Originally Posted by
jonkster
For all I am going to say below - I actually wouldn't worry that much about aircraft type - look more at the quality of the instructors and school. That is more important than the equipment used.
Thanks for your input and I do agree that quality of instruction is more important, but that's why I said
with all things being equal.... unforutnately, it's quite difficult to gauge instructor or school quality until a good number of hours and money has been invested whereas it's clearly easier to get feedback on type of aircraft used.
I was initially hoping to go to a more established school with a good track record of quality instructors but it looks more like I'll have to take PPL from a local school with a not-so-established record.
Thanks for the explanation regarding taildraggers! Looks like it'll be fun to fly one and can now understand the benefits of flying one but I don't think there is one local to me. I know of a gliding club that uses a taildragger for towing gliders and there was at least one taildragger for sale, maybe there might be one on syndicate, but all of this will happen post-PPL.
@Genghis - thanks for that explanation!
Originally Posted by
Whopity
The PA38 is designed to do the job but is not the nicest of aeroplanes to look at or sit in.
Hahaha!! This worried me too at first but I guess in the end it's the quality of skills I acquire from flying it that matters. I'll leave the looking cool part for later. It simply won't do to fly a cool aircraft and then display crappy flying skills.
Originally Posted by
tescoapp
The others have all the nastiness designed out of them.
You're saying that and I'm getting the feeling that getting the nastiness designed out of the aircraft is a bad thing? I guess it is for training? But not for actual flying when one already holds a PPL?
For reference, I'm 5'10" and about 95-100kg so a bit on the heavy side and I did find fitting into a C152 to be very cramped. If the instructor was as big as me, I think we'd definitely be rubbing shoulders.
Originally Posted by
foxmoth
Personally I think there are a lot better training aircraft than any of the Cessna/Piper aircraft, not flown the Tecnam so I cannot comment there but the Pa28 and Cessnas are designed to be "driven" from A to B with minimum interference from the "pilot", get something like a Tiger Moth, Chippie or, if you want to go nosewheel a Beagle Pup or Robin and you will get an aircraft that needx a bit more flying but is actually more fun, unfortunately any of these aircraft will cost a bit more to run which is why the Pipers and Cessnas win out!
Hey foxmoth! Where are you "oop north"? I think I've seen a Beagle Pup a few years ago but would love to fly a Super Cub sometime, but again, that'll probably be after PPL so.....
Anyway, nice to see that I was very wrong about my initial assessment of the Tomahawk. Makes me look forward to flying in it now.