Newbie taking the plunge!

[davew1]

Hi All,

I have finally decided to take the plunge and attempt to achieve a lifelong ambition of learning to fly! I haven't yet registered anywhere yet but the closest school to me is Tayside Aviation. I have been down to see them and the facilities which all look first rate, along with a nice bunch of people.

If anyone out there has any advice on what the best way forward would be, i.e. do you pay as you fly or pay for the whole course up front? Are starter kits a good idea, books and accessories?

I would really like to complete the course in the 45hrs, but realise that might not be possible. How often should you be flying to keep up and progress at a reasonable speed?


Cheers

[adambsmith]

I am 35 hours + in to my PPL.

Do not pay up front - if the school goes bust then you'll lose your money. Only ever pay for things you receive e.g. straight after your flight.

The syallabus is pretty much standard but things are changing from 1 Sep re exams etc. Your instructor will let you know exactly what you need. For example, you probably won't need nav kit for a while - so my CRP1 computer, protractor, charts and ruler have only recently come out to play even though I bought them back in September. Likewise re the books - just buy the ones you need when you need them otherwise they gather dust for a while.

Get your medical in and (based on current exam rules) get Aviation law passed asap (this exam is changing from 1 Sep so take advice). You'll need them to go solo (my club requires law to be passed before going solo).

I bought my own headset early on - didn't like using older used sets from the club but that's just me.

A decent bag for your kit is useful too although I am just using a small rucksack.

Enjoy it - I love it and get very giddy on flying lesson days. Up at 6am on a Sunday for a 9:30am flight proves that!

I started doing a hour a week and am now on two hours per week for nav exercises. I reckon I will need late 50s/early 60s in hours before I get my licence.

[localflighteast]

Congratulations , welcme to the best feeling in the entire world.

my advice ( for what it is worth)

Spend time finding a good instructor, one that you get on with, one that you "click" with. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER.

better to spend some time now figuring out if you can work with this person that to have to figure out how to swap instructor when it isn't working out.

Remember you are literally trusting this person with your life ( as well as your cash and dreams!)

Read as much aviation stuff as you can, not just the text books for your course.

Remember that no one controls the weather and you will get stuck for lesson after lesson with cancellations due to sucky conditions!

There will be ups and downs ( pun intended) everyone has them , you WILL get through them.

I found keeping a diary/blog helped because I could read back to my earlier posts and keep myself motivated when it all seemed to be going wrong. I also invested in a gopro camera to film my flights ( rewind is so usefu!) but check with your instructor before filming anything!

Oh , yeah and remember to have fun as well !!!!:ok:

[MarkC89]

I did my PPL with Tayside Aviation and would highly recommend them.

As you say - good facilities and a nice bunch of people.

Dundee airport is also a good environment for learning to fly with full ATC, enough traffic and a good mix of weather to challenge you.

I was working fulltime throughout my PPL, but still managed to average about 2 hours a week which was fine for consistency of learning.

I did buy a PPL starter pack and got good use out of all the equipment. Your instructor would keep you right on the essentials though.

There's also an active flying club based at Tayside - so well worth getting involved with that, if you do become a student. Learning from other experienced pilots and meeting likeminded people is a great way to enhance your flying experience.

If you have any questions feel free to ask or drop me a PM!

Mark

[davew1]

cheers guys,

MarkC I may just take you up on that. I'm looking forward to getting started, but not so much to the theory!

Thanks for the comments folks

[cockney steve]

I concur with Localflighteast. ANY professional who'se services you hire,-Solicitor, Dentist, Estate agent plumber......etc. you must be entirely comfortable with....that's not to say you won't be in the situation "he's a great bloke, but he's rubbish at his job".....but it should be much easier to dissolve that sort of "partnership" than someone you're terrified of or in awe of.

Your cash, make sure you get value!

"kit" comes up regularly on fleabay, but as warned, rules are changing and a lot of the textbooks are going to change with the new syllabus.
No doubt Mad Jock will be along soon to tell you you just don't need a lot of this "special" piloty -stuff with it's ludicrously high price-tags.

IIRC he suggested a clipboard from Mr Cohen's emporiums at ~1.50 , does the same job as the pilot one ~a tenner...if you MUST strap it on to your knee, Velcro and Evostic are cheap enough!
a good stationer's will stock Chinagraph pencils etc.

The principles of flight and the mechanics and physics of flight are unlikely to alter in our lifetime ;) understanding of Human Performance and meteorology will, no doubt, and this will eventually percolate through to affect the exams.

good luck with your adventures!

[jwilliams85]

Don't pay up front and buy your own headset. Two key points. You'll fly better and learn more with a headset you are comfortable with. And no scrambling about looking for a club one before your lesson. It makes a big difference, and the instructor will thank you for it. I bought a passenger headset for £99 and it's wonderful.

