First Forays...

[Vee One...Rotate]

Hello PPLers!

I have my class II medical on the 14th of next month and will be starting the PPL as soon as possible after that.

I just wanted to hear any general advice before it all kicks off - nothing heavy, just a few points or pitfalls I should watch out for?

I've just graduated with a physics degree so, apart from the amount to be learned, I don't foresee any big hurdles in understanding the theory/effectively revising the material. I was more after general practical things?

I realise this is a very broad question...!

Cheers for any input,

A fairly excited V1R :ok:

[Pilgrim101]

Stay excited, You're paying for it so just enjoy it and soak up the experience for yourself - all us old farts out here who have done it will just bore you with our own experiences ! :}

The pitfalls in flying will find you - a bit like quantum mechanics and multi quantum well theory I would suggest ?

Have a great time and don't forget, it's only for fun !

[tacpot]

General advice:

Take the opportunity to fly whenever you can. The more you can fly the quicker, and more cheaply, you will complete the PPL.

Don't worry about your progress. Everybody has a problem with one bit of the syllabus or other.

Prepare mentally for each lesson, review what you did in the last lesson, and learn the checks that relate to the stage of flight being covered in the lesson.

Enjoy it!

Best Wishes

t

[Monocock]

1. Don't pay too much up front.

2. Don't bore the wife too much about what happens during the lessons.

3. Dont post a thread about landings, GPS, flying clothing or headsets...........

4. Do search before you post.

5. Don't be afraid to ask what different things are inside the a/c.

6. Do learn how to use the radio early on.

7. Don't believe a word anyone says about "getting their licence within 45 hours".

8. If you stop enjoying it at any point (and I guarantee you will) keep going as it is rewarding at the end.

9. Make sure you know about landing on grass strips by the time you have completed/qualified.

10. Do make sure you are shown at the very first proper lesson how to check oil and fuel levels etc.

Above all......enjoy it

[Pilgrim101]

V1

Of course, if I hadn't been demob pissed I'd have said exactly what monocock said ! :O

[Aussie Andy]

Monocock - well said... great list! Save it somewhere, or send it in to the mags to get published! Succinct indeed :ok:

Andy

[jezbowman]

Hey mate. I'm guessing from your location you'll be learning at either Leicester Aerodrome or perhaps EMA. Which one (or where) have you chosen?

[Charlie Zulu]

Hi V1 Vr,

There is one thing that I strongly believe in and would recommend during your course.

That would be to learn how to spin an aircraft and more importantly how to control the aircraft to bring it back to straight and level flight once you are in a spin.

Due to the current syllabus not requiring PPL students to even experience a fully developed spin, all too many pilots are now obtaining their PPL's without even ever had a spin demonstrated to them, thus many go on to fly for years and years with a spin phobia.

Although the only time you should end up in a spin is when you do one intentionally, many have ended up in a spin without knowing what to do to get out of one... thus prematurely shortening their active life.

Most people whilst learning how to land an aeroplane during the touch and go's will have a doubt as to whether they can do it... just stick with it and believe your instructor when they say you're doing okay. After a few landings on a lesson it will just start to click and your landings thereafter will start to become more predictable.

Edit: Just read on another current thread about mixture controls... this reminded me that this is an area of aircraft operation that is seriously under taught in the UK at least. Use the mixture control... then you won't have the engineers on your back everytime an aeroplane goes in for its 50 hour check moaning about why doesn't anyone use the mixture control...

Anyway you'll enjoy your PPL course!!!

Best wishes,

Charlie Zulu.

[TonyR]

And;

Make friends with other (experienced) pilots and jump into any aircraft going anywhere if you get the chance. (pay the landing and buy the coffee).

You may even find someone here local to you.

Good luck

Tony

[Charlie Zulu]

Most definatley agree with Tony's suggesting in jumping into any aeroplane you can with already qualified pilots...

When I was learning to fly I had the pleasure in flying in the right hand seat of many types from the defacto Warrior and Cessna's through my current type (a Beagle Pup) to a good few unlogged hours in the ultimate of piston twins... a Cessna 340 (a pressurized twin, felt like a mini-airliner).

Within no time at all you'll notice that us bunch are a sociable lot and will always be glad of having someone along for the ride... my thinking is that there is no point in having a spare seat when someone on the ground would like to fly...

