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

Moderator: AndyR

By RobW
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1863426
Hi Rob,

A month ago I was in exactly the same position as you (as well as being of the same age and name)
I decided on the PPL route eventually, I was concerned about the medical (being built for "neither comfort or speed" quote)

The medical was a very simple affair, I would say you would know already if you were likely to have issues.

The PPL was really the only option the flight schools I visited were really interested in and it gives more options further down the line so that is the route I have taken.

This Forum has been invaluable, I dont post much but have spent hours trawling through all the threads and found the 'It happened to me' section very informative.

I would advise going out and speaking to people, everyone in Aviation that I have met so far have been incredibly helpful and accommodating so well worth making a bit of effort.

Good luck, its a fantastic journey and I still cant believe I am on the road to learning how to fly!
T6Harvard, Rob L, jcal liked this
#1863452
Thank you all very much for the useful replies, much appreciated and glad I managed to get the last Rob in :).

I think I will arrange a number of trial lessons in various aircraft to see which one I prefer (I am hoping I will love it and get the bug).

@TopCat, thank you for the offer, I would love to take you up on that and will PM you once I find out how (I have checked and White Waltham is pretty much in the middle of where and live work when in the office so a good reason to break the journey :D).

I will also post my experience of the first flight but for now I will purchase a log book (can anyone recommend a decent one as having looked they not only range in price but also content as some do not seem suitable for someone learning to fly), take the first lesson, if I love it book other trial lessons and also look into the medical.

All the best,

Rob G
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By Dave W
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1863455
RobLG wrote:... and will PM you once I find out how ...

Rob, the explanation of how to PM is in the forum FAQs.

You may need to make just a couple more posts until that function is available to you - it's an antispam protection measure,
#1863456
Logbooks?

This will do the job. Similar books are available from other traders

https://www.flightstore.co.uk/pilot-sup ... 5sQAvD_BwE

You might like to consider ALSO starting an electronic logbook to run in parallel. Some people like these as they make analysis simple. But for me they lack the soul of my battered, coffee-ringed hardback logbooks. For that reason I can't advise on which to get.

Rob P
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By RobW
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1863461
The one @Rob P links above is the one I got, Flight schools all sell them too, but they are often branded, as I planned on trying a few different schools before deciding, I didn't want to turn up to every lesson with a logbook branded by a competing school!

Pretty much everything else I have purchased has been second hand stuff from ebay (whizz wheel, flight bag, course books etc)
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1863488
Yep, pretty much the same logbook, definitely not a logo'd one, for same reason.

Well done on getting lots secondhand. Look out for adverts on the noticeboards at club or school as well. Schools always used to have sets for students but that largely stopped last year! I bought my headset from a forumite.

Just be cautious about the Air Law books, most (all?) are OOD already. Publishers are in the process of updating them. Although there are always changes to Law, it has been particularly noticeable this year.
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1863490
RobLG wrote:I will go for that logbook and forgo an electronic one in parallel as I spend too much time on a screen as it is :).

I think you may come to regret that decision.

I wish I'd maintained an electronic version of mine. It's just a few seconds extra per flight but you end up with something that's fully searchable and does all the totals for you.

Yes I know there are totals carried forward on every page, but when you have to start answering questions like 'total P1 hours since last revalidation', or 'since last medical', the carried forward hours only go some of the way.

And then there are mistakes, noticed some pages later. What then? Ignore it? Make a horrible mess correcting every entry from where you discovered the mistake? Or add an annotation of some kind? Stick new pages in over the top of the ones with the mistakes? It ain't gonna be pretty whichever way you choose.

Like @Rob P, I like my paper log book. I back it up periodically by taking pictures of the pages.

But now that I have nearly three full ones, the contents of which have defined a large fraction of my life over three decades, I'd really like to be able to get at the data they contain a little more easily.

In which context, goddammit, I've just noticed that I've missed the 30th anniversary of my first logged flight. So it's now more than three decades. Jeez....

It was on the 29th July 1991, in C152 G-BHDW, at Dundee.

In a little under two months time, it'll be the 30th anniversary of my first flight in the aeroplane that I did the remainder of my PPL in, and which I'm still flying to this day.
#1863501
TopCat wrote:And then there are mistakes, noticed some pages later. What then? Ignore it? Make a horrible mess correcting every entry from where you discovered the mistake? Or add an annotation of some kind? Stick new pages in over the top of the ones with the mistakes? It ain't gonna be pretty whichever way you choose.


If it was "pretty" it wouldn't be my logbook. There's crossings out, insertions, all manner of corrections and yet still it might well not be accurate to a few hours either way. And why would that matter? Under training every minute counts and need to be accurate, but most are capable of managing that for fifty or sixty hours. But thirty years on as long as I dutifully record in excess of twelve hours every second year no puppies will die if the minutes don't add up exactly.

The OP has plenty of time, if he does eventually add a cyber logbook transcribing his first hours will be no huge task.

That reminds me, I'm a couple of months behind on my entries. I really should transfer them from SkyDemon's logbook feature onto my own 'horrible mess' before I forget the incidents on each flight.

Rob P
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By GrahamB
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1863506
TopCat wrote:
RobLG wrote:I will go for that logbook and forgo an electronic one in parallel as I spend too much time on a screen as it is :).

I think you may come to regret that decision.

I wish I'd maintained an electronic version of mine. It's just a few seconds extra per flight but you end up with something that's fully searchable and does all the totals for you.


I'd dallied with the idea of an electronic logbook for years, but never took the plunge as the prospect of spending hours bashing stuff into an app/spreadsheet was just too daunting.

When Wales went into its second lockdown last year, I had to find something to do, so I bit the bullet and knocked up a spreadsheet with a bunch of pivot tables, and spent three days banging in 1700 lines.

My paper logbooks are my pride and joy, complete with Tippex, Instructor signatures, Safety Evening stamps and crossings-out, but the spreadsheet comes into its own at medical and insurance times when you have to answer those questions on 'Total time', 'Time on type in last twelve months' etc etc. It's also useful for monitoring currency on such things as, for example, take off and landings.
scd975, TopCat liked this
#1863523
GrahamB wrote:...complete with Tippex...
I personally avoid Tippex (other products are available) because it implies hiding something. I simply put a line through the error and add the correct data elsewhere (with a long arrow if needed).

Like RobP, my logbook is a personal history.

Rob L

ps Always keep a copy of your logbook, be it photocopied, photographed or whatever. Every other document you own can be replaced.
#1863525
VRB_20kt wrote:Even if it’s just a spreadsheet it makes any analysis a whole heap easier.


I would imagine that to be the case, I'm just a little intrigued by what this analysis people do is?

Rob P
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By VRB_20kt
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1863535
F'rinstance:

Am I eligible to start an FI course?
Hours on type
Hours in the second year since licence revalidation
Hours flown on all types in the last insurance year
Hours flown on the insured aircraft in the last insurance year

All possible from the standard logbook, but a lot simpler from the spreadsheet
Rob P liked this