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

Moderator: AndyR

By Fellsteruk
#1806805
Pay as you go all the way. The schools at Liverpool are pretty well established however Lomac recently shut down and in covid times anything is possible so I suggest pay as you.

Book... just my personal opinion pooleys are good but as mentioned AFE do the job, what I did find very useful was the pooleys exam guides , each contain 4 to 6 mock exams which I found good practice for the actual exam but that was before October this year “I did all paper exams”

No need to have sittings anymore so my advice is to pick a topic and focus on one at a time however you can easily do a few of them together but again now that sittings I’ve gone there is less pressure to do the exams back to back.

I did air law, human performance and op procedures together and I think comms and aircraft general then the rest I did one at a time, end to end was about 10 months.

Good luck with everything, which schools you at?
By andynxn
#1806880
I was originally going to go to Hawarden, but they no longer have a school from what i can tell. Im currently on a 5 trial pack with Ravenair. But at moment very happy with school. Looked at a few and they are better on hourly rate, also went there a few times just to speak to people and they are all friendly. Considered Mersey flight but they are much more expensive... But options are open at moment.
By Fellsteruk
#1806945
Hey Andy

Yeah hawarden don’t have any schools now flintshire flying school closed down however their circuits are much cheaper than Liverpool but I’m sure you’ll find that as the schools tend to start circuit training over there. Also it’s pretty amazing working around the beluga.

I’m with merseyflight, interesting point about cost as when I initially looked MF was cheaper but then I’m not sure what Ravenair charge these days, maybe we should compare notes as I’m always looking to save pennies.

Either way they all seem like pretty good schools from what I’ve heard so I’m sure you’ll be looked after with them!

Good luck to all the schools, gonna be a hard month or two ahead of them now and just as they were starting to get back to flying :(
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1807067
Andy,

Sorry for delay getting back, have been airborne!
Flew Tues and today.

Answer to your q, flying at Tatenhill, Staffordshire. I live in the farthest east of Cheshire so little choice, Barton is too tricky a journey from here, traffic chaos! So I do 1hr30m drive to Tatenhill, beautiful scenery all the way, easy driving.

I looked at the medicals. LAPL not onerous, can tick fine for all categories (although whitecoat bp sometimes but at home am well within acceptable). Then I read the Class 2. Need recent prescription for my glasses, which is tricky atm. The obvs things the AME checks should all be ok on recent form (bloods, resp, heart, range of movement). Then I saw there is also exam of breasts and anus. Is this just for fun or is there some issue that makes one unsafe to fly??

Studying - I have dead forest copies of Pooleys and some AFE. Agree that the size of AFE makes them appealing and clear. The test papers for Pooleys have good explainers, too.

I do tests online using PPLTutor for immediate result after each q. Also use AirQuiz, can do timed exam. Tbh, their explanations are not that good but the tests are only there to highlight what you don't know, not to learn anything from scratch, iyswim.

Re Sims. I got a ticking off for flying on instruments yester, and was 'accused' of being a Sim-er :lol: In other words, I had my head inside too much. I am sure they are beneficial in many ways though, but I'm too old to have got into it as a kid and can't afford it now!

PS, Ravenair were flying surveys many days over our area during lockdown1.0. Give us a wave when you're doing it as P/ut next week 8)
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1807301
T6Harvard wrote:Then I saw there is also exam of breasts and anus. Is this just for fun or is there some issue that makes one unsafe to fly??


I think the anus thing is just for extracting the seat cushion after a particularly tricky approach and landing.
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By andynxn
#1808084
That made me laugh about the probing.... I hope not but will report after my medical lol.

So my school and i guess most others are on stop at moment, so its time to hit the books. Not much else to report really. No flights booked now till 7th Dec (weather depending).
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By Artschool
#1808101
T6Harvard wrote:Then I saw there is also exam of breasts and anus. Is this just for fun or is there some issue that makes one unsafe to fly??


no one likes to talk about this :shock:
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1808103
andynxn wrote:That made me laugh about the probing.... I hope not but will report after my medical lol.

So my school and i guess most others are on stop at moment, so its time to hit the books. Not much else to report really. No flights booked now till 7th Dec (weather depending).


Ha, me too! The 7th and the 9th booked :mrgreen: Race on?!

I have been studying but am going to do a proper plan to concentrate on just HP, Ops, and Air Law. See if I can persuade my instructor to let me sit those before Xmas.....

I previously took a Zoom class for Comms that forumite Irv Lee offers. Great notes provided and I found it very useful.
By andynxn
#1814505
Just a quick update,

Passed my class 2 (and no probing im glad to say...). Have had a few lessons since last update as ive just been booking slots when i can as work quieter this time of year. Did my first radio calls today too, i was more nervous about this then the flying, so i was making the inital calls then the instructor would take over so i could listen to the replies from both sides and help understand it, this approched worked well and i think i got more from that then just having to deal with the full radio replys. I guess every little helps.
Also did my first take off (with instructor on the controls too) but got the rudder control fairly well with a cross wind also.
All in all absolutly loving it.
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By Nero
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1814517
That's excellent, Andy! Glad you're enjoying it

I remember my first instructor and making my first radio calls.... Really wasn't clear what I was meant to be saying and teaching me it in the air. He did have a crib sheet but every instructor since has told me to not use it haha... Sighhh

Anyway, I quite enjoy the radios now and I'm sure you will be a natural very soon

~ Scott
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1814536
@andynxn
Great to hear that, Andy! You're doing well. Isn't it an amazing thing to be doing??!

Envious of your take off. I can't WAIT!

I am not yet to be trusted with the PTT button . I assume my instructor thinks it would be brain overload :lol:

Throughly enjoyed my lesson on Monday. Back there tomorrow, although may not be flyable looking at wind. Instructor said to go anyway so he can brief for climbing, descending and glide. No doubt I'll get to dip the fuel after pole vaulting up there.
By andynxn
#1851830
Well thought i should update this post, its been a while, i have been hijacking T6's post....

So today i passed my Air Law and Operating procedures, only one wrong on each and the annoying thing is you don’t actually know what question, only the area. Then had a lesson with more circuits. 7 T&Gs and one landing. But also did aborted take-off, then short field take off and then two glide approaches/landings. Didn’t like the glide approaches, the angle felt very wrong, but once you get close and take that angle of decent out, the landing was very gentle and nice. Did second one on my own and it seemed much better knowing what to expect. Also did another engine failure, and at least instructor said we would have made it back this time. All in all a busy day.

First Solo is imminent :pale:
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1851880
Oh exciting!! How many hours?

Funnily enough my Instructor finally asked yester if I'd registered with the CAA e-portal. I've done a reasonable amt of studying and should probably think about doing 2 or 3 exams to get them under my belt.
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By Crash one
#1852436
cotterpot wrote:Some might say that there is only ever one 'solo' :wink:
It won't appear in your logbook in that way ever again.

:thumleft:


I must be unique then, I’ve got two Ex 14 although they are 30 years apart.
Plus another two on gliders about the same time apart.
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