All the best.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Just adding to the good advice above:-

- Buy cheap things you need (chart, protractor, etc.) as soon as possible.

- Don't buy expensive things you are told you need (headset, posh flight bag), until it's inavoidable.

- Don't expect air-law to make sense, it doesn't - just learn it.

- Don't expect the science behind the technical subjects to make sense, the more you analyse it the less it does. Just learn the mickey-mouse science, pass the exams, then learn how it really works later when you've more time.

- Keep personal note of everything you are learning, mentally review each lesson afterwards.

- If you can't learn from a particular instructor, talk to the CFI about it as soon as possible, don't let it linger.

- Keep having fun, if you aren't, there's no point.

G

[ThePirateKing]

Following on from Genghis's post, don't expect Meteorology to make sense - it doesn't! :confused:

Oh, and don't believe everything you hear about not believing everything you hear about passing in 45 hours... :D

TPK:ok:

[keendog]

I am only a few hours ahead of you.

Do not under any circumstances book a lesson and then, particularly for the first 10 hours, try and chivvy your instructor to take you up when he/she says the weather is wrong, even if it looks ok from the ground.

The most valuable things about the first few lessons is learning to look out of the windows, and in particular at the horizon, rather than at the instruments. If there is no decent horizon, there is no point going up and that is the end of it. Work on your exams instead.

Most people (me included) who have always wished to do this have at least some experience of flightsims. Flightsims have almost nothing to contribute to learning how to fly a real light aircraft (save perhaps for becoming familiar with the instruments) and one particular reason for this is that with a flight sim you tend to spend all your time looking at instruments.

[Kolibear]

Hi V1-R,

Welcome to the wonderful world of avation. You don't have to be mad to post here, but it helps!

So this time next year, you'll be about £6000 poorer but the proud possessor of a PPL.

Any idea what you intend to do with it?

Getting the PPL is easy, it may not seem like it at the time, but it is. Keeping it is the difficult part.

Enjoy your flying, we look forward to hearing how its going and meeting you at Pprune Fly-ins.

:ok:

[ThePirateKing]

Keendog,

I'm not sure I agree with you about flight sims. I found FS2000 extremely useful for some things, and not so useful for others.

For example, practicing circuits at your home airfield and calling out all the checks, etc. is very useful. The actual flying of the circuit is fairly useful as it gets you used to speeds, etc., although judging the turns is tricky. On the other hand, I would suggest that landing a real airplane is easier than landing flight sim - because you have peripheral vision and much better feedback through the controls in real life.

One thing where flight sim was particularly useful was navigation. Set up some winds, plan a DR sortie, and go fly it. You have to be a bit careful because a lot of the visual aids are missing, but this can be fixed with an expansion pack. Another very useful aspect was practicing radio nav - intercepting VOR radials, etc. General handling is very good - keeping level in a steep turn, etc.

So, anything which requires a good look around you (circuits for judging when to turn, landing for using peripheral vision to judge the flare, etc.) is limited. But for anything else (IMC practice, radio nav, general handling, power/attitude on the approach) it is very good.

All IMHO, of course!

TPK:ok:

[KCDW]

2 additional thoughts come to mind:


Don't worry about landings. Keep plugging away. It's exactly like learning to ride a bike. You try and try and get a bit bruised (ego wise that is), then it suddenly all falls into place, and you wonder what all the fuss was about!

If you don't already, learn to love aeroplanes. I mean reallly love them (I think C172s are beautiful, so it's got me bad :8). Over the course, buy a GA recognition handbook, read your training aeroplane POH, understand the capabilities and limits, understand every gauge and instrument. If there is something in the cockpit you don't understand - find out about it. It's rewarding, and adds an extra dimension to flying. Works for me.

Best of luck.

[4Jimbo]

Following on from the "Don't believe the 45hrs", and the "Don't not believe the 45hrs", how long does it normally take?

How long did it take the various PPLs reading this thread?

I've currently got 37hrs, and I'm having to kill time until I can do my skills test :D

4J.

[Vee One...Rotate]

Thanks for all the replies - crikey, my mailbox is going to reach its limit with the reply notifications pouring in...:O

Working for the rest of the day (before enjoying The Match later) so can't make a proper post now but will do later.

Much obliged,

V1R :ok:

[FNG]

My suggestions:-

(1) Do go upside down, early and often.

