Top 10 things to do when u get your PPL licence?

[james747james]

Hi everyone! Has anyone got a top 10 must do list once you get your PPL licence?
I think it'll be interesting finding out what people do!

James :ok:

[BackPacker]

1. Cross the channel or more generally fly abroad
2. Take an aircraft for two or more days, including an overnight stay somewhere else (can be combined with 1).
3. Take family/friends
4. Ask for and get permission to fly straight over a major international airport (Schiphol in my case)
5. Fly different aircraft - blag your way into some unofficial P2 time in a twin
6. At the very least take an aerobatics capable aircraft and a good instructor to do some "unusual attitudes", "upset" training or whatever you'd like to call it, and squeeze in some spins, advanced stalls, loops etc. If you like it, do a full aerobatics course
7. Learn how to use GPS, properly
8. Check the notice boards and participate in fly-ins, rallys, club excursions etc.
9. Obviously visit different airfields, including "challenging" ones, and ones where there's something to see/do besides landing, lunching and taking off again.
10. Tell others about your adventures.

[LateFinals]

My personal ten, 3 years since my PPL.

1. Just have fun on lovely sunny evenings watching the traffic on the M25 not moving why you wander around for 45 mins before having a cold beer back at the club house.

2. Go accross the Channel, better still do it several times.

3. Take your mum for a tour of the Normandy beaches, from above, lunch in Jersey (Old Courthouse Restaurant), and then back to Blightly

4. Hire a plane in America and fly over the Grand Canyon.

5. When you've had a scare in hazy sun, do an IMC, when you enjoy the instrument flying then,

6. Do an IR.

7. Fly into a busy airport with jets, bit scary first time !

8. Fly a complex plane and feel comfortable with the extra challenges.

9. Feel happy with GPS and get in front of the plane

10. After every flight never forget how lucky and honoured we are to have such a great hobby which many of us dream about taking further.

LF

(Great thread idea)

[Tall_guy_in_a_152]

1) Try a few different aircraft
2) Do a tailwheel check-out (typically 5 hours)
3) Buy a share in the aircraft of your dreams (or a Cherokee)
4-10) Do seven other flying things for about half the cost than if you were renting

[james747james]

great idea's guys, i especially like the grand cayon idea! Have you managed to do that yet?? I bet it's an amazing view!

james :ok:

[Knight Paladin]

1. Learn what the "L" in PPL stands for.

2. Realise that a "PPL license" is therefore a somewhat poor use of language, much like the oft-used nowadays "PIN number".

3. Realise you've turned into a grumpy old man.

4. Realise you've also made no useful contribution to an interesting thread.

5. Apologise.

6. Decide to go to bed.

7-10. Fill space as you have no imagination.

[Them thar hills]

Make a note of your revalidation date ! :} Please !

[commanderb]

Just fly as much as you can. Every flight will reveal something about you.

Above all enjoy!!

[IO540]

Join the Mile High club?

I never have myself, but it's interesting how many completely innocent looking passengers, butter wouldn't melt in their mouths, ask, while completely casually looking at the altimeter, "how many feet are there in 1 mile?"

:)

[Jumbo Driver]

2. Realise that a "PPL license" is therefore a somewhat poor use of language

You said it!

It is Licence ...



JD
:)

[james747james]

Join the Mile High club?



Wouldn't that be a little risky in a 172?!?! Fun nevertheless!!!

James :ok:

[digital.poet]

Join the Mile High club?

Probably best to check the POH before attempting this one.

Also, be sure to have a *very* good answer prepared for the inevitable question...

"Who the Hell is FREDA????!?!" :p

[flugholm]

In no particular order (and apart from the items already mentioned, which are all great) (and, no, I haven't tried everything I'm about to mention... but I'd sure like to try!):

If you're power rated, try gliders.

If you're glider rated, try power.

If you have either, try motorgliders, or microlights.

Fly at night.

Try floatplanes.

If you have lots and lots of money to spare, try helicopters, twins or turbines, or get an IFR rating.

If you're not happy with one outfit (club, school, partnership), try another.

And never forget to tell everyone how much you enjoy flying! :ok:

That, and wear sunscreen. :E

[airborne_artist]

1. Fly a Chipmunk

2. Repeat as above

3. ...

