No. of Landings during PPL training
 

Hi,

Just wondering how many landings it took you all to complete your PPL flight training ? Just so I can work out some rough costings of the total cost of my PPL.

Thanks in advance

Where I learned the landings were inclusive of the flight,as many as it took.
:)

In the US (no landing fees whatsoever) I did 125 landings altogether. Half of these were leading up to first solo.

They make you pay separate landing fees? Is that common? Seems a bad way of doing things to me.

B

Total 222, pre-solo 91 - didn't pay any landing fees...

No idea how many landings I did during training, but no landing fees at my home airfield, so the only landing fees I paid during my training were for land-aways, a total of about 8 I think dual and solo at about £10 each.

Easy to say "Don't pay any landing fees".

In the real world most/lots of places are charging for each landing and T & G in the UK.

Anyway back to the question!

Kiev23:- Due to your location and recent posts all the airfields/airports in the North west of England charge for training landings and t & g.

The number required for you to become proficient at landing a light aircraft and completing the course in your budget will depend mainly on you! Continuity of your lessons and effort seem to be the key.
Weather conditions and your instructor (do you get on with them) are also factors.

I would say you could do a JAR PPL (A) with a total of 100 landings at your base airport. As I said above add more if you have poor continuty etc. etc.

Good luck with your PPL.

Landings!
 

If you are paying for each landing or T&G then you are learning at the wrong place!

It is common practice forsome trainning providors to buy landing fee contracts at the airfields they are based at and then charge the student pilots at the full "visitor" rate. This is a nice little money maker.

As an instructor I have found that the number of landings before solo flight is usualy constant, however the number of hours to solo depends on the size of the circuit, those places with large circuits to avoid noise sensitive zones are likely to be more costly to fly at.

A & C,
As I said the guy is looking in the north west and they all charge for the pleasure.
The airport I instruct at they charge for each one at half of the published rate (based operators and training flights) and the school simply passes them on at that price, others on airfield make money on them!
Its his money he could move away and do a PPL at an airfield or strip and pay no fees or he could do it at a regional airport and pay for each one staying at home in Preston.
The other choice is then the school that passes them on at cost or the school makes money on them. Choices choices.

From my airport I find myself and colleagues need around 15 hours of training (part time students, the most common) before they are prepared for solo flight.

hi i havent quite finished my ppl yet, but have a bout 166 landings so far

Hi Kiev,

You might want to check out this thread...

http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...ppl-costs.html

I did about 60 full stop landings, and 50 touch-and-goes before my Skills Test, booking two lessons a week (and getting pretty lucky with the weather!)

Joel.

only 60 landings? wow... I did a reallty long circuit session. Spend like 20 hrs on it. One circuit was about 5 min long..so in hour I made a lot of landings.. However I think I counted the touch and goes as well as all full stop landings but still 50 more than you did :(

However I didnt not have to pay a landing fee other than landing away. Which I only did twice sofar for my qualifying cross country and will do again for my solo cross country

Heh, I see it the other way round Screetch - you've got the experience of 50 more landings than I did during your training, and you've saved about £1500 in landing fees! I'm pretty jealous! ;)

Probably about 100-150 I guess.

There is an obscession with circuit bashing, which really clocks them up.

i´m 40 hours into my PPL so most of the circuit work is over with. total landings: 110. all free of charge at stapleford.

well I wouldnt call it bashing. I am at Booker EGTB and we have the 06, 24 and 35 circuit, 2 grass and one hard runway. Depending on the wind I had to learn all the circuits well enought to go solo on them which just took longer than when you learn on an airfield with only one runway and 2 possible circuits.

Maybe the first few circuits i have done were awefull as the circuits are really short and you didnt have time to think about all the RT and checks etc.

However i am sure the landing fee is build into the rental fee somehow..


Overall I would plan 7000-8000 for a PPL in the south? With an average of 55-65 hrs of flying time. Normally you will have delays and repeat lessons due to weather or long time between your lessons. This is when only flying on weekends. Would everybody agree? The more frequent you fly and the better the weather the less time you will need (if you are not too stupid)

Including skills test it took me; 60hrs, 87 touch & go's, 61 home landings, 6 away landings in 11 months.

To answer the original question: one for every take off. At least. And i did not get charged for them! I pay an annual fee for club membership and this gives me unlimited landings.

The number of circuits will vary tremendously between individuals. I recall on RAF Flying Scholarships we sent students solo after about 24 circuits; and 9 hours of flying; in many cases this was too soon but the RAF would not let you go beyond 10 hours without individual authorisation. I suspect most PPL candidates are nearer 50 to solo. There is a growing trend for instructors to go into the circuit before all the basics have been taught; this increases the number of circuits and often results in a poor standard of flying.

If the interest in the number of circuits is based upon the cost of each circuit (landing fees not aircraft cost) then it is worrying that safety is being affected by the need to reduce the number.

As a PPL examiner I have noted that the standard of landings is now very poor; under the old UK system where general handling was tested in a one hour GST a much higher standard was observed. The lengthy JAA PPL Skill Test means that candidates seldom give their best and examiners frequently give the tired student the benefit of the doubt. It would appear we need more rather than less circuits.

I agree with Whopity.

Another question: How many PFLs, EFATOs did you do during your PPL training?

Regards, jez