March 10, 2024 • 18 mins
Have you ever dreamt of touching the clouds and commanding the skies? Your journey to the captain's seat begins here, as I help to unfold the map to your flying aspirations.
The runway to the skies is paved with crucial decisions—starting from your trial flight to selecting the right flight school. With a blend of personal experiences and not an expert advice, I navigate through the essentials of financial preparedness, and why a heart-to-heart with your potential flight instructor could make all the difference. If the sky's the limit has always been your mantra, let's turn that into a flight plan!
Brace yourself for a captivating exploration of the vast skies as I try to dissect the intricacies of flight training options and the financial nuances of getting in the air. Discover how to strike the perfect balance between passion and practicality, ensuring your time in the cockpit is both exhilarating and economically sound. I'll share some of my tips to try to safeguard your investment in flight school and reveal how to find harmony with your instructor for an optimal learning experience. It's not just about the destination; it's about relishing the climb. Fasten your seatbelts and prepare for takeoff into the world of aviation, where your dreams of flight are cleared for departure!
I'm a UK based private pilot (PPL(A), who started to learn to fly in my 50s. I passed (just), but every flight is a learning experience.
I currently own 1/5 of a Cessna 172 - but I am not sure which bit is mine.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Wayne (00:00):
Hello everybody.
It's Wayne here from WhiskeyAlpha Pilot, and today I'm going
to talk about the first stepsthat you need to take when you
want to learn to fly.
Why do you want to learn to fly?
Do you have aspirations to flylike the birds, or do you aspire
to fly in the cockpit of a bigjet flying around the world?
(00:21):
Either way, you need to startsomewhere.
For normal PPL training here inthe UK, you need to be at least
14 to start and I think youneed to be at least 17 to be
able to go solo In the US andother countries.
It's pretty similar.
Flight training around theworld tends to be, particularly
at the start, pretty similar.
I'm also assuming at this pointyou actually have some funds to
(00:41):
pay for it, because learning tofly is not cheap.
There is no such thing as arich pilot.
We have spent it all on flyinglessons.
You can get a loan for flighttraining, but listen further to
find out some of the pitfalls ofpaying in advance for flight
training.
You also need to be reasonablymedically fit.
I will mention medicals in alittle while.
There is no issue if you'rewearing glasses, providing your
vision can be corrected If youhave a disability that doesn't
(01:04):
prevent you from learning to flyeither.
In that situation here in theUK, I would suggest having a
chat to an organisation calledAerobility.
That is what they specialise inis getting disabled pilots into
the air, and they have a lotmore experience and knowledge on
the subject than I do.
Before you spend any money andstart to plan your dream career,
the first thing you need to dois to find out do you really
(01:26):
like it?
You need to find yourself aplane and get on something
called a trial or discoveryflight.
Now, I don't mean you pop downto the local international
airport, grab an airbus, jumpinto seat 21A and fly into a new
country.
I mean what you need to do isto find your local aerodrome
Google is your friend here finda flight school and ask for a
trial or discovery flight.
They are effectively the samething.
(01:46):
They should be able to offeryou a flight of 30 minutes to an
hour with an instructor, getyou in the pilot seat and get
you up in the air.
Yes, I said in the pilot seat.
That's the one on the left withthe windows in the front.
Most schools will even allowyou to log this as time under
instruction, so your flyingjourney is already on the way.
How do you find a flight school?
(02:07):
Well, as I said, you need to doa little bit of research and
Google is your friend.
Literally go to Google type inflight schools and see what
comes up.
Try and find one that'srelatively local for you.
You don't really want to spendthree hours driving to your
local flight school, because ifyou ever decide to actually
continue your training and usethat flight school, three hours
there and three hours back isgoing to take a big chunk of
(02:28):
your time, when you couldactually be flying in the air On
the day of the trial flight.
You may be asked to call aschool before you travel, as
they will need to check theweather and they also need to
check things like availabilityof aircraft.
The weather is something thatwas going to come up every
single time you fly and you'llsoon become the world's greatest
expert on weather.
You'll be looking out at theweather even days that you don't
(02:48):
go flying.
You'll be looking at theweather going I could fly today
or look at the weather and go.
No, I'm staying on the ground.
Don't forget to arrive at theAerodrome in plenty of time.
Your flight school willprobably tell you what you need
to bring Normally it's ID andpayment and then they'll take
you through the whole process.
I'd suggest you wear normal,comfortable clothes.
Don't wear high heels.
They're quite difficult tocontrol an aircraft in.
Not that I know of these thingsI've never tried it but I'm
(03:10):
told that's the case.
Learning to fly is difficult andcan be complex at times, but it
is fun and it's so rewarding.
So initially you might find itall completely overwhelming, but
your instructor is there toexplain and help.
Don't forget to ask as manyquestions as you possibly can
and enjoy it.
Normally they'll get the planestarted, they'll take you out,
they'll do a takeoff, you'll flyaround the local area, you get
(03:31):
to look out, you get to see howthe airplane responds to the
controls.
They'll do some basic handlingand then eventually you'll get
to come back and they'llprobably landings.
Hopefully, when you've landedyou want to go straight back up,
but if you don't, don't worry.
It does take a few dayssometimes for it all to sick it.
If you get travel sick, don'tworry.
It's not unusual.
For most pilots.
(03:52):
We have had it at some point intime.
For me it was during acrobatics, but things do get easier and
after a while you'll find thatyou just relax and you fly.
So you've had your trial flightand you've decided to carry on.
You can continue to use theflight school that you've just
used, but you are allowed tochange.
You can chop around.
How do you choose a flightschool?
Well, I chose a flight schoolthat was reasonably close, but
(04:15):
you have to balance how close itis with how busy and how
expensive it is.
If it's slightly further away,then it might be a bit cheaper,
but you're gonna spend more timetraveling to and from the
airport.
That's gonna cost time and fuel.
So you need to have thisbalance In terms of how busy a
flight school is.
If there's lots of students,lots of people around, that
tends to be quite positivebecause it means potentially
(04:38):
they're more organized.
If they've got more aircraft,there's more availability.
If there's more students, youcan chat to other students.
My particular flight school hada students room where you could
sit around and chat to otherstudents, have a coffee, talk
about how they're training, talkabout instructors.
That's always a good one.
Having a busy flight schoolgenerally tends to be a good
thing If your flight school isone person in a shed in the
(04:58):
middle of a muddy field, in themiddle of nowhere?
In terms of training, thatmight be equally as valid, but
in terms of availability, whathappens if that instructor goes
off on sick or is on holiday?
Equally with aircraft, if theyhave a reasonable number of
aircraft.
One of the benefits of having afleet is aircraft every so
often have to go in and bechecked mechanically Normally 50
hours, 100 hours.
In a flight school, those 50and 100 hour checks are
(05:21):
recurring on a regular basisbecause they're plowing through
the hours.
So the plane that you normallyfly that week might be in
maintenance being looked over.
So if they've got a reasonablefleet, you should be able to
jump into another aircraft, theaircraft that you're looking for
.
Whilst on the subject ofaircraft, there are hundreds of
different types of aircraft, butin the UK for basic PPL most
(05:43):
aircraft come down to one of twotypes Cessnas or Pipers.
How do you tell a difference?
Cessnas tend to be a little bitsmaller and tend to be high
wing.
Pipers tend to be slightlybigger and are low wing.
Why would you choose one or theother?
Well, the first question iswhat's available, what does the
school have and what does theschool suggest you use Cessnas
two seat or four seat.
I'm quite a large chap and theidea of getting me into a Cessna
(06:04):
152 with an instructor andenough fuel to actually go and
do a lesson is a bit of a joke,which is why I went for PA 28s.
So I did most of my flighttraining in Piper PA 28s and in
fact then I went to buy a sharein a Cessna, although the Cessna
I bought a share in is actuallya 172, which is a four seat
Cessna, so I have a little bitmore room.
(06:28):
The other thing that sometimespops up is how do you choose an
instructor?
And sometimes people go.
I can't choose an instructor,I'm just given an instructor and
initially the answer is yes.
But if you don't get on withyour instructor, please, please,
please, please, please.
Firstly talk to the instructorbecause it might simply just be
their way of teaching.
They do something in a certainway.
It's not jelling with you.
Don't initially go.
(06:48):
I hate this instructor.
If you do feel that you want tochange instructors, talk to the
flight school.
Most flight schools will havemore than one instructor.
Most flight schools are quitehappy to try and match
instructors to students becauseat the end of the day they want
you to pass.
It looks good on their record.
So if you're not getting onwith a particular instructor,
talk to the flight school andask if you can change or try
another instructor.
Try not to have too manyinstructors.
(07:10):
In my training I had one maininstructor and a couple of
extras who really just coveredextra parts of the curriculum as
well as having some mocktesting and final flight test.
Obviously, the final examinerisn't your instructor.
That would be very dubious anddodgy.
In your normal flying you'regoing to see two or three
instructors.
Sometimes it's quite useful tohave that mixture of instruction
(07:32):
, purely and simply because itgives you a different outlook on
the way something is beingtaught.
Something else to consider iswhen are you actually going to
train?
Flying is a commitment.
You have to spend considerableamounts of time in the air a
minimum of 45 hours, and that isa minimum.
Most people these days seem tobe between 60 and 70 hours,
(07:55):
depending on who you ask.
I was over the 70 hours mark.
In fact, I was way over the 70hours mark, but then I was
training during COVID.
Sometimes you could just goflying, but you couldn't do
other parts of the curriculum.
When you're thinking about whenare you going to train.
Can you train during the week?
When you train at weekends?
Weekends tend to be a littlebit busier.
Most people seem to have astandard nine to five job.
It's quite difficult to trainduring the week.
(08:15):
You have to train duringdaylight hours generally, so
they tend to train at weekendsand because of that, weekends
tend to be busier.
So if you want to try and getbetter availability for
instructors, better availabilityfor aircraft, then scheduling
time during the week tends to beeasier.
Also, initially, when you'retraining, don't attempt to do
large blocks of training on thesame day or even the same week.
(08:36):
I found that I could doprobably two lessons back to
back, but that was hard and Iwas very tired when I finished
the lesson.
So if you're suddenly, ifyou're going to go, oh, I'm
going to do everything 45 hours,so that's what 30 hours a week
I can do, that it's like no, itdoesn't work that way.
Probably minimum of one lessona week if you can afford it.
But again, it's one of thosethings you really need to talk
(08:57):
to your flight school and yourinstructor.
As you get further down yourtraining You'll find that you
will actually be doing longerhours, particularly when you hit
things like the cross countriesbecause they take longer than
an hour.
On the subject of hours also,you have to ask how the school
actually charging for flighttime.
Our flight time is what you'reactually getting charged for.
(09:19):
Some schools charge it indifferent ways.
Our flight school actuallycharged for engine on to engine
off, but when you actually wentand booked it you would book an
extra hour.
So you ended up with a two hourslot with an hour's flight time
.
This effectively meant you hadtime for a briefing at the
beginning, time to check theplane out, hours flight and then
you had time to do a debriefafterwards and you would pay for
(09:40):
an hour.
Another thing to ask is what arethe additional charges?
With our flight school, we hada yearly membership fee which
covered the ancillaries in termsof things like the annual
barbecue.
But equally ask are we going tobe charged landing fees?
A lot of airfields will chargeyou for landing and if you're
doing circuits, that's going tosoon mount up.
(10:01):
I was lucky the airfield that Iflew from been charged landing
fees for locally based aircraft,so I didn't have to pay any
landing fees.
I had to pay landing fees whenwe started doing landways, which
is part of the buildup to crosscountry, and, of course, when
you've got to cross country, youhave to pay landing fees there.
So things like that all add upand they are all questions that
you should be asking the flightschool before you actually sign
(10:21):
on the dotted line.
Coming to signing on the dottedline, rule number one of flight
school training, never, ever,ever, ever, ever, pay big chunks
of money up front.
The number of flight schoolsthat have folded, with students
losing thousands of pounds, isquite worrying sometimes.
(10:42):
So if a school turns around toyou and says you need to pay
everything up from, walk away.
Find another flight school.
Paying up front for a smallnumber of lessons in order to
get a discount is going to bedown to you.
Bear in mind this could bemoney that you lose If that
flight school goes bust and someof these flight schools had
gone bust literally overnight.
They were taking bookings forflights the day before they
(11:03):
announced that they were goingbust and that money is lost.
You are at the bottom of thetree when it comes to retrieving
money out of a flight school,way before tax man and everyone
else.
So if you're going to put anychunk of money into a flight
school, first the user creditcard, because it gives you some
protection under somethingcalled Section 75 here in the UK
I'm not sure what theprotection is in the US or just
accept the fact that if you'regoing to pay a chunk of money in
(11:25):
, you could lose it all.
Most flight schools actuallyallow you to fly for a lesson
and then you pay at the end ofthe lesson, and that's what I
did.
We briefly talked aboutaircraft testiners or pipers.
Again, it's down to what theflight school is offering.
There are a few other aircraftthat are beginning to creep in.
Even electric aircraft are nowbeginning to appear on the
training regime for some schools, but I'm not sure how that's
(11:48):
going to work when my averageflight was about an hour and
those things only seem to flyfor about 40 minutes before the
battery lights come flashing on,and I don't really want to be
flying an electric aircraft withflat batteries.
Try not to chop and changebetween aircraft types too much,
so if you're going to fly oneday in a 152 and the next day in
PA 28, which is a piper, youmight find that your muscle
(12:11):
memory and all sorts of thingsgo a little bit squiffy.
Once you've actually passedyour PPL, then things change a
little bit.
As I say, I learned in piper PA28 and I now have a share in a
Cessna 172, which I love.
I love my little Cessna.
So you've done your trialflight, you're starting to look
out spending the money andactually starting your training.
The next thing I would suggestis go and get a medical,
(12:33):
particularly if you're lookingat any form of commercial
training in the future.
If you want to be a commercialpilot, you must have what they
call a Class One Medical.
Class One Medical in the UK 600to 700 pounds.
We'll probably find it cheaperin various places.
But you need a Class OneMedical to fly commercially.
You need to have a medical tofly solo, which in the UK
(12:54):
minimum of a Class Two.
The criteria for a Class Oneand the criteria for Class Two
are different for obviousreasons.
The main thing is get yourmedical done sooner rather than
later.
Because if you're gonna spendlots of money let's say, for
instance, you've done 20 hoursand now you decide to go and get
your medical and somethingcrops up on that medical which
basically says you cannot flyand these things do happen, then
(13:15):
you've spent all that money andyou're now stuck.
You now need to go through theprocess of getting your medical
reviewed and eventually theymight say, yes, you can fly, but
you might be in a positionwhere you can't fly, and there
are quite a few reasons that mayoccur.
I'm not a medical expert, butget your medical done before you
spend large sums of money,otherwise you could just be
wasting your money.
Unfortunately, learning to flyisn't all sitting in an aircraft
(13:39):
and twiddling a stick.
There is also a number of examsto do and unfortunately, some of
those exams will come up soonerrather than later.
There are time limits for theexams.
In the UK there are currentlyoff Tom, I had nine exams that
you have to do, one of which,which is air law, generally
tends to be the exam that theyrequire you to do before you fly
solo.
So you have to do at least thatexam before you fly solo.
(14:01):
And then I believe there is atwo year time limit between the
time you do the first exam andthe time you do the last exam.
So if you don't do all yourexams in that two year time
limit, then you've got a fewproblems.
In other words, you've got todo them again, which is not
great.
Exams is something to talk toyour flight school about.
They probably do ground schoolas well, which will help you.
There are numerous apps outthere which will give you some
(14:22):
idea as to contents of exams.
Do not try and just memorizethe question banks.
Some of the older exams,particularly old paper ones
these days everything iselectronic but some of the old
exams they were effectively aquestion bank and there were
websites set up to give you allthe questions.
I'm told the new question banksare 13,000 questions long, so
(14:42):
you're not gonna memorize allthe questions.
Try actually learning thesubject so when the questions
come up you can actually applywhat you've learned.
That's the general idea of theexams.
So we looked at exams, we lookedat medical.
Next thing is equipment.
Don't buy any equipment yet.
Your flight school will adviseyou what you need to buy.
The minimums that you tend tobuy initially is you need to buy
(15:05):
a up to date chart.
Yes, they're called charts andnot maps, and they expire once a
year and you are legallyrequired to carry a chart with
you in the aircraft.
You'll also need the same chartfor your planning.
You'll use the chart quite alot.
The other thing I would considerpurchasing at some point is a
set of headphones.
The school will probably haveheadphones you can borrow.
Most students find after awhile, particularly when they're
(15:27):
getting into their training,that buying a set of their own
headphones is quite beneficial.
Headphones can be very, veryexpensive.
The top of the range, bose A20salthough they're now A30s,
which are noise reductionheadphones are around about 1300
pounds.
But they do last quite a whileand people sell them on eBay, if
you can avoid the scammers, for8,900 pounds.
(15:49):
I own a set of A20s.
I love my A20s, as long as youremember to switch them on,
because they are noise reduction.
They have a battery inside them.
You flick a little switch.
Number of times I've actuallytaken off and suddenly gone.
It's a bit noisy in here.
Oh, flick the switch.
Oh, it's gone.
Really quiet, that's reallyuseful.
You'll find that you'll gettired when it's noisy.
So having noise reductionheadphones cuts down that
(16:10):
external drone and if you evertake your headphones off whilst
you're in the aircraft, you'llrealize why we wear headphones
all the time because it is noisyin there.
The other thing I would say isdo not buy headphones,
particularly Bose A20s or A30sfrom places like Facebook
Marketplace, purely and simplybecause 99% of them are scammers
.
They use pictures of theheadphones and they'll try and
(16:32):
get you to send the money, andI'll send it to you.
If you're gonna do that,arrange to me.
If it's at your local airfield,even better.
Literally arrange to me.
Hand them over.
Hand the money over Much betteridea.
Unfortunately, scammers havegot onto the idea that Bose
headphones are a really good wayto make money and they try and
scam people out.
So don't get caught out.
If you're not sure, don't buyany.
The DIST ROT НОВ СУМ.
(16:52):
So I've talked about payment.
I've talked about exams, I'vetalked about medical, I've
talked about equipment.
The last thing I really need todo is to say get out there and
do it.
The biggest hurdle in anypilot's life is the start.
Is that first point of going?
Oh, I'm not sure.
Maybe I'll start in the summer.
No, start now.
I don't care the weather, it'ssummer, winter.
(17:13):
Incidentally, learning to flyduring the winter is actually
quite beneficial, althoughyou're gonna have problems with
the weather being a little bitworse If you learn to fly.
Let's say, for instance, youlearn to fly, you start in
February, then you qualifyOctober, which is a reasonable
timescale for a lot of people.
That's great, but you've neverflown in the middle of winter,
when the weather's crappy andit's cold, because you're sort
(17:34):
of on the tail end of Februarywhen you just started, so you
don't have that experience ofwhat winter weather is like.
That's gonna be a bit of anissue when you actually go to
fly for real.
So start now.
Don't worry about oh, I'll waitfor something.
Start now.
That's gonna be the start ofyour journey and hopefully
you'll enjoy it.
At the end of the day.
The rest is gonna be up to youand your instructor.
Whatever you do, remember thisis supposed to be fun.
(17:55):
If you're not enjoying it, talkto your instructor the day
after.
Hopefully.
You've now reached a pointwhere you're thinking about
starting on your journey.
So my advice is stop right now.
Get Google out.
Stop listening to this podcast.
Get Google out.
Type in local airfields intoGoogle trial flights and go and
book your trial flight and goand try it.
Then you'll realize what I'mtalking about.
(18:17):
Then you'll realize how muchfun it can be.
And this is gonna be the startof your journey.
But whatever you do, please,please, please, enjoy it, be
safe and have fun, and thanksfor listening to my podcast.
Bye.
Hello everybody.
It's Wayne here from WhiskeyAlpha Pilot, and today I'm going
to talk about the first stepsthat you need to take when you
want to learn to fly.
Why do you want to learn to fly?
Do you have aspirations to flylike the birds, or do you aspire
to fly in the cockpit of a bigjet flying around the world?
(00:21):
Either way, you need to startsomewhere.
For normal PPL training here inthe UK, you need to be at least
14 to start and I think youneed to be at least 17 to be
able to go solo In the US andother countries.
It's pretty similar.
Flight training around theworld tends to be, particularly
at the start, pretty similar.
I'm also assuming at this pointyou actually have some funds to
(00:41):
pay for it, because learning tofly is not cheap.
There is no such thing as arich pilot.
We have spent it all on flyinglessons.
You can get a loan for flighttraining, but listen further to
find out some of the pitfalls ofpaying in advance for flight
training.
You also need to be reasonablymedically fit.
I will mention medicals in alittle while.
There is no issue if you'rewearing glasses, providing your
vision can be corrected If youhave a disability that doesn't
(01:04):
prevent you from learning to flyeither.
In that situation here in theUK, I would suggest having a
chat to an organisation calledAerobility.
That is what they specialise inis getting disabled pilots into
the air, and they have a lotmore experience and knowledge on
the subject than I do.
Before you spend any money andstart to plan your dream career,
the first thing you need to dois to find out do you really
(01:26):
like it?
You need to find yourself aplane and get on something
called a trial or discoveryflight.
Now, I don't mean you pop downto the local international
airport, grab an airbus, jumpinto seat 21A and fly into a new
country.
I mean what you need to do isto find your local aerodrome
Google is your friend here finda flight school and ask for a
trial or discovery flight.
They are effectively the samething.
(01:46):
They should be able to offeryou a flight of 30 minutes to an
hour with an instructor, getyou in the pilot seat and get
you up in the air.
Yes, I said in the pilot seat.
That's the one on the left withthe windows in the front.
Most schools will even allowyou to log this as time under
instruction, so your flyingjourney is already on the way.
How do you find a flight school?
(02:07):
Well, as I said, you need to doa little bit of research and
Google is your friend.
Literally go to Google type inflight schools and see what
comes up.
Try and find one that'srelatively local for you.
You don't really want to spendthree hours driving to your
local flight school, because ifyou ever decide to actually
continue your training and usethat flight school, three hours
there and three hours back isgoing to take a big chunk of
(02:28):
your time, when you couldactually be flying in the air On
the day of the trial flight.
You may be asked to call aschool before you travel, as
they will need to check theweather and they also need to
check things like availabilityof aircraft.
The weather is something thatwas going to come up every
single time you fly and you'llsoon become the world's greatest
expert on weather.
You'll be looking out at theweather even days that you don't
(02:48):
go flying.
You'll be looking at theweather going I could fly today
or look at the weather and go.
No, I'm staying on the ground.
Don't forget to arrive at theAerodrome in plenty of time.
Your flight school willprobably tell you what you need
to bring Normally it's ID andpayment and then they'll take
you through the whole process.
I'd suggest you wear normal,comfortable clothes.
Don't wear high heels.
They're quite difficult tocontrol an aircraft in.
Not that I know of these thingsI've never tried it but I'm
(03:10):
told that's the case.
Learning to fly is difficult andcan be complex at times, but it
is fun and it's so rewarding.
So initially you might find itall completely overwhelming, but
your instructor is there toexplain and help.
Don't forget to ask as manyquestions as you possibly can
and enjoy it.
Normally they'll get the planestarted, they'll take you out,
they'll do a takeoff, you'll flyaround the local area, you get
(03:31):
to look out, you get to see howthe airplane responds to the
controls.
They'll do some basic handlingand then eventually you'll get
to come back and they'llprobably landings.
Hopefully, when you've landedyou want to go straight back up,
but if you don't, don't worry.
It does take a few dayssometimes for it all to sick it.
If you get travel sick, don'tworry.
It's not unusual.
For most pilots.
(03:52):
We have had it at some point intime.
For me it was during acrobatics, but things do get easier and
after a while you'll find thatyou just relax and you fly.
So you've had your trial flightand you've decided to carry on.
You can continue to use theflight school that you've just
used, but you are allowed tochange.
You can chop around.
How do you choose a flightschool?
Well, I chose a flight schoolthat was reasonably close, but
(04:15):
you have to balance how close itis with how busy and how
expensive it is.
If it's slightly further away,then it might be a bit cheaper,
but you're gonna spend more timetraveling to and from the
airport.
That's gonna cost time and fuel.
So you need to have thisbalance In terms of how busy a
flight school is.
If there's lots of students,lots of people around, that
tends to be quite positivebecause it means potentially
(04:38):
they're more organized.
If they've got more aircraft,there's more availability.
If there's more students, youcan chat to other students.
My particular flight school hada students room where you could
sit around and chat to otherstudents, have a coffee, talk
about how they're training, talkabout instructors.
That's always a good one.
Having a busy flight schoolgenerally tends to be a good
thing If your flight school isone person in a shed in the
(04:58):
middle of a muddy field, in themiddle of nowhere?
In terms of training, thatmight be equally as valid, but
in terms of availability, whathappens if that instructor goes
off on sick or is on holiday?
Equally with aircraft, if theyhave a reasonable number of
aircraft.
One of the benefits of having afleet is aircraft every so
often have to go in and bechecked mechanically Normally 50
hours, 100 hours.
In a flight school, those 50and 100 hour checks are
(05:21):
recurring on a regular basisbecause they're plowing through
the hours.
So the plane that you normallyfly that week might be in
maintenance being looked over.
So if they've got a reasonablefleet, you should be able to
jump into another aircraft, theaircraft that you're looking for
.
Whilst on the subject ofaircraft, there are hundreds of
different types of aircraft, butin the UK for basic PPL most
(05:43):
aircraft come down to one of twotypes Cessnas or Pipers.
How do you tell a difference?
Cessnas tend to be a little bitsmaller and tend to be high
wing.
Pipers tend to be slightlybigger and are low wing.
Why would you choose one or theother?
Well, the first question iswhat's available, what does the
school have and what does theschool suggest you use Cessnas
two seat or four seat.
I'm quite a large chap and theidea of getting me into a Cessna
(06:04):
152 with an instructor andenough fuel to actually go and
do a lesson is a bit of a joke,which is why I went for PA 28s.
So I did most of my flighttraining in Piper PA 28s and in
fact then I went to buy a sharein a Cessna, although the Cessna
I bought a share in is actuallya 172, which is a four seat
Cessna, so I have a little bitmore room.
(06:28):
The other thing that sometimespops up is how do you choose an
instructor?
And sometimes people go.
I can't choose an instructor,I'm just given an instructor and
initially the answer is yes.
But if you don't get on withyour instructor, please, please,
please, please, please.
Firstly talk to the instructorbecause it might simply just be
their way of teaching.
They do something in a certainway.
It's not jelling with you.
Don't initially go.
(06:48):
I hate this instructor.
If you do feel that you want tochange instructors, talk to the
flight school.
Most flight schools will havemore than one instructor.
Most flight schools are quitehappy to try and match
instructors to students becauseat the end of the day they want
you to pass.
It looks good on their record.
So if you're not getting onwith a particular instructor,
talk to the flight school andask if you can change or try
another instructor.
Try not to have too manyinstructors.
(07:10):
In my training I had one maininstructor and a couple of
extras who really just coveredextra parts of the curriculum as
well as having some mocktesting and final flight test.
Obviously, the final examinerisn't your instructor.
That would be very dubious anddodgy.
In your normal flying you'regoing to see two or three
instructors.
Sometimes it's quite useful tohave that mixture of instruction
(07:32):
, purely and simply because itgives you a different outlook on
the way something is beingtaught.
Something else to consider iswhen are you actually going to
train?
Flying is a commitment.
You have to spend considerableamounts of time in the air a
minimum of 45 hours, and that isa minimum.
Most people these days seem tobe between 60 and 70 hours,
(07:55):
depending on who you ask.
I was over the 70 hours mark.
In fact, I was way over the 70hours mark, but then I was
training during COVID.
Sometimes you could just goflying, but you couldn't do
other parts of the curriculum.
When you're thinking about whenare you going to train.
Can you train during the week?
When you train at weekends?
Weekends tend to be a littlebit busier.
Most people seem to have astandard nine to five job.
It's quite difficult to trainduring the week.
(08:15):
You have to train duringdaylight hours generally, so
they tend to train at weekendsand because of that, weekends
tend to be busier.
So if you want to try and getbetter availability for
instructors, better availabilityfor aircraft, then scheduling
time during the week tends to beeasier.
Also, initially, when you'retraining, don't attempt to do
large blocks of training on thesame day or even the same week.
(08:36):
I found that I could doprobably two lessons back to
back, but that was hard and Iwas very tired when I finished
the lesson.
So if you're suddenly, ifyou're going to go, oh, I'm
going to do everything 45 hours,so that's what 30 hours a week
I can do, that it's like no, itdoesn't work that way.
