I have to tell someone.....

[beatnik]

...or else I'll burst.

Today I popped into the CAA offices at Gatwick and picked up an envelope that contained my logbook and .... a poo-brown rectangular plasticky wallet thingie - with the words "Private Pilot Licence (Aeroplanes)" printed in faux gold lettering on the front!! I guess you all know what that means.

Well - it took me two years, to the day, from my Trial flight to the Skills Test, I've logged 50h25min which included the 2h20m Skills test (a total which I didn't think was that bad for someone doing it part time).

It cost me a whopping £10,712 (but that's everything - lessons and flights in a PA28-161, medical, books, headphones, CAA fees, club subscriptions, exam fees, VAT etc). Thankfully I did most of my circuit bashing before Shoreham started charging for go-arounds. And I was lucky enough to wangle 50 hours of free ground school.

Anyway - I've told the girlfriend, and while she is genuinely excited for me (I think she wants me to take her to L2K for tea), I felt I just had to share it with you folks who have already got your PPLs, and with those who are still working towards it. It's a WONDERFUL feeling !!!!

Thanks to Ian my instructor, Angie the ever-suffering FTO keeper of The Diary and to Toon & Mark my RT & Skills Test examiners...let the real learning now begin!! :D

Nik

[Fuji Abound]

Well done!

Most private pilots give up after a year. Dont let that happen to you. Remember all the things you enjoyed about gaining your license, enjoy having it for the present, but challenge yourself to treat it as a stepping stone to discovering those aspects of GA that will provide you with life long satisfaction - be it touring, aeros, perhaps tailwheel or instructing. You will get bored with flying around the local cabbage patch eventually.

[jaycee58]

Congratulations :ok:. Hopefully, I'm not too far behind you...just waiting to do my test. Does going to Gatwick speed up getting your licence much?

[RudeNot2]

Nice one beatnik. Congratulations - maybe catch you north of the border at some point!!

I have just completed my 1st year as a PPL holder and have amassed just shy of 30hrs pic time. Not aiming for anything in particular at present but things can and do change without notice...

Enjoy your new found freedom of the skies and remember - keep learning...

[stickandrudderman]

Congratulations!
Good things await you!
Do a search of my posts for "Was it fate or was it luck" to see what I mean.

[BelArgUSA]

Congratulations, Captain Beatnik - Welcome to the brotherhood of flyers.
Like my mother said when I did my PPL "don't go too high and not too fast"
:ok:
Happy contrails

[Human Factor]

Congratulations and well done. Now, sit down and decide what you want to do with it. Touring? Aerobatics? Instrument flying? Racing? Precision Flying? Formation? The list goes on..... enjoy!:cool:

The only reason I suggest this is that an awful lot of PPLs give up after a couple of years as all they do are circuits and the odd flight to the next door airfield for a bacon butty. Don't waste it.:ok:

[BeechNut]

Congrats. Happened 27 years ago for me (Oct. 25, 1981 to be precise), remember it like it was yesterday. Passed my PPL in a C-152, and within less than an hour, started my checkout on a C-172, and my night rating a few days later. I can still remember the flight test in vivid detail.

Took me about a year and a few months start to finish. I had one down period of a couple of months with no flying due to truly awful winter weather. Any downtime in early training is a real setback, you get real rusty real quick.

Now the fun starts: more learning! It never stops. At least, it should never stop. May your flying career always have a tailwind!

Beech

[fernytickles]

Congratulations!

Now you've got the licence, why not come to the most amazing general aviation airshow in the world :) You'll have a blast :ok:

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh - The World's Greatest Aviation Celebration (http://www.airventure.org)

[WALSue]

Congrats!!
As another 'part timer' I know how long it takes and how frustrating it gets

[Final 3 Greens]

Good job mate :D

[Mark1234]

Like my mother said when I did my PPL "don't go too high and not too fast"
Lot safer than low and slow :E

Congratulations.. echo what everyone else has said. (pssst... do aeros! too much fun :ok:)

[Jumbo Driver]

Like my mother said when I did my PPL "don't go too high and not too fast"


I think the original quote was "Don't fly too high, or too fast - and remember to throttle back in the turns ..."

Anyway, congratulations beatnik - well done!:D


JD
:)

[sollas]

Congrats :ok:


Very well done and I hope you enjoy every minute

Hopefully in about a months time I'll graduate to having mine. Work gets in the way of flying :uhoh:. 4 exams, pres skills and skills to go. So Close, yet so far away!!!

Have fun and stay safe

sollas

[effortless]

Like my mother said when I did my PPL "don't go too high and not too fast"

Huh when I started flying me mum said "Oh gawd not another one!"

[powerstall]

Well done! and keep on working hard..! :ok:

[LysanderV8]

Well done Beatnik. I did mine at Shoreham too, but took a few more hours than you did.

Enjoy the ride

Lysander

[beatnik]

Thanks for all the supportive comments, guys and gals.

Fuji Abound - I certainly don't intend to let my licence lapse - it is something I've wanted for far too long. With the daylight hours rapidly shortening, I think I'll do the night rating next, followed by the IMC thingie before EASA manages to strangle it into oblivion.

