Hi Guys,
Sorry for the delay, it seems I didn't get the email when you replied!
At the moment, since my instructor is part-time at the airfield I 'fly' two days a week - which at this time of year becomes one a month due to weather etc! My plan would be really to try and fly in an ideal world once a week. But when work, weather etc comes into it I think once a month would be more realistic.
Once a week is a decent plan and to reach such a goal you have to set up the right arrangement for plane.
I think it would be nice to mix it up a bit with the flying - mainly it would be do to some fun things like day trips away or maybe brave a cross-channel etc. I also have a relative in Glasgow which may be a fun trip.....though quite long in a PA28?!
Reading (?), say Brimpton to Glasgow would be something like a 3 hours flight in a PA28/C172, so a bit more then the typical coffee flying distance, but still a reasonable flight for frequent travel.
I do a fair amount of meetings in places such as Essex, Kent etc which are a pain to drive to - so certainly would consider the possibility of flying......if the technicalities of doing that allow me not to need to extent my PPL to a CPL?
You have to think of the trade ins and outs. Flying is often more relaxed then driving, but with preparation, weather and local shuttle you won't save time - my experience. But where comes CPL in play? All this you do with PPL.
Perhaps I am looking at it the wrong way - but to me, if I had a share I could in theory pop over the channel on a Friday evening and come back on a Sunday afternoon despite as little as 4hrs flying?
Depends on the contract conditions.
Where as I can imagine an Airfield will want to be seeing revenue, and not have the plane parked up on a Saturday while I'm sat in the swimming pool? Likewise with business meetings - if it takes all day to have a meeting but it's 1hr each way, the Airfield won't be too happy about their plane gone for the day and only getting 2hrs of flight time?
Typically you have a price structure as - x GBP per month fee plus y GBP per hours flying plus z GBP per days off field. The share organizations I know of handle it flexible - so ask everybody wether the plane is needed at home for the next say 4 days yes/no and if nobody plans to do a trip, go.
One attraction to me of sharing flights (either hiring or buying shares) is to see how someone more experiences flies in control and be able to watch how they deal with the unexpected etc!
This feeling will fade away ;-). You do this once in a while, but usually flying skills are very personal.
Is the consensus generally that it it's better to take club aircraft once you've just passed and look at shares or when you have enough hours not to raise eyebrows at the insurers? What kind of hours does one need to have under their belt to keep the insurance reasonable?
This depends on the insurance contract and coverage. When I came to my own plane by surprise I just took a basic liability and they did not want to see any hours. With extended coverage the requirements for hours rise.
You're welcome! I guess most of us have been where you are now. What will help finding
your way is talk talk talk to the people around you and travel to Fly-In's quite soon to get more in touch with the world of private flying ;-). Things like Duxford Flying Legends or similar for three days will get you a lot of pilot contacts.