The most protracted PPL ever?........
 

(Warning - possible long & rambling post ahead! :})

It was May, 1981. It was in the pub, and my brother, Terry, announced he was popping down in a couple of days to Sunderland Flying Club for a trial flight. Having always had an interest in that direction I said I'd pop down too. We were taken up in a 172 by a chap called Les, I think, who introduced himself as an ex-Lancaster pilot. Terry and I loved it, signed up (the £36/hour was very affordable to me at that time) and off we went. Terry dropped out after about 4 hours, citing new furniture suites and domestic pressure in general; I, being unattached, was immune from such interference.

And so I went on my merry way through '81, upto & including first solo. Sunderland was a great place to be then: at the airshow I met & drank with Ted White of Sally B fame, I also watched one of the Tiger Club's Turbs tip on its nose three times as it tried to taxi off the apron. Later I flew with John Maclean and Marcus Edwards in their ex-Rothmans Pitts S2as and was subjected to the rather disorientating experience of a full aero routine, & got to try slow rolls and stall turns myself. Heady days!

On January 3rd, 1982, the bailiffs called at our home - Dad's business was an early caualty of the 80's recession. And so began a long period of dire personal trauma which I shan't detail here but it shoved the flying right out of the window, and my heart with it. I was in LOVE! Flying was now hooked into my soul and nothing could change it. I was also bereft :{

GLIDING

By '84 I had moved to Kent to pursue musical work. While drinking (what a coincidence!) with Bunty I happened to mention to him this unrequited love of mine. He said, "If you come with me Saturday morning, I'll show you where you can be taught to fly for free, get free board and lodging and travelling expenses!"

Come again?

And so I wound up at 617 ATC Volunteer Gliding School, Manston. Bunty was a 'B' cat instructor and made the necessary intros to the Boss & I was in.

And he was right. I was taught to fly for free, provided I could keep up the commitment (I mean, is the Pope Catholic?). I was with them for four years and moved on to Kent Gliding Club. However, the birth of my son meant I just couldn't afford the time now! Nevertheless, I was now a glider pilot :D but still with a hankering for that PPL.......

A RESTART

1991 - A wife and family now. Work was going pretty well and my persistent sighs, nostalgic chatter and general skyward gazes following the Lycoming drone were paying off - I could resart the PPL! I'd always been interested in historic aviation and tailwheel seemed to be the way to go so I started with Medway Flight Training and their Cubs. Through the summer I got back up to solo standard (a great hour in the warm sun, solo circuit bashing at Rochester) but as time wore on things were becoming more strained - domestically and financially.

So the flying stopped for the second time. To try and live a normal life with such anguish bombarding the front of your brain is a most trying test to face; and only people such as ourselves can know it, I think. It must really seem so trivial to the ground-dwellers.

On we trundled through the years with all the helter-skelter rides of bringing up a family. (And speaking of helter-skelters - don't you find the best theme parks really tame when you've done aeros in a Pitts? - and isn't it great we've got a forum like this to say things like that! :eek:)

WHERE THERE'S HOPE.....

2002, and a financial re-alignment(!) meant that I could give it another go. Joy and Hallelujah! Off to Headcorn now, continuing the tailwheel training and an introduction to the low wing set up of the Jodel 150.

I had a great time. Great instructor and a friendly airfield. I was moving onto cross countrys by March 2003 before deteriorating finances again pulled the plug. By now I was getting more philisophical. I recognised that poor planning had resulted in the premature curtailment of at least two of my attempts. But I hadn't finished here. I knew that this was the way I wanted to finally finish the PPL - with this outfit, airfield and instructor.

Now, finally, the blasted finances look like being sorted (look at TheMotleyFool.co.uk as a great resource for help in sorting out a few little fiscal problems! :cool:) and I'm setting aside means for completing the PPL in Summer next year. Should be able to do it over the long summer hol, weather permitting. And if I get the damn exams out of the way...:suspect:

Thanks for reading, if you've got this far. I'll update with intermittent and infrequent progress reports.

Kev.

