6 months on...
I qualified at the 45 hour mark last December, then had a couple of weeks off flying over Christmas and New Year. A look in the logbook reveals, since then:
Jan: a currency checkout, and checkout from the Warrior to the plank-wing Cherokee 180, and a 1.40 solo cross country just navigating myself by DR from point to point all over East Anglia, largely as a confidence builder.
Feb: Only three flights, one was my first passenger, others general revision inc a good x-wind circuit session.
Mar & Apr: not much, just four local flights in various PA28s
May: Decided to embark on a serious improvement programme. Checked out on a shiny low-time Archer III at Fowlmere (lovely airfield, lovely aircraft for hire at Modern Air). A nice cross-country trip from Fowlmere to Wycombe, Goodwood and back, in company with another recently qualified PPL.
June: Tailwheel conversion at Sywell, and some solo Cub flying including first landing at Old Warden. Check out on the Robin HR200. Started an AOPA aerobatics course in the Pitts S2a at Sywell - so far, so good!
Now up to 75 hours of which 41 are P1, and having a whale of a time.
I've learned that when you're on the PPL course you're so focused that getting the licence can lead to a sense of limbo. "So what am I supposed to do now?" Bimbling around aimlessly is not especially motivating, but there's lots you can do. In my case I'm keen to get into aerobatics and lwanted access to tailwheel types, and I also deliberately went out to fly a wide variety of types. When the time comes to buy into some form of aircraft ownership, I feel I now have a better idea of what I do and don't like. I don't want to start a flame war on the merits of various types as a lot of it is undoubtedly down to purely personal factors, but some aircraft that are widely dismissed as boring are (for me) really rather good and lots of fun (e.g the Archer II) and vice versa. I expected to find the 90 hp Cub rather sluggish and to find the high wing a pain for visibility, but I have adapted and become very fond of it. Conversely I had expected to bond with a different type that seemed on paper just what I would enjoy, but found it unexpectedly unpleasant.
Last edited by Lowtimer; 28th Jun 2002 at 11:44.