I would encourage you to buy the books together if you can. There is overlap in some subjects and highly useful to have all the information at your fingertips. If speed is an issue, you'll be wanting to nail the exams as soon as possible, starting with Air Law.

[glencoeian]

I'm 25 hours in and only managing 2-4 hours a month so very jealous of the 2 hours a week brigade. I 'm loving it and did my first solo in May. I started at Perth with leading edge, I have changed scools and now fly with Border Air out of Oban, their instructor Graham Dawson is first class. I did manage to fly my plane down to Leeds and back earlier in the week though so got 6 hours flying and navigating as well as dodging thunderstorms done over two days - the highlight of my flying so far. I bought a starter pack and have had good use out of all the kit. I pay for lessons as I get them rather than up front. I found the airlaw book a dreadful read and instead found the Oxford DVD much easier to get through and it got me a pass - you can have it for a tenner :-)
Good luck and I'm sure you'll find PPrune info a great resource, I certainly have. Ian

[foxmoth]

I did mine in the days when you could do an approved course in 35 hours - I managed that no problem, but it was full time over about 5 weeks - would have been less but grounded by high pressure haze for a good bit of it, if you want to do it in the minimum you need to be doing it fairly intensively, I would say you want to be aiming for at least 2 hours a day and 2 days/week if you want to achieve this, even better if you can fit in more by taking holiday and doing a week or more in one hit.

[JDA2012]

Did my PPL full-time back in March, this may give some idea of what this involves:

http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/511455-28-day-20-flying-45h50m-ppl-completed-ant-blackpool.html

[dont overfil]

buy your own headset

Don't be too quick doing this. I think the Tayside Grobs have military connectors.

D.O.

[davew1]

Thanks for the comments guys, really looking forward to getting started

jwilliams85, I will get a headset of my own, I think the club sell them for around the 100 quid mark, so if they're confortable that'll save me shopping around. I'm sure they also do a pack of text books for the entire course which will also be a good purchase.

jwilliams85, congrats on the first solo! since my first post I've now registered for the course, hopefully get started beginning of Sept and really looking forward to it. How do you find your progressing with the 2-4 hours a month?

[RTN11]

Don't buy the headet!

Those £100 ones simply aren't worth it, they're really uncomfortable and part of the course will have you flying at least 3 hours in one day, a long time with a crappy headset.

I bought a David Clarke 10 years ago, still going strong, and as comfortable as ever after over 2000 hours of flying, and nicely in the middle price band. I don't see any reason to go all out buying a Bose or whatever, DC are very good.

As don't overfil said Tayside operate two different aircraft types which use completely different headsets, one will not be compatible with the other, so make sure you've chosen your aircraft before you choose your headset unless you're happy to buy two. Or just buy a standard two pin headset, and borrow the Tayside single pins when you fly them. The adapters just don't work.

[glencoeian]

2-4 hours a month is all I can budget for unfortunately, "nothing in aviation is cheap" I was told when visiting Cumbernauld asking about flying lessons.

I did my solo after 15 hours, I've done 25 hours now but 6 of them were from last weeks trip to Leeds and back which was fantastic in terms of learning. The plane needed its 50 hour maintenance so they agreed to me flying it down and back for the price of two lessons. Border Air is a very good school!!

I use a David Clark headset and it is indeed very comfortable and I like the wee logo for posing value!

I spend the time when I can't afford to fly reading the books and getting ready for another exam. I also fly Microsoft flight sim on the PC which is a good tool to run through checklists with and keeps the frustration of not flying for real at bay. Another book I recommend would be Pooley's PPL Question and answers with 4 past papers for each exam but also more crucially the answers come with explanations to why that response is the correct one, again without that and the air law DVD I would have struggled to pass as I found myself rereading the same page of the law book over and over again without taking anything in. My instructor told me studying airlaw was like eating sand which I thought very apt. The book was published 2012 so bang up to date but of course in September we change to different European exams so it will no longer be so up to date.

[dont overfil]

I bought cheap headsets to start with and binned them after a few months.
My David Clarks are now over 23 years old and have been faultless.

HM kindly let me try Lightspeed Zulus but I'll stick with my DCs. They'll last longer than me.

As for all the "useless stuff" you need for training, I still use my CRP1, ruler and protractor even though I fly a G1000 equipped aircraft now.

D.O.

[MarkC89]

I would echo the sentiments about getting your own headset early on - definitely one of the best investments you can make when starting your training. The last thing you want is an uncomfortable headset distracting you from the task at hand!

As mentioned above, most of the Grob aircraft at Tayside do use the single pin plug headsets - although 1 of them has standard twin plug sockets.

If you are doing your training in the PA28 Warrior - all of those use twin plug headsets.