Kev

Sounds like 'fun' (not). I guess there are many of us whose PPL has been just as protracted. I first wanted to learn to fly after visiting airshows in the 1970s. But there was always something to put me off - schooling, cash, job, house etc. etc. and so it was two years ago that I finally thought - if not now, then when? It will be another year, another decade and I'll never get around to it.

But now it is done, and at a not insignficant expense, it is still one of my greatest achievements. Here's to you getting your ticket in the next year or two!

Good luck.

Well done Kev! Keep at it

I followed the gliding - PPL route as well. After three years of gliding I then did my PPL over two years. It took only 35 hours as I continued to fly gliders whilst I was doing it, so didn't go backwards between sporadic lessons. I then struggled for years to keep current as family, job changes ect all took financial preferance. I managed somehow though I still don't fly as much as I'd like ... however, this will soon change as the T31 is nearing completion (see http://www.ivan.pfanet.co.uk)
So you're not alone and I'm sure there are many many others out there with their heads in the clouds but never enough money in their pockets. You sound like you will succeed so good luck to you :ok:

SS

PS .... Love aeros, but fair ground rides frighten the CR@P out of me :eek:

I think your ex-Lancaster pilot may have been Les Meadows.

Kev

So much of what you have said is familiar to many of us. You are not alone. Stick with it. It is worth it in the end.

My own situation was also protracted, although not nearly as much as yours. And my true interest in flying started thanks due to the RAF GSA. Thanks guys for that.

A quick look at my logbook for my 'official' PPL training shows the following facts:-

total time taken - 6 1/2 years
total hours taken 84 hours
total number of instructors 12
total number of flying schools 3
total numbers of aircraft types 11

Made it in the end. And yes it was worth the trials and tribulations.

Many thanks for your kind & supportive comments, chaps! (& chapesses?). It does seem lonely burning the candle for 25 years, for sure and it's really good to know there are others out there. :)

(Kiltie:)
"I think your ex-Lancaster pilot may have been Les Meadows."

Thanks for that, Kiltie. I wonder if he's still around?

Kev.

Shortstripper - nice site! Good luck with your T31 (spent many happy hours in those - at 4 minutes a time! :rolleyes:) Keep us updated on your progress.

Kev

Thanks, I will .... the engine's back on and now fitting fuel lines up. Hopefully with a motor up front I'll manage more than 4 minutes per flight ;)


SS

Update??????? :)

The saga continues..........
 

Yippee!!!!!!!! And I haven't passed anything, yet!

Nope folks, this is the year. I've got air law booked for Tuesday. Funds in place to re-start the PPL at Headcorn in August. I'll shoehorn the rest of the exams in as we go through the year (hopefully!)

Bloody air law. Revising it is like painting the Forth Bridge. Such an enormous sodding subject - especially for my poor, tiny, aged & beer-befuddled brain! :ugh:

Now, with any luck, a pic from earlier in my career with the afore-mentioned John Maclean, about to be tumble-dried in his Pitts.

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p...AJuly81jpg.jpg

Kev.

(Now why didn't that come out as a picture......?)

The 'string' was too big so I went to the site the picture is on and copied the IMG tag from there!!!

Thanks again, BRL :)

Kev

If you are not too much larger than you were when JM flew you......

if you gain your PPL in 2007, I'll happily fly with you in my Pitts at no cost to yourself and you can determine the wash/tumble setting!

If you have a C/S prop difference trg "stamp", then you can log the time.

Stik

Stik, that's a great offer! I'll see what I can do about prop ticket. Our family loves holidays in Norfolk!

I'm a lucky boy really. The hair's all gone and the beard's grey but I'm barely a stone heavier than I was then - 12 and-a-half now.

Kev, my contact details are with you by PM.

Just get the licence!!

Good luck Kev I hope you make it.
I could tell a similar tale from an ATC gliding course in 1956 to determined to finish the PPL now on a pension.
Point of interest, don't know your club policy but do you have the "PPL Confuser" for the exams? Well worth £20. My brain is also wore out at 67 but I got 96% on Air law, I'm not bragging, because I couldn't do it again without re-reading it all.

