First, students are afraid of taking advantage of pre-paid programs because FBOs are going belly up. For example, there is a flight school in Maryland that closed up shop but has not relinquished the records for its students back to the students so the students have an opportunity to move on. I am not sure of the motivation, especially since the FBO went under while still owing prepaid time to students.

Second, people are being more conservative with their money. I pay for my flying lessons with music I make from my side business, playing music. Music revenues have gone down due to the economy so it has killed my flying budget. I have thought about quitting. However, I have worked really hard, aced my written exam and soloed several times. I love learning about flying, choosing reading books about flying and weather over anything else. If I do quit, it will not be due to laziness, that’s for sure.

I have to space the lessons out. People argue that this costs more in the long run. However, I believe this is the wrong perspective. It makes it sound as if the cost of flying and learning goes down significantly once the certificate is earned. It may go down some, but not much more than soloing. To avoid frustration, I focus on the journey and not the certificate. Besides, flying is a never ending journey of learning and perfecting, so focusing on the journey is right thing to do.