Aero Eng/Flying (Glasgow)

[Scott Duch]

I'm currently at the University of Glasgow studying Aero eng and enjoying it. A challenge yet all the hard paid off when it came the the December exams. My dream is to become an Airline pilot once (if) I graduate from university. I was wanting to know in the mean time however, if it's worth seeking flying lessons or if I should just leave this for when I can fully focus my efforts on flying.
My net experience is 2 hours flying a Cessna 152 from Glenrothes, Fife (my local airfield as my hometown is Dunfermline). I have flown around the the Forth road/rail bridges, up to Leuchars doing general handling and back to the airfield to do circuits.
Is it in my best interests to fly and study at the same time? If so, any recommendations for flying at Glasgow/Prestwick?

Any comments/suggestions are greatly appreciated.:ok:

[Vulcan607]

Scott,

you've got a lecturer at Glasgow Uni who you should have a chat with, you'll probably find him on this as India Mike, but go and speak to Dr Houston........good guy and I'm sure he'll give you good advice.

As for doing the degree, I work with 1 guy who has already done your course and another mate of mine has done it too, both I think had their PPL's by time they finished their degree, then after their degrees started the ATPL's and all the commercial training.

Best of luck

[mad_jock]

Nah wait a bit.

Go and join the university gliding club its way cheaper and a good excuse to bugger off for the weekend up north. Saves giving all your money to the Beer bar.

Once you have a license it costs money to maintain and you never know whats going to happen in the future.

If you really must go and learn to fly now. Prestwick flying Club are a friendly bunch the wx down there can only really be beaten by Inverness in Scotland.

BTW a bit naughty outing someone on pprune

[Aerouk]

Prestwick Flying Club and the Flight Centre are both fantastic places to fly, the instructors are great!

PIK is also a great airport to learn to fly at with great controllers, a huge runway, great weather (compared to other places in Scotland) and a huge variation of traffic from military fighter aircraft to Air France B747 or private jets.

[Scott Duch]

Thanks for all the great advice. I shall look into it further. :ok:

[Callsign Kilo]

I would really push the gliding club route, plus are the UAS still in operation out of Glasgow or have they Foxtrot Oscared?

I second getting in contact with Stuart Houston. Great guy with a lot of experience in the GA world. Flies from Prestwick Flying Club which in my opinion would be one of the best places in Scotland (if not the UK) to achieve a PPL due to the quality of the instructors.

There is no rush to join the commercial world just now. Its as dead as a dodo in terms of recruitment. Get a bit of flying in parallel with your studies and try to look into the routes mentioned above as these are probably the best bet.

Always wondered why potential airline pilots embarked on a 4 or 5 year Aeronautical Engineering course nowadays though. Not knocking you at all, however unfortunately your degree may do little for you when it comes to job hunting. It certainly would have got you a look in at BA when their sponsorship schemes were running pre 9/11. Unfortunately now it is all about how much cash you have in your pocket due to the overall expense of commercial training in general.

Best of luck with it all and enjoy Glasgow. Great night life if nothing else! :E

[Scott Duch]

Hey, I'll try and have a word with him and see what route I can follow.
Yeah, the plan was straight after school head into commerical flight training then everything collapsed. After long discussions with my parents it was decided to go an get a degree, mature and gain more life experience before even thinking getting my hands on the money to pay for training.
During the summer before I went the university I did some work experience at FMC Technologies in Dunfermline. I was shadowing an engineer and he gave me alot of advice (what to do during uni and after) and he said that the type of degree I would end up with would qualify me nicely for their graduate scheme. If I were to be employed by a company such as that, I could fly as I can afford and avoid such debt.
With my current age and the options open to me and baring in the mind the current industry I just want to look at every option open to me. :)

[Scott Diamond]

If you go and get a degree etc, would you really want to become a pilot? Why not use your degree and get a good paying job and keep flying as a hobby - then you don't have to worry about sticking your arse in the air at management in airlines just to get you a job or keep you there for more than 6 months. :ok:

Vulcan I suggest you edit your original post and remove forum names... not great name dropping members :ok:

[Aerouk]

Good luck with it! Stuart flies a rather nice Chipmunk so make sure you ask him for a shot :P

I agree, if you can get a well paid job from your degree then keep it as a hobby! If you speak to the likes of Mr Maric (CFI, current airline pilot) he'll be telling you the exact same thing :}

[Scott Duch]

Haha! I'll bare that in mind Aerouk. Thanks for all the sound advice.

[Scott Duch]

Now that I'm home for a few weeks off Uni, I was thinking how useful Flight Simulator would be towards future flying in the real world. I understand that it's rather useless for feeling how an aircraft flies but what about in terms of instruments? I have flown the Cessna 172 in Flight Sim and also the 747 with the FMC, overhead panels, PFD, MCP etc.... What are your thoughts on this? Sorry for bringing this topic up again.:)

[Genghis the Engineer]

Now that I'm home for a few weeks off Uni, I was thinking how useful Flight Simulator would be towards future flying in the real world. I understand that it's rather useless for feeling how an aircraft flies but what about in terms of instruments? I have flown the Cessna 172 in Flight Sim and also the 747 with the FMC, overhead panels, PFD, MCP etc.... What are your thoughts on this? Sorry for bringing this topic up again.:)

At your stage in flying, over-reliance upon instruments can be very detremental. So, I'd actually caution that until you're reasonably well developed in your training (say, post-solo) time spent on something like MS Flight Sim may actually slow up your flight training, since real little aeroplane flying is much more reliant upon feel and looking out of the window, than it is upon "flying by numbers", which inevitably is what you're doing on a PC based flight simulator.

G

['India-Mike]

Echo Genghis. Hand-flying is a motor skill, learned and hard-wired into the brain, in effect. That's why I suspect my FI instructor told me that it's important to get the first 20 hours right - get those right and everything else follows. There is a danger with desktop sims (as indeed there is with any sim) that your first 20 will be corrupted in some way with negative learning.

As an indication of the potential adverse influence with a 'simulator', the device I used for my IR tended to roll before it yawed when an engine was failed. I therefore watched the AI rather than the DI to catch the inevitable fail on the go-around from minimums, using aileron then rudder. This most definitely WOULD NOT WORK in the real aircraft, where yaw came first and required the correct strategy (rudder then aileron).

I have heard it said that MS FlightSim is of benefit for more advanced training, in particular the IR. I didn't find that to be the case and stuck with RANT.

Get flying, especially for the first 20 hours.

Personal view only, ready to be shot down by proper pilots:E

[Genghis the Engineer]

Personal view only, ready to be shot down by proper pilots:E

Is that the pilots who can't fly without a printed checklist nor cope with vintage taildraggers? - preferring to fly everything as if it was an airliner?

G :cool:

[Scott Duch]

Thanks for the advice! Much appreciated. I do have some money saved from work and with my studying in Glasgow I'll be spending most my time there. Do you recommend flight schools at either EGPF/EGPK to build upon my foundation of flying that I got from Tayside Aviation at Glenrothes? Thanks.:)

['India-Mike]

Genghis - a 'proper' pilot is one not tainted by being an engineer too:E

SD - will PM reply