Advice on flying school
 

Hi all

I am a part-finished PPL with 37hrs but haven't been able to fly for two years.

I'm now in a position to recommence training to complete my PPL.
It is looking practical to train at either Derby Aero club - at Derby airfield OR Donair at East Midlands airport.

My question is - which school do people think would provide the better training environment?

Derby is a small grass strip whereas East Midlands is clearly a huge airport. Would the professional ATC/taxiing/being around the biggies at EM outweigh the potential challenge of flying from a grass strip?

I'd just like some thoughts from others' experiences. Many thanks.

Advice on flying school
 

Having flown from both I would suggest Tatenhill would be a better bet. Its a much longer runway with no biggies holding you up

From what I understand, you seem to portray flying out of small strips as a negative point but I would suggest it is in fact the opposite.

I did all my PPL training at Barton, near Manchester. I learned to land on 4/5/600m runways, where there is a lot less margin for error. You need to nail the speed and approach profile, whereas a long tarmac runway would be a lot more forgiving of a sloppy approach or high airspeed for example. Everyone I have asked unanimously agrees this is useful in honing your handling skills and I would say that this is most important during your PPL training. The other point is smaller airfields tend to have an AGCS or AFIS rather than ATC. The result is you are forced to build up solid situational awareness of what is going on around you, based on the information you receive, rather than slavishly depending on ATC to tell you what to do and where to go, and this again is another crucial skill to hone during your PPL.

The downside of course with a grass strip is flooded runways closing the airfield. My PPL skills test at Barton was cancelled 6 times as I happened to finish my PPL just before a month of snow and rain.

I wouldn't think either is advantageous . Learning to fly at a little field vs a bigger field, there is margin for error in the bigger field and that may give more confidence to the student.

IT IS EASIER to pretend a BIG airport/runway is short than to hope that the small runway is big enough in a tight situation.

I learned and taught from a 2500' runway with obstacles on both ends and difficult winds.

It would be a lot faster to learn somewhere less challenging and then build up to the more difficult runways.

Nothing like an ATC airfield to hone your R/T skills to ICAO standards.