Winter Flying: New PPL/What aircraft?

[alex90]

Hi Jjoe,

I think that enjoying new challenges is really key to enjoying light general aviation. Landing at big airports between jets, or doing farm strips are great fun to keep your RT / flying skills sharp.

Below is what i have done over the last couple of years, and have enjoyed every single minute of it - perhaps you can pickup one or two elements that I have done, and see if you think you'd like any of them!

When I passed, after a few hours of local flying, and going to a couple of aerodromes I hadn't been to before to get a feel for what it would be like to fly somewhere new without having someone who knew the aerodrome sitting in the RHS.

I started taking friends up for them to get a taste of what it was like to fly, did a lot of trips to the Isle of Wight for lunches, also quite a lot of cancellations / diversions due to weather, been to Lydd a few times for Sunday carvery which both friends and family really enjoyed. During this time i built up about 10 - 15 hours solo (it goes quite fast). Experienced new aerodromes, and airfields.

I quickly realised that I was becoming a little too comfortable with the flying and I too felt I would get bored very quickly, so I decided to get my cross Channel check, went to Le Touquet which at first was really fun, friends really loved it + by claiming fuel duty back it became quite a bit cheaper than flying to most other aerodromes in the UK.

I then had around 20 hours solo, decided to get my complex training (variable pitch & retractable gear) differences training done, which was great fun. After being used to cruising around 90 - 100kts, even my local area became really fun at 125 - 135kts in an Arrow III. More to think about, how to get the most speed for the least fuel consumption was good fun. The Arrow also had a Garmin430 which I didn't have during training, quite fun to learn how to program and use it, it also had an autopilot (which I didn't use much but taught me some basics that were useful later).

After doing just over 25 PIC hours of flying since passing my PPL, I was able to start training for the IR(r) which was definitely my next step. Being grounded due to clouds at 1000ft knowing that the cloud tops were at 2000ft and bright blue sunshine at my destination was incredibly frustrating. (although my CFI was being perhaps a little overcautious saying the that the IR(r) was only a get out of trouble rating, not something you should use... there has been enough debate on the forum to state the opposite (which I abide by)). Flying into clouds brought a fantastic challenge, using instruments effectively, accurately and rapidly was fantastic! I also did a couple of aerobatic lessons which I really enjoyed. Upset training was invaluable, and the barrel rolls / loops / stall turns / half cubans was so much fun! I couldn't recommend it highly enough. I wanted to get the rating but the cost was a little prohibitive unfortunately (Cambridge Aeroclub in an Extra 200 fantastically named G-GLOC).

After doing quite a bit of instrument flying, I decided to do my night rating, as that was definitely the next step for me. Great fun, although challenging at times to see the runway / find aerodromes with lights / willing to accept a plane. I only logged around 10 hours of night flying, so I cannot call myself anything other than novice in the area, but I found it enjoyable.

I then took a (rather long) holiday in NZ, where I had to do some training before they would let me hire a plane. I had to do a minimum of 5 hours, 2 of which had to be below 500ft, and two of which were valley training. I also did around 10 hours of proper mountain training (ie 10k' peaks all around + landing at Milford Sound...etc... incredibly fun). This was an incredible challenge. Although in the vicinity may not be easy to do, I know they have programs in France. This really sharpened my hand flying skills, being able to predict turbulence, rotors, updrafts, downdrafts, escape routes, map reading.

Hope this helps,
Alex