PPL currency

[crazypilot]

Sorry, I know this is a slightly dozy question, but how many hours flying do I have to do per year in order to keep my PPL (A) validated? I am at uni so the minimum is all I can afford!!

Cheers

CP

[Bloody long way down]

Crazy,

Provided you have a JAA licence which I assume you do, technically you do not have to fly at all within the first year of holding your licence.

However within the second year you must have completed at least 12 hours flying and a minimum of 12 Take-off and Landings. If you are unable to complete this I believe you will have to arrange a flight with a CAA examiner.

If you've managed to complete the 12 hours all you have to do then to re-validate it is take it to the CAA and they will approve it.

Hope this helps

P.S. Please if I am at all wrong somebody correct me. :rolleyes:

[crazypilot]

Excellent - that was what I was hoping you would say--- someone told me it was 12 hrs per year. I got my licence last summer & have only done 2 hours.

Cheers

[Tee]

As I understand it:-

At least 12 hours in the 12 months preceding revalidation (of which 6 hours must be P1), 12 takeoffs and landings PLUS a flight of at least 1 hour with an Instructor during which specified items will be covered (details probably on CAA website). The Instructor, if satisfied, signs the logbook.

[Whirlybird]

Tee is correct, except that it's 12 hours INCLUDING the hour with the instructor.

[FNG]

An alternative approach, which some might consider controversial:-

Might it not be (a) cheaper and (b) more importantly, safer, to discontinue flying until you can afford to fly much more than the minimum? With respect, if you have only flown two hours since you obtained your licence and are thinking of flying only another ten hours during the two year period from licence issue, your flying skills will be at risk of atrophy.

The money you spend renting an aircraft for the very few hours needed to remain legal might not be well spent, as each time you come to fly you are likely to be so rusty that you will be working hard just to get back to the standard you were at last time you flew. Even instructors say that if they don't fly for, say, six weeks at a stretch they feel rusty. I recently had a five week layoff and then came close to breaking my aeroplane, if not my neck, the next time I took it out to play. Currency and recency are everything, unless, or perhaps even if, you are Biggles' more talented brother.

If you allow your licence to lapse until you have a few more quid to spend on flying, you can renew it later by taking some refresher training and flying with an examiner. Of course this will cost money, but it might be money better spent than the same amount or more eked out over a year or so on very occasional flights.

As for the one hour with an instructor, any hour logged dual with an instructor in command is sufficient for revalidation purposes, but the CAA sensibly recommend that the flight should cover some basics such as stalls, PFLs etc. The flight is increasingly becoming referred to as a BFR (from the American "Biennial Flight Review") although this is not its official title. I think that, despite the views of some grizzled PPLs who appear to resent having to subject their flying to any form of review, it is a very good thing.

Lastly, does your university have an Air Squadron and/or gliding club? It might be possible to fly more than the minimum even whilst on a student's meagre income.