Originally Posted by
chipsto
It's been a while since the last time I properly looked into pursuing a private licence, and things seem to have become quite a lot more confusing. So I was looking for a little help.
It's probably best if I describe the type of flying I want to do, then perhaps some of you could make some suggestions as to which licences I should be looking at?
My end goal at the moment is to own a small 2 seater capable of having floats fitted.
The number of aircraft you can do that to easily is small - on the whole however I'd go with microlights, because almost certainly the BMAA will be the most user-friendly organisation to get a mod like that through.
DO NOT underestimate the very considerable cost and complexity of getting a floatplane mod approved through any organisation however.
It could be a 3 axis microlight or a similar plane that is not classed as a microlight.
This is a theoretical possibility for many 3-axis microlights, and many light aeroplanes. Unless you can trace an existing approved mod, stick to Permit-to-Fly aeroplanes, as either BMAA or LAA will be several times easier to get these mods through than EASA.
It would also be useful to be able to fly a 4 seater when the need arose.
Easiest to have a light aircraft licence + microlight differences then.
I'm not sure I need to be able to fly in other countries, I just really want to fly in the highlands of Scotland.
NPPL is cheapest to get in theory, and is fine within the UK. If not, starting from scratch, you may as well just go for a full EASA PPL, which you can add more ratings onto and in reality - the hours to learn to fly are the hours to learn to fly, the class of licence is pretty much irrelevant.
I'd rather not have to maintain a full PPL, so I'm assuming an NPPL or LAPL are the licences I should be looking into? Can they both have a float rating added?
There's no significant difference in the cost of maintaining an EASA PPL, NPPL or LAPL. If you are going with single engine light aircraft, they'll all cost about the same to obtain as well.
The cost of getting an NPPL(M) will be cheaper.
G