After you've passed

[pilotho]

So, what did you find yourself doing after you have passed your skills test?

Any airfields or routes that you would recommend other pilots to visit or take?

[BroomstickPilot]

I moved onto tail-draggers.

I wanted to do the IMC and my club only has several Pa28s and just one C152 taildragger adequately equipped for the purpose.

I hate the Pa28 with a passion: (I like flying aeroplanes; if I wanted to drive a lorry I would have taken an HGV licence).

At the time, I was also looking forward to the day I would buy a share in an aeroplane. Shares in taildraggers are cheaper because they are generally older aeroplanes and relatively fewer pilots can fly them.

More recently, seeing the way the regulatory environment is steadily throttling Class A aviation, I am now thinking of going micro as I don't want to spend all my available cash keeping the CAA in the style it wishes to become accustomed to.

Broomstick.

[mark147]

I think the important thing is to keep pushing the boundaries, slowly but surely, to gain experience. First I went on my own to an airfield I'd been to before in training; next, I went somewhere I'd been before as a passenger but hadn't flown to myself; then, I picked someone easy to get to that I'd never been to at all; etc.
It's quite easy just to fall into a comfortable pattern where you just fly round the local area for an hour or so every few weeks -- my suggestion would be to try not to do too much of that and look for new places to go instead.
Find some friends to take along (best one at a time at first -- you'll be amazed how distracting passengers can be). If you want to go somewhere that you're a bit concerned about, find another PPL to go along with you. It shouldn't be hard to find a willing volunteer.

[BackPacker]

I've built experience, took passengers flying and got checked out on all the types my flying club offers (Robins, Pipers, Diamond). I participated in club events and I intend to do an aerobatics course this spring. And I'm looking for opportunities to make longer-ish flights now, instead of the typical hour round-trip in what is now becoming very familiar area.

[coodem]

Join an active group and go places, I see too many people bimbling around their own airfield. I find it easy to get experienced pilots to come along as a safety pilot, I found I learnt loads from them and after a few trips with them, Im a lot more comfortable to go places on my own. The next step would be to get an IMC rating, weather you use it to get you out of trouble or use it to actually get flying in poor weather. Just bear in mind, an IMC is no use, unless you use it an practise regularly.

There seem to be a lot of people out there, that say an IMC rating is only there to get you back to the nearest airfield, or to get you out of trouble. I found that it is a skill that needs to be practised often, leave it for a while and you will end up beeing in danger

[tiggermoth]

I've not long passed (Nov 06), and so far I've hired an instructor to get checked out on club aircraft, learnt to land on a short grass runways, went shopping to buy into a group share (and found one). I took my first passenger up the other weekend.

As already suggested, push yourself with more challenging conditions gradually. I'm now much happier with cross-wind landings, and glide approaches. Get an instructor to go with you whenever you feel it's needed.

Also since gaining the PPL I've practiced navigation planning, and I'm hoping over this summer to practice more radio navigation.

As one of the instructors I went up with recently said to me - just enjoy the flying, you've got your PPL now, everything will slot into place.

Yesterday, for example, I flew (with another pilot) to an aerodrome near where my parents live, and they saw me land, went for a cuppa (and a butty) with them and then flew off. The look on their faces was brilliant! I hadn't seen them since Christmas. I'm hoping with my PPL to find 'excuses' to go to various airports - so I'll be digging out my old address book and visiting old friends.

T.

[waldopepper42]

I was lucky. Just after I passed, and received the hallowed brown book, an experienced pilot friend offered to accompany me on a tour of the local airfields. Had a glorious few trips visiting unlicensed airfields, short grass fields, sloping fields, private farmers' fields etc etc that really opened my eyes to the sort of fun things that are available to the qualified pilot...

Then he went and took me for an aerobatic flight in his Chipmunk! :ok:

And that, over the years, has cost me a fortune in rental / shares of/in various aerobatic aircraft!!!!! :) :)

[DBisDogOne]

Would echo what the others said, get checked out in other a/c, do some grass field landings and keep practicing. I would also say do a night rating, it's great fun, peaceful and quite challenging. While many will say "What's the point, I don't want to fly at night?" it allows you to take up the later summer evening slots at your F.C which others have rejected as they won't be back in time. Also, these slots can sometimes be cheaper.

I would leave an IMC 'til later, I've been told by several instructor friends that IR skills get very rusty very quickly if not used regularly. Concentrate on the basics for now.