(2) Don't worry about how long it takes to solo or to complete the course.

(3) Do read "Stick and Rudder"

(4) Don't say silly airline things like "Rotate" or "Vref"

(5) Do have fun.

[Tall_guy_in_a_152]

Insist on a pre and post-flight (de)brief with your instructor. That way you will get the most out of your time in the air and have something to think about between lessons.

TG.

[SQUAWKIDENT]

I learnt to fly before FS2000/2002/2004 but find FS2004 useful for brushing up on instrument flying and those days when "real" flying is out of the question (FS2004 with UK VFR Photographic Scenery is also an excellent fun basic VFR navigation training aid).

http://www.aromadome.com/FLIGHTPIX/images/fsscr224.jpg

(looks nice too and excellent viz 24/7;-)

[Capt. Manuvar]

V1R,
I trained at Leicester, and fly out there once in a while. It a nice relaxed airfield. If you have any questons you can PM me. EMA is good to if you like the busy atmosphere, but a lot of aircraft from there end up coming to leicester to do circuits.
FS2000/2/4 can be good for certain areas of training e.g. nav and getting to kno what instruments do. But are of no use when it comes to areas like landing. I also found it helpful with circuit rejoins and departures which can be confusing at first.
Good luck with the flying.
Capt. M

[Vee One...Rotate]

That's just the kind of little snippets of advice I was after - I know my experience of the PPL will be just that - my experience, but with over a month before I can realistically get started I got impatient hence the query :)

I'm going to do it at Leicester Aero Club as it looks like a good place with a good background...and there aren't hulking 737s jockeying with you for position...like East Midlands I'd imagine. For this reason it should be a little more cost-effective as well.

KCDW,

I've always loved aircraft and love airshows, Discovery Wings, flight sim software and the like - no enthusiam increase required here :ok: I'm hoping to get the PPL and then apply for ab-initio ATPL sponsorship as my A-levels and degree, along with a PPL, should at least get me a look in - chances are still stacked up waaaaay against me but worst they can say is no, right? Otherwise, a self-funded ATPL course (full-time) - though financing that will be character-building I'm sure :ugh:

FNG,

Despite my aspirations (and user name) I will not be uttering "V1, V2, V2+10 V<insert number or abbreviation here>" etc. during the PPL...such outbursts are reserved for my at my desk when I'm mucking around with X-Plane ;) - great sim BTW, better flight modelling than MSFS and it comes with design software.

I'm not actually very new to PPRuNe - I'm a veteran of something like 60 posts (wow) but my account recently went awry. I love this place.

CZ,

I understand your point about spin recovery making you more confident with the aircraft and its performance - a good point I think.

I'll certainly do my utmost to wangle seats with other (bribable) pilots - "Can I carry your bags?", "Lunch in Nottingham?", "Dodgy centre of gravity? Need some ballast?" spring to mind...

Cheers again,

V1R

[FNG]

The only flight sim worth having in my opinion is "IL-2 Sturmovik". Love the patriotic Stalinist music after successful defence of the Motherland from the Fascist hordes. Great RT in Russian. "Got one: he's going to hell!" Beats the stuffing out of Microsoft Combat Flight Sim for flight modelling, looks and difficulty.

http://www.il2sturmovik.com/ss/screens.php?id=51

PS: another successful mission, and Mladshiy Leitenant Petrovich Pruneski has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner. On the other side, Leutnant Parsifal Von Prune has been shot down by a Yak 3, again.

[Kolibear]

One more thing - look at maps, read them, examine them. Use them to get familiar with your local area. draw lines on them, find the airfields on them, look at the road and rail network. See where contolled airspace boundaries are. If you don't want to buy aviation charts just yet, ask on here for an old copy.

The more time you spent absorbing the relationships between places, the easier you will find your navigation. Looking at charts will help you with Air Law too.

[Vee One...Rotate]

Thanks again,

V1R :ok:

[FNG]

Thanks, Cofabulous, the upgrades are on their way from Amazon, but I may have a nimby problem.

After a hard's day arguing with Mr Justice Nutter the other day I trued to unwind by breaking up a Ju 88 formation in a Yak 3, but my neighbour across the corridor in my chambers came in to complain about the noise...

[Keef]

Someone mentioned blagging rides whenever you can.

I'd recommend that highly. Sit in the right hand seat with an experienced old lag in the left, and get some (unloggable but still very useful) "sole manipulator of controls" time.

