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

Moderator: AndyR

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By Micromouse
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1853312
AndyR wrote:
Flyin'Dutch' wrote:
tr7v8 wrote:We pay when booking, so if you book 6 lessons you pay for the 6 hours (currently £240 ph) straight away.


I have watering eyes now! 2-4-0 per hour.

What aeroplane does one get to fly for that?


A PA28 in the south east. Plus landing fees at some/most places.

Yup. I pay £224 at Elstree for a PA28 Archer 3. The Warrior is a little cheaper. But at least I pay on landing for tacho time (engine on-engine off)


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By Highland Park
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1853359
RobW wrote:
Well that's such a kind offer I would be a fool to turn it down! please let me know when you will be there and I will tie it in with a visit to the club to have a chat about the lessons, the coffee would be on me obviously :)

I still work but like many people have an abundance of Holiday days to take as I had to close most of my business down over the past year (I run a car dealership) so I can be pretty available.

Thank you all again for such a kind welcome and great advice.

Rob.

Rob, for obvious reasons I don’t want to publish my mobile number on here and I’m not sure whether you can reply to Private Messages yet, being a new forum member, so email me and we can sort something out:

Ianw2162 at aol dot com
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By editmonkey
#1853385
Hi Rob and welcome!

I'm relatively new to it all too and just a baby pilot but I've tried two schools now - one at a busy airport and I'm now at a small airfield. I've found there are pros/cons to both.

In my very limited personal experience so far:

At the bigger airport you're getting to deal with traffic, ATC and making radio calls which is a big part of it all, and probably the thing I miss. It's also quite exciting getting to land alongside the big jets, and having miles of runway to aim for makes that first landing a little less daunting. In my experience it's more expensive with landing fees and you're at the mercy of commercial airport forces, although not sure if that was just my school or if it's applicable everywhere.

The smaller airfield I've found is just great - much more personal, hire rates are better, lovely club atmosphere where everyone's an aeroplane enthusiast. You can rock up and have a coffee and watch the planes come and go while sitting on the side of the runway. You're also straight up to height and into the lesson from the get-go without having to make your way out of a control area (appreciate this might be different in the south where you're wedged in between lots of CTAs) so I've found there are more precious minutes of instruction time.

The flying is more challenging in some ways, especially if you're landing on a short runway. But the one thing you will miss is the busyness and radio work in the early days.

Ultimately though, as others have said, all that stuff is kinda subservient to good instruction. Find a good instructor and stick with them.
Last edited by editmonkey on Thu Jun 17, 2021 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By cotterpot
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1853410
Made a few additions editmonkey :wink:

The flying is more challenging in some ways, especially if you're landing on a short runway, ( which will be much more useful given the type of flying you are likely to be doing once qualified )

But the one thing you will miss is the busyness and radio work in the early days.
He mentioned Norwich and I can report Norwich and busy are not words you would necessarily use together. You won't 'miss' radio work. You will still get the opportunity to fly in controlled airspace while learning to fly. Once qualified you can take a view as to how much radio work you really need to use.
A not necessarily good example but my choice - I flew from south coast to Norfolk last week at mostly 4000' and a bit, and spoke to the airfield at take off and airfield traffic on landing. All the rest was just listening and enjoying the flight.

Good luck where ever you chose to go and enjoy the journey.
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By editmonkey
#1853411
cotterpot wrote:Made a few additions editmonkey :wink:

The flying is more challenging in some ways, especially if you're landing on a short runway, ( which will be much more useful given the type of flying you are likely to be doing once qualified )


I absolutely agree. :)
By tcc1000
#1853448
One of the things that affects your cost is how tight the circuit (*) is. If you can get in 8 circuits an hour you will learn more quickly than if you can only manage 4. I've only visited Norwich a couple of time (landaway and QXC), so I don't know enough to advise. If the runway is too short, you can't touch and go (land, then immediately take off again) which also increases time taken. You will need to do a number of landings (~50, maybe many more) before you get competent at them.

(*) As you may not know this (yet), in the vicinity of an airfield, you fly in a rounded rectangle pattern along the runway then out, off to one side to get back to the start. You will do this a lot from a few hours in until you can do it well (enough) on your own before you start on navigation.
By RobW
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1853452
Thanks for the additional tips. I have spoken to @Highland Park and arranged to meet up for a coffee at Old Buckenham this weekend, I totally get there are pros and cons to both bigger airports and the smaller fields, As has been mentioned, I dont have enough information yet to know which would work best for me, so going and having a look first hand seems the obvious thing to do.

I have been practicing circuits and touch and go's at Norwich on my simulator, however these are based on absolutely no knowledge whatsoever so likely have already started to develop bad habits, Im wondering if all the hours I spend behind my PC Yoke is likely to have done more harm than good, I imagine I could be seen in the same way as a customer walking into my dealership with a parkers guide under his arm!

Anyway, I am looking forward to the first tentative steps over the weekend and will see where I go from there!

Thanks again everyone
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1853459
The sim should help in being able to fly (and land!) the aeroplane, but flight simmers do apparently tend to look at the instruments too much when they should be looking outside.
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By tr7v8
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1853620
Flyin'Dutch' wrote:
tr7v8 wrote:We pay when booking, so if you book 6 lessons you pay for the 6 hours (currently £240 ph) straight away.


I have watering eyes now! 2-4-0 per hour.

What aeroplane does one get to fly for that?

Its a fuel injected 172 SP 2004. I was in an older 172 but post covid the price rose to the same as this one, Since there is more space & it is comfier. I have a long standing back problem so space & decent comfort is big on the list.
At our club the 152 is £195 per hour including instructor.
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By Grelly
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1853656
AndyR wrote:
Flyin'Dutch' wrote:
tr7v8 wrote:We pay when booking, so if you book 6 lessons you pay for the 6 hours (currently £240 ph) straight away.


I have watering eyes now! 2-4-0 per hour.

What aeroplane does one get to fly for that?


A PA28 in the south east. Plus landing fees at some/most places.


That includes the instructor I hope?
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By Rob L
#1853881
Rob P wrote:Good to have you here Rob. Historically there have been three Robs here, S, L and P, though Rob S gave up flying so is an infrequent visitor these days

All three of us are bewildered so you will fit in just fine

Norwich or Old Buckenham? Buy a logbook book a trial lesson with each then make your mind up. Nobody can do that for you.

Rob P - Norfolk based flying from Tibenham


Hello Rob W:
Welcome to the Flyer Forum!
Rob P and Andy R will guide you in the right direction; firstly because because I trust their judgement and secondly: Rob P is based in your neck of the woods.
Having said that: I'm not bewildered like Rob P thinks; my own opinion is to steer away from Norwich Airport. Do Tibenham do PPL training?

Keep us up to date with your progress :thumright:

Rob L
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