The advice to not fly in circles is good but allow yourself one flight in three or so at the start, to be a 'PPL self test', where you practice getting you G/H really precise and include a couple of circuits, landing/take-offs in various configs. I found this invaluable and has made my flying more natural and smooth, passengers (& a/c) will appreciate this in the same way as if you are a smooth driver on the road. Then move on to further afield navs to small airfields (cheaper landing fees & the food is usually better!). Practice your radio nav too apparantly this tends to be underused by us PPLs and is very useful, it is often rather forgotten about once the skills test is passed.

I'm also going onto Taildraggers this summer too.

Above all, take it steady and enjoy your freedom.
Keep the blue side up.
Be seeing you...

PS: Bit harsh on the faithful PA28 Broomstickpilot! I quite like the old heaps myself. (Perhaps I should admit at this point I do genuinely hold an HGV1 licence, so maybe that explains it?).

[FlyFreeWbe]

Never flown a PA28, so nothing to be said there! However, my one bit of advice (to anyone really) is plan ahead. Now you've got your ticket, you want to keep using your ticket as often as possible (or should I say regularly?) for as long as possible. So basically, do what most have said.. start basic and build up gradually over (a longer than you would think) time. There's no rush really.

Just don't stop.

[tiggermoth]

However, my one bit of advice (to anyone really) is plan ahead.

That interesting - are you talking about flight planning here or planning what your are going to be doing flying-wise over the bext few years?

T.

[FlyFreeWbe]

Wow, it's been a while since I've been here :eek: a month! To answer your question tiggermoth (if you're still interested in the answer that is) I meant plan what you're going to be doing flying-wise. Nothing madly detailed, just something to ensure continuity... like how often must you fly to keep current? What are you going to do to keep in practice? Do you want to imrpove by doing more courses over time..learn to fly a more complex aircraft maybe? It's all no different to what everyone else said, I guess I'm just suggesting it be structured.

As a side note, I know a few people at my work who fly just to stay current. If that means they fly countless circuits for only 20-30minutes every 3-4 weeks they're happy. I find that..worrying?

[Whirlybird]

As a side note, I know a few people at my work who fly just to stay current. If that means they fly countless circuits for only 20-30minutes every 3-4 weeks they're happy. I find that..worrying?
It depends why they're doing it. If they want to stay current while they save the time and money for one big continental flying trip in the summer, that makes sense to me. If they want to stay current just in case someone asks them if they want to ferry an aircraft across the Atlantic...well, probably a bit like hoping to win the lottery, but nothing wrong with optimism. If they want to stay current while they have little time/money in case things change, ditto. Most people worked hard to get that little brown book; they want to know they can use its privileges safely at any point, even if right now they haven't got the chance for some reason. It makes...some sort of sense.

[stickandrudderman]

I posted a notice up on the club notice board asking for P2 time for consolidation purposes.
A week later a was flying to Berlin and Warsaw!
Landing at Berlin Templehof with 16hrs P1 was quite an amazing experience!
Network and find experienced pilots who like company.
Get yourself aloft at any and every opportunity, in as many different types and with as many different people as you can.
I guarantee it will accelarate your learning curve!

Taildragging is great fun, and the IMC will teach you an awful lot more about the instruments in your chosen mount than the basic PPL syllabus did!

Every instructor will tell you that your new licence is a licence to learn.
How much you learn and when you do it is entirely up to you.

Like the saying goes...
When would now be a good time?:ok:

[tiggermoth]

Do new PPLs "practice" any other things that were taught during flight training, or is it confined to when an instructor is next to you? For example, steep turns, slow flying, stall practce?

I've been doing small navigation excercises, it teaches me to (or should I say keeps my skills current in):
Read the chart (and recognise ground features!)
Remember to turn on the stop watch (easier said than done)
Conduct flight planning
Improves my Radio work
FREDA checks, & fuel management.
Takeoff, Overhead Joins and Landing.
Discipline in keeping headings & altitudesAs an aside, I had a handheld 'hiking' Etrex Summit GPS (which does not have a map) turned on during my last Navex. Last night I downloaded the data to "Google Earth Plus". It was really interesting to actually see my track over the terrain compared to what I'd planned on my chart. It even showed my not-very-square circuits!

I like the idea of planning ahead what sort of flying I'd want to do over the coming months and years. I hadn't really thought about it in that way.

T.

[FlyFreeWbe]

Never thought of it like that Whirly :) just I've never seen that happen. You do have a point though.

All the best pilotho, tiggermoth.