Where to train!!

[tbullen747]

Hey,
I'm 16, hopefully doing my PPL next year if I can get the money sorted,

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on where I should train (I'm in the north west of England)

And also if anyone reccomends I need to buy any equiptment e.g. headsets, charts etc...

Thanks a lot,
Tom:ok:

[julian_storey]

1) Choice of school

I'm not in your area, so I can't help with regard to choosing a specific club / school although in my view, the choice of instructor is much more important than the choice of school.

It's quite a few years now since I first learned to fly, but (and this is going to spark controversy!) PERSONALLY, I found that I got much better instruction and progressed much faster with an older, experienced career instructor than I did with a very pleasant, but much less experienced young chap who was only really there to build hours.


2) Equipment

People will often try to persuade you that you will need all manner of 'equipment' in order to learn to fly. Some will do this to make money out of you (flying school) others will do it because they don't know any better and genuinely believe that you need a huge leather case full of 'stuff' that you will probably never use :-)

You will need the following:

i) A headset. EBAY is a good source for these.

ii) A set of books to study for your PPL writtens. Again buy on EBAY, then maybe sell again when your exams are passed :-)

iii) A scale ruler

iv) A square protractor

v) A 'whiz wheel' - just buy a cheap cardboard one. Don't waste loads of money on a fancy one. I bought a cardboard one almost 12 years ago when I first started flying - and I still have it now!

vi) A chart once you get onto navigation (they go out of date - so use your instructors to begin with).

vii) Some felt tip pens / chinagraph pencil to write on the chart.

viii) A log book.

iv) Maybe a cheap kneeboard.

I can't think of anything else ;)