Redhill
 

Morning all.

Mid life crisis, dawning realisation that for the love of all that's holy there must be more to it all than this, pick your reason, but after some 20 years of sitting behind a desk I've decided to call it a day and finally do what I always wanted to do, which is to try and get myself a commercial licence (and with it, I'd rather hope, a job).

Longer term members of this forum might recall that I nearly - but not quite - managed to get my PPL some years ago. I'm sitting on 60 hours, did my QXL, did most of the written exams, but alas life got in the way and I never did do the flight test.

Now 46 years old, am looking to go down the modular route, and first step is to complete the PPL. I live near Gatwick, so Redhill would appear to be the most logical place to do that, and that leads me to the whole point of the post: do you have any recommendations for flight schools there? Based purely on their websites I'm leaning towards Redhill Aviation, but also did a couple of flights with Cubair a couple of years ago and got on fairly well with them (and in truth I prefer their DA-20 to Redhill's C-152).

Any thoughts gratefully received.

Hi Lawyerboy,

Good luck with the career change. I'm working my way through my to getting to f/ATPL stage with Redhill Aviation amoungst others.
I've never flown with the other schools at Redhill, but i've I always been happy with the standard of instruction at Redhill Aviation.

The aircraft themselves, whilst not the newest around have good availability and are nice to fly.

Hope this helps :)

Once your Class 1 is sorted and you're on your way with your PPL, I would highly recommend heading up to Stapleford Flight Centre (near Romford, Essex) to have a talk with them about a training plan. They have an excellent reputation of training career changers via the modular route (including me). They also have a brilliant reputation with airlines, and the instructors are all fantastic.

Whichever ATO you choose to train at, be sure to do your homework and research them thoroughly, as well as going along to visit their facilities and speak to students and instructors.

Best of luck
RR

Good luck with your career change and don't be off-put by the naysayers. I was two years older than you when I took my ATPL's and enjoyed a great career ending up in the left hand seat of one of Mr. Boeing's machines.

All good advice offered above but if I may add one caveat - do not pay anything up front if you are going down the modular route. A little time spent researching the post in this forum should be sufficient to show you why!

HWB

Thanks all. Good advice as ever.

Will be doing a class 1 in Sept, but for what it's worth I'd finish the PPL regardless of whether it all goes horribly wrong at the class 1, and speaking of which I've booked an hour at Redhill Aviation to see how I get on. FlyinErin - might bump into you there.

Ronaldsway Radar - as it happens, most of my 60 hours were at Stapleford. Was actually based over at High Cross (Ware) with PSF, but as that was unlicensed we'd routinely touch and go at Stapleford. I did like it there.

Halfwayback - good to know age isn't a barrier, and not to worry, I'm quite careful with my cash...

Hi Lawyerboy,

I can recommend Redhill Aviation - completed PPL and Aerobatic Rating with them, all very enjoyable. Would echo what FlyinErin said, fleet aren't the youngest but all fly well and are maintained onsite by Redhill Aviation.

I'm also in a position to start my ATPL theories shortly with a view to completing the CPL/IR with Redhill - Would be great to get a group going there to prep for the CPL course whilst studying and maybe visit some further afield airfields if anyone is interested?

DIFTT

Thanks DoItForTheThrill - apart from two hours in a DA20, I don't think I've flown anything much younger than a PA38, so I'm happy with aged. Don't know how long it'll take me to get through the PPL, but certainly happy to meet up at Redhill at some point if you're about.