Learning to fly, or thinking of learning? Post your questions, comments and experiences here

Moderator: AndyR

#1784435
Even more advice. Buy a transceiver and get your R/T licence before you start. Not too difficult and you"ll be able to do R/T with your instructor alongside. Use your xceiver to listen out at your chosen field to get familiar with procedures --and use car registrations for alphabet. practice.--great help.
I "ve had 2 x ceivers in 40 plus years--great safety investment.---only used it twice in anger-
but a great asset for safety .
#1784547
I am passing this for what it is worth.

Feedback yesterday from someone who has had a little post-ppl training at Stapleford within the last few weeks

"Self-important twenty-two year old schoolboys instructing eighteen year old schoolchildren without an ounce of joy"

Paraphrased, but possibly indicative of the view from further down the flying story. A sausage factory for future LoCo fodder.

Apologies for the mixed metaphor.

Rob P
AndyR, Charles Hunt liked this
#1784672
I went to Stapleford when I was about 17--to enquire about learning to fly.
A snooty woman asked me what I earned and told me that I couldn"t afford it--I felt humiliated--I"ve never forgotten it.
What an ignorant stupid old ***.
You still find this attitude now in some clubs.
I"ve taken up quite a few young keen people with little cash. I would advise them as per my earlier note.Have a lesson once a month if you can afford it--your income will increase.
From a recent visit--I only go there for my Avionics--exellent guy there called C****., the place is still very unfriendly and as ROBP s mate described.
#1784832
I went the NPPL on motor glider route at Enstone and don't regret it.
As for a training airfield, look at how long a circuit takes, choose the one that takes the shortest time. You will do a lot of circuits and the difference between a 10 minute circuit and a 6 minute circuit is significant.
Avoid airfields with ATC and particularly those with commercial traffic - unless you think that spending 15 minutes orbiting on the downwind is a useful skill that needs a lot of practice.

You can learn to cope with ATC when you are more practiced.
I wouldn't touch a setup where landing fees are not included.

So, based at the gliding club at Wycombe, I went to Enstone for my NPPL (SLMG) then WW for the SSEA upgrade.

I know nothing, good or bad, about North Weald or Stapleford.
T6Harvard liked this
#1785415
My £0.02 now that I'm 5 hours in:

I had to decide between North Weald, Stapleford & Damyns Hall (my closest airfields)

    NWFT @ North Weald have been good so far, professional setup with one of the cheapest rates for C152 dual that I've seen around London. They (NWFT) are friendly and happy to answer any questions, but otherwise won't hold your hand about the PPL process - if you want to know e.g. how exams work, you need to ask or figure it out for yourself. (fair enough IMO, but may not suit everyone...)

    At the moment they have plenty of instructors who are furloughed from their airlines available at weekends, plus their full-time instructors who are more Mon-Fri. My instructor is one of the former; have really enjoyed flying with him so will be mixed feelings when he goes back to his day job! Hoping I don't have to change instructors too often due to this, but that's life.

    Not sure how the instructor situation will change later: I'm looking at slots in Sept and there's not many available - could be that all the part-time/furloughed instructors are TBC?

    Bookings are tight at weekends (unsurprisingly); I'm trying to squeeze in an extra slot next weekend and am having to watch the booking page like a hawk. Weekdays much easier, could probably book the night before if you wanted.

    Aircraft are decent: I've used 2 of their 5 C152s so far, one was battered inside but normal for a flight school, the other had a much newer interior.

    The gigantic hard runway is nice as it gives a lot of margin for error for my **** takeoffs & landings :D It's not lit and the airfield closes at 1900, so no night flying or ratings.

    There is another, smaller flight school at North Weald (possibly just one instructor..?) but I don't know much about it.

Stapleford:
    I heard mixed reviews about this one; some say they liked it but I heard a few more say that felt it was unfriendly given it was geared towards churning out ATPLs. I ruled it out for this reason, but haven't been there myself so cannot confirm/deny.

Damyns Hall (London Airsports):
    Was planning on visiting here before I started PPL but COVID-19 got in the way. They fly shiny new Pipistrels from a grass airstrip. In the end I went with NW because I was raring to go when restrictions lifted, had already met them, and wanted to save a few quid in £/hr. However I'm still planning to go and see DH, maybe even do a lesson there to see what a different (and much more modern!) aircraft feels like.
Rob P liked this
#1791796
SteakAndAle wrote:Yes! Learning to fly tailwheel there (and maybe get some time in one of their Tiger Moths) is on my to-do list after PPL. However they don't offer ab-initio hence didn't mention.


The Tiger Club do offer ab-initio training, it's just not well advertised. They also have a CAP-10 for progressing onto aerobatics afterwards as well as multiple Turbulents for some £75 an hour fun.