NPPL (M) to NPPL SSEA conversion training required

[chrisp666]

Hi, just wondering if anyone has a recommendation for training to get me through NPPL (M) to NPPL (SSEA). I live in West Sussex and would be very happy to work with an individual or a school. Thanks for your time...Chris
PS, I don't currently have an aircraft to do the training in.

[Genghis the Engineer]

My suggestion would be that you don't limit yourself to the local area - in the long run it would be much cheaper to do it intensively - if you have a reasonable number of 3-axis hours, you can almost certainly crack this in 3-4 days, so can afford to travel and stop over (always good to have nothing else on your mind at the time). Plus West Sussex is a fairly expensive area to fly, so you may also save money by heading significantly North or West.

The best is probably a school where they understand both microlights and "group A" so you should have an instructor who understands your background. I'm not sure who is teaching on both at the moment - but a bit of googling should give you a few possibilities.

G

[patowalker]

Call Derek Davidson on 07831 517428. He operates out of Bournemouth, with circuit training at Old Sarum. Dozens of microlight pilots have been converted to SSEA on his 3 day course. Good fun.

[IanPZ]

There is a a chap who advertises in the back of pilot and flyer magazines every month to do exactly this, as well as rt courses. I have no idea what he is like, but he is based in bournemouth I think.

Not sure that I am meant to give details on the thread, but if you pm me, I will send you his contact details. If it is okay to mention who he is, can one of the mods tell me, and then you can get some feedback from the experienced flyers here as to what he is like.

Ta. IPZ

[IanPZ]

Ah, 2 posts at exactly the same time. That's the fellow i was talking about :-)

[chrisp666]

Yes, I have tried and tried to get in touch with him, but he never calls back, so I'm thinking he can't be that keen to do it any more - maybe I'm wrong.
Good tip about trying outside W. Sussex, it certainly isn't cheap around here - any suggestions, chaps?

Thanks for reading.

[BEagle]

Dozens of microlight pilots have been converted to SSEA on his 3 day course. Good fun.

That's very interesting! Years ago when we were first setting up the NPPL system, the BMAA said that very few, if any, Microlight pilots would be interested in converting to SSEA aircraft.

A small amendment to the NPPL cross-credit document will be out in a couple of days time - this clarifies the required validity period for existing Class Ratings for pilots undergoing conversion training; the requirement was rather vague in the previous version.

[IanPZ]

BEagle, As per my other thread, I think this is something that interests a lot of people now. I am not that different from a fair few who are learning to fly microlights at our school. We thought about microlights and light aircraft, and decided that the modern 3axis microlight was more fun to learn in than a cessna. Also, a lot cheaper to learn, and to fly afterwards.

However, a few of us are still interested in light aircraft as a route forwards perhaps one day, and particularly as a fair number of the 3axis microlights seem to also be LSA in the US.

I think there are a few of us who are hoping that learning in a microlight ends up allowing us to qualify, via NPPL(M)->NPPL(SSEA)->LAPL some time in the next few years, all so that we can just carry that slightly bigger overnight bag :-)

Certainly I chose microlights cos they fulfilled everything I wanted today, and there was a route forwards in the future if I wanted one.

As you said in the other thread, just gotta hope that at some point a route from NPPL(SSEA) to LAPL appears, but I think thats a way off yet!