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

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By JAFO
#1852677
S7ewie wrote:Actually no, I'm the other side haha, near Bury St Edmunds. So closer to Cambridge to be honest but I don't think they have a school there at the moment? Or at least I couldn't find one when googling.


Have Aeromega moved from Cambridge to Conington?
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By Rob P
#1852683
There is a fixed wing school at Rougham. I know nothing of the eggbeater academies.

Rob P
By S7ewie
#1852696
riverrock wrote:The below 400ft is a legal limitation for drones anyway, as is flying near airfields, but I'm sure you know that!


Thanks, yes I'm well aware about drone limits :) I was under the impression that the reason for the 400 ft limit for unmanned aircraft was because manned aircraft weren't supposed to fly below 500 ft. So, in theory, we shouldn't come into each others airspace (with the obvious exceptions of military and airports etc.). But clearly its not quite as black and white as that so its good to know the actual rule.

JAFO wrote:Have Aeromega moved from Cambridge to Conington?


Possibly. Either that or they've been taken over by someone else? I looks like there's a couple at Conington which might be my best bet although still over an hour away so not all that much closer than Beccles :P

Rob P wrote:There is a fixed wing school at Rougham. I know nothing of the eggbeater academies.


There's a nice looking one at Andrewsfield too which is 5 mins down the road from where I work. I've spoken to them a few times as some of our fields fall within their FRZ and they seem friendly, so I might pop down and get a trial flight in a Cessna at some point, maybe it'll sway me haha :D
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By Rob P
#1852697
Andrewsfield is always highly spoken of, and my experience of the airfield (I can't comment on the school) has always been positive.

Rob P
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1852711
http://www.roughamairfield.co.uk/

carlmeek wrote:
Paul_Sengupta wrote:But running costs for one of those are more than I earn!


You’d be surprised. Unless you are on a very very low salary that isn’t true.

A lot of luck is involved. If the flux capacitor goes offline then it’s gonna be expensive, but with a decent bit of luck running costs are less than a twin GA aircraft.


Take home about £24k a year. I spend about £10k on running the Bulldog. I couldn't afford a twin either! :D

S7ewie wrote:Why so much more? Are they that more expensive to run?


Yes, see above about fuel costs and airframe maintenance/replacement costs.

S7ewie wrote:So there's nothing stopping you (legally) going lower than 500ft when traveling over open fields?


No, but unless over the sea, you're fairly unlikely to find a fixed wing flying that low, apart from training for forced landings, or if it's a very short flight in very known territory with a low cloudbase.

S7ewie wrote:Even if its not part of your flight plan?


Flight plan? We just fly, unless going to/from a foreign country when a flight plan is needed.

S7ewie wrote:I'm not talking about landing specifically, just traveling in open airspace. If I'm using a drone to survey a field at 350ft, is there anything stopping a pilot from swooping over the hedge and crashing into it?


They wouldn't crash into it deliberately! Watch out for people doing practice forced landings though!
By S7ewie
#1852819
Paul_Sengupta wrote:Flight plan? We just fly, unless going to/from a foreign country when a flight plan is needed.


I don't know why but I always assumed you had to have a plan :P Can you literally just take off and fly wherever you want then? Presumably you at least have to avoid certain airspace?

Paul_Sengupta wrote:They wouldn't crash into it deliberately! Watch out for people doing practice forced landings though!


Oh I know they wouldn't, but they're much less likely to see a black drone flying about than I am of seeing a manned aircraft. To be honest, I always assume by default that they haven't seen me.
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1852821
You need permission to fly in and through controlled airspace, which is often available by talking to air traffic control over the radio when in the air, and you generally need permission from a land owner to land somewhere (this could be a blanket permission). Your movements on an airport will be controlled (depending on the airport) and larger airports will have controlled airspace around them. There are also restricted no-go areas, and flying over large cities can mean you can't "glide clear" which can restrict you.

However with all of that, there is still a lot of freedom.
By S7ewie
#1852843
riverrock wrote:You need permission to fly in and through controlled airspace, which is often available by talking to air traffic control over the radio when in the air, and you generally need permission from a land owner to land somewhere (this could be a blanket permission). Your movements on an airport will be controlled (depending on the airport) and larger airports will have controlled airspace around them. There are also restricted no-go areas, and flying over large cities can mean you can't "glide clear" which can restrict you.

However with all of that, there is still a lot of freedom.


Oh that's cool! To be fair I knew most of those restrictions but for some reason I thought you had to have a plan of where you were going and how you were getting there. Cool to know there's a fair bit more freedom than that :)
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1852852
As long as you know the NOTAMs and the weather for where you're going, and you stay away from controlled, restricted and danger areas, it's up to you. Many airfields require a quick call on the phone to tell them you're coming and so they can give you any pertinent information. (PPR!)
#1852853
There are two types of private flying.

There is travelling to arrive at a destination. This is usually meticulously planned using a navigation app, then accurately flown referring to a tablet or in-panel moving map. If in Visual Flight Rules, no flightplan (a formal document submitted to NATS) is required except for one airport in Wales, unless going to foreign parts (You may remember this used to be allowed?)

Then there is bimbling or hooning, where the intrepid SkyGod launches into the blue with only the vaguest of plans or intentions. Bimbling is when the blue bit stays above the cockpit and the green bit remains underneath. Hooning involves the blue bit sometimes being underneath the cockpit and the green bits above, swopping position quite frequently. No submission of flightplan is even remotely possible as the pilot doesn't really know where he will end up before he gets there

Rob P

A typical hoon >

Image

For the avoidance of doubt the track was well above the ATZ of the neighbouring airfield
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By muffin
FLYER Club Member (reader)  FLYER Club Member (reader)
#1853812
In simple terms, everything to do with helicopters costs about twice as much as for fixed wing aircraft. A lot of the basics are the same but the actually flying of helicopters is completely different as they are dynamically unstable and it can all go pear shaped very quickly indeed if they are mishandled, whereas a fixed wing aircraft is far more tolerant of error. The best simile I have ever heard for rotary flying is "controlling the flight of a bumble bee".

I have flown both for over 20 years and own both. my fixed wing aircraft is kit built and operated on a system where you do your own maintenance etc so the resultant running cost is peanuts. The helicopter bills on the other hand can be eyewatering at times but you are only here once.

Good luck whatever you do.
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