Airpolice wrote
As for the point about leaving the local area, this has to be a club rule or just something that came to instructor in a dream. Time to look at another school it seems.
No, I don't think he dreamed it, but may have come to a similar conclusion to GusHoneybun who wrote in pprune on 4 April 2005
1) First solo. If your first solo is on a HGV medical (i.e. NPPL medical) then you are then limited to completing the training as an NPPL. However, if you hold a class two medical then the point at which your decision is made is....
2) First solo Nav. There is a navigation skills test that you need to pass before you can go on solo nav's as a NPPL. If you sit this test before you first solo nav, then you can only complete your training under the NPPL system.
If you have held a class 2 medical since you first went solo, and you haven't sat a Nav skills test, then as far as I can see you can complete your training under the JAR PPL system, with all of your training counting towards the 45 hours required.
To which BEagle responded
No, the NST is taken before the NPPL Q X-C, not before 'any' NPPL solo navigation.
I think my instructor believes that a local bimble outside of the circuit counts as "solo navigation" as per GH's point 2 above and I need an NST before I can do it. But if my class2 had still been current then I wouldn't.
My own first solo was done under an NPPL "HGV" ticket, but I don't think this commits me to being an NPPL forever, which is what GH said in his first point.
I guess what I really want to know is if I now do all the exams and airborne tests as if I was going for a PPL, then how critical is the timing of my Class2 medical if I want to continue down the PPL route? Do I have to get it right now, or can it wait until one or more of the formal air work tests/assessments have been done?