Biggin Hill or stapleford
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Join Date: Nov 2006
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Biggin Hill or stapleford
i was going to to my PPL and narrowed it down to two schools. biggin hill and stapleford. i did an introductory flight at biggin hill and it went well. but i also attended an open day for stapleford and it wernt bad. so anyone whos done their ppls at any of these schools, could you give recommendations on where to go?
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It depends what you want, Biggin 2 long concrete runways ILS Radar ( Thames) approach and tower, Bar. Stapleford half concrete runway man in shed for control, Bar. I am biased both my parents learnt to fly at Biggin as did I and I still teach up there sometimes, which school did you talk to at Biggin as there are several?
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One big plus for Stapleford is that landing fees are included in the hourly rate, so circuits don't cost an additional arm and a leg on top of the aircraft hire. Check what the situation is at Biggin. You will probably get a discount, but even so, it will still be an extra expense to find.
The hard runway at Stapleford is fine. It's good practice getting down in 450 metres on 22L with its displaced threshold. No problem for touch and goes. The only thing during the winter months is that the grass is too boggy to taxi on so you can get held up at the hold waiting for people to backtrack. But at a busy place like Biggin, you probably have to wait as well. So, check to see how the different schools charge. If you're on Hobbs it is clocking up all the time and can get very expensive waiting in a queue, less so with tacho.
I haven't flown from Stapleford for a while, but it used to charge take off to landing plus five minutes at each end for taxying/power checks.
The hard runway at Stapleford is fine. It's good practice getting down in 450 metres on 22L with its displaced threshold. No problem for touch and goes. The only thing during the winter months is that the grass is too boggy to taxi on so you can get held up at the hold waiting for people to backtrack. But at a busy place like Biggin, you probably have to wait as well. So, check to see how the different schools charge. If you're on Hobbs it is clocking up all the time and can get very expensive waiting in a queue, less so with tacho.
I haven't flown from Stapleford for a while, but it used to charge take off to landing plus five minutes at each end for taxying/power checks.
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I stopped flying from Biggin after waiting 25 minutes at the hold one summer Sunday. At £60 per hour I felt that was £25 wasted. Now that rental rates have doubled, I would feel even more upset!!
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I'm learning at Biggin, which school(s) did you visit?
IIRC the weekend rate for a t+g is about £7 per circuit - once you're out of the circuit you can go to places like Headcorn for cheaper circuits and a grass runway
It does get busy on occasion but very rare that you have to wait long - the tower are pretty good at telling you "the circuit is full" if you call up and would have a long wait.
IIRC the weekend rate for a t+g is about £7 per circuit - once you're out of the circuit you can go to places like Headcorn for cheaper circuits and a grass runway
It does get busy on occasion but very rare that you have to wait long - the tower are pretty good at telling you "the circuit is full" if you call up and would have a long wait.
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I'd go with Stapleford (hands down, with no hesitation) -- my experience of a PPL there a few years back was one of an extremely friendly, competent club. It is (or at least, used to be!) a wonderful place, and certainly cheap (compared to a lot of places), not least because of the free landings... 
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I did the introduction lesson at the cabair school. stapleford quote 4-6 weeks full time for the PPL. is that accurate? can it get done in that kind of time at biggin? the weather is so bad now i was planning on just finishing college and doing the PPL full time in the summer. so wanted to know if that prediction was a good one for how long to complete. and also, if i was doing the course full time is it 2 lessons a day you would have? this is what i heard.
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Try Surrey and Kent flying club at Biggin and try to get the CFI to teach you, friendly club all career instructors, the CFI has been there for 25 plus years and they have some Airline pilots do some part time teaching. Problem with the likes of Cabair most of the instructors are all kids with 200 hours who don't want to be there hour building to go onto better things.
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I did my PPL at EFG at Biggin Hill, quality school got the job done. All very friendly etc. Think the are going to add a mooney to the fleet soon and heard they are also expanding the rest of the fleet in the not so distant future. Biggin Hill as an airport is pretty much luxury and landing fees can cost an arm and a leg but as someone mentioned you can just fly to another airfield and get your costs reduced. Its a busy airport but that can help in some aspects of flying, for example you wont get so nervous talking to proper ATC etc. I can not comment on stapleford really, have heard good things. Also take in consideration travelling time to get to these airports this might add to your cost quite a bit.
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Sorry Norton I did not read your last question very well, If the weather is good enough yes you could do it in your summer holidays. If I was teaching you I would recomend between two and three trips a day but no more, the way to do it at Bigin is use it as a base and do the circuit training at either Headcorn, Rochester or lydd and use the legs between for other parts of the syllabus, I have taught someone like this and it works very well.
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I did my PPL with Cabair, Biggin Hill and I'm doing my ATPL with Stapleford. As far as instructor quality is concerned, there really isn't much in it. Stapleford, however, is cheaper and has a much more friendly atmosphere so I would say do your PPL there. But it also depends where you live. I live 15 mins from Biggin and an hours drive from Stapleford but with so many a/c, you can almost always guarantee that there will be one available for you so is worth the travel in my view.
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