First flight-
Go aloft by yourself, on a fair weather day, fly in an area you are very familiar with and enjoy the freedom you have worked to achieve.
Hello BingofFuel,
Thank You.
I was thinking of planning a flight down to Shoreham from VOR to VOR and combine this with a day out by the Coast. I trained out of Stapleford Flight Centre so am accustomed to Navigation around Kent and if we go North then Cambridge/Clacton etc.
It is an amazing feeling experiencing the freedom..
Not sure how long I can hang around in Shoreham with the School plane and may need to arrange a separate contract hire.
What do you suggest about a Night Rating? Leave that till later...?
First of all: congratulations with your PPL!
That said: take it for what it is worth. It is a license to learn, and nothing more. It is a formal declaration that you have learned enough to be allowed into public airspace without necessarily making yourself an unacceptable danger. Your real learning can indeed only begin now.
Do begin your real learning, and enjoy it! Your first step should be to consolidate existing learning. Do again all the exercises you did with your instructor(s) and do them again and again, in various weather, with various amounts and directions of daylight. And do not forget to enjoy all that!
From there on, you can begin to expand your horizons. That will come naturally enough, but probably slower than you now imagine.
Jan - Excellent advice. I have learned so much from the initial training and sometimes the repeated colourful words from the instructor a couple of times have detracted from the enjoyment factor - necessarily obviously to get you to the standard for test!
So you can never do enough learning and consolidation in my opinion - You never know when you may need to use what you learned in Exercise 16!
I plan to consolidate all my notes and practical skills again and again, x-wind landings, flight minima etc - but obvuiously knowing my own limitations and my own threats also.
Any thoughts on where to go or the "must visit" list?
Congrats on your PPL!
My suggestion would be: do whatever you feel more comfortable with.
That could be: fly alone, take your partner/family for an scenic flight...anything that can be special.
If I remember correctly, my first flight after getting my PPL was a small cross country flight with another recent PPL.
Since that I have done loads of cross country, scenic flights for friends/family etc.
Now that you have your licence, you can keep learning and getting yourself challenged (within reasonable limits!)
The key thing: enjoy and keep flying
Thank You Manuaros.
I will certainly keep learning and enjoying.
Take it slow and steady and build up the knowlege and the key words are certainly: Fulfilment, Enjoyment and Safety.
Fair Weather days in the UK sadly at this time of the year are far and few between compared to Spain or other climates.