Low Hours Pilots and the Private Flying Forum

[Whirlybird]

I was just looking at the poll on how many hours we all fly in a year, and it made me realise how untypical we are. Only 5% fly less than 10 hours a year, and a LOT fly over 100 hours per year. I don't know the figures, but I suspect that if you took private pilots as a whole, those figures would be approximately reversed.

What does this mean? Well, we get some good discussions from experienced flyers, which is great. You can get loads of advice on here, also fantastic. But...

I heard recently of a PPL student who'd given up, feeling she would never ever have the ability or confidence to fly round the country alone. If you read this forum, you get the impression that's what PPLs do - and of course, some do. But many fly occasionally, only in their local area, simply enjoying being in the air; either because they can't afford to do more or really don't want to. A chap at Sleap used to do half an hour every week or fortnight or so, and that was it. And there's nothing wrong with that.

So I just wanted to say to anyone else who reads this forum and thinks; "I'll never be able to do all that"....you can, if you want to. But you don't HAVE to; it's not compulsory. Having a PPL and boring holes in the sky now and then is fine!!!! Lots of people do it. Of course, you need to bear in mind your limitations, inexperience, and lack of practice when you do so; if in doubt, take an instructor or more experienced pilot with you. But a quiet aerial bimble in good weather and/or a few circuits should be fine.

Just don't give up because you feel like flying has to be all or nothing; it doesn't!!!!

[DubTrub]

Bear in mind, WB, that Pprune is a site aimed largely at the professional end of the market...and that "Private Flying" is for those professionals who have an interest in GA.

If you were to look at the spectrum on other aviation boards, I am sure you would be correct with your inversion of hours.

[Penguina]

I think this forum has evolved a specific clientele of its own though, who aren't necessarily professional.

Thanks for posting that Whirly, as I have been wondering simply if it's SAFE for me to even try to fly on my income lately. I was going to start a thread on whether it is responsible to fly unless you're reasonably well-heeled (which goes against the ethos of this forum and the attitude of most of GA, who want more people to discover the joys and shed the prejudice).

However, we're leaving the office early as it's Christmas, so that will have to wait for another time! :)

[Tall_guy_in_a_152]

But Penguina, the only justifiction for my flying expenses is "if Penguina can afford it, then surely I can!":)

Whirly, this Forum had the opposite effect on me to what you suggest. Eighteen months ago I was on the verge of giving up flying, six years after getting my PPL. My medical and type rating had both expired and I could not see much point in renewing. Then I stumbled on PPRuNe. After lurking in the background of the Private Flying forum for a while it became apparent that there was still a lot more fun to be had and I hadn't even scraped the surface of the possibilities.

At the first sign of good weather in Spring I sorted the medical, spent a few hours airborne with an instructor, renewed the SEP rating (by Skill Test) and haven't looked back since. 2003 has been a consolidation year, visiting new airfields and venturing into more challenging airspace (e.g. the Luton / Stansted corridoor), which turned out to be not challenging at all :ok: It's all about confidence and I give PPRuNe the credit for that.

The challenge now is to stay current right through the winter, which will be a 1st for me.

Merry Christmas to all,
TG.

[Flyin'Dutch']

Hi Whirly,

First and foremost a merry Xmas to all on here!

I think that the poll is not necessary a good reflection of the GA community as a whole and likely neither of the experience levels of people on here either.

Like you I was surprised by the amount of hours that people seem to do. At the moment it is showing that 72% of people is doing more than 30 hours per annum.

On the whole I think that the forums are supportive of people whether they are just starting out or have a bit more experience. There are the usual comments about using a search when some subjects come along for the umpteenth time but apart from that it is mostly benign what is written.

However anything which can encourage people to fly more and feel more part of 'the club' has to be encouraged. On the Flyer BB a few folks managed to organise 2 or 3 fly outs in short succession which attracted a lot of interest from students and low hours pilots.

They have a seperate forum for students. Would that be a solution.

FD

[MLS-12D]

Good post, Whirlybird. :ok:

Indeed there is nothing wrong with limited local flying. Personally I aspire to more, but time and money are often deterrents, and any flying is better than no flying.

DubTrub, notwithstanding the rather partonizing subtitle of this forum (viz., "Many private pilots have an interest in commercial aviation and how they interact with it. This forum is for those pilots"), I suspect that the majority of contributors are not professional pilots who happen to enjoy recreational flying (not that there's anything wrong with that ... quite the contrary). From what I have gathered from the various posts, many people are just enthusiastic recreational flyers. I for one fit that description, anyway.

