Private Pilots Licence

[seph]

I have been meaning to try flying for some time, managed to try it for the first time this week. I had a 1/2 hour trial lesson bought me for christmas and have only just managed to use it.

 

I could not believe that they actually let you take control of the plane virtually immediately and one of the best parts for me was seeing where I actually fish on numerous parts of the river. The most fantastic feeling was actually landing the plane myself under the instructors guidance. I asked him at the end how much of it was me "it was all me until we were on the runway" was his reply, then he took over to slow it down.

 

I enjoyed it so much, I went straight back for another 1/2 hour, would have done an hour but time was a factor and they could only fit me in for the 1/2 hour.

 

I am now seriously considering doing it properly and learning to fly and get my personal licence.

Anybody done this and think it was worth it? I mean at £7000 to complete it does seem a lot of money. I also know that it would not be cheap to fly after completing the course. I think it would be a great achievement and as I said it something I have always wanted to do.

[Leon Roskilly]

Seph,

 

It's worth going over to the States to do a course there, especially now that the pound is so strong against the dollar.

 

With guaranteed good flying weather, you'll probably be able to qualify within a couple of weeks, then come back here and finish off learning particularly about UK air laws (I believe that they are much the same internationally), Uk meterology etc.

 

And even with the 'holiday' trhown in, it's likely to prove a lot cheaper.

 

But if you really want to fly properly (rather than buzzing around with a big dangerous engine in front of you, and all that flammable fuel), give gliding a try (sail-planing rather than hang-gliding).

 

Much more fun and challenging

 

Regards, Leon

(Bronze C Gliding Certificate)

[Leon Roskilly]

Good Lord!

 

Look what I just found at the very bottom of this document.

 

http://www.harrishillsoaring.org/doc/Kai_O...irport_Ldgs.pdf

 

The Internet didn't even exist when I wrote that! (I think it was called Arapanet back then, and only accessed by a handful of academics)

[ahammond]

I did the course twelve years ago. Unfortunately about a hundred hours after getting my licence health, blood pressure and age mainly, plus the finances of putting the kids through university, put the mockers on keeping it up. But I still count it as one of, if not the greatest, achievements in an otherwise mundane life and given half the chance I will take it up again even if it does mean flying with a safety pilot. I only wish that I had done it twenty tears earlier.

 

Go for it. You will never ever regret it. I have seen the feeling after your first solo described as maybe not as good as the first time you have sex but definitely better than the second and I would not argue with that.

 

But to my mind even better were the solo cross country flights. To be able to take off from one place and find your way to another without the aid of road signs etc just purely by your own navigational and flying skill is a buzz not to be forgotten.

 

Incredible as it may sound when compared with learning to drive a car most of the forty hours minimum needed to get your licence is done solo.

[Leon Roskilly]

I have seen the feeling after your first solo described as maybe not as good as the first time you have sex but definitely better than the second and I would not argue with that.

 

I'd had hardly any cable brakes during my glider training, and on my first attempt at solo BANG! the cable broke at about 60ft. Nose down to land ahead, but of course the air-brakes were closed. Landed with too much speed, bounced, landed again, bounced but this time higher, hit the ground again, and bounced even higher. Six landings in all, for a single launch fee.

 

Then they made me go up again!

 

Certainly more exciting than sex!

 

 

 

But to my mind even better were the solo cross country flights. To be able to take off from one place and find your way to another without the aid of road signs etc just purely by your own navigational and flying skill is a buzz not to be forgotten.

 

My first cross-country was soaring from North Weald to a disused air-field just north of Canterbury.

 

The M11 was under construction and was dead easy to follow North, then it stopped :eek:

 

Pretty soon I was over country with no land marks, gained some height and just kept going North, eventually picking up Duxford airfield and picking my way from one landmark to another.

 

Turning onto finals, I'd forgotten how strong the wind was, and the glider came to a mid-air stop short of the airfield. :eek:

 

So nose down hard. Just about skipped over the hedge, and trundled to a stop, only to be greeted to the army occupying the airfield (it wasn't quite as disused as I'd been left to believe), who escorted me to the guardhouse where I had to wait with the squaddies who had been naughty, until my crew arrived to collect me and the glider!

 

What was better than sex, on the way there, was to join a heron, high up in a thermal, and have the bird adjust it's speed and rate of turn to keep me on the other side of the thermal as we circled around and around - just like glider pilots are trained to do!

