Starting out with flight training!

[pilotbarony]

Hello,

I am 15 years old & looking to start out with getting a PPL. I've had a couple of trial lessons - they were great!

The only thing holding me back is the cost of flying. Is there anyway to avoid paying the full fare? There are people I know that used to go & wash the airplanes for their club or do the books, and in return got their license. I don't suppose these things happen any more nowadays?

Would love some feedback from you knowledgeable people.

[kghjfg]

How about gliding ?

It's an excellent route into flying if money is tight. It helps not having to feed petrol to a big spinny thing at the front.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Welcome to the madhouse PB.

Many gliding clubs have cadet membership.

There is the Air Cadets, although they're not in a good place at the moment for flying.

Air Scouts are better.

There are scholarships through various organisations such as the Air League, British Women Pilots Association, British Microlight Aircraft Association. The Internet is your friend there.


There may yet be opportunities to work for flying lessons at a flying school. It's certainly happened to my knowledge, but it's pretty rare. No harm in trying - put the emphasis on your enthusiasm for mucking in and for aviation in general!

And you can always consider a military flying career if you're from a less well off family, but might be high motivation and high ability. Frankly, I'd rather fly an Apache or a Typhoon than an Airbus any day!

G

[Pilot DAR]

Welcome Pilotbarony,

There's lot's of wisdom here, and perhaps a connection for you here. Your best opportunity to enter piloting at a lower cost is to demonstrate your eagerness to a sympathetic pilot owner, who might take you along, and get you started. But entering the "formal" flight training environment will require "payment", be it from you, or perhaps a scholarship. When a training aircraft flies, even gliding, a number of people have had to work to enable that, and would like to be paid for their time.

There certainly are generous people in aviation, so don't despair, but in the end, you will have to commit yourself to it! But do, it's really worth it! :)

[pilotbarony]

Hi there,

Thanks for all the replies!

I am already a member of a model flying club, and I have the Bronze certificate (which is the piece of paper that says you won't crash into cars & trees all the time), which I thought would help out with proving my passion for flying.

Also, all the scholarships appear to be for 17 years & up. Should I still attempt to apply for them? Or do I just give in & wait?

Once again, many thanks for the help so far :)

[Pilot DAR]

Pilotbarony,

Yes, as surprised as some here may be to read, I think your Bronze certificate has some value toward your future pilot licensing. Not that you should go waving it around, but it does show that you have some commitment to what you do, and take seriously that standards which others set for a task. You won't need to present your certificate, present yourself, with that serious and respectful attitude, and you'll be well received. You still have to do the work though!

As for model airplanes - Yes! I built model planes as a young person, and indeed professionally for deHavilland Canada for years. Every test pilot memoir I have read, has references to that pilot having started their interest in aviation with model planes. My only caution is that there will come a point when you should shift your budget away from the expense of models, toward full scale airplanes. But that's the money part, you passion is well placed!

[tmmorris]

Gliding is an excellent idea - if you can get some gliding qualifications (much cheaper) it will help prove your motivation etc. when you apply for scholarships.

Are you anywhere near Portmoak http://www.scottishglidingcentre.co.uk/. I appreciate Scotland is a big place. One of my cadets (same age as you) glides there regularly and does a week's gliding camp there each summer: Portmoak are very good at supporting young keen flyers like you and he's very complimentary about them.

[pilotbarony]

Hello,

Thanks again for the information!

I live about 2 buses, 3 trains & 6 hours from Portmoak, so apart from a gliding camp that's not really going to work for me unfortunately.

Strathaven is the closest gliding centre, and that's a few hours away too. The easy airport for me to get to is Cumbernauld, where I've taken some lessons so far. Is it an idea to hang around there a lot? Get my face known? From the model club, which has a lot less of a "money" feel to it, I went up there every club day & people spoke to me & let me try their aircraft too after a while. I'm not sure how the school's work, but there is a prominent money-orientated feel to let you do anything there.

Or should I just keep doing the model aircraft until I'm 17 then do the PPL?

And to add, the local Air Cadets in my area last went flying about 3 years ago. So I want to avoid them. Quite a bit.

Should be my last questions :P

[Fly4Business]

Many things can happen nowadays and they are not much different to before. Don't take the internet cacophony for all of life! The fact that there is no Facebok group named "here you can get you license for free", does NOT mean the old stories of people following their dream and succeed do not come true today. Live offline!

First and most important for a 15 year old, do your parents support you in this dream? You'll need them sometimes.
Second, I don't know what you call "Bronze certificate", but it does do one thing, it is a sign and documents others you are serious. At that age and given your post here, do not follow the ones telling you to wait, keep pace if you really want to do that direction. Resilience is the key to success.

15 was and is an important age for such decision. If you go and make friends at the airfields around, you may be lucky to meet somebody supporting your dream. Yes, there is a lot of things to do, wash windshields, clean hangars, help repairs. If you get free of a "famous by surprise casting show without working hard" and get open to go an old road of journeymanship, you go a proven success route. If you get to know certain pilots, they will take you up and you get some feeling for flying. Try to contact to somebody without an autopilot, they appreciate a second to hold the yoke much more and you may be able to fetch some hours on the yoke in cruise first. Some basic advice on flying you will gather that way and this may enable you later to finish pilots license in the mandatory minimum hours (which are quite a lot, compared to what airmen were used to in the old days of flying - 45 hours may have been a venerable Spitfire pilot with 30 advances to enemy in WW2 ...).

[pilotbarony]

Hi there,

My parents do support me with it, but they don't really have the money to keep me doing this every week.

Should I be showing up at the airfield every week & be getting to know the people that are coming in and out of the club? Do I go there to just sit around or be constantly revising theory? Basically, what would you do if you saw a 15 year old sitting there watching the planes go by?