Top 10 things to do when u get your PPL licence?
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2007
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From: Bucks
Top 10 things to do when u get your PPL licence?
Hi everyone! Has anyone got a top 10 must do list once you get your PPL licence?
I think it'll be interesting finding out what people do!
James
I think it'll be interesting finding out what people do!
James
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 4,598
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From: Amsterdam
1. Cross the channel or more generally fly abroad
2. Take an aircraft for two or more days, including an overnight stay somewhere else (can be combined with 1).
3. Take family/friends
4. Ask for and get permission to fly straight over a major international airport (Schiphol in my case)
5. Fly different aircraft - blag your way into some unofficial P2 time in a twin
6. At the very least take an aerobatics capable aircraft and a good instructor to do some "unusual attitudes", "upset" training or whatever you'd like to call it, and squeeze in some spins, advanced stalls, loops etc. If you like it, do a full aerobatics course
7. Learn how to use GPS, properly
8. Check the notice boards and participate in fly-ins, rallys, club excursions etc.
9. Obviously visit different airfields, including "challenging" ones, and ones where there's something to see/do besides landing, lunching and taking off again.
10. Tell others about your adventures.
2. Take an aircraft for two or more days, including an overnight stay somewhere else (can be combined with 1).
3. Take family/friends
4. Ask for and get permission to fly straight over a major international airport (Schiphol in my case)
5. Fly different aircraft - blag your way into some unofficial P2 time in a twin
6. At the very least take an aerobatics capable aircraft and a good instructor to do some "unusual attitudes", "upset" training or whatever you'd like to call it, and squeeze in some spins, advanced stalls, loops etc. If you like it, do a full aerobatics course
7. Learn how to use GPS, properly
8. Check the notice boards and participate in fly-ins, rallys, club excursions etc.
9. Obviously visit different airfields, including "challenging" ones, and ones where there's something to see/do besides landing, lunching and taking off again.
10. Tell others about your adventures.
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 74
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From: London
My personal ten, 3 years since my PPL.
1. Just have fun on lovely sunny evenings watching the traffic on the M25 not moving why you wander around for 45 mins before having a cold beer back at the club house.
2. Go accross the Channel, better still do it several times.
3. Take your mum for a tour of the Normandy beaches, from above, lunch in Jersey (Old Courthouse Restaurant), and then back to Blightly
4. Hire a plane in America and fly over the Grand Canyon.
5. When you've had a scare in hazy sun, do an IMC, when you enjoy the instrument flying then,
6. Do an IR.
7. Fly into a busy airport with jets, bit scary first time !
8. Fly a complex plane and feel comfortable with the extra challenges.
9. Feel happy with GPS and get in front of the plane
10. After every flight never forget how lucky and honoured we are to have such a great hobby which many of us dream about taking further.
LF
(Great thread idea)
1. Just have fun on lovely sunny evenings watching the traffic on the M25 not moving why you wander around for 45 mins before having a cold beer back at the club house.
2. Go accross the Channel, better still do it several times.
3. Take your mum for a tour of the Normandy beaches, from above, lunch in Jersey (Old Courthouse Restaurant), and then back to Blightly
4. Hire a plane in America and fly over the Grand Canyon.
5. When you've had a scare in hazy sun, do an IMC, when you enjoy the instrument flying then,
6. Do an IR.
7. Fly into a busy airport with jets, bit scary first time !
8. Fly a complex plane and feel comfortable with the extra challenges.
9. Feel happy with GPS and get in front of the plane
10. After every flight never forget how lucky and honoured we are to have such a great hobby which many of us dream about taking further.
LF
(Great thread idea)
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 376
Likes: 0
From: surrey
1) Try a few different aircraft
2) Do a tailwheel check-out (typically 5 hours)
3) Buy a share in the aircraft of your dreams (or a Cherokee)
4-10) Do seven other flying things for about half the cost than if you were renting
2) Do a tailwheel check-out (typically 5 hours)
3) Buy a share in the aircraft of your dreams (or a Cherokee)
4-10) Do seven other flying things for about half the cost than if you were renting
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 168
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From: UK
1. Learn what the "L" in PPL stands for.
2. Realise that a "PPL license" is therefore a somewhat poor use of language, much like the oft-used nowadays "PIN number".
