Learning to fly near Swindon
 

Hi guys,

I'm considering starting on the path to a PPL, and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations or personal experience of Flying Shools in the Swindon area?

I think the possibilities are:

Gloucester
Kemble
Old Sarum
Oxford (Kidlington)
Thruxton

If possible I'd like somewhere that isn't too much of a trek from Swindon, so that I can avoid spending a couple of hours in the car getting to and from the airfield. Also, I'd appreciate anyone's comments as far as quality of the school, and the relative merits of the various fields too.

Thanks to all for any advice.

Andy

I'd suggest your first port of call would be Kemble, although I don't have any personal experience of flying from there.

I've been with Cotswold Aero Club in Gloucester for over a year now, they're a very friendly club - CFI is a nice bloke and extremely knowledgeable as you would expect, the instructor who has been teaching me is also very good and good fun to be in the air with.

If you're in Swindon then about the same distance as Gloucester but along motorway instead of crappy A road is Bristol Filton - again, no experience of flying from there but I know there are several clubs and Aeros are also based there (they train from Gloucester as well).

Hope that's of some use -- good luck!
Rob

I would add Enstone and possibly Wellesbourne to your list. Enstone is no further than Kidlington and whilst Wellesbourne is a bit of a treck Wellesbourne aviation is a good school and the cafe is great for those non flying days.
If you are around this evening the Wiltshire flyers meet at the Harrow Inn in Wanborough at around 19:30. I am sure that people there will be able to point you in the right direction. Ask for Duncan.
Beware if the microlighters who will try and turn you to the dark side:E

I've flown with BCT Aviation (Kemble) & Old Sarum Flying Club, although I believe BCT is now under new managment since I was there.

BCT Aviation were very friendly people - can't fault them. They do have a substansially smaller fleet than OS (IIRC a couple of PA-28s, a 172 and a 150 compared with 7 PA-28s, a PA-28R, two Bulldogs, a Supercub, a Seneca, 1 152, and a 152 taildragger).

The two clubs do pretty much the same things, but OS can do tailwheel conversions, but this may or may not be of use to you (I'd certainly recommend it though!).

OS is also very friendly - I live about midway between the two airfields, and chose OS due to the variety of aircraft, good club atmosphere, and the 780m grass field (Kemble has acres of concrete runway, which is either a good or a bad thing IMHO depending on which way you look at it).

I'm currently doing my IMC/hourbuilding with OS, and would certainly recommend them to you - except if you live in Swindon you might find it much easier to travel to Kemble.

Also flew with Ultimate High at Kemble, but they do (very good! :ok: ) post-PPL stuff.

Just In case you do decide to pop over to the Wiltshire Flyers here's a pointer to where we lurk!
The Harrow

Everybody's welcome, we're in the bottom bar and don't be backwards at coming forward.:ok:

Thanks for the replies thus far guys, all good info. I'm particularly interested in recent personal experience of the clubs concerned if at all possible.

I have been PMd with a recommendation for Brize Norton too. Their rates seem very competitive, and it's not too far either. Anyone got any personal experience of them?

Thanks also for the link to the Wanborough meet. Might try to get along to that one month :ok:

Thanks

Andy

For info on the Brize flying club contact Beagle who can normally be found in the mil forum.

Your first course should be to try and get in to Brize, this may or may not be possible. Well maintained aircraft good instruction off a variety of professional pilots who instruct in their spare time and excellent facilities. Did my first solo there.

Kemble is a good field to start from otherwise. Although I believe there is a question mark about it's future, a local resident has just achieved some kind of injunction which may limit the use of the field.

I used to instruct there four years ago. Two schools BCT and ASK. I worked for BCT, a friendly club, engineers on site and a decent field to operate from. Kemble was occasionally a little frustrating at weekends due to the number of fly-ins and aero days they had back then - not sure if this has changed.
Filton (Bristol) has two schools - this British Aerospace school is very reasonable priced but you will have to find a way in as it is primarily for employees. They have (had) a couple of PA28s.

Otherwise you have Aeros (who I also instructed for) they operate at Filton and at Gloucester Staverton. They are a professional flight training school who instruct to a high standard.

There were a couple of schools at Bristol International (Lulsgate) don't really know to much about those.

Visit a few see which you like, but I would recommed trying Brize or BAe first as they are or (were) most reasonable!

Why do you say this? Is there a limit on the number of students they have, or is there some sort of selection criteria?

Cheers

Andy

The Brize Norton Club is for the benefit of military and Royal Air Force personnel, however, there are a certain number of civvies who fly from there. It depends upon the capacity of the club at that time and the attitude of the big cheeses about letting new civpop join. A_pommie gave you a good steer of who to ask.

Ok, makes sense.

I'll see what Beagle says.

Thanks for the info.

Andy

Kemble has to be the easiest for you to get to. Its a huge underutilised airfield and I'm sure it will be aound for a long time.

Two other clubs at Kedmble worth a look for PPL instruction are

www.fly2help.org to learn on a Chipmunk

and Skysport (google them)to learn on Bulldog/pup.

Good luck wherever you choose.

I suppose the Lyneham Flying Club is too far to go? :rolleyes:

http://www.lynehamaviation.co.uk/

Lyneham would not be too far, but their website seems to suggest that to be a civilian member you have to be providing a service to the club like being an instructor.



Andy