[snapper41]

1. Thank your instructor
2. Never check your current account balance
3. Be staggered at the rate at which cheques disappear from your chequebook
4. Land at an airfield whose altitude is below sea level!
5. Land at an old WW2 base, and try to image how the crew of a shot-up Lanc/B17/etc felt when they saw the view you have on finals
6. Take your wife/husband/partner/significant other flying
7. Fly over/along coastline
8. When you're straight and level on a sunny/good viz day, trimmed correctly, with no pressure needed on the controls, smile to yourself and think how good it feels
9. Take pictures
10. Don't take risks

[ChampChump]

1. Buy a cheap aeroplane.
2. Fly the socks off it while you learn what sort of aeroplane it is, what
sort of pilot you are and what sort of aeroplane would suit you.
3. Buy a Champ*.
4. Fly
5. Fly
6. Fly
7. Fly
8. Fly
9. Fly
10. Fly





* there might be an alternative to this; I really couldn't say...

[Wessex Boy]

When I re-gain my currency I am aiming to do the following:
1. Take Family Friends Flying
2. Fly-in to a museum (Duxford/Old Warden/Coventry)
3. Fly-in to an Air display
4. Fly a Chipmunk again
5. Fly the Club's Duchess
6. Fly my family on a short-break holiday
7. Fly a Cub on a summer's evening with the door open (used to love it in the Wessex!)
8. Fly a student on the Flyer Forum Stude's Fly-in
9. Mentor a student/new PPL
10. Get mentored by experienced flyers

[Martin @ EGLK]

1 Fly an old taildragger with next to no dials etc. Proper seat of pants stuff
2 Aeros (still learning - got the bug)
3 Find a friendly field in a place that's really awkward to drive to, and fly your friends there in 1/4 of the time
4 Point and laugh at people stuck on the M4 as you fly over them
5 Find a friendly field or 2 within 30-45 mins of your base as somewhere to go to if/when you can skip off work a bit early - or are just bored on a Sun pm
6 Go sight seeing
7 Go to the Channel Isle of froggyland for lunch (don't forget to mention it to EVERYONE later)
8 Don't forget to revalidate your JAA licence after 5 years :rolleyes:
9 Do more fly ins/outs - Note to self - Do more fly ins/outs
10 Smile!

[IO540]

I learnt to go places, far away, much further than one could practically drive, and that's what I've been doing.

But it was quite a long haul.

I had to buy a decent plane - no way to do it in the rental wreckage. So, the year after the PPL was wasted doing burger runs, in planes in which sometimes the engine, and my handheld GPS, were the only bits that worked properly.

The IMC Rating made it possible to fly seriously in the UK, and it also made "imaginative VFR" ;) possible abroad. No way to fly 700nm legs across Europe without some encounter with cloud.

Finally, early last year, the IR made the whole process more straightforward; no need to crawl all over the lounge (or hotel room) floor over ten VFR charts taped together, drawing tracks on them with a 1m spirit level used as a straight edge, then duplicating the route in Navbox to get the plog... and then worry whether ATC will let me through some bit of airspace.

But I am still learning, mostly about weather and how to forecast cloud tops, whether a front can be crossed at the operating ceiling (FL180). My passenger is terrified of turbulence so I have to be quite picky.

Would I do it again? Yes but very differently.

[fireflybob]

Sorry this might be a "boring" one but:-

Go practice some "emergencies" such as a practice forced landing at least once a month, sometimes with an experienced flying instructor to hone up your skills for the day when the engine does stop!

[Slopey]

Read NOTAMs - and avoid upsetting the Reds! ;)

[james747james]

Great ideas everyone, got anymore? I'd like to buy a really cheap plane and fly the pants off it around europe tryin to see everything there is to see! It's like the TV program on BBC 2 now with Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman riding on motorbikes to Cape Town from John O'Groats. It's called Long Way Down.

James :ok:

[effortless]

The first thing I did was ask every pretty girl I knew if they wanted a flip.:cool:

Ho well, fly up the Gorge du Verdon in the south of France.

[1d2d3d4d]

James

I suppose in an aircraft it would be called "The Long Way Up"

Chris

[james747james]

haha yeah thats what i'd call it, if any TV producers are in these forums i'd like to talk terms!!!
Would love to do it but i wouldn't know where to start or where to go, just so much to see n do in Europe.

James :ok:

[Crash one]

I'm quite pleased to discover that I am apparently quite normal.
Not necessarily in this order.

1 Fly the Chipmunk (I've started so I'll finish)
2 Buy a cheap taildragger & fly the guts out of it (after the Chipmunk)
3 Fly gliders (done that, it helps with the Chipmunk)
4 Fly family & friends (doing that)
5 Get checked out on the rest of the club fleet
6 Tour the UK to it's extents
7 Learn "strip flying"
8 Buy a GPS & find out what all the fuss is about
9 Attend fly-outs etc
10 Hope the NPPL will one day allow me "foreign"
11 Never get pedantic about other people's minor or major spelling / grammatical errors & wander off track chuntering on about them.

