If you have ever dreamed of soaring in a plane of your own, why not take up aviation? It is a great and very useful pastime that many people are getting into. Even John Travolta is into the hobby of aviation!

Getting started probably isn't as difficult as you would imagine. You don't need to own a plane, in fact, at the beginning, you don't even need to be in a plane at all! To start off in aviation, all you need to do is sign up for a ground school course. This will be available through your local airport, if it is large enough. Even if they don't offer ground school, they will be able to direct you to where there is one.

Ground school is the basis of aviation. Here you learn the basics of navigation, engine and how to load a small-engine airplane to keep it balanced. It is a lot of theory work, with massive texts and strange looking calculating instruments, but without the basic knowledge, you won't be going up in a plane except as a passenger!

At the end of ground school, you will be given an exam that tests how well you have absorbed the necessary knowledge. The majority of people who are truly interested in aviation will have no problem passing this test. If you find yourself bored in class, this might be a little more difficult.

It isn't actually necessary in most areas to finish ground school before taking on flight school, or air time. You need to log a certain number of hours in the air, actually flying a plane, in order to get your aviation license, so the sooner you get started, the better. Once again, your local airport is the best resource for training flights and instructors.

While ground school will run you about $400-600 plus books, training flights will really put a dent in your pocketbook. Some airports offer deals that include the instructor pilot, while others require you to rent a plane and pay the instructor separately. This can run anywhere from $50-150 an hour, depending on the size of the flight school. If you are aiming for 200 hours, that is quite the chunk of change!

An aviation instructor will start you out with full airtime, that is, he or she will take off and land and you are responsible for flying while in the air. As you progress, you will be able to try take-offs and eventually landing. Then comes the most important part, handling problems in the air. You will be required to learn and practice what to do when the engine stalls, when the landing gear doesn't engage, etc.

Learning aviation is an expensive hobby, but a very enjoyable one. Once you have your basic license, you will be able to fly on your own, with passengers. If you want to upgrade your license, say to commercial, you need to log many more hours and take further instruction, but it is all a process of building on what you have already learned.