Minimum prereq's 1) Mooney training; 2) Mooney Insurance

[exM20K]

10 hours ago, Pinecone said:

The biggest advantage to doing your training at a school is aircraft availability.

When I was doing my primary training 30-some years ago, living in NYC, I found it to be just the opposite and very frustrating.  Yes, the flight school had a half dozen trainers I could use (piper), but they were fully booked.  I wound up buying half of anarcher and then all of a Cherokee 140 to finish private and instrument. The widespread use of G1000 in training fleets today significantly improves avionics uniformity, which was definitely an issue 20-30 years ago.

-dan

 

[Pinecone]

14 hours ago, exM20K said:

When I was doing my primary training 30-some years ago, living in NYC, I found it to be just the opposite and very frustrating.  Yes, the flight school had a half dozen trainers I could use (piper), but they were fully booked.  I wound up buying half of anarcher and then all of a Cherokee 140 to finish private and instrument. The widespread use of G1000 in training fleets today significantly improves avionics uniformity, which was definitely an issue 20-30 years ago.

-dan

 

I wouldn't say that G1000 use is widespread.  Maybe in the big puppy mills buying new aircraft.

My local FBO has installed 2x G-5s in all their training fleet with a GNS-430.  So pretty uniform.  Except for the one set up with a G3X, G-5, GTN-650 and GFC-500 for complex training.

[bcg]

I bought my C while I was a student with 20 hours total time in my logbook. Finished private in it and then did instrument, 3 years later I have a little over 450 hours in the C.

Insurance was unobtainable as a student, as soon as I got my private it was no problem. I self-insured until I got my private, carried liability only for a year while I got instrument rated and then went to full coverage.

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[Parker_Woodruff]

17 hours ago, mike_elliott said:

Our military trains, young men all the time and very high-performance aircraft

The difference is it's a full immersion program and there's been a big selection process before they even get to the training.

[mike_elliott]

Yeah, I’m intimately familiar with the selection process. In the old days to be a fighter pilot they didn’t particularly want team players. They wanted the motocross rider or a wrestler versus a football player or a basketball player that had the Support of everyone else for his success.They wanted the kid that would walk into the bar and pick a fight with the biggest guy in the room. They wanted the guy who at 14 took the engine out of his dad’s station wagon and put a cam in it without his dad‘s permission. Today who knows? Proper hair color?
 

The bottom line is for an 18 year-old to train and get his PPL in a Mooney M 20 TN. It’s an immersion process. And trust me I vetted him well before accepting the role as his instructor.

[Pinecone]

On 4/30/2025 at 12:13 PM, mike_elliott said:

Yeah, I’m intimately familiar with the selection process. In the old days to be a fighter pilot they didn’t particularly want team players. They wanted the motocross rider or a wrestler versus a football player or a basketball player that had the Support of everyone else for his success.They wanted the kid that would walk into the bar and pick a fight with the biggest guy in the room. They wanted the guy who at 14 took the engine out of his dad’s station wagon and put a cam in it without his dad‘s permission. Today who knows? Proper hair color?

When was that?

I went through the process in 1979 and those criteria were not what they were looking for.