Hi Andy recently had a gift flight and would like to work towards piloting. I live close to Yatesbury and wondered what you would advise as the best way forward? Blocks of lessons or a pilot course?
Hi Paul. thanks for the comment. Where did you have the gift flight - at yatesbury or elsewhere? I can only give you my advice which would be, if youre thinