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

Moderator: AndyR

By Gamatech
#1907984
Hello all

I drove (and swam) over to the Isle of Wight yesterday to find out what a Fly-In is all about at Sandown Airport's Easter event. I got a whole lot out of the experience, including an unplanned trial flight in a Microlight with a company called Isle of Flight! (Highly recommend: Approachable, reasonably priced, and very insightful).

I asked my instructor (amongst many other things), whether or not the trial flight would count toward a PPL. He explained that it wouldn't, but it *could* count toward another licence. An LAPL, if memory serves correctly.

After learning about the differences between GA aircraft and Microlights, I started looking in to it more once I got home.

From my understanding, it turns out that if you are working towards an EASA/European PPL, time in a Microlight can be logged toward that PPL's completion. But if you are working toward a CAA/UK PPL, it cannot. (This is of course post-Brexit, after the EASA and CAA qualifications split apart).

Is my understanding correct? I'd like to learn as much as I can about anything related to PPLs and aviation in general! ^^
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By YorkshireMatt
#1908017
Hi, I can’t really help regarding the PPL licence ins and outs, but I can help with the microlight licence and that side of things.

I decided to learn to fly back in 2018, and due to the costs involved I went down the microlight route. This is the NPPL (National PPL).

It’s a considerably cheaper way to get your licence and not once have I regretted not going for a PPL. The modern microlight are fantastic and generally outperform some of the older ‘group A’ stuff such as Cessnas and Pipers.

And they are a lot cheaper to run. I paid £130 per hour learning towards my NPPL. Minimum time required is also less (25 hours).
By Gamatech
#1908031
YorkshireMatt wrote:
> I decided to learn to fly back in 2018, and due to the costs involved I
> went down the microlight route. This is the NPPL (National PPL).
> they are a lot cheaper to run. I paid £130 per hour learning towards my
> NPPL. Minimum time required is also less (25 hours).

Many thanks! That could well have been what my instructor said, "NPPL"
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By Genghis the Engineer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908037
I started on microlights, and still fly them reasonably regularly. For enjoyable, daytime, recreational flying they arguably will give you far more bang for your buck than the larger aircraft I also fly. You're also likely to get to fly newer, more modern aircraft.

The basic licence is the NPPL. For a microlight rating on that, you're looking at a minimum of 25hrs. You can then do a bit (nominally 7hrs, in practice I'd say 12) of extra training for an "SSEA" or "Simple Single Engine Aeroplanes" rating, that so long as you're happy to be limited to day/visual conditions (i.e. not in cloud) will let you fly the majority of club aeroplanes.

For a Brit, training in the UK, basically European EASA licences are no longer available - for the vast majority of people that's no loss. You can get a "UK-FCL" licence which is equivalent and has all the same privileges, internationally, as the EASA licence did, so long as the aeroplane is UK registered. You can also get a "61.75" piggyback licence from that to fly in the USA.

The main reason to have the FCL licence (which can come in three flavours - PPL, CPL, and ATPL: private, commercial and air transport) is the ratings you can add to it: night, instrument, multi-engine, instructor, etc. If those don't really matter to you, nor really does the FCL licence, and sticking with the NPPL is fine.

You can add a microlight instructor rating to an NPPL(M), but that's pretty much the only way to earn a living on an NPPL.

There is a LAPL, it's a bit of a European hang-over, neither fish nor fowl. Personally I'd not bother with that.

That said, my recommendation would be that if you're going for microlights initially yes, go for NPPL. If you're going light aircraft, go for the full FCL licence, NOT the NPPL(SSEA) straight off, as the reality is you'll probably exceed the 45hrs minimum for the FCL PPL anyhow, as well as the 32hrs minimum for the NPPL(SSEA) - it takes as long as it takes to learn to fly and the basic standards are near-universal.

G
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908042
Just to add to that, if you get a Part-FCL PPL the course will be done on heavier aircraft but you can then do "differences training" and use that to fly microlights, so it is all round a more flexible licence.

There is a plan to simplify all of these licencing things but no-one knows what that plan is and it will no doubt take many years!
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By Genghis the Engineer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908055
Bathman wrote:
> You can add a night rating to an NPPL

With SSEA not M, but thanks for the correction.

G