What's required to start a PPL School

[captainyonder]

Hypothetically what would I require to start a PPL school if I have an aircraft and instructors ticket? Obviously I'd need an actual office/pilots lounge but further to that is there anything I'd actually need?

[Keygrip]

Depends where you want to put it and how much experience you have.

[helicopter-redeye]

Hypothetically, refer to Standards Document 11 on the CAA website in the standards document area.

Incidently, did I split my infinative, above?

[Florida mud wrestler]

And I suppose a large fortune that you are prepared to convert into a small fortune. Maybe convincing others to put their money at your disposal - read "disposal" whichever way you like!

[Say again s l o w l y]

Fill the form in and away you go. It really isn't that difficult to get started. Keeping going however is a different matter!

[Kaptain Kremen]

Or, buy a school that is already running and improve the facilities etc with your fresh new approach. At least you will have a customer base there already.
KK

[IO540]

I've never done this but looking at it from a purely business POV (which I do know about) I would pick an airfield with no competition (or competition which is struggling under a severe lack of capital and with an ageing fleet), which has plenty of money in the vicinity (automatically true in much of England) and I would get a modern fleet (DA40TDi), decent instructors, and market the product at people who drive BMW Z4s and spend £600/year on membership of a gym :)

I would do direct mail promotion, to owners of sports cars and £600 gym memberships.

A lot of schools advertise in free local rags, which is a complete waste of money since much if the readership is living off the DSS. Anything below the level of the best quality local paper (I know that "local paper" and "quality" is a contradiction) is a waste.

One can't avoid teaching the WW2 syllabus, so (to avoid people dropping out because they are sick of the old stuff) an important thing to demonstrate during the training is that this needs to be done just to pass, and then show how much easier ways there are once people get their PPL.

Time to duck :O

[Keygrip]

One can't avoid teaching the WW2 syllabus

That's not strictly true. Every school has the opportunity to submit its own training syllabus to the authorities for approval. Problem is that nobody ever attempts to do so - they just use the old (WW2?) syllabus that was written by AOPA.

Provided it complies with the licensing minima listed in JAR-FCL then give it a go.

There's a challenge for you 540 - write an Iraq war syllabus instead of WW2. Prove the industry wrong with your laser guided GPS modern methods.

[foxmoth]

One can't avoid teaching the WW2 syllabus
I would say this is because it is a proven syllabus that works - what "old stuff" are you talking about anyway? maybe you do not need to turn these modern machines, or is it that they are stall proof or somesuch?:hmm:

[IO540]

Keygrip

I am sure you are right but the stuff still has to be a superset of the CAA/JAA syllabus, in order to generate a valid JAA PPL at the end.

I don't think one needs to go to laser guided bombs, do you? :ugh:

Foxmoth

Are you pulling my leg? The circular slide rule, dead reckoning, etc.

To be fair, there is no easy solution because most planes that most PPL holders can get into are frankly crap, so one has to teach people how to fly them with very little in the panel [that works].

But maybe one day, when the old metal has finally corroded up and fallen apart, things will be able to move on. I don't hold out much hope, because the present Cesspit/Piper fleet will be "flyable" for another 20-30 years.

[Keygrip]

Did I not say Provided it complies with the licensing minima listed in JAR-FCL ?

[foxmoth]

Are you pulling my leg? The circular slide rule, dead reckoning, etc.

I would agree on the "circular sliderule", this has been well superceded. As far as DR goes, great when all the electronic gizmos are working, but when they all pack in (e.g. total electrical failure - or is that not possible anymore?) what have you got left to fall back on? If anything I would say you need to start with the "WW2" syllabus (with some mods such as allowing calculators instead of the wizz wheel), to give the backgound stuff and then there should be extra in the syllabus to cover GPS,TCAS and anything else that comes up in the future. Apart from the circular slide rule, what else would you actually change in the Syllabus?

[Say again s l o w l y]

....and how about the brain power to work out if you've put in the right info to the electronic brain?

Like any computer, if you put cr*p in, you get cr*p out. If you are only trained to punch numbers on a key pad, then how can you catch mistakes before they become a problem?

Children are still taught basic arithmetic like long division, no-one argues that this is unnecessary even with the advent of calculators. Why should student pilots be any different?
Learn the basics first, then look at more efficient/easier ways later once you have the basic principles understood fully.