PPL part time?

[Captain_Bolt]

Hi All,

I hope you're all well.

I've finally decided to take the plunge (financial as well as mental!) and complete a PPL.

At this moment in time however, I am currently working full time and I wanted to gauge from the many initiated on this site if it was wise to do a PPL only on the weekends? Perhaps maybe two lessons on a weekend? Or maybe even one? I'm not too sure what kind of effect this will have on my learning or if its even a wise idea.

Thankfully my current career path doesn't encroach into my weekends (as many are beginning too) so that should leave my weekends somewhat clear.

A PPL part time right now looks like it'll take me about a year to finish, seems like a long time too me, however, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I've tried to search for similar topics here but I didn't turn anything extensive up, so your thoughts and opinions would be really welcome.

Thank you very much for all your help,

Adam

[Whiskey Kilo Wanderer]

Hi Adam,

I think you will find that most people have done their PPL ‘part time’ as you put it. I’ve known of a few people who have done the PPL in one block (of three or four weeks), usually in the USA. It works for some people, but not for others.

As you may have gathered from this and other forums, the weather in the UK means that you can’t guarantee to get all your flights in on consecutive weekends. If you have some flexibility to take the odd day off work for things like a Qualifying Cross Country, it might help. Particularly if your work is flexible enough for this to be at short notice.

You may find that having the week to think about what you did last weekend and to prepare for next weekend, will help the learning process. Sometimes with intense learning experiences it’s useful to have some time to let it sink in.

Unless you have some prior experience, say gliding or Air Cadets, you may find that you take longer than the minimum hours required for the licence. Over twenty years ago when I did my PPL I’d written myself off as rubbish because I’d taken 53 hours, then I found the average was 63 hours so didn’t feel so bad….

One piece of advice frequently proffered at this stage is “Don’t Pay Up Front”. The financial state of many organisations is tenuous and some folks have lost quite a bit of the money they had paid in advance for the course. Pay as you go may not earn an introductory discount, but if there are problems later, at least the money side won’t be one of them.

Welcome to the wonderful world of flying.

Richard W.

[thing]

If you can get a couple of lessons in a week on average you should sail through it provided you don't have any issues. 6 months maybe? IMO the more flying you can get in the better when you're training. It took me about 4 months doing around three lessons a week on average. Sometimes I did no flying for days because of the weather, other times I flew every day for five or six days. Don't forget now the lighter nights are coming up you might be able to get some trips in after work (depending what you do obviously)

Try and get the exams out of the way because it's surprising how the time creeps up on you. Good luck and enjoy it!

[Straighten Up]

I did my PPL part time from May 2012 to June 2013. I was flying near London (Stapleford) and lost a good chunk of time to Olympic flight restrictions and weather. The weather was the most frustrating as availability was quite tight both for my instructor and for me working every other Saturday and improbably lost about a 1/4 of booked lessons.

I think without working weekends and Olympic restrictions and a small amount of luck with wx, you should've able to finish by early autumn if you fly every weekend.

I'd second the advice on getting the exams started ASAP - you probably can't solo until you have air law - and also get your medical done ASAP (get class 1 if you plan to go commercial, class 2 if not)

I did make the decision to pay up front - many people for good reasons suggest not doing this but I paid on credit card and think I would have been protected if anything happened. Also the school is well established with lots of aircraft and commercial students and a good track record. Good luck and enjoy. I did.

[Captain_Bolt]

Hi All,

These replies were a real pleasure to read, such honest positive comments. I've attempted to distill the following comments just in case someone finds this thread in the future.

So it looks like the following things are important;


Be wary of paying in advance, pay a manageable portion on credit card if you can to take advantages of discounts but if you can't don't worry too much
Gaining a PPL part time can be achieved, be wary of the weather and instructor availability on the weekends.
Don't leave theory late, try and start it at the earliest opportunity.
Whilst weekend flying will get you the PPL, try, if possible, to take a few days off to do some cross country flying or get in some extra flying where possible.
Enjoy it!


If anybody has anything else to add both myself and future readers of this thread would really be most appreciative.

Thanks again,

Adam

[A and C]

I agree with most of the advice form those above and as the owner of an aviation business if I was walking in off the street I would not pay me any money up front !!!!

Finding a training provider can be quite a problem, the standard of instructors is so variable, the young keen ones are usually OK but lack the airmanship that comes with thousands of hours of flying, the old ex- airline or military guys are the best they have nothing to prove and lots of experience.

Avoid like the plague and one who is quick to tell you he is trapped in the instructing game because he can't get an airline job......... He will not have your interests at heart.

AIRMANSHIP ! You will come across this word from day one in training it should be common sense applied to aviation however some in the business have been applying airmanship to acts that they don't understand the reason for because it has always been done that way and turning it into a black art.

If you don't understand the reason that an act of "airmanship" is being required of you please ask you instructor to tell you the reason you are doing this, after all it is his job. I could go on about this but I can tell you that there are places in the UK that are still operating American engines to some of the operating procedures for Gypsy engines, some of these practices are in direct contravention of American service instructions.

READ the FLIGHT MANUAL ( or POH) this is the bible for flying your aircraft know it inside out, I give the new student a question paper and the FM and tell him to find the answers, it gets the guys looking through the book, if you can't get hold of a flight manual copy walk out the door...... It is not the place to learn to fly.

The flight manual gives a set of speeds & settings to fly the aircraft, these are based on MTOW and as you are very likely to be below MTOW when flying as a student this builds in a little more safety but if you are told to fly an approach at a speed that results in exceeding 1.3 Vs threshold speed by more than 2 or 3 Kts this will result in poor landings NOT additional safety.

I hope this will help you avoid some of the pitfalls of learning to fly, I was very lucky as all my instructors were old timers who instructed to keep themselves active in retirement.

Finally I will leave you with a bit of advice from one of the old guys who instructed me.............. " Lookout... In my day we had to keep a good lookout to avoid an ME109 drilling a hole in my back...... Being hit by another PA28 will kill you just as dead ".