 

That thermalling flight with a heron has to be one of the highlights of my life; along with the sight of a flock of seagulls seemingly flying backwards through a morning mist, backlit by a sunburst through the branches of winter trees; and a pas de deux with a cross country balloon as the evening sun turned the countryside below gold.

 

Funny how the sky had only ever been two dimensional before, something up there above you that you hardly look at, whereas it really is a dynamic and dramatic three-dimensional world above our heads, with so much interesting stuff going on, once you begin to understand it.

 

Much like the difference between how a river is seen by a non-angler. Just a strip of water. And how it is seen by a river-angler, itching to trot a float though glides only seen by eyes that know.

 

Go for it

Edited August 8, 2007 by Leon Roskilly

[seph]

Leon,

 

just had a look at some sites in America and it does look a lot cheaper to do out there. I have some family in Arizona, so might be worth me looking around there. It does look like I will have to put more hours in than I would over here though, so a month might be needed to complete over there.

Where would I stand if I did it in America with that licence? Surely I would still have to do something over here.

 

ahammond,

 

where did you train for yours and what was the cost of it when you did it?

 

The cheapest I have seen over here is around the £6000 mark compared to America where I can do it for around $4000.

 

I also see that over here now there are 2 types of licence, one of which allows you to fly in Europe and the other that only allows you to fly here.

[ahammond]

I did my training with the Newcastle Aero Club which is now sadly defunct as such. At the time it cost £70 an hour for dual instruction and £55 for solo hire of the aircraft. A bit of this could be offset as the aircraft the club used were four seater Piper Cherokees and there was always a couple of lads willing to chip in a pound or two for a joy ride. Once I had got my full licence I was never short of workmates willing to help with the cost. Provided that I paid an equal share it was perfectly legal.

 

The club also provided night classes for the written exams, six of them, and the facilities to sit the exams.

 

The last that I heard though Newcastle airport authority have started charging £15 for each take off or landing with a private aircraft. Realistically this puts training there out of the question as during an hours circuits ten stop and goes would work out at £300. Although I do still see the old club aircraft knocking about from time to time.

[Leon Roskilly]

Where would I stand if I did it in America with that licence? Surely I would still have to do something over here.

 

Sorry, I can't help with that question Seph.

 

I never had a powered aircraft licence (though I did get to fly some motor-gliders under instruction when doing navigation and emergency landing in field exercises etc), but when I was flying gliders there were guys who were heading off to the States to learn powered flight because it was so much cheaper than here.

 

One word of warning though.

 

It's all very well being able to put the hours in to qualify in a benign flying environment during an intensive course, but generally you won't be as proficient/experienced as someone who has put in the hours flying weekends in the UK, and experienced the full range of weather conditions that get chucked at you here.

 

Wind shear, cross-winds, ice, fog etc can all make for hairy take-off and landings (all part of the fun of UK flying), and conditions can change so rapidly.

 

 

Not sure if it still happens these days, but there were always 'airfield bums' around, guys and girls with a passion for aircraft and flying, but little money, earning flying time by swinging props, fetching fuel, taxiing aircraft, providing human ballast etc.

 

The trouble is that flying gets under your skin more than fishing.

 

The only cure is a wife and kids and a mortgage.

Edited August 9, 2007 by Leon Roskilly

[RobStubbs]

I know someone who is currently doing his private pilots licence. It seems great but pretty expensive. Plus as you know you need x-hours a year to keep the licence valid and that would seem to be a big factor. The guy I know is going to join a syndicate ownership scheme once he's qualified but that's obviously only viable if you've got the money for it. Oh and don't forget all the theory tests you have to pass, once again I don't know the details but there did seem to be quite a lot to it.

 

Rob.

[Vagabond]

The trouble is that flying gets under your skin more than fishing.

 

The only cure is a wife and kids and a mortgage.

 

That I can understand, and another constraint is the fact that you have only one lifetime, and so many things you want to do.

 

Many years ago, I had to make a couple of choices, as I only had time for two major interests.

 

1/ Go for a pilot's licence OR qualify as a steam engine driver

 

2/ Concentrate on shooting OR concentrate on fishing.

 

In both cases I chose the second option - with no regrets. Interestingly, No 2 son is now into hang-gliding and No 3 son into shooting.

 

So go for it Seph - as No 2 Daughter once said "Life is not a rehearsal"