A couple of you mentioned "aeros" - is that short for aerobatics? Certainly this is something I may look into more seriously. My instructor owns a Tiger Moth and has been threatening to take me up for a few gentle rolls. Sounds like fun. My club has a Pitts S2A that they use for training.

Fuji / Human Factor - What is "touring"?

Jaycee58- I'm not sure if dropping off/picking up from Gatwick saved that much time. Certainly it took one day less to get there (by dropping off), but it still took them 10 working days (as promised) to process, and although I'd included a note saying I would pick it up, when I phoned on Day11, the chap had to rescue the envelope from the mailroom - but in the end I saved another day there.

Stickandrudderman - I read the post you mention back when you originally posted it, and I remember I stared at the photos with a combination of slack jaw & green envy. I was still a "lurker" in those days, and didn't leave a comment - but I was certainly inspired.

sollas - You sound like you've cracked most of your ground exams, but I took a deliberate 3 months break from flying last winter (the weather was pants anyway), and cracked my exams - I did 5 in that time, and it made such a difference. If I hadn't done that, I think I would probably have reached the end of my training ready for the Skills test, but have been a few exams short. That would have been very fustrating. I also found airquiz.com to be most useful, but the Oxford CDs not so. As G-EMMA mentioned on another thread - the chaps voice is quite soporifc.

Thanks once again to everyone for your support and encouragement.

PS: Jumbo Driver - shouldn't you throttle up in a turn? Or is it different in a seven-forty-seven?

[effortless]

Jumbo Driver - shouldn't you throttle up in a turn? Or is it different in a seven-forty-seven?

Ah Beatnick my son, you are younger than your years. I think that you'll find that a bit of wry humour is at work here. The physics apply just as much to big bits of metal as they do to little ones.

Touring is as it says. Now get off to France and tour round some nice castles in fine weather.

[G CEXO]

Weldone :ok: I havn't felt this feeling yet but hopefully will do quite soon. At the moment im getting as many exams out of the way before I start, hopefully 5 exams by the end of this month.

G-XO

[NorthSouth]

Fuji Abound:You will get bored with flying around the local cabbage patch eventuallyI wouldn't bank on it. Our PPL members never do anything else. Personally I can't understand why they carry on, but it's all they ever seem to do despite all kinds of encouragement and assistance offered to go further afield.
NS

[Lister Noble]

Well I get all my pleasure flying around East Anglia ,on my own, mostly without landing away.
I learnt to fly ,suprisingly,to fly!
I don't want downtime eating a greaseburger or drinking ultra weak coffee.
I don't want the hassle of flying abroad,as my airline pilot PPL pals say,
"let someone else do it mate,sit back and have a G&T"

Lister:)

[effortless]

Yes Lister but doing it around somewhere else can be even more stimulating. I just want to get in and fly but doing it away from home adds to that.

[Fishtailed]

You will get bored with flying around the local cabbage patch eventually
I can't agree with that, and I'm sure there's more out there who just enjoy being UP THERE!
I can't understand why they carry on
I can. The local area is never the same twice for allsorts of reasons, different crops at different times of year, different light giving different shadows, new buildings, buildings dissapearing, floods, tides, etc. I fly so I can look down on a living map, I don't want to fly in bad weather or in the dark. In twenty years I have done some landaways, had some good days out with the wife and kids, but I will never be bored with Fleetwood-Garstang-Kirkham.:):):)

[Fuji Abound]

I can't agree with that, and I'm sure there's more out there who just enjoy being UP THERE!

Well I hope so. The drop out rate is enormous. It would be intersting to know what the main factors involved are.

[effortless]

The drop out rate is enormous

Well I, for one, am probably glad of that. Imagine how crowded the circuit would get if they all kept at it!:eek:

It would be intersting to know what the main factors involved are.
Dosh!

[DavidHoul52]

I will never be bored with Fleetwood-Garstang-Kirkham


.. and you have the Lake District and the Yorkshire moors within spitting distance!!

[DavidHoul52]

You will get bored with flying around the local cabbage patch eventually

Head for the Highlands! Breathtaking scenery and local flying clubs rates more reasonable than in the South.

[Human Factor]

What is "touring"?

Getting away from the £100 bacon buttie. I'm referring to heading for Europe for a week for example, or the Highlands and islands and clocking up some serious hours. My in-laws do quite a bit and seem to head for Germany and France several times a year for a few days.

My aeroplane won't get that far unfortunately but then I prefer flying upside-down or near other aeroplanes. One day I'll get to do both at the same time with any luck. :}

[Fishtailed]

.. and you have the Lake District and the Yorkshire moors within spitting distance!!


Exactly, over Morcambe Bay, up Coniston, down Windermere, 60 minutes.
Bloody marvelouse!!:ok::ok::ok:

And when you can see things like this

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f280/fishtailed/Lakes016.jpg
it's all worth the effort, don't you think?

[Sultan Ismail]

Congratulations Beatnik
enjoy the moment and enjoy the future.
You have the right attitude "let the real learning now begin!!"
Cabbage patch or touring it's all the same, you are in control of your destiny.
I've been "learning" for 39 years and I still get the same thrill when that brown book with very faded gold lettering gets the annual stamp.
Well done
Sultan Ismail

[sollas]

Thanks beatnik :ok: