Ppl

[fmardani]

Hi,
Can anyone point me to the right direction please?
I have passed all the ground exams for the PPL except the Radio telephony (Oral).
I would like to start the flying hours. Here in London it works out to be about £120 per hour. I know that on average about 50 hours is required before the actual PPL exam.
So is it best to go outside UK? if so which countries? Any suggestions from past experiences?
Thank you all;-)

[Megaton]

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52501

[MJR]

One school of thought says if you are going to fly in the UK, then learn in the UK.

You should be able to do better tha £120 an our if you are prepared to buy a package of flying.

For the pro's and con's of learning abroad search these forums with the appropriate function and I'm sure most your questions will be answered. Whatever you do don't mention Ormond beach unless you want to start a long fruitless debate.

TTFN

MJR

[Lucifer]

You can get better deals travelling up North and staying in cheap accomodation while you do it IMHO. Certainly would want to do at least some training in the UK before going lose on your own as it is different from the US for example.

[ETOPS773]

If your on a tight budget,you might consider doing your flying in the USA (Nothing wrong with OB.)/ or somewhere else.

Do remeber,the RT abroad is very different,so you may want to do your RT oral before you go,and stick to what you know,not learn bad habits.Also goes for joining methods / instructions.

I know for a fact you can get 1 hour for £100 in a C150 at EGKA..and remeber ,when you go solo,you don`t pay the instructor do you..thus saving £25 or so...:p

Good luck in however you choose to do it.

[Evo7]

Better to learn where you intend to fly IMHO.

The other question you need to ask yourself is - if you cannot afford to learn in the UK then can you afford to fly here once you have a licence? There's an interesting thread about remaining current (from which you can guess the costs). Worth a look.

[Romeo Romeo]

There are several aspects to flying an aeroplane. There are the basic motor-skills - making it go where you want, which I would say were perhaps the most difficult bit of learning to fly initially. It doesn't really matter where you learn these.

There's navigation which is also quite tricky. Part of this is the basic 'pilotage and dead reckoning' skill - learning what to look for and making sure you fly accurate headings with the correct checks (it doesn't matter too much where you learn this), then there's knowledge of the surrounding area and knowing that the lake over there is Blah Lake and that road is the A53 and so on - which you can only get by doing a fair amount of flying in that area.

There is also RT - which you only really get the hang of with experience. RT in the states is quite a lot different from this country, so really you would be better off doing that in this country.

There's weather - the weather in the UK is quite a bit different to the weather in the states and the knowledge of where to expect clouds (over the Pennines) and how to avoid them (staying to the east of the Pennines, for example) is only something you'll find out over here.

And there decision-making. It's a beautiful day but is it too windy to go out flying with this girl I'm trying to impress now that we're at the airfield and loads of other (more experienced) pilots are flying? This really only comes with hours and a few scares!

I learnt over in the States (at Ormond beach, which was OK - the teachers were good, however having said that, there were aspects of it which I didn't like, and I have to say I wouldn't go back for more training there). When I started flying back in the UK, I was not confident about navigating or talking on the radio here. To sort these problems out I did an IMC course here, which was 15 hours of navigating by navaids, talking to ATC and flying with an instructor in some pretty awful weather conditions.

If I were going to do this again, I'd learn in the states then spend several hours flying in this country with an instructor to learn about flying over here. That way, you'll get more hours for your money.

[FlyingForFun]

All good advice.

No reason not to learn in the USA, or anyone else that's cheaper than here, if you want to get your PPL in the shortest time possible. You'll definitely need a few hours once you get back here, though. I did it the other way around - got my PPL in the UK, then went to the USA to do some hour-building, and it is quite different.

I didn't have too much problem with the R/T (the Americans tend to be far less formal in some areas, and I'd imagine that if you learnt over there, you might have trouble for an hour or two once you get back to the UK). But I did find navigation very different. I was flying in Arizona, and, when I looked at a chart for the first time, I was horrified! I couldn't understand how anyone could navigate when it was hundreds of miles from one town to the next, there was just one main road through the whole of the southern part of the State, and all the rivers were dry! "Easy - you use mountains" the instructors told me! Mountains? But there were mountains everywhere, and they all looked the same! How could I tell where I was by looking at big lumps of rock?

Well, I did a 3.5 hour cross-country with an instructor (which also covered some general mountain flying techniques), and after that I was reasonably happy. And by the time I came back to England, 2 months and 100 flying hours later, I found flying around London difficult for an hour or two because there were no mountains to navigate by!

Loads of fun, great experience, and it's made me a much more versatile pilot. But those few hours of dual flying were definitely necessary.

Have fun!

FFF
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[notice]

This proves, again, that nowhere, or nothing, suits everyone and don't forget that private flying is NEVER cheap. It is certainly much cheaper and arguably better in the US, OZ, SA etc. but you will need to travel there and buy a significant amount of time/training to make your trip worthwhile.

The different weather/RT in UK is a point and we fly on the left ! but differences are helpful because they add to one's knowledge and experience. Proper briefing and local 'knowledge' are always important but BEWARE- familiarity breeds contempt.

Although awareness of (stereo)typical local conditions is essential, nothing and no-one should ever be relied upon. Even if you've flown in an area regularly, there is an ever present risk and likelihood that, one fine day as they say, there'll be something nasty you 'weren't expecting' or 'hadn't noticed'.

Flying in any new, to you, area or equipment requires basic briefing and training. You might (think you) know everything about East of the Pennines, or East of Orlando, but you would obviously research local conditions and practices if you then went flying South of the Downs, or South of the Sierra Nevada. So, whether or not it's in a different country, anywhere new is always 'foreign'.

On the cost of a JAA PPL, I have copied my earlier posting below

To illuminate, for the benefit of the starters (as well as the knockers and schools sneakily selling, on PPRUNE), I have summarised the best offers from July's 'Pilot' magazine.

BTW, I am not recommending anywhere, as individual preferences are different and, if you have plenty of cash and time, you may prefer your local place, rather than a short course.
Also, be warned that any adverts./prices which quote 'per hour' or for a 'course' or 'inclusive' may still require you to spend a lot more money on what they say are essential, or other, extras, in order to obtain a valid licence application. Therefore, make sure you get a WRITTEN quote of the cost, of everything involved, direct from ANYWHERE you're considering.

£4050 (CLACTON) 01255 424671
£3995 (PRESTWICK) 01292 476523
$4495 (EFT) 001 561 466 4757
£2695* (OBA) 0800 892133
$3995 (BFC) 001 863 291 0992
£2995 (OFT) 001 407 518 7766

* price 'including night qualification and radio telephony'