Probably minimum of one lessona week if you can afford it.
But again, it's one of thosethings you really need to talk
(08:57):
to your flight school and yourinstructor.
As you get further down yourtraining You'll find that you
will actually be doing longerhours, particularly when you hit
things like the cross countriesbecause they take longer than
an hour.
On the subject of hours also,you have to ask how the school
actually charging for flighttime.
Our flight time is what you'reactually getting charged for.
(09:19):
Some schools charge it indifferent ways.
Our flight school actuallycharged for engine on to engine
off, but when you actually wentand booked it you would book an
extra hour.
So you ended up with a two hourslot with an hour's flight time
.
This effectively meant you hadtime for a briefing at the
beginning, time to check theplane out, hours flight and then
you had time to do a debriefafterwards and you would pay for
(09:40):
an hour.
Another thing to ask is what arethe additional charges?
With our flight school, we hada yearly membership fee which
covered the ancillaries in termsof things like the annual
barbecue.
But equally ask are we going tobe charged landing fees?
A lot of airfields will chargeyou for landing and if you're
doing circuits, that's going tosoon mount up.
(10:01):
I was lucky the airfield that Iflew from been charged landing
fees for locally based aircraft,so I didn't have to pay any
landing fees.
I had to pay landing fees whenwe started doing landways, which
is part of the buildup to crosscountry, and, of course, when
you've got to cross country, youhave to pay landing fees there.
So things like that all add upand they are all questions that
you should be asking the flightschool before you actually sign
(10:21):
on the dotted line.
Coming to signing on the dottedline, rule number one of flight
school training, never, ever,ever, ever, ever, pay big chunks
of money up front.
The number of flight schoolsthat have folded, with students
losing thousands of pounds, isquite worrying sometimes.
(10:42):
So if a school turns around toyou and says you need to pay
everything up from, walk away.
Find another flight school.
Paying up front for a smallnumber of lessons in order to
get a discount is going to bedown to you.
Bear in mind this could bemoney that you lose If that
flight school goes bust and someof these flight schools had
gone bust literally overnight.
They were taking bookings forflights the day before they
(11:03):
announced that they were goingbust and that money is lost.
You are at the bottom of thetree when it comes to retrieving
money out of a flight school,way before tax man and everyone
else.
So if you're going to put anychunk of money into a flight
school, first the user creditcard, because it gives you some
protection under somethingcalled Section 75 here in the UK
I'm not sure what theprotection is in the US or just
accept the fact that if you'regoing to pay a chunk of money in
(11:25):
, you could lose it all.
Most flight schools actuallyallow you to fly for a lesson
and then you pay at the end ofthe lesson, and that's what I
did.
We briefly talked aboutaircraft testiners or pipers.
Again, it's down to what theflight school is offering.
There are a few other aircraftthat are beginning to creep in.
Even electric aircraft are nowbeginning to appear on the
training regime for some schools, but I'm not sure how that's
(11:48):
going to work when my averageflight was about an hour and
those things only seem to flyfor about 40 minutes before the
battery lights come flashing on,and I don't really want to be
flying an electric aircraft withflat batteries.
Try not to chop and changebetween aircraft types too much,
so if you're going to fly oneday in a 152 and the next day in
PA 28, which is a piper, youmight find that your muscle
(12:11):
memory and all sorts of thingsgo a little bit squiffy.
Once you've actually passedyour PPL, then things change a
little bit.
As I say, I learned in piper PA28 and I now have a share in a
Cessna 172, which I love.
I love my little Cessna.
So you've done your trialflight, you're starting to look
out spending the money andactually starting your training.
The next thing I would suggestis go and get a medical,
(12:33):
particularly if you're lookingat any form of commercial
training in the future.
If you want to be a commercialpilot, you must have what they
call a Class One Medical.
Class One Medical in the UK 600to 700 pounds.
We'll probably find it cheaperin various places.
But you need a Class OneMedical to fly commercially.
You need to have a medical tofly solo, which in the UK
(12:54):
minimum of a Class Two.
The criteria for a Class Oneand the criteria for Class Two
are different for obviousreasons.
The main thing is get yourmedical done sooner rather than
later.
Because if you're gonna spendlots of money let's say, for
instance, you've done 20 hoursand now you decide to go and get
your medical and somethingcrops up on that medical which
basically says you cannot flyand these things do happen, then
(13:15):
you've spent all that money andyou're now stuck.
You now need to go through theprocess of getting your medical
reviewed and eventually theymight say, yes, you can fly, but
you might be in a positionwhere you can't fly, and there
are quite a few reasons that mayoccur.
I'm not a medical expert, butget your medical done before you
spend large sums of money,otherwise you could just be
wasting your money.
Unfortunately, learning to flyisn't all sitting in an aircraft
(13:39):
and twiddling a stick.
There is also a number of examsto do and unfortunately, some of
those exams will come up soonerrather than later.
There are time limits for theexams.
