PPL

[londonboi1985]

hi there hope your all well i am knew to this so please be nice lol

i currently work on the railways as a driver and i wanting to take my PPL

i have never flowing before although play flight sim quite a bit.

i live in south london near croydon and was wondering the following

how much roughly is it to gain your ppl
where is best to do it in south london
also as i work shifts on the railways am i committed to doing certain days or is it flexible around me

many thanks and sorry for the questions

[Gertrude the Wombat]

On the last question, you book lessons when you want them. If you're not constrained to weekends, as many student pilots are, you'll probably find it easier than others to get aircraft and instructor availability.

[IrishJason]

Depending on how good you are budget 12-15k and about a year of your time if your doing say a day or two a week.. It cost me about 120 an hour and 50 for the instructor. You need 50 hours but most go over this, then there's exams, paper work, expenses etc

[stevelup]

There's no way it will cost anything close to 12k let alone 15k

The place I learned is currently charging £7810 for 45 hours of training + 120 landings at Gloucester. That includes all the exams and the skills test.

So if it took an extra five hours, that's still less than £9K.

Allow £200-300 for equipment and books (or much less if you scavenge around on eBay).

[Gertrude the Wombat]

So if it took an extra five hours
Some people manage it in that, others need rather more. Without knowing anything about the OP wouldn't 60 hours be a reasonable starting point for guessing? And if you're learning somewhere that charges £180 that comes to £11k ... so £12k sounds like a reasonable estimate.

[Heston]

Lots less if you go the microlight route...

[stevelup]

The original poster is 27, so should be in with a chance of doing it in low-ish hours?

I accept your argument that it could be more than my example, but £15k is pretty unlikely

[Maoraigh1]

If you can get the money together, the cheapest way is to do it full time on holiday. I did that at Thruxton. (Total cost £137.50, including board - summer 1964.)

[Crash one]

(Total cost £137.50, including board - summer 1964.)

Yep Summer 64 the Queen was paying me £7 a week to drive a crash waggon. 137~ 4/5 months pay. Today 4/5 months pay ~£10K+. It's cheaper now at about £8K.

[Pilot.Lyons]

Wow! :)

Cost me about £6500 in 2011

£12 to £15 does sound a bit expensive but its down to the individual.

Having flight sim experience could help a lot especially if you get your flight sim ppl :)

[Charlie Zulu]

Wow a PPL is expensive nowadays! Approximately £5000 here for 65 hours in a PA38 and all equipment etc. That was back in 1998... then I went onto fly a Beagle Pup in a non-equity group for £32 per TACH hour all inclusive, oh they were the days! :-)

Anyway I digress, my advice is to pop along to your local airfields (Biggin Hill, Fairoaks and Redhill spring to mind) and visit every club on each airfield. Get a feel for them, see how they welcome you and answer your questions. Each club will have a different vibe and pick the one that you believe is right for you. After all you're going to be spending not only a lot of money but also a lot of your spare time at the club whilst learning to fly.

Pick a couple of clubs that you like the feel of and take a trial lesson with each of them. No-one is on "trial" but you can use this to familiarise yourself not only with the aircraft but also the style of instruction. Each instructor is different and I personally believe it is good if you gel and the instructor teaches in the style that best suites your way of learning.

Check for hidden fees such as landing fees, touch and go fees, whether the hourly charge is Hobbs, Brakes to Brakes, Tachometer, or a combination thereof. Some schools charge Take Off to Landing + 10 minutes.

For instance Hobbs time is calculated from the moment you start the engine to the time you stop the engine after your sortie and is in real-time whereas Brakes to Brakes is from the moment you start taxiing for departure until you park the aircraft after landing.

Don't put any unnecessary pressure upon yourself as learning to fly should be enjoyable. Don't be worried if you take 25 hours to solo and the wiz kid next to you took only 8 hours, everyone has their own pace of learning and that wiz kid may take longer to get the hang of navigation whereas you may sail through that part of the course.

Above all else enjoy yourself.

Have fun!

[Whirlybird]

Being Midlands based and previously in North Wales, I can't really help. Biggin Hill is probably closest, but also expensive I think - I'm really out of touch with this aspect of things.

[Saab Dastard]

The thread drift on throttle & elevator has been moved to:

http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/518036-throttle-elevator-does-what.html

SD