I have been looking in to getting my private pilot's license before heading out to the academy in June for I-day. I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there are any specific advantages of having the license before going into the academy. My long term goal right now is to become a pilot. If I decide to get the license, it would require a significant time commitment as well as cost approximately $7,000. Any insight would be helpful.
Well, I thought better of posting this since you already have an appointment but it's an excellent question. I'll give two opinions, one for you and one for future kids wondering what to do to help stand out on their applications based on my son's experience.
For you, I'd 100% recommend getting stick time before you go. If you send me a PM we can work offline and I might be able to arrange for some seriously fun stick time in a plane similar to mine at probably no more cost than to buy the pilot lunch at an airport diner (see my blog, I guess, to learn what a Van's RV is - and no, it's not a camper!). In my opinion you don't have enough time left to get a private pilot's license while going to High School and working out. But some intro flight lessons would be beneficial and VERY MOTIVATING.
For those reading just starting your application process here's what we learned this year with my son.
Having a private pilot's license will help you a LOT indirectly towards getting into any SA or a ROTC scholarship per my son's experience. Since it's very apparent USAFA and AFROTC slots are harder than ever to get and the trend is probably worse, every bit helps, right? In fact on one or two of the ROTC/SA applications it's actually a question they specifically ask about. Son worked full time this past summer to get his license, he had to basically quit tennis and sacrifice his ranking which all but killed a real shot at most college tennis. Don't be fooled about the time committment and start sooner rather than later if you decide to get a license. A sport license
http://www.sportpilot.org/ would be fine and cheaper than a PPL but finding a place that does this is harder in my experience to find than a traditional PPL route. There are a lot of variables to getting a license in a timely manner and it takes longer than you think it should. Now he is working part time on his IFR ticket and every interview he had it was a huge plus. Pretty much every interview started with
them telling him how cool that was and asking a lot of questions about it. He received the top type scholarships to both the AF and Navy (he didn't apply for the Army) and he had his pick as the principal nom to either the USAFA or USNA from our Rep. No other kids for our Rep had that on their resume and it helped him really stand out for a variety of reasons and we're pretty sure this was one of the clinchers. My sister and her husband are AF officers stationed at Nellis AFB and are 'connected' so when he goes there for spring break this year he's going to get some fighter sim time and he'll actually have a clue so it pays dividends later on. And no doubt if you've never flown in a small plane or glider you're going to love it or else confirm maybe a different path is meant for you than a cockpit and that's not a bad thing necessarily either.