At least you've spread it over 6 and a half years.
I already have :
10 instructors - 2 flying schools - 5 aircraft types - 46 hours

and I started flying in March 2006 ! :ok:

Check your PMs, kev :ok:

tKF

I would rather paint the Forth Bridge...much more fun :ugh:

I too am a longest ever student candidate. I also started at Sunderland back in 1976 on Victa Airtourer and then C150. Did 28hrs including 8 solo before ususal reasons meant I lost contact with flying. Also tried gliding but too much of a social event for me. 3 lessons in helicopter around 2002. Now returned to a real attempt to complete (funds in place) at Newcastle Flying School. Amazingly still with same instructor as back in '76. I am now 62 and not as super confident as back then but happy with progress so far. Today I think I would have solo'ed (again) but for never ending orbits for commercial traffic decided us to call it a day after just 2 landings in 40 mins. Weather looks poor for tomorrow so hope for good conditions at end of week

Jumped the hurdle
 

Passed Air Law!! Some folks may wonder what the fuss is about, but it's had my brain in knots for ages.

Bonniejack - nice to meet you! :ok: Glad I'm not the only one who's been burning this particular flame for ever and a day.....

Kev.

congratulations Kev. Air Law is a bit mind boggling. I am doing a NPPL, why do I want to know about documents for International flights. I have given myself a target date at end of next week to be ready for Air Law exam. I past them all 30 yrs ago but much has changed since then it seems. Which subject are you going for next?

Human Perf. & Limits

hi all,
as a student who started a PPL in spring last year and is getting worried that Ive only done 16 hours since, your posts come as quite a reassurance :)

While we are on-topic is there a time limit on how long you can take to do a PPL?

GW

With reference to "topic" ???

Hi GullWing!
As long as your love affair with flying lasts! Seriously, there is a time-frame from commencement of training before you have to re-sit the ground exams but I'm not sure of the exact figures (and I've just passed Air Law! :O)

Good luck!

Kev.

You get 18 months from the date of your first exam pass to complete the rest (without resits) and 24 months from then to complete the flying. i.e. 42 months in total.

Miss either of the dates and you're back to resitting the exams but I believe the flying hours still count. :O

NPPL
 

Guys And Girls

What a boost reading this is, I started in 84 solo at Bagginton 86
Wife came along in 86
Started Glideing then at Bicester 87
Daughters arrived 88 and her sister in 92
Need I say more

After following this forum I recently had my intrest and resolve reborn by looking up old friends please check out skyblueaviation and hunterflyingclub

NOT a plug but these guys have been fantastic knowing that I have had some medical issues in the past and have pointed me down the NPPL route as a starting point. The quote being that if you "have a H.G.V. licence medical" you can have a medical for a NPPL. :)

I work as a H.G.V. driver :cool: The reason I post is to find out if any one else has taken this route to get then into the air and what pit falls should I be looking for.

Ian:D

I went down the NPPL route for medicial reasons and found out some of the NPPL medicial are less eyesight as I cant get a HGV medical and youre very unlikley to do it in the 35 hours min I took 50 and then found out I was OK for my class 2 my GP has misread an ECG a few years before and said I had a dicky heart turns out the CAA didnt agree now i have to upgrade th the PPL :ugh: :ugh: :ugh:

Got me Human Perf. & Limits. exam on Tuesday 27th...........

Got it!! :) Two down, four to go. (I know, plus RT.)

Passed Met on Tuesday. Counting down! (Could be starting flying July 29th......)

Keep at it and the ride in the Pitts could happen this summer!


