What do people do with a PPL?
Discussion
Condi said:
When you say wet - does that mean fuel included presumably? So if you fly somewhere and need to refuel, do you pay for that or is it all somehow covered by the hire charge even at away airports.
Yes - fuel included. If you fill up you submit the receipt and it gets knocked off your bill at the end of the month/quarter/year. Current aircraft is hangared at a farm strip with no fuel so all refills are claimed back.lee_fr200 said:
Unless you're female or fresh out the military I think you've left it late to go for a commercial if I'm honest!
I have 3 friends all younger than yourself who now fly with easyJet as first officers and I have a female friend who's 33 who's got her ppl and wanting a commercial to be an airline pilot, whilst they want female pilots she's left it late herself!
For you first of all you need a ppl then you need to build your hours do the Imc, night rating, commercial then atpl but the quick way to build the hours once you have enough is being an instructor then go for the commercial and dabble in bush flying abroad or ferry piloting (again I know a guy who was a regular at sandtoft who did ferry flying) that's a good way to network yourself then go for the atpl
You might get to the first officer seat within 10-12yrs!
It took my mate who works for easyJet from 16 and he's 29 now and he went and worked abroad to build his hours in Africa as a bush pilot
Ignore the above - even 15 years ago when the industry wasn't so great I knew several people that became pilots in their late 30s/40s, and know several people in their late 30's now training and will have no issue finding a role. I have 3 friends all younger than yourself who now fly with easyJet as first officers and I have a female friend who's 33 who's got her ppl and wanting a commercial to be an airline pilot, whilst they want female pilots she's left it late herself!
For you first of all you need a ppl then you need to build your hours do the Imc, night rating, commercial then atpl but the quick way to build the hours once you have enough is being an instructor then go for the commercial and dabble in bush flying abroad or ferry piloting (again I know a guy who was a regular at sandtoft who did ferry flying) that's a good way to network yourself then go for the atpl
You might get to the first officer seat within 10-12yrs!
It took my mate who works for easyJet from 16 and he's 29 now and he went and worked abroad to build his hours in Africa as a bush pilot
If you can get on the CTC scheme it's not too bad.
But, very first thing is you need to get the medical if you are serious or contemplating CPL. - This is not just a case of being currently fit to fly, but includes any past history of illness (any mental-issues likely being a show-stopper, even for PPL)).
lee_fr200 said:
Unless you're female or fresh out the military I think you've left it late to go for a commercial if I'm honest!
I have 3 friends all younger than yourself who now fly with easyJet as first officers and I have a female friend who's 33 who's got her ppl and wanting a commercial to be an airline pilot, whilst they want female pilots she's left it late herself!
For you first of all you need a ppl then you need to build your hours do the Imc, night rating, commercial then atpl but the quick way to build the hours once you have enough is being an instructor then go for the commercial and dabble in bush flying abroad or ferry piloting (again I know a guy who was a regular at sandtoft who did ferry flying) that's a good way to network yourself then go for the atpl
You might get to the first officer seat within 10-12yrs!
It took my mate who works for easyJet from 16 and he's 29 now and he went and worked abroad to build his hours in Africa as a bush pilot
Lee, you're um, light years behind the curve...I have 3 friends all younger than yourself who now fly with easyJet as first officers and I have a female friend who's 33 who's got her ppl and wanting a commercial to be an airline pilot, whilst they want female pilots she's left it late herself!
For you first of all you need a ppl then you need to build your hours do the Imc, night rating, commercial then atpl but the quick way to build the hours once you have enough is being an instructor then go for the commercial and dabble in bush flying abroad or ferry piloting (again I know a guy who was a regular at sandtoft who did ferry flying) that's a good way to network yourself then go for the atpl
You might get to the first officer seat within 10-12yrs!
It took my mate who works for easyJet from 16 and he's 29 now and he went and worked abroad to build his hours in Africa as a bush pilot
Airline recruitment programme has really changed - for better or worse we are yet to see.
The route you describe isn't actually the preferred route airlines like their pilots to come from anymore. MPL is name of the game.
Pilots who go via the hard-arse route actually struggle to land a seat up front. I see where the airlines are coming from in as much they get to mould the person to how they want them from day 1.
kurt535 said:
Lee, you're um, light years behind the curve...
Airline recruitment programme has really changed - for better or worse we are yet to see.
The route you describe isn't actually the preferred route airlines like their pilots to come from anymore. MPL is name of the game.
Pilots who go via the hard-arse route actually struggle to land a seat up front. I see where the airlines are coming from in as much they get to mould the person to how they want them from day 1.
Hard arse route ? Airline recruitment programme has really changed - for better or worse we are yet to see.
The route you describe isn't actually the preferred route airlines like their pilots to come from anymore. MPL is name of the game.
Pilots who go via the hard-arse route actually struggle to land a seat up front. I see where the airlines are coming from in as much they get to mould the person to how they want them from day 1.
