Orlando Trial Flight

[nowitstime2fly]

Hi folks,

I am new here, so hello!

I am currently planning to undertake my PPL and am weighing up my options of training in the UK or Florida. I am off to Florida on holiday soon so was wanting to arrange a trial flight but havent been able to find any schools whom can offer this - can anyone point me in the right direction??

many thks

[BackPacker]

In Florida you'd have a choice of three schools if you are going for a JAA PPL: Ormond Beach Aviation (OBA), Orlando Flight Training (OFT) or Naples. Google is your friend to find them of course.

If all you want is a trial lesson, you can expect a flight school able to give you one at virtually every airfield. And there's a lot of airfields out there. Just drive to the nearest, have a look around and with a bit of luck things can be arranged right there and then, even without an appointment.

If it's just a trial lesson, no need for a VISA or TSA clearance.

[nowitstime2fly]

Thanks folks,

I am hoping to do a trial in the US and UK and the US will not be logged.

Many thanks guys

[youngskywalker]

If it's for JAA training then I would log it, it's your 'personal log book for recording flying experience'.

This game is expensive enough without paying for flights that you cannot log. If it's JAA then the instructor does not have to sign the log book after the flight (unlike the FAA).

If it's simply a short 30 minute trial lesson for a JAA licence then I would simply wait until I get home then stick it in my log book.

[BackPacker]

If it's simply a short 30 minute trial lesson for a JAA licence then I would simply wait until I get home then stick it in my log book.

That would not work. Not as a cost-saving measure. Once you've finished your PPL training the school, amongst other things, needs to verify your logbook, compare it with their training records and issue some sort of statement that your logbook entries (at least the ones you're using to demonstrate your flight experience for PPL) are valid & correct and thus that you indeed meet the experience requirements for your PPL.

If you stick an entry in your logbook which was flown elsewhere and you don't have an instructor signature, license number or any other supporting paperwork, the school cannot verify this and will not vouch for it.

Regardless of this, the TSA doesn't determine that a flight was an instructional flight by the contents of your logbook alone. If you are being trained for an initial airmans certificate then it is flight training and needs to fulfill the TSA criteria. And a trial lesson is just that: training for the issue of an initial airmans certificate. In fact, a trial flight is actually usually flight 1 from the PPL training handbook: effects of controls.

The way I see it, you have four choices:
1. Go through the whole TSA approval process now.
2. Write to the TSA and see if you can get an exception from the TSA requirements for a trial flight.
3. Try to find a flight school that doesn't take the TSA that seriously in this respect and is willing to offer you a trial flight without TSA authorization. Then hope the TSA doesn't find out.
4. Book a flight with a flight school, not as a "trial flight" but as as "sightseeing flight" on which you are legally a passenger, not a student.

In any case, if the purpose of your visit to the USA is short-term business or pleasure, not flight training, then you can enter the USA on a normal tourist visa or under the visa waiver program. You do not need an M-1 visa for your trip, unless flight training is your primary reason for your stay in the USA. (The INS uses the criteria of more than 18 hours a week for practical work, to determine whether training in general is your primary reason for visiting.)

[youngskywalker]

I think you are making far too much out of this! It will still count for total hours in your log book, whether you can count it towards the issue of PPL or not doesn't really matter. It's your own personal flying logbook, you can write whatever you want into it, you can include what supermarket you last visited, what you had for breakfast, it matters not (maybe the FAA have a different opinion)

I had a trial lesson in a Harvard/texan at warbird Adventures in Florida two years back, they even gave me a little sticker to put in my logbook to certify that I had 35 minutes of aerobatic/formation instruction, did I get TSA or VISA for this? Nope. should I have done? Probably. Do I care? Nope.

[jollyrog]

How many people really do complete at 45 hours on the nose and therefore require their first 30/60 minute trial lesson to be counted for licence issue?

Not many.

[youngskywalker]

Very true, I would guess not many. But surely every hour in the book helps? It's a lesson with a certified and qualified instructor, I'd log it! I certainly could not afford to throw hours away without logging each lesson, but then I'm a tight Scot!

In the end of the day it's up to the individual, just saying what I would do. I have no doubt this will run to several pages, with the usual suspects quoteing paragraphs of regulations and rules explaining why they think I'm a naughty boy! But what would I know? I've only been at this lark for 15 years.

[on eagles wings]

Hi
Im currently doing my PPL in the UK and have only a few hours. Im going to Florida in June for a holiday and was wanting to maybe complete a few hours towards my PPL. I was born in the US and have a US Passport etc so was wondering would these hours count towards my PPL without having to go through any visa etc processes.

[Katamarino]

In Florida you'd have a choice of three schools if you are going for a JAA PPL: Ormond Beach Aviation (OBA), Orlando Flight Training (OFT) or Naples. Google is your friend to find them of course.

Why not EFT?

To the original poster: I can't recommend Florida enough! Flying in the USA is far superior to flying in Europe!

[BackPacker]

Why not EFT?

Because this thread is two years old.

I was born in the US and have a US Passport etc so was wondering would these hours count towards my PPL without having to go through any visa etc processes.

If you have a US passport, I would assume you do not need a visa to visit the US. Regardless of the purpose of your visit.

Also, with regards to the TSA clearance process:

The mission of the Alien Flight Student Program (AFSP) is to ensure that foreign students seeking training at flight schools regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) do not pose a threat to aviation or national security.

So if you're a US citizen or national, you are deemed not to be a thread to aviation or national security by default.

As for the hours counting towards your PPL: If you go to any of the JAA schools that should not be a problem whatsoever. And even if you go to an FAA school it should be possible. But it's best to discuss this with your current instructor. He can give you valuable advice on the exercises you should attempt while in the US, and what you'd better not do. After all, he knows your current training progress best.

[Katamarino]

Because this thread is two years old.

Oh yes, so it is!

[on eagles wings]

Thanks for that