3. Realise you've turned into a grumpy old man.
4. Realise you've also made no useful contribution to an interesting thread.
5. Apologise.
6. Decide to go to bed.
7-10. Fill space as you have no imagination.
2. Realise that a "PPL license" is therefore a somewhat poor use of language, much like the oft-used nowadays "PIN number".
3. Realise you've turned into a grumpy old man.
4. Realise you've also made no useful contribution to an interesting thread.
5. Apologise.
6. Decide to go to bed.
7-10. Fill space as you have no imagination.
Please !
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 13,787
Likes: 0
From: EuroGA.org
Join the Mile High club?
I never have myself, but it's interesting how many completely innocent looking passengers, butter wouldn't melt in their mouths, ask, while completely casually looking at the altimeter, "how many feet are there in 1 mile?"
I never have myself, but it's interesting how many completely innocent looking passengers, butter wouldn't melt in their mouths, ask, while completely casually looking at the altimeter, "how many feet are there in 1 mile?"
Joined: Dec 2004
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 179
Likes: 0
From: Germany
In no particular order (and apart from the items already mentioned, which are all great) (and, no, I haven't tried everything I'm about to mention... but I'd sure like to try!):
If you're power rated, try gliders.
If you're glider rated, try power.
If you have either, try motorgliders, or microlights.
Fly at night.
Try floatplanes.
If you have lots and lots of money to spare, try helicopters, twins or turbines, or get an IFR rating.
If you're not happy with one outfit (club, school, partnership), try another.
And never forget to tell everyone how much you enjoy flying!
That, and wear sunscreen.
If you're power rated, try gliders.
If you're glider rated, try power.
If you have either, try motorgliders, or microlights.
Fly at night.
Try floatplanes.
If you have lots and lots of money to spare, try helicopters, twins or turbines, or get an IFR rating.
If you're not happy with one outfit (club, school, partnership), try another.
And never forget to tell everyone how much you enjoy flying!
That, and wear sunscreen.
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 365
Likes: 98
From: Norfolk
1. Thank your instructor
2. Never check your current account balance
3. Be staggered at the rate at which cheques disappear from your chequebook
4. Land at an airfield whose altitude is below sea level!
5. Land at an old WW2 base, and try to image how the crew of a shot-up Lanc/B17/etc felt when they saw the view you have on finals
6. Take your wife/husband/partner/significant other flying
7. Fly over/along coastline
8. When you're straight and level on a sunny/good viz day, trimmed correctly, with no pressure needed on the controls, smile to yourself and think how good it feels
9. Take pictures
10. Don't take risks
2. Never check your current account balance
3. Be staggered at the rate at which cheques disappear from your chequebook
4. Land at an airfield whose altitude is below sea level!
5. Land at an old WW2 base, and try to image how the crew of a shot-up Lanc/B17/etc felt when they saw the view you have on finals
6. Take your wife/husband/partner/significant other flying
7. Fly over/along coastline
8. When you're straight and level on a sunny/good viz day, trimmed correctly, with no pressure needed on the controls, smile to yourself and think how good it feels
9. Take pictures
10. Don't take risks
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 374
Likes: 0
From: Hellfire Corner
1. Buy a cheap aeroplane.
2. Fly the socks off it while you learn what sort of aeroplane it is, what
sort of pilot you are and what sort of aeroplane would suit you.
3. Buy a Champ*.
4. Fly
5. Fly
6. Fly
7. Fly
8. Fly
9. Fly
10. Fly
* there might be an alternative to this; I really couldn't say...
2. Fly the socks off it while you learn what sort of aeroplane it is, what
sort of pilot you are and what sort of aeroplane would suit you.
3. Buy a Champ*.
4. Fly
5. Fly
6. Fly
7. Fly
8. Fly
9. Fly
10. Fly
* there might be an alternative to this; I really couldn't say...