Also for medicals I'm doing my PPL right now and I'm looking at the medicals and the air law exam for soloing is it really worth another 400 quid and a hotel in London for the class 1, if I'm not planning the ATPL stuff for another 18 months?
Condi said:
Also - how would one go about going commercial at 29, and ideally not having to finance the whole £100k myself!
You need to speak to Flinstone on FFUK about how he got his commercial pilots license, he went the bush pilot route and I think was older than you. Have a chat with LM as well. TheDrBrian said:
Hard arse route ?
Also for medicals I'm doing my PPL right now and I'm looking at the medicals and the air law exam for soloing is it really worth another 400 quid and a hotel in London for the class 1, if I'm not planning the ATPL stuff for another 18 months?
Are you ppl so you can go atpl with the view of employment after? If so, yes, get the c1 done asap. If you fail it (hopefully not) it might save you thousands unless you with to continue the ppl for the fun etc.Also for medicals I'm doing my PPL right now and I'm looking at the medicals and the air law exam for soloing is it really worth another 400 quid and a hotel in London for the class 1, if I'm not planning the ATPL stuff for another 18 months?
Willy Nilly said:
Condi said:
Also - how would one go about going commercial at 29, and ideally not having to finance the whole £100k myself!
You need to speak to Flinstone on FFUK about how he got his commercial pilots license, he went the bush pilot route and I think was older than you. Have a chat with LM as well. If you are serious, try not dwell too much on the cost. It's an investment in yourself. The biggest part is having the self confidence to get through it all. Do so, and pretty much any jet job as a skipper will see you north of £100k each year in earnings.
Loads to do. I fly 3-axis microlights. Met some brilliant people who are now friends through flying. Love going places and spending a few nights away. Not sure on the share -o-plane comments but each to their own.
Flew my last 3-axis microlight to the med (and back!), pretty cool ending up somewhere as awesome as this and knowing you flew there.
The skyranger was a cracking machine but wasn't very easy on the eye so I changed it for something a little sleeker:
- Isle of Wight a couple of weeks ago, great weekend on the beer with some friends.
Flew my last 3-axis microlight to the med (and back!), pretty cool ending up somewhere as awesome as this and knowing you flew there.
The skyranger was a cracking machine but wasn't very easy on the eye so I changed it for something a little sleeker:
- Isle of Wight a couple of weeks ago, great weekend on the beer with some friends.Edited by jjones on Tuesday 12th September 21:04
I do about 40hrs/year and have a share in my own aircraft - a 4 seater which can carry me, my wife and another couple for more time than they would ever happily spend in an aircraft before stopping for wine/cigarettes - Jersey is 1h25min from my home base which is pretty decent and taking her and a couple of friends to the Oyster Box is a cracking way of winning brownie points.
Being in a shared aircraft works well for me with my utilisation. I'm lucky in that a lot of my customers are based are based at airports and my boss is amenable to flying to meetings whenever I can.
I also used it to go on holiday in the middle of France this year, which was good fun.
I was a glider pilot before I got my PPL; I do some tug flying at my local club but not a huge amount.
Learning to fly is reasonably capital-intensive; once your license is in the bag flying gets relatively cheap - easiest way to explain what my aeroplane costs is it's like running a second/fun car. If I owned the whole aeroplane it would be more like running another wife...
Being in a shared aircraft works well for me with my utilisation. I'm lucky in that a lot of my customers are based are based at airports and my boss is amenable to flying to meetings whenever I can.
I also used it to go on holiday in the middle of France this year, which was good fun.
I was a glider pilot before I got my PPL; I do some tug flying at my local club but not a huge amount.
Learning to fly is reasonably capital-intensive; once your license is in the bag flying gets relatively cheap - easiest way to explain what my aeroplane costs is it's like running a second/fun car. If I owned the whole aeroplane it would be more like running another wife...
jjones said:
Loads to do. I fly 3-axis microlights. Met some brilliant people who are now friends through flying. Love going places and spending a few nights away. Not sure on the share -o-plane comments but each to their own.
Flew my last 3-axis microlight to the med (and back!), pretty cool ending up somewhere as awesome as this and knowing you flew there.
The skyranger was a cracking machine but wasn't very easy on the eye so I changed it for something a little sleeker:
- Isle of Wight a couple of weeks ago, great weekend on the beer with some friends.
Modern Microlights (particularly the 3-axis types) are very capable machines, often outperforming the usual group A rentals for considerably less cost. Flew my last 3-axis microlight to the med (and back!), pretty cool ending up somewhere as awesome as this and knowing you flew there.
The skyranger was a cracking machine but wasn't very easy on the eye so I changed it for something a little sleeker:
- Isle of Wight a couple of weeks ago, great weekend on the beer with some friends.Edited by jjones on Tuesday 12th September 21:04
Personally the lack of night/IMC/Aeros puts me off but for touring they are spot on! Also 2 seat only limits their usefulness if you want to bring the family along.
