My PPL Journey - A summary

| 3 minutes read, 436 words | 6 comments

During the summer of 2020, when everything else got cancelled, I started working towards my life-long dream of obtaining my private pilot license.

Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

– Leonardo da Vinci

You can read about all of my flight lessons here

A positive thing in a negative year

This has without a doubt been a huge positive boost in a otherwise negative year. For me, 2020/2021 is now the year I got to fulfil my lifelong dream! In a lot of ways, I’ve been a lot luckier than others this year. But I have also worked really, really hard for this. I’ve had sleepless nights, lots of studying, and several times where I almost gave up.

The extremely limited opening hours (only two hours on some days), adverse weather conditions, and a grounded airplane have also caused a lot of frustration. But I have been surrounded by supportive people, and a great instructor!

Even though I hated all of these issues at the time, they did take the focus away from Corona and everything that was happening in the world. For that, I am very grateful!

In many ways, I’ve been living in a bubble - an aviation bubble.

None of this would have been possible without the support of my lovely wife, thank you!

Some numbers

  • Total hours: 52:45
  • Total PIC hours: 11:05
  • Number of flights: 44
  • Landings: 221
  • aircraft: 3
    • LN-HOG
    • LN-DAG
    • LN-MTX
  • Airports: 5
    • ENHD
    • ENZV
    • ENSO
    • ENBR
    • ENCN
  • Time from discovery flight to skill test: 8 months and 2 weeks
    • First lesson 1 month after discovery flight

The cost

All numbers in NOK (Norwegian Kroner)

Necessary costs

Item Cost Quantity Total cost
Membership Haugaland Flyklubb / Sola Flyklubb* 2 620,- 2 5 240,-
Class 2 medical 1 900,-
Theory course (including navigation equipment) 9 095,-
Theory exam 450,- 9 4 050,-
Maps, logbook, and other necessary equipment 2059
Avinor airport safety course 200,-
Club insurance fund* 500,- 2 1 000,-
Airplane rental (51:10) 1 700,- 51:10 86 260,-
Instructor fee 300,- 17 217,-
Start/landing fees 1 279,-
Misc parking 1 384,63
Airplane rental (skill test) 2 860,-
Skill test 2 000,-
CAA certificate fee 1 630,-
NOK 136 174,63


* two years

Item Cost
Bose A-20 headset 12 620,-
Pilot bag 1 389,-
Misc apps (AeroWeather, etc) 200,-
SkyDemon 1 412,-
NOK 15 996,-

Other equipment (like iPad, GoPro, etc), subscriptions, books, etc. are not included here.

Grand total

Just above NOK 150 000,-