It just so happens there's a "student fly-out" to Old Buckenham on 24th July, with lots of aeroplanes going, and a lot of empty seats. Details are here: http://forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=6463

A good chance for anyone on the way to a PPL (or considering one) who fancies a day out and some flying.

[Vee One...Rotate]

Robbing, lieing, bribing and stealing my way into other aircraft it is...!

V1R ;)

[mad_jock]

As an instructor i would recomend you don't go near any flight simulator until you can fly the thing properly by looking out the window.

I have seen it may times, all you will be doing is getting yourself fixated with the dials.

And as you have so much time before starting why not get some of the theory out the way.

If you can turn up with airlaw and say HP or coms ready to be sat it will make your life a whole lot easier. If you can keep ahead with the exams its alot less stress. I would suggest leaving Nav and Met until you start the Navigation exercises they make alot more sense then.

As your numerical the trevor Thom books would proberly suit. If not the AFE Pratt books are more of a lighter read. Both have the same info in them just some people find one easier to read than the other. Personally as an engineer I don't have a problem with Thom but some find the syle very hard to study.

Good luck and enjoy



MJ

[Vee One...Rotate]

Thanks mad_jock. I was going to go for the Thom books - I understand there are 7 in total - one for each exam (with an oral examination on the specific aircraft type used in training - C152 in my case thrown in).

V1R :ok:

[gliderman69]

V1R

I never found the Thoms books easy going and I am a ex RAF aircraft engineer they are too technical and while the idea is good they cover more detail than you really need for starting out.

The Pratt ones are definatly easier to read and give the same information that you need to pass the exams.

Why buy the Thoms when you may struggle and end up going for the pratts like I did after and spend more money?

I find now that I reading the Thoms after I got my licence to increase my knowledge in the areas I was not trained in while in the RAF.

I never got an oral on the plane did anyone else? I know I should have, Maybe thats just an examiner preference.

But good luck with the flying!

[FlyingForFun]

I understand there are 7 in total - one for each examThere are 7 in total... but not one for each exam, no.

Book one is not for an exam, it covers the flying syllabus - the exercises you will fly and the briefing which should preceed each exercise. Book 5 is for the IMC rating, and is not relevant for a PPL student. A couple of the books cover two exams, though, which is how you get all the exams into less than 7 books.

Book 7, which covers the R/T, is a waste of money. Instead, buy CAP413 - in fact, you can download this free from the CAA's website and print it if you don't fancy buying it (sorry, don't have the link to hand). This covers the same stuff, but is more definitive (there are a couple of areas where it differs slightly from Thom).

So, if you're going for Thom, you should be looking to buy books 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6.

FFF
------------

[Vee One...Rotate]

FFF,

Thanks for the input. Money (and the weather) is going to determine how quickly I progress through the course so your advice is v. helpful.

I'll probably go for:

Thom:-

1. Flight Training
2. Aviation Law And Meteorology
3. Air Navigation
4. The Aeroplane: Technical
6. Flight Planning And Performance (think thats the title?)

&

CAP413 for R/T.

Does book 6 cover Human Performance and Limitations - I could have sworn there's an exam on that subject (though I hear it's considerered the easiest)?

I intend to attempt to get some work done on Air Law (and maybe Human Factors & R/T) before I start training so I can get two exams over with fairly quickly...leaving the other ones until I have some practical experience to consolidate things with.

Cheers,

A soon to be (more) broke,

V1R

[FNG]

When I did the exams I was recommended to use a slim volume called something like "Human Factors for Pilots" (it's in a box somewhere so I can't check), which was fine. HPL is a very easy exam (indeed all of the exams are easy) but the book was reasonably interesting. The Thom books have a truly leaden style, but are useful enough. FFF's suggestion of using Cap 413 instead of any RT book is a good one. The RT training tapes are in my opinion not very good, but RT is easily learned in practice by, er...talking on the radio from lesson one.

[Vee One...Rotate]

And of course, I nearly forgot, a copy of the indispensable and worryingly-named "PPL Confuser". Sorted.

V1R :ok:

[eharding]

Before you go flying....eat something!.....seriously, I found
early on in PPL training that skipping breakfast because
you're running late for a morning lesson is a false economy.
It's hard work, mentally and physically (at least at first) and
you need the energy.