Intensive Ground School Courses

[Anuj428]

Hello,

Just joined up to this Forum!

I'm currently working on getting my PPL and have just completed my 2nd NAV just moving onto Diversions.

I was wondering whether anyone has any opinions on Intensive GS courses.

Ive come across The Great Circle who offer this in a 5 day course near Heathrow, has anyone used them before?

I have to pay in advance (i dont mind that bit) but are they heard of by anyone?

Can someone recommend another school near London for intensive GS courses?

Thanks!

[Helicopterdriverguy]

I wouldn't pay up front, like most recommend here. On the matter of the school, I highly recommended Fly Elstree.

[A and C]

First thing to learn

The first thing you need to know about flying is never pay up front !

After that things get easy until you have to deal with airport security.

[Heady1977]

I was wondering whether anyone has any opinions on Intensive GS courses.

Ive come across The Great Circle who offer this in a 5 day course near Heathrow, has anyone used them before?

Been discussed a few times before...
https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl...te:+pprune.org

Although, not a post of mine - it explains my own experience closely enough.
http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...ml#post8488988

[PPLvirgin]

Hi,

I did a 5 day intensive course by Derek Davidson, he operates out of a golf course right next to Bournemouth international Airport. buy a copy of "PILOT" magazine and he is in pink advertisements in the back pages, you cant miss him.

I think the whole week cost me about £750 and all exams passed including RT.

Instruction was welcoming, friendly and 1-1 tuition. This suited me greatly as long distance book reading/training is something i don't do well.

It worked for me, i got my exams out the way after my medical and then all i needed to focus on was my practical flying - this helped me greatly and also massively helped to reduce my costs by being able to complete my PPL skills test after 48hrs! most ppl say it takes 55-60, i'm not sure why.

regards

Tris

[Mach Jump]

...most ppl say it takes 55-60, i'm not sure why.

It's because that's what it takes most people on average.


MJ

[ChickenHouse]

...most ppl say it takes 55-60, i'm not sure why.
It's because that's what it takes most people on average.

Best guess: mainly a matter of age. Our experience is that students at an age of 16-19 are likely to finish within the minimum hours. Typical students are 35-45+ and it takes a bit longer, usually 50-65h. Some story behind is distraction due to many other things going on in a life of a 35-45 ... younger tend to focus more and they are trained to learn from school still.

[xrayalpha]

How does intensive ground school - over a 5 day period - work with the new 100hr study rule?

[Steevo25]

I also wondered how a 5 day intensive course would work with the 100 hour rule. Even if you did 24 hours per day over those 5 days, that would only total 120 hours and you are never going to do 5 complete 24 hour days.


On the subject of why it takes 50-65 hours to complete a PPL, you also have to take weather in to consideration. My PPL took 58 hours (I am in the 45-50 year old category). I added a few hours because when I turned up I couldn't do what I was supposed to do due to weather. Rather than not fly at all, I usually did circuits or something local to keep in trim. I could have easily knocked 5-10 hours off that figure if I had of had perfect weather for every lesson booked.

[Heston]

5 days equals 120 hours = 4 hours sleep each night and continuous study all the time awake. No problem, obviously. What are you worried about? )

[LAI]

Steevo,

The "100 hour rule", at least in the UK, has been circumvented since the CAA filed an Alternative Means of Compliance with EASA removing the requirement

[ChickenHouse]

A good fellow finished his PPL in minimum hours, but later he took some more instructors lessons, because during his rush-rush flying he had almost only one weather condition and when he came upon strong crosswind, he was ups'ed and went back for more training. I also did 60 hours, but mainly because I did not want to get a license, but wanted to learn to fly. So I took a lot of lessons where my fellow student colleagues cancelled their flight due to weather. I did not progress as much as in the other training lessons during that time, but enjoyed having nasty weather experience with a FI next to me.

[PPLvirgin]

All of the above are useful comments as always guys. I feel the difference between passing in minimum hours to more has many variations, for me, i don't learn massively easy unless I apply myself.

I did this with many things going on including a very young family(no not a midlife crisis lol) but this has been a passion for a long time, I love a challenge and don't do failure.

funnily enough most of my landings apart from solo day(straight down the socket) was in a light to moderate crosswind - this was perfect because it allowed me to learn on trickier than normal landings so most flyable weather shouldn't catch me out.

the biggest thing for me is meticulous planning and awareness, without this your bound to come a cropper at some point.

Finally, whilst having passed i am seriously aware that I actually know very little and anything out of the norm would be quite scary... its now important to embrace all my time up there and the feeling of solo in your own plane is sensational!

regards

Tris