God damn weather!!

[Andy_Stotts]

Im currently 4hrs into my PPL but due to the poor weather I have not flown for about 3 weeks! I am considering going over to the USA in Jan/Feb for around 6 weeks. Do you think this would be enough time to complete my PPL and build some hours? I have around £6k to spend think this is around $11k. Can anybody recommend schools in the USA that have acommadation thanks guys (if this has already been posted could somebody direct me to the post) thanks again.

[TheOddOne]

I flew 3 training flights with students today in the most gloriously beautiful flying weather you could imagine (would have been 4 but one was a no-show). It was one of those days that any pilot yearns for. Silky smooth air and superb vis and horizon.

It wasn't in Florida but over the Aylesbury area. You CAN get wonderful flying weather here in the UK, you just have to be a bit flexible with timings and take advantage of the conditions when they're right.

Also, when the wx ain't so great but still flyable, you'll be training in the wx environment you'll experience when you've got your licence. Stick with it.

Cheers,
TheOddOne

[Pilot DAR]

Don't overlook Canada. Flying is fantastic during the clear winter days, and I think that there is not as much imigration fuss for student pilots.

Pilot DAR

[BackPacker]

if this has already been posted could somebody direct me to the post

Did you search both this and the Professional Studies forum? And did you see the thread I started and which is now a "sticky"?

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=278995

[Genghis the Engineer]

I had a lovely day's flying yesterday - even managed to get some night circuits in and get my night pax currency back.

Learning in the UK is a slow and frustrating business, but on the other hand, it's presumably where you'll end up flying anyway.

Yes, 6 weeks will do your PPL in the US (S.Africa, Canada, Portugal...) and have some fun afterwards (you may need to do an FAA PPL at the same time to be able to fly as a private pilot immediately), but do bear in mind that you are presumably going to be doing flying in the UK. It is sensible to factor a reasonable amount of your learning - say 15 hours or so, in UK airspace. The environments (weather, NOTAMS, ATC procedures, charts, transponder codes...) vary a great deal between the UK and US.

There is much to be said, for example, for going and doing your PPL in, say, Florida but factoring in some further training in the UK at a friendly school as soon as you get back. That way you get reasonable hours, qualified fairly quickly, and to know how to fly in Britain.

G

[PompeyPaul]

Bad wx is a golden opportunity here in the UK. Given you've missed 3 weeks of lessons, did you make sure you went throught the Ground School with an instructor and got another exam passed ? If so you could have Air Law done by now.

I did my exams during the non-flying days and so still moved my PPL forwards every week.

WX is not a barrier to learning in the UK, unless you are trying to get the whole thing done in 21 days.

[thirtysomething]

All that glistens abroad isnt gold. Having done an intensive PPL i think you go from " slow progress " to " too fast " .

[miket_68]

Pro's and Cons
Arrived at field 9am as a drove (I think thats the word) of Trial flighters went home.
Free'd up my instructor for some real world weather, just staretd my R22 conversion bit bumpy but still bloody good fun.
Appologies to any of the trial flights who went home, but I am sure it wouldnt have been very nice for you.
Keep smiling

[MidgetBoy]

Westcoast Canada flight training is about to enter the dead season. Fog the whole day. Occasionally it'll clear up by noon, but then it's night time by 5pm. Theres been some airports that have been fogged in for 8 days straight. Also, I'm not too sure about accommodation for the flight schools here.
But if you're fast and you're one of those quick learners who finish their PPL in 5 weeks, or CPL in 9 weeks (from 0 hours), then you should be able to finish it before fog all the time.

Having 6 weeks is cutting it really close. I don't know about USA standards (Besides the fact that the main exam you're given questions and answers for it), I know in Canada, the only way you'll ever finish your PPL in under 6 weeks is getting extremely good weather everyday, flying 2-3 flights a day, studying constantly, and working very very hard. You won't have a life for those 6 weeks. You'll also have to find the right instructor who can handle that sort of training and will stick with you the whole way so another instructor won't waste your time trying to figure out how good you are.
However, $11k should get you pretty far if all you can do is 6 weeks of training, in Canada, for the required 45 hours, you get that for about $6k.

[Phil Space]

Hi Andy
Google MP Aviation

Michael Peare is your man. You can get your ppl in Thailand and have a great holiday with change on that money. If you want the cold stuff he does that in Canada.

[Slopey]

6 weeks is about right for doing it in Florida at least, depending on what time of year you go. I went for 5 weeks and had a week spare at the end for some hour building - consequently, about 4 days lost to high winds (time to get exams done!) and we lost 2 days from Hurricane Wilma.

Anything under 4 weeks is silly as you just need one week scuppered by wx or tech issues and you're stuffed.

For Florida, the issue isn't so much weather, as wind - it can get a bit windy, and as a student pilot you'll need to adhere to the school crosswind limit which can leave you on the ground on an other wise beautiful day.
However, the US is a great place to train - compared with here they LOVE ga. Decent restaurants at most fields, no landing fees almost anywhere - get your instructor to add some major airports into the cross countries - nothing like landing at Daytona Intl at night in amongst the big boys.

When you get back here, do 3-4 hours to get familiar. If you've already got 4 hours under your belt you should have no problems. R/T differences are a non event - learn stuff like transiting zones/matz etc and how to open your cheque book. Also go up with an instructor when the weather is a bit crappy - again - provided it's not poor weather (when you probably should'nt be up there in the first place) - it won't take long to get familiar with life over here (and depending when you go to the US you might get it anyway - I flew in heavy rain, low cloud bases, misty conditions, but still above VFR minimums (just)! - not had anything dissimilar over here)).

For $2 to the £ you can't go wrong - especially if the airport you train at has high rental/tuition fees/landing fees.

[Slopey]

Oh - remember and go to a JAA school! ;) (but the FAA might be handy one day also!)

[formationfoto]

G-Emma
Saw that you got the Nav flight in today. Sorry if we held you up by half an hour by using the a/c for our CRI tests but at least got that out of the way at last after three WX cancellations.