Stik

Musings
 

Well, my lessons are all booked for the summer, now. I'll be starting with 2-3 hrs. on July 30th. A few days ago, May 23rd, saw the 26th anniversary of my first flying lesson, the birth of the love of my life, in a Rheims Cessna 152 Aerobat at Sunderland. The lesson included a demo loop during which I used a 4-letter expletive with an instructor I'd just met for the first time! :O

All of which led me to think about the first airfield I knew. I suppose when something is gone for ever you miss it more than if you simply move away. I only knew Sunderland for a few months but it had more atmosphere for me than any of the other airfields I've spent time on: Perranporth, Manston or even lovely Headcorn. There was something about the hangar. To wander around such an interesting higgeldy-piggledy array of aircraft: some the mounts of millionaires, others more prosaic. A Kingair here, a Currie Wot there. Lots of Cessnas and Pipers. Is that a Taylor Monoplane? And at the back, dusty hangar queens whose days of cavorting in the sunlit clouds seemed long passed. It was always quiet in there. Nesting sparrows twittering, echoing in the roof, someone dropping a spanner somewhere; even the sound of an aircraft bursting into life on the apron hardly seemed to disturb the stillness. Is there something about one's first hangar that makes one go all misty-eyed?

I've just realised what a complete turnip I must now appear to anyone 'from the outside', for want of a better word! :)

Hangars
 

I completely understand Kevmusic. My magical place was a hangar at Booker in the mid sixties, just like your hangar, birds in the rafters; even more than the sounds, the smell of dope and fuel and oil.
A dismantled Gander Dower Airways Rapide on one corner; a Mew Gull in pieces in another (G-AEXF). A variety of Miles, Beagle and Auster products plus the plane of my adolecent dreams, a V tailed Bonanza (G-ATII). Across the way would be Bert Goodchild grafting in the PPS Hangar on a Fokker Eindekker replica (ex-Blue Max film) or a Spit.........

Happy days...
 

Kevmusic

Whatever happend to Bunty, Al Taps, Bubble, Baz and "the boss"? C1985/6 at Manston for me, my word, how time flys! One person I know made a living from his ventures, a Cadet you may recall at the time, called Richard Matthews. Flew with the Red arrows, then with the USAF on exchange flying the Stelth. Google should throw his name up!

For me, PPL after two or three years on and off, money, time, weather, family, guess you could say life... Finished however back in 1990 flew a bit, another long lay off ,again the above reasons. Fly mostly now in the USA, rude not to with the strength of the pound and all the other positive aspects. However, revalitdated my PPL at Headcorn ( and flying soon again from Headcorn ), a gem in the heart of the Kent countryside, little taxi time to strip, few in the way of restrictions in the local area and once clear of the circut straight into training area. The atmosphere professional but relaxed and the vast array of visiting craft during the Summer months.

Keep up the good work and message me when you start flying, a shared trip or two I suspect on completion.

Whizzy.

Hi Whizzy,

Now you're talking - talk about blasts from the past! Al Tapsell is Boss of 616 VGS, Henley, I think. As for the rest, I just don't know. They were all a great crew. Great laughs and great flying. Funny, I seem to have better 'fun' memories of the old Mk3 days, before the Grobs came in.......

I think Chris Smith became Boss after the old Bill retired. now, I can't place you, Whizzy. You were obviously there & I must have known you. Help me out!

Well done Kev glad to hear your still fighting for it I know some ppl hu have ppl and havent used it for about 2 yrs.
May I be really cheeky stiknruda any chance of a flight in your pitts:p.
Dave

Clouds on the Horizon
 

Ye gods! When I was 17 I took apart the bottom end of an 'A' series engine, replaced a big end and de-coked the top, all after school. I had O-level physics. I built model gliders to my own design. I lapped up Ps of F when I was gliding. Of all the ground subjects, I'd have thought 'The Aeroplane - Technical' to be a breeze. So I got stuck into Thom and...........well, hmm. It's hard. And there's a lot of it. In fact, I'm having almost as much of a problem with it as bl&&dy Air Law! Then I sat at the PC and took the OAT CD database of questions on the subject - all 276 of them - and got 74%!:uhoh: (then I took the Airquiz exam and got 88%, but I'm still not happy.)

And to cap all that, the bl:mad:din' jetstream is off course - got its vectors all wrong, or something - and all these storms and wind and rain look set to be with us for the rest of the summer. Oh woe! :{

Ahhh! welllll, Kev ........

You're obviously a lightweight and not of the "right stuff"! I'd stripped and rebuilt an "A" series engine by 14 (and motorbikes before that) :E :p ;)

SS