Is that an NPPL need for a 3 axis microlite?
I got up to about 8 hours solo in gliders 20 years or so ago, and the Mrs recently bought me an hour in a Piper Warrior as a pressie which was fun. Not sure I can justify the cost of a PPL but microlites do seem cheaper. Never flown weight shift though, pulling back to pitch down seems wrong so probably stick to 3 axis.
OP, one way to fly cheap once you've got a PPL is as a glider tug pilot. Quite a few clubs have their own tug, and club members fly it for free when towing gliders.
I got up to about 8 hours solo in gliders 20 years or so ago, and the Mrs recently bought me an hour in a Piper Warrior as a pressie which was fun. Not sure I can justify the cost of a PPL but microlites do seem cheaper. Never flown weight shift though, pulling back to pitch down seems wrong so probably stick to 3 axis.
OP, one way to fly cheap once you've got a PPL is as a glider tug pilot. Quite a few clubs have their own tug, and club members fly it for free when towing gliders.
Friend of mine has just done NPPL for Microlights. Possible and cheaper, slightly less arduous from what I understand plus can go into more sensible aeroplanes with a conversion.
Forget about tugging, there's very few clubs that will consider you if you aren't known to the members and an active glider pilot. Some clubs - mine included - have more tuggies than they know what to do with so staying current can be a problem. To even be considered at most clubs you need minimum 100hrs total time.
Forget about tugging, there's very few clubs that will consider you if you aren't known to the members and an active glider pilot. Some clubs - mine included - have more tuggies than they know what to do with so staying current can be a problem. To even be considered at most clubs you need minimum 100hrs total time.
RizzoTheRat said:
Is that an NPPL need for a 3 axis microlite?
I got up to about 8 hours solo in gliders 20 years or so ago, and the Mrs recently bought me an hour in a Piper Warrior as a pressie which was fun. Not sure I can justify the cost of a PPL but microlites do seem cheaper. Never flown weight shift though, pulling back to pitch down seems wrong so probably stick to 3 axis.
OP, one way to fly cheap once you've got a PPL is as a glider tug pilot. Quite a few clubs have their own tug, and club members fly it for free when towing gliders.
NPPL covers both 3 axis and flex wing. To fly the other you just do a short conversion, the ground exams are the same for both. If you wish to fly GA aircraft, you can do a 10 hour conversion and an additional ground exam which will take you to LAPL level.I got up to about 8 hours solo in gliders 20 years or so ago, and the Mrs recently bought me an hour in a Piper Warrior as a pressie which was fun. Not sure I can justify the cost of a PPL but microlites do seem cheaper. Never flown weight shift though, pulling back to pitch down seems wrong so probably stick to 3 axis.
OP, one way to fly cheap once you've got a PPL is as a glider tug pilot. Quite a few clubs have their own tug, and club members fly it for free when towing gliders.
My aircraft will fly at 100kts, is cheap to maintain and uses just 12 litres of MOGAS an hour.
Neptune188 said:
Forget about tugging, there's very few clubs that will consider you if you aren't known to the members and an active glider pilot. Some clubs - mine included - have more tuggies than they know what to do with so staying current can be a problem. To even be considered at most clubs you need minimum 100hrs total time.
Blimey, things have changed then. When I was doing a lot of gliding (admittedly 20 years ago). loads of clubs were desperate for tug pilots. I guess there's a lot more people flying these days.Condi said:
I had a first flying lesson today, go up, fly around, learn what the aircraft does etc. Good fun, really enjoyed it. Wondering what to do next. Im not sure I can really justify the money and hours to get my licence, to do nothing with it?
So, people with PPL's - what the hell do you do with them?!
Well, if you get a PPL, what you have to do with it, is keep it!So, people with PPL's - what the hell do you do with them?!
You need to do a minimum amount of hours per year IIRC to keep it, so essentially, that's what you do with it as a minimum........how is your choice entirely, and above that minimum is about what you can afford to do.
Budgeting for a PPL isn't just getting it, but getting it and maintaining it. Above that, as mentioned, lots of choices
This put me off doing my Heli PPL. I could probably afford to do it but couldn't afford to fly often enough to stay proficient (even borrowing my boss' helicopter at mates rates...)
In very simple terms, to keep your rating current (I think the license lasts forever - YMMV) I need to do 11hrs as Pilot in Command and 1hr with an instructor in the second year - so I can not fly for 12 months after license issue then do all the flying in the second year. If you don't hit the minimums then you have to do a skills test - which is normally a few hours with an instructor then the test, so a bit less onerous.
In very simple terms, to keep your rating current (I think the license lasts forever - YMMV) I need to do 11hrs as Pilot in Command and 1hr with an instructor in the second year - so I can not fly for 12 months after license issue then do all the flying in the second year. If you don't hit the minimums then you have to do a skills test - which is normally a few hours with an instructor then the test, so a bit less onerous.
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