on the subject of medicals...
I am over 50, and learning to fly for fun rather than as a stepping stone to a career in aviation.
I have done my first solo and the solo circuit consolidation work, and am now doing navigation exercises.
I turned up for my lesson yesterday, with the expectation that my instructor would send me out solo for the first time into the big wide world outside the circuit - just a short trip around the periphery of a nearby big town, so little chance of getting lost! We had spoken about it on the previous lesson.
However on checking my paperwork he said that he had not realised that I had an NPPL medical certificate - the one you get from your GP.
He went on to say that with only that certificate and the implication that I was doing an NPPL rather than a PPL, he was not allowed to send me solo outside the circuit unless I had a nav checkout ( I think he said) with a qualified examiner first.
The upshot is that if I want to do this first solo navex, I have either got to get myself a class 2 medical certificate (£100 - £150), or fork out for an extra flight beforehand ( er, £100 - £150) so the cost is about the same.
I have a couple of questions. First is my instructor right? Second, I used to have a class 2 medical but it lapsed a couple of years ago. Will a new one count as a renewal, or will I start again from scratch? I don't anticipate any problems in passing the medical, so that is not an issue.
In my own particular case, my inclination is to go for the PPL, and then if after getting my licence I find I am not making full use of its privileges and don't want to pay for class 2 renewal every year, I could always "downgrade" myself and just fly within NPPL limits as Gertrude said yesterday, and go back to getting sign-offs from my GP at £25 every 5 years.
TOW.