[zie]

Hi all,

I've been reading is the PPL is at your own pace but must be completed within 18 months. Is there a way I can get this completed much faster? like an accelerated course? I have a lot of free time as I'm self employed that can allow me to sit a full time PPL course if such course exists.

I'm based in east london. Do any London flying clubs offer full time PPL course?

Thank you.

[Rob P]

Lots of options, including beyond the UK

But why?

It's some of the most enjoyable aviation you'll ever do. Why rush through it?

Rob P

[Human Factor]

Covid notwithstanding, you could probably knock it off in a month at most decent schools if the weather plays ball.

[Charles Hunt]

Buy the books now and start reading.

[Highland Park]

There’s no time limit on the PPL per se, but there is on the time taken to pass all the written exams, which is what I think you may be referring to?

I can’t add to what’s already been said other than if learning in the UK, the weather behaving itself (or not!) will play a significant part, as will your own personal ability. Just remember it’s not a race and you won’t a) be sent solo and b) complete your Skills Test until your instructor considers you are ready.

I can’t comment on flying schools near to where you live; I’ll leave that to others in that part of the world.

Enjoy every minute of it!

Ian

[Irv Lee]

Hi all,
I've been reading is the PPL is at your own pace but must be completed within 18 months.

Source very wrong!

[Crash one]

The way I see it, as soon as you pass the first written exam you have 18 months to complete all the exams including the GFT. If you over run the 18 months before passing everything, the first exam or more will have expired and you will have to re sit those again.
So, don’t start taking exams too early, wait till you are nearly ready for solo before taking air law.

[Cessna571]

Hi Zie,

It’s all flying, you’ll be sitting in the pilot’s seat and doing some of the flying from the very first trial lesson.

After about 5 hours you should be doing all of the flying while you learn extra things.

After about 14 hours, you’ll have a go on your own, after that sometimes it’s on your own, sometimes with an instructor.

Then you take a test, and that just means you can take passengers.

You can’t really fly properly for about another 200 hours, till you’ve practised and researched things you didn’t cover in your course. (You don’t cover everything).

Then you enter what’s called “The killing zone”, when you *think* you can fly, stop being careful, and have more chance of an accident. You leave this at about 400 hours and start to slightly know what you are doing.

BUT, it’s ALL flying, and it’s ALL flying from day one.

Those costs are fictional I’m afraid, unless you are never going to fly once you have a licence, they are pointless.

Think of it more like this.

You start flying next week, you can spend as much or as little as you like, as you go along, whenever you have the money.

Every time you spend £160, you go flying for an hour.

At some point, someone says you’re good enough to have a go on your own.

Then they say you’re good enough to fly to another airfield on your own.

Then they say you’re good enough to do a day trip on your own to 2 other airfields. (QXC)

At some point, someone says you can fly passengers.

At some point after that you begin to feel like you know what you’re doing.

You just pay each time you go flying. At each stage there’s what it cost you to get to that stage, but no one can tell you before exactly what it’s going to be.


Note:

When you can fly passengers, it can get cheaper per hour depending on your choice of aircraft.

The exams are 15(iirc) multiple choice questions each. Once you are immersed in flying and have passed them once, you’d pass them again, the 18 month timescale isn’t quite true, you’d just resit them, it’s a cost issue at £40 per exam or whatever it costs these days rather than a worry issue.

[RisePilot]

Aviation economics are encapsulated here:

[malcolmfrost]

I did mine in 4 weeks with an RAF Flying Scholarship. Stayed a short walk from the school and lived, ate and slept flying. 2 hours a day flying leaves a lot of time for the book work and you don’t get rusty.

[oldbiggincfi]

I did mine in 4 weeks with an RAF Flying Scholarship. Stayed a short walk from the school and lived, ate and slept flying. 2 hours a day flying leaves a lot of time for the book work and you don’t get rusty.

From what I remember the Scholarship gave you 30 hrs of paid Flying . It always annoyed me when many did not go on to obtain a PPl particularly as my club was approved to complete in 35hrs .
Some deserving cases got the benefit of my Generosity in giving twin time when positioning for a charter or something like that.
Some were good enough the be selected for Hamble .
Probably retired now and don't forget Aeroplanes were easier to fly back then

[Irv Lee]

The way I see it, as soon as you pass the first written exam you have 18 months to complete all the exams including the GFT.

No, whilst all ground exams need to be in an 18 month group start and finish exams, then you have a further 2 years after the final ground exam to finish the flying side

So, don’t start taking exams too early, wait till you are nearly ready for solo before taking air law.

It sounds like 3.5 years is way more elapsed time than is envisaged, so no need to delay exams. Some exams work better at certain times in the course, but If anyone wants a confidence boost and experience an exam without a wide ranging syllabus, I would suggest Human Performance first, but of course that does start the 18 month and 3.5 year clocks.

[malcolmfrost]

I did mine in 4 weeks with an RAF Flying Scholarship. Stayed a short walk from the school and lived, ate and slept flying. 2 hours a day flying leaves a lot of time for the book work and you don’t get rusty.

From what I remember the Scholarship gave you 30 hrs of paid Flying . It always annoyed me when many did not go on to obtain a PPl particularly as my club was approved to complete in 35hrs .
Some deserving cases got the benefit of my Generosity in giving twin time when positioning for a charter or something like that.
Some were good enough the be selected for Hamble .
Probably retired now and don't forget Aeroplanes were easier to fly back then

My parents bought me the extra 5 hours for £50
2 months to retirement at 65

[johnm]

I have said this to others, but I found the learning process as enjoyable and interesting as anything else. Looking at my log books it took me just over a year to do my PPL alongside work. I would advise taking your time and studying thoroughly to gain understanding not just pass the exams, it's especially important to look at the operational side too and look into things like the AIP and weather resources which were only superficially covered when I did a PPL.

[skydriller]

I understand the comments suggesting that PPL training is enjoyable and dont rush it, and to an extent I agree. However there is something to be said for immersing oneself in something, and it must be said that being available to fly alot means that the weather will have less influence on your training progress. It means that you dont have to re-learn anything from a previous lesson, which will inevitably happen if you can only fly once a week but are rained off twice in a row...

Regards, SD..