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 281
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From: Warboys
When I re-gain my currency I am aiming to do the following:
1. Take Family Friends Flying
2. Fly-in to a museum (Duxford/Old Warden/Coventry)
3. Fly-in to an Air display
4. Fly a Chipmunk again
5. Fly the Club's Duchess
6. Fly my family on a short-break holiday
7. Fly a Cub on a summer's evening with the door open (used to love it in the Wessex!)
8. Fly a student on the Flyer Forum Stude's Fly-in
9. Mentor a student/new PPL
10. Get mentored by experienced flyers
1. Take Family Friends Flying
2. Fly-in to a museum (Duxford/Old Warden/Coventry)
3. Fly-in to an Air display
4. Fly a Chipmunk again
5. Fly the Club's Duchess
6. Fly my family on a short-break holiday
7. Fly a Cub on a summer's evening with the door open (used to love it in the Wessex!)
8. Fly a student on the Flyer Forum Stude's Fly-in
9. Mentor a student/new PPL
10. Get mentored by experienced flyers
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 44
Likes: 0
From: Reading
1 Fly an old taildragger with next to no dials etc. Proper seat of pants stuff
2 Aeros (still learning - got the bug)
3 Find a friendly field in a place that's really awkward to drive to, and fly your friends there in 1/4 of the time
4 Point and laugh at people stuck on the M4 as you fly over them
5 Find a friendly field or 2 within 30-45 mins of your base as somewhere to go to if/when you can skip off work a bit early - or are just bored on a Sun pm
6 Go sight seeing
7 Go to the Channel Isle of froggyland for lunch (don't forget to mention it to EVERYONE later)
8 Don't forget to revalidate your JAA licence after 5 years
9 Do more fly ins/outs - Note to self - Do more fly ins/outs
10 Smile!
2 Aeros (still learning - got the bug)
3 Find a friendly field in a place that's really awkward to drive to, and fly your friends there in 1/4 of the time
4 Point and laugh at people stuck on the M4 as you fly over them
5 Find a friendly field or 2 within 30-45 mins of your base as somewhere to go to if/when you can skip off work a bit early - or are just bored on a Sun pm
6 Go sight seeing
7 Go to the Channel Isle of froggyland for lunch (don't forget to mention it to EVERYONE later)
8 Don't forget to revalidate your JAA licence after 5 years
9 Do more fly ins/outs - Note to self - Do more fly ins/outs
10 Smile!
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 13,787
Likes: 0
From: EuroGA.org
I learnt to go places, far away, much further than one could practically drive, and that's what I've been doing.
But it was quite a long haul.
I had to buy a decent plane - no way to do it in the rental wreckage. So, the year after the PPL was wasted doing burger runs, in planes in which sometimes the engine, and my handheld GPS, were the only bits that worked properly.
The IMC Rating made it possible to fly seriously in the UK, and it also made "imaginative VFR"
possible abroad. No way to fly 700nm legs across Europe without some encounter with cloud.
Finally, early last year, the IR made the whole process more straightforward; no need to crawl all over the lounge (or hotel room) floor over ten VFR charts taped together, drawing tracks on them with a 1m spirit level used as a straight edge, then duplicating the route in Navbox to get the plog... and then worry whether ATC will let me through some bit of airspace.
But I am still learning, mostly about weather and how to forecast cloud tops, whether a front can be crossed at the operating ceiling (FL180). My passenger is terrified of turbulence so I have to be quite picky.
Would I do it again? Yes but very differently.
But it was quite a long haul.
I had to buy a decent plane - no way to do it in the rental wreckage. So, the year after the PPL was wasted doing burger runs, in planes in which sometimes the engine, and my handheld GPS, were the only bits that worked properly.
The IMC Rating made it possible to fly seriously in the UK, and it also made "imaginative VFR"
possible abroad. No way to fly 700nm legs across Europe without some encounter with cloud. Finally, early last year, the IR made the whole process more straightforward; no need to crawl all over the lounge (or hotel room) floor over ten VFR charts taped together, drawing tracks on them with a 1m spirit level used as a straight edge, then duplicating the route in Navbox to get the plog... and then worry whether ATC will let me through some bit of airspace.
But I am still learning, mostly about weather and how to forecast cloud tops, whether a front can be crossed at the operating ceiling (FL180). My passenger is terrified of turbulence so I have to be quite picky.
Would I do it again? Yes but very differently.
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 3,991
Likes: 8
From: UK
Sorry this might be a "boring" one but:-
Go practice some "emergencies" such as a practice forced landing at least once a month, sometimes with an experienced flying instructor to hone up your skills for the day when the engine does stop!
Go practice some "emergencies" such as a practice forced landing at least once a month, sometimes with an experienced flying instructor to hone up your skills for the day when the engine does stop!