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

Moderator: AndyR

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By TrickyWoo
#1878571
Hi folks,

After my LAPL test in a few weeks I will hour build on a PA28. I'm based near Oxford and want to get experience and challenge myself within sensible limits. Later moves towards pax, night rating, PPL and IR (R) are for next year. With 20 hours to spend where would you recommend for a keen but not I hope too intrepid pilot?

Three that I'd like to try are all south and that may be a concern (Farnborough pinch point?). I have the opportunity to fly with an experienced friend and can also go with my FI but I do want to do these flights alone as much as possible without repetition:

Shoreham
Redhill
Sandown
Somewhere up north

Thank you :-)
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1878574
Kemble, Gloucester, Shobdon and Welshpool would all be easy...

Leicester, Gamston , Peterborough and Fenland too
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By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1878576
There will be lots of replies to this that give you suggestions, but I'm curious why you ask.

Actually I very much support the self-reliance evidenced by wanting to do the flights alone, so I'm wondering why you don't just look at the map, find a few airfields nearby that aren't too demanding (I wouldn't pick a 500m farm strip on a windless day, for instance), pick a good day, plan, and go.

In the early days, I really enjoyed deciding what to do on my own.

But Shoreham, Redhill and Sandown are all really nice. If you don't fancy the Farnborough transit (and if you're coming from near Oxford there's no particular advantage in that) west of Basingstoke will be just as good - just look out for the Lasham gliders.
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User avatar
By TrickyWoo
#1878579
johnm wrote:Kemble, Gloucester, Shobdon and Welshpool would all be easy...

Leicester, Gamston , Peterborough and Fenland too


Leicester is my NavEx and becoming all too familiar :-)

Gamston is a new one - I'll research thank you
User avatar
By TrickyWoo
#1878583
TopCat wrote:There will be lots of replies to this that give you suggestions, but I'm curious why you ask.

Actually I very much support the self-reliance evidenced by wanting to do the flights alone, so I'm wondering why you don't just look at the map, find a few airfields nearby that aren't too demanding (I wouldn't pick a 500m farm strip on a windless day, for instance), pick a good day, plan, and go.

In the early days, I really enjoyed deciding what to do on my own.

But Shoreham, Redhill and Sandown are all really nice. If you don't fancy the Farnborough transit (and if you're coming from near Oxford there's no particular advantage in that) west of Basingstoke will be just as good - just look out for the Lasham gliders.


Why ask? It's a fun question for a new pilot! (I even enjoy burning up the sky to Leicester and back ad nauseam) but post test I want to go interesting airfields not just finding local airfields - it's too expensive to just 'find concrete'. Or grass :-)
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By TrickyWoo
#1878597
TopCat wrote:If you don't fancy the Farnborough transit (and if you're coming from near Oxford there's no particular advantage in that) west of Basingstoke will be just as good - just look out for the Lasham gliders.


This is interesting and needs researching. If I can have a relatively straightforward way of getting to the south coast that's great. Thank you. (I must have seen to many YTs and articles about the 'Farn'b air grab' and suchlike.)
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By GrahamB
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1878598
If you come to Welshpool and looking for grub, then best to avoid Mondays and Tuesdays as the cafe is generally closed on those days. Let me know if you do come this way and I’ll do my best to be on hand.

Dunkeswell is another good, straightforward destination to consider.
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By TrickyWoo
#1878599
GrahamB wrote:If you come to Welshpool and looking for grub, then best to avoid Mondays and Tuesdays as the cafe is generally closed on those days. Let me know if you do come this way and I’ll do my best to be on hand.

Dunkeswell is another good, straightforward destination to consider.


I motorbiked to Dunkeswell on the way to Cornwall and the cafe was wonderful. It's top of my list (should have said)

I do want to do Welshpool too - need to talk with FI about that one for mountains and the approach I think. Noted re Mon and Tue - it would be weekdays I'll be flying. My airfield is much quieter then for hiring and there's a discount worth taking advantage of. Plus my employer is clueless about how bone idle many of its employees are so I may as well fly on the company ticket.
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1878601
TrickyWoo wrote:
TopCat wrote:If you don't fancy the Farnborough transit (and if you're coming from near Oxford there's no particular advantage in that) west of Basingstoke will be just as good - just look out for the Lasham gliders.


This is interesting and needs researching. If I can have a relatively straightforward way of getting to the south coast that's great. Thank you. (I must have seen to many YTs and articles about the 'Farn'b air grab' and suchlike.)

Relative to what, though? This is the thing - if you want specific help, you need to ask specific questions!

Enstone - Popham - Shoreham is easy enough - Brize are invariably helpful; Abingdon, Didcot, Newbury, Basingstoke are all unmissable, and after Popham (note the M3/A303 junction, very clear) there's Four Marks which is a nice sized town (with another on its left (Alton) and a little one on its right (New Alresford, which also has a handy lake)). You'll know you've gone far enough when you get to the English Channel :)

The only thing I'd suggest if you venture through the Farnborough zone is to make sure you know where all the VRPs are before they clear you via them, and you sound like a numpty when you don't know where they are and you're frantically looking at the map.

And carefully study the vertical extent of the various bits of CAS - there's a lot of it about.
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By TrickyWoo
#1878603
Thank you that's really useful - I'll get the VRPs on my flight sim in VR (which is superb) and practice practice practice. First time I do the south coast I'll be with someone else - I'm sure it will be v. different to Leicester and back again.

Brize v local and have indeed always been great even when I mistook them for Oxford. (Yes really.) Furthest south so far has been Henley.

btw what's a 'map?' Does Sky Demon have that functionality? I'll check but there's stuff under the magenta bit about towns and stuff? The bit you hit to stop it going beep beep?
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1878607
TrickyWoo wrote:btw what's a 'map?' Does Sky Demon have that functionality?

Well, it does up to a point.

It doesn't show the little lake at New Alresford (at any scale), though, which was very clear on the half-mill until they obscured it in recent editions. I don't know if it's on the quarter-mill.

SD also omits a lot of other lakes, as I've commented before.

But we have a magenta line now, so using actual ground features for navigation is only for luddites.

For someone that was contemplating buying a Spitfire replica, a GPS-assisted navex to the south coast should be trivial :wink:
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By TrickyWoo
#1878633
It's possible I wasn't being serious. And at the moment at least I always have a carefully annotated 250 and 500 chart. SD sits quietly on the seat next to me and gets a quick occasional glance. Nothing more.
By Crash one
#1878654
TrickyWoo wrote:It's possible I wasn't being serious. And at the moment at least I always have a carefully annotated 250 and 500 chart. SD sits quietly on the seat next to me and gets a quick occasional glance. Nothing more.


I fail to comprehend why SD sits quietly “nothing more”?
My mini iPad is clipped firmly to the panel in line of sight as the Number one primary nav device. An out dated chart is buried in the map case, and I have been known to play with the wizz wheel occasionally as a slide rule in the workshop to keep my hand in.