[IO540]

I still think a better place for these forums is in Usenet e.g. uk.rec.aviation. MUCH faster to read the messages and post replies. Pprune is running on a slow server which often crashes and anyway any www-based discussion board is going to be slow because of the masses of data which has to pass each way. The only drawback is that usenet cannot be moderated - but is that really a big deal?

[MLS-12D]

Something to keep in mind when thinking about the poll results is that a lot of pilots over-report their experience (see generally the chapter "Logging Flight Time" in Kershner's book Logging Flight Time and Other Aviation Truths, Near Truths and More Than a Few Rumors That Could Never Be Traced to Their Sources (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0813810876/qid=1072216674//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl14/103-2466726-7037459?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)). It's human nature to do so, just like most people will over-report their annual income if asked.

[Gertrude the Wombat]

I've flown just under 40 hours in 2003, and have filled in the poll accordingly. However that's cheating, as it includes (a) retraining after several years of not flying, and (b) some floatplane training, neither of which I expect to do every year.

In future years I hope to be able to afford to more or less remain current by the definition of the people I rent planes from, ie an hour or so every three weeks or so, so 15 to 20 hours per year.

Provided that the government doesn't actually succeed in closing my business down that is - having failed with IR35 and various other approaches, they've invented a new trick, IR591, which will take effect from next year's budget; but they won't tell us what it is yet so we can't plan for it.

[mad_jock]

why should your average commercial pilot be any better at flying GA around the country than the peeps in the private flying forum?

Maybe your Air taxi types would have more of a clue.

But your average multi crew type bloke the thought of operating without at least a radar info would make the sweat break out.

Its completely different type of flying, not comparable in the slightest. I am sure the pro's learn just as much about flying VFR around the country from this forum than the PPL's do. Linked with the advice from ATC forum is better han most air safety pams the CAA puts out.

MJ

[Gertrude the Wombat]

I still think a better place for these forums is in Usenet e.g. uk.rec.aviation. MUCH faster to read the messages and post replies. Pprune is running on a slow server which often crashes and anyway any www-based discussion board is going to be slow because of the masses of data which has to pass each way. The only drawback is that usenet cannot be moderated - but is that really a big deal? Firstly, you can have moderated newsgroups, but the form of moderation is that only the moderator can post to the group, anyone else effectively submits posts via the moderator, and of course the moderator can't edit or delete things once they've been posted if the newsgroup is propogated to more than one dedicated server. On a dedicated server you can have whatever moderation you like, as you are simply providing a different window onto the same database; you can also turn on user authentication, so you'll know who's posting (not the case on usenet as a whole).

PPRuNe could easily enough offer an NNTP interface to the forums on a dedicated server, which should solve the moderation problem, but you then get two other problems:

(1) A site which is supported by advertising and which uses an NNTP interface has no option but to include advertising in every post. This is usually somewhat messy and unpleasant.

(2) Yer average web-and-email punter does not use Usenet (other than via Google Groups, which is hardly a better interface for this sort of thing than the PPRuNe forums) and would simply never bother to find out how to set up an account pointed at a dedicated server. (Hands up anyone who hasn't followed all the detail so far? - see!!) I'm serious - I've been involved with several organisations where the "obvious" answer as to how to communicate would be a couple of newsgroups on a private server, and on each occasion we've had to do something else because the non-techie people just weren't interested in finding out what a "newsgroup" was or how to set it up or how to interact with it, all they could be bothered with was web or email.

In any case, news:uk.rec.aviation exists, and I read it most days, and I even contribute occasionally, but it's not where the action is - that's here.

[DOC.400]

"The challenge now is to stay current right through the winter, which will be a 1st for me."

So, Tall Guy -we'll see you at North Weald on the fourth of January then!!

;)

Just how many PPL's and students has Pprune rescued over the years when they have started a thread about quitting flying? I've lost count!! Remember, from little acorns do big oak trees grow....

DOC

[Final 3 Greens]

Dubtrub

Bear in mind, WB, that Pprune is a site aimed largely at the professional end of the market...and that "Private Flying" is for those professionals who have an interest in GA.

Not true sir, the definition is
Many private pilots have an interest in commercial aviation and how they interact with it. This forum is for those pilots.

So anyone PPL is welcome and I think that Whirly has made a good point with this thread.

So whether PPL/IR with 000s of hours or a local area potterer, all are welcome :D