In the UK there are currentlyoff Tom, I had nine exams that
you have to do, one of which,which is air law, generally
tends to be the exam that theyrequire you to do before you fly
solo.
So you have to do at least thatexam before you fly solo.
(14:01):
And then I believe there is atwo year time limit between the
time you do the first exam andthe time you do the last exam.
So if you don't do all yourexams in that two year time
limit, then you've got a fewproblems.
In other words, you've got todo them again, which is not
great.
Exams is something to talk toyour flight school about.
They probably do ground schoolas well, which will help you.
There are numerous apps outthere which will give you some
(14:22):
idea as to contents of exams.
Do not try and just memorizethe question banks.
Some of the older exams,particularly old paper ones
these days everything iselectronic but some of the old
exams they were effectively aquestion bank and there were
websites set up to give you allthe questions.
I'm told the new question banksare 13,000 questions long, so
(14:42):
you're not gonna memorize allthe questions.
Try actually learning thesubject so when the questions
come up you can actually applywhat you've learned.
That's the general idea of theexams.
So we looked at exams, we lookedat medical.
Next thing is equipment.
Don't buy any equipment yet.
Your flight school will adviseyou what you need to buy.
The minimums that you tend tobuy initially is you need to buy
(15:05):
a up to date chart.
Yes, they're called charts andnot maps, and they expire once a
year and you are legallyrequired to carry a chart with
you in the aircraft.
You'll also need the same chartfor your planning.
You'll use the chart quite alot.
The other thing I would considerpurchasing at some point is a
set of headphones.
The school will probably haveheadphones you can borrow.
Most students find after awhile, particularly when they're
(15:27):
getting into their training,that buying a set of their own
headphones is quite beneficial.
Headphones can be very, veryexpensive.
The top of the range, bose A20salthough they're now A30s,
which are noise reductionheadphones are around about 1300
pounds.
But they do last quite a whileand people sell them on eBay, if
you can avoid the scammers, for8,900 pounds.
(15:49):
I own a set of A20s.
I love my A20s, as long as youremember to switch them on,
because they are noise reduction.
They have a battery inside them.
You flick a little switch.
Number of times I've actuallytaken off and suddenly gone.
It's a bit noisy in here.
Oh, flick the switch.
Oh, it's gone.
Really quiet, that's reallyuseful.
You'll find that you'll gettired when it's noisy.
So having noise reductionheadphones cuts down that
(16:10):
external drone and if you evertake your headphones off whilst
you're in the aircraft, you'llrealize why we wear headphones
all the time because it is noisyin there.
The other thing I would say isdo not buy headphones,
particularly Bose A20s or A30sfrom places like Facebook
Marketplace, purely and simplybecause 99% of them are scammers
.
They use pictures of theheadphones and they'll try and
(16:32):
get you to send the money, andI'll send it to you.
If you're gonna do that,arrange to me.
If it's at your local airfield,even better.
Literally arrange to me.
Hand them over.
Hand the money over Much betteridea.
Unfortunately, scammers havegot onto the idea that Bose
headphones are a really good wayto make money and they try and
scam people out.
So don't get caught out.
If you're not sure, don't buyany.
The DIST ROT НОВ СУМ.
(16:52):
So I've talked about payment.
I've talked about exams, I'vetalked about medical, I've
talked about equipment.
The last thing I really need todo is to say get out there and
do it.
The biggest hurdle in anypilot's life is the start.
Is that first point of going?
Oh, I'm not sure.
Maybe I'll start in the summer.
No, start now.
I don't care the weather, it'ssummer, winter.
(17:13):
Incidentally, learning to flyduring the winter is actually
quite beneficial, althoughyou're gonna have problems with
the weather being a little bitworse If you learn to fly.
Let's say, for instance, youlearn to fly, you start in
February, then you qualifyOctober, which is a reasonable
timescale for a lot of people.
That's great, but you've neverflown in the middle of winter,
when the weather's crappy andit's cold, because you're sort
(17:34):
of on the tail end of Februarywhen you just started, so you
don't have that experience ofwhat winter weather is like.
That's gonna be a bit of anissue when you actually go to
fly for real.
So start now.
Don't worry about oh, I'll waitfor something.
Start now.
That's gonna be the start ofyour journey and hopefully
you'll enjoy it.
At the end of the day.
The rest is gonna be up to youand your instructor.
Whatever you do, remember thisis supposed to be fun.
(17:55):
If you're not enjoying it, talkto your instructor the day
after.
Hopefully.
You've now reached a pointwhere you're thinking about
starting on your journey.
So my advice is stop right now.
Get Google out.
Stop listening to this podcast.
Get Google out.
Type in local airfields intoGoogle trial flights and go and
book your trial flight and goand try it.
Then you'll realize what I'mtalking about.
(18:17):
Then you'll realize how muchfun it can be.
And this is gonna be the startof your journey.
But whatever you do, please,please, please, enjoy it, be
safe and have fun, and thanksfor listening to my podcast.
Bye.
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