[scooter boy]

1. buy a cheap aircraft, fast ecomonical PFA type.
2. build hundreds of hours in it until you...
3. get frustrated by the weather and get a certified type you can fly IFR in in most weather
4. Get your IR and put it to good use in your super duper aircraft
5. fly IFR internationally in airways (esp across the alps and to big airports)
6. Realise that for most trips within the UK helicopters are faster and more versatile
7. get an R22 helicopter and do your PPL(H) in it and keep it in your shed
8. extend the shed, do the helicopter night qualification, put a pilot controlled lighting system in and get an R44.
9. fly to Tresco, Burgh Island, Paris Heliport, London Helilanes at night
10. Be a smug git and post it on PPRUNE.
;)
SB

[SKYYACHT]

1) Learn to fly at night
2) Do the IMC Rating
3) Do a Complex Airplane (Aeroplane) Rating
4) Do a Multi Engine rating (for the challenge)
5) Whenever you go abroad on hols, check out at the local flying club
6) Do a Tailwheel Endorsement
7) Get your Glider Licence
8) Push your envelope - Aeros/Spot Landings/Flyouts/Fly Ins/Short Strip
9) Fly abroad - Go to Catalina Island and Big Bear in Southern California
or go to South Africa and fly the garden route out of Stellenbosch or Cape
Town. Fly the Arizona desert, drop in to Sedona, or mix it with the heavies
at LAX or SNA. Try Seattle, and rent from Boeing Field, and fly to all the
airfields that Boeing have a plant at...

10) Buy a share in the aeroplane of your choice, and go FLY

I am privileged in that I have been able to do all of these things.

Hopefully, I will do more and more before I hang up my headset for the last time!

[JOE-FBS]

Quote:
Join the Mile High club?

Wouldn't that be a little risky in a 172?!?! Fun nevertheless!!!

James :ok:

Many years ago (20-25) I read an accident report to the effect (IIRC) that a light aircraft had crashed into the sea off the US somewhere. Examination of the remains showed that both pilot and passenger were drunk and that the 20 something female passenger was going down on the pensionable male pilot at the moment of impact. My mind boggled then and still does!

[sheesh123]

One thing i'd like to do is fly in africa over a national park and spend a few days there.

[overandout]

1.Improve your skills demonstrably
2.Try entering flying competitions
3.win a few spot landing competitions
4.Try the sport of Rally Flying
5.Show off the trophies and prizes you have won.
6.Try Precision Flying
7.Represent UK in International Flying events
8.Aspire to be proved amongst the best.
9.Enjoy the fun atmosphere and cameraderie
10.Show off with your UK Team shirt

[Felix Saddler]

Watch topgun and reinact it.

[DX Wombat]

Two ideas which haven't been mentioned yet:
1 Arrange a visit to D&D where someone will talk to you and explain how they work. It's well worth while making the effort to do this and it could save your life one day. (Don't forget to take some decent biccies with you as a "Thank you.")
2 Attend a CAA Safety Evening - for all we may moan about them, this is one thing they do well. Don't forget to get your logbook stamped, I'm told that having that stamp may reduce the amount you pay for insurance as, apparently, nobody who has been to one of these events has been involved in a fatal accident. (It may even be simply "involved in a serious accident" but I can't remember exactly.)

[Contacttower]

Join the Mile High club?



www.milehighclub.com (http://www.milehighclub.com)

Apparently cases of 'joining the club' in light aircraft are quite common....

[radicalrabit]

I would really like to take a group of people from here to Barbados. Long way round through Scotland Iceland Greenland Canada , states, Cayman Jamaica and Finally Barbados.

Would cost a fortune but I think for me it would be the trip of a life time. Think B200 would do the job best get saving up eh ....

I Used that great circle mapper to plan a trip to Nairobi too That would be a good way to put all the training intio practice..Anyone Fancy coming?

[PompeyPaul]

1. Agonise for weeks as you wait for the license to finally arrive (£160 & 6 weeks later)
2. Attempt to take family flying, have them not fly due to wx and wonder why you are so into something that you rarely seem to get to do
3. Finally get some decent wx and take somebody on a jolly little brimble
4. Shock elder members of your family when you tell them how much it costs per hour
5. Wonder if you are current or not, go flying with an instructor again, realise the instructor that taught you to fly was the best in the world
6. Whenever you go on holiday contact the flying club and book in. Wonder if anybody else gets to fly a C172 over the grand canyon & hoover dam whilst on vacation in Las Vegas. Bet they don't. suckers :p
7. Do the night rating
8. Agonise if it's worth spending £900 on a flight that easyjet do for £150
9. Do a land away - not one that you've been to with somebody else before
10. Start looking across the channel with longing eyes
11. Wonder if you do actually need to eat since you could do the IR with your food money