DISCOVERY
                     FLIGHT 

   If you want to learn how to fly, you have come to the right place.
   However, before you sink the time, money, work, and commitment into learning how to fly we strongly advise you to take what we call a "Discovery Flight" or Familiarization Flight to see if this is really for you. You do not have to join the club to do this initial flight.
    If you decide to continue, it will go in your logbook as lesson #1. Call the school and ask for Brant Robinson- Fulton Aviation manager, or any of our other fine instructors to help you set up the flight. The cost of a Fam Flight is approximately $75 for a half hour flight. We accept checks or credit cards. No cash please. On the day of your flight show up at the school a few minutes early and meet your instructor.
   A typical introductory flight goes something like this;  After the aircraft takes off from Fulton County Airport and gets to altitude, the instructor will turn the controls over to you and from that point on – you are the pilot! You will fly to a practice area where the instructor will have you do things like turns, climbing turns, descending turns, and all sorts of good stuff. After you are back on the ground chances are you will be jazzed and eager to start or you will decide that small planes are not for you.

How do I get my pilot’s license?
   The FAA requires you to have 40 hours minimum before you are eligible to take the final exam for your Private Pilot License. Actually, it is called a check ride and it is a 3-step process: a written exam, an oral exam, and a check ride with an FAA Designated Examiner.
   We have a structured flight-training program that follows the Jeppesen syllabus.   This syllabus conforms to the FAA standards for the top level of flight schools. You will purchase a kit containing textbooks, maneuver manuals, study guides, study question banks, plotters, logbook, and the training syllabus.  
   The training syllabus lays out each lesson that you will take and exactly what you will do in the air. It will tell you what you will review, what you will practice, and what the instructor will introduce to you on that flight. It will also tell you what you will study before the next lesson. The whole concept is to fly and study alternately until your check ride.    That said, let me also tell you that you may be eligible at 40 hours for the check ride but we have never seen anybody ready at 40 hours. Somewhere between 50 to 60 hours, most people will be ready for the check ride – it depends on their learning progress. The check ride itself costs about $450 so it is not something you go into casually and half-prepared.
   The single thing that has the most influence on making fast progress to keep costs down is to FLY OFTEN. If you fly only once a week, you can do it but it will seem to take up to a year and will cost you more because you won’t retain what you’ve learned. If you fly twice a week your retention takes a big jump and it will take only a few months. Three times a week is even better and 4 times a week you will really be smoking.