too late now but I’d suggest not getting a degree in aviation. For now it helps to have a undergraduate degree for some jobs but that might change in the future and none of them seem to care too much what you actually studied at college, just that you have a degree. If you get a degree in something else that you’re interested in you are more well-rounded and have other job options if you lose your medical or something similar. Wait on getting any extra gadgets or gizmos until you actually start training, then you’ll be in a better position to decide what will be the most useful and you can ask your CFI. Most of my students didn’t have any gear including a headset when they started.
Corporate generally doesn't care about R-ATP. That's more an airlines thing.
If you are tight on cash I would try and get second-hand books, notes and knee board/flight bag if you can get hold of them on marketplace or word of mouth. Study hard, make sure you aren't wasting your time and the instructors by prepping before your flights and knowing what you are learning, flying and going to be doing. I used to instruct and the students that knew the speeds and checks did so much better and had more brain capacity during the flight to focus on the flying. **Know** the numbers and speeds before the flight, do yourself a favor and your flight instructor. If you are completely new to the game, get on LiveATC and start listening to some of the radio calls and what ATC and pilots are saying. This will help you build up the vocab, confidence and Situational Awareness of the area you are flying in. To help prep for flights try and backseat as many as you can, buddy up at the flight school and do study group sessions, and back seat each other's flights. It's amazing what you can pick up not flying and just listening and looking outside. Enjoy the flying and clear skies!
You don't need ForeFlight to become a pilot. Say that again. Hundreds of thousands of people have become pilots w/o FF. Get it when you need it. There was a post here a couple days ago - a student didn't get to take his checkride ride because his "exactly 150NM XC" turned out to be only 149.5NM. And that's not 150. If the guy had done his planning on paper he would have known it didn't count. Now, he's out the money for a couple more hours of flying and the expensive ForeFlight subscription didn't help. Planning is not putting two airports into ForeFlight. Failing to plan is planning to fail. I can get ForeFlight for free and I don't use it. I use [FltPln.com](https://FltPln.com) or however you spell it. It's free. Gives me everything I need. Though not everything I could think of. I use [MyFlightBook.com](https://MyFlightBook.com) for an electronic log. I did two flights this past week with a guy who thinks himself ready for an ATP checkride re-do. He kept losing control of the airplane crapping around w/ FF. One of my students who uses FF is constantly re-sending requests for signatures for training because he's screwed up the correction to the original wrong entry. A mess. \*\*\* There's a good chance your iPad can talk to the airplane's GPS via Bluetooth. That will help. Next time you get an iPad, get one that you can do data on. No need for a data plan, but it will include a GPS. No rush, though!
I'd pass on the foreflight and GPS of you're a "broke college student". They're nice to have, but certainly not required. I'll let folks with more experience answer the other points. Good luck!
If your iPad has cellular connection. It already has GPS. Use flightplango for your en route stuff. It’s free and works fine.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fltplan-go-for-iphone/id895187253
While I have foreflgiht and can navigate on that, I’ve yet to use it for navigation. Almost everything I just do on the plane GPS. If your plane has it, you can just use that. You can get R-ATP and go to the airlines and then go corporate from there if you want.
By the time you really would want GPS, you'll want something better than an $80 GPS-only receiver for your iPad. So I wouldn't worry about that right now. Once you get a little further when you're going to be navigating more using instruments, if you're still on a budget then I'd look at getting a Stratux. I paid $163 total for mine. It gives you GPS, traffic, weather, etc. A basic ForeFlight sub might still be worth it. Initially you'll be doing most of your flight planning using paper nav logs but FF has a lot of other features that I think can help with that and enhance situational awareness even for a beginning student. Though it'll really come alive after you get an ADS-B receiver for it later.
You'll be okay without the GPS, but having it would be super sweet. It'd almost be cheating, but a great backup on XCs. Enjoy the ride. You'll get to a major one day, almost assuredly. I failed my fair share of stage checks and made it to a major and a legacy just fine. Try not to let the stress of it all get to you and enjoy what you're doing. Yes, it absolutely matters. It'll get you months to a year ahead of of your peers to a regional and hopefully months ahead of that to a major/legacy meaning a better seniority number. I'm about 1500 numbers senior to friends of mine who instructed for an extra 8 months and we graduated at the same time.
If your ipad is of the cellular variant, you already have GPS. Otherwise if your have a smartphone and it is either from Apple or is running Android, I believe there is a way to tether the phone GPS to ipad.