How many hours are required nowadays for a PPL to remain current?
Legally, 12hrs every 2 years, with the 12 having to be done during the 2nd of the two years (don't ask me why; allegedly it was the Germans who wanted that).
But if you don't do the 12hrs, you just have to fly with an
Examiner to renew the PPL.
Is an annual check ride required ?or is it every 2 years?
There is a re-val flight every 2 years. In practice nobody fails (so long as the instructor survives the flight).
How many hours do PPL's actually do above and beyond the bare minimum?
I don't think anybody knows but the UK PPL average is thought to be 20-30hrs/year. There is a fair size SD around that figure though; a lot of people fly very little. And some fly 150+hrs/year.
With the cost of fuel where it is, only the wealthy will be able to keep it up.
Depends on how you define "wealthy". I spend a lot less on flying than I used to pay for 2 kids' education. I spend a lot less on flying than I pay in child maintenance... (the ex pays my older son £100/month salary to encourage him to stay at college
).
The thing that worries me most about spam cans, Tobagos and the odd BRS Cirrus is that the man (are any at all owned by women, I wonder?)
Yes, some are.
>who has earned enough money to buy one probably doesn't have enough time to stay current or to enjoy it.
Depends on how much you earn and how close you have to come to killing yourself to earn it. It's relatively easy to become a millionaire if you kill yourself. I could earn 5x more by killing myself (seriously).
One of the tricks of GA (and probably most other activities) is to be able to do it at a level which brings enjoyment, while being able to
easily afford it.
What I think separates GA from most other human activities (at least those I know about) is that in GA there are many more people who really struggle to do it, despite quite obviously not being able to afford it. Flying does deliver a great return (as we all know) but it sure isn't cheap, and this seems to be why so many struggle so hard.
>And if you think you can use a SELP for your business travel, sooner or later you will discover the shortcomings.
That's true. It can be done, in the right circumstances. Being based at an airport whose opening hours are those of an airport rather than those of a Brighton hairdresser, with an ILS, and having business contacts at similar locations, is a great start
No, seriously, we find in the gliding world that men (usually men, alas) don't find the time or the money to take up the sport in a serious cross country glider until they are approaching an age when the learning curve has about flattened out completely; yet being ex captains of industry, it is not easy sometimes to make these latecomers sensible of their limitations.....
I have never done gliding, but isn't it true that gliding is an "all or nothing" activity, where you have to hang out at the club all weekend, or you get accused of being a freeloader? And people divorce there, marry there, find their partners there. Gliding is not an activity where you can just dip in or out. That is great for many but is not useful to many others - especially those with enough money to fly distances in powered GA.
It's a bit like windsurfing; something I was doing 1985-2011. I gave it up because the hassle (loading up the trailer, etc) outweighed the fun, and I never got good enough to really enjoy it (=carve gybes). In that, you get the all-weekend--on-the-beach people, and the quick-sail-then-vanish people. Gliding is the former; powered GA is more the latter. But that's a pity because powered GA would benefit hugely from a "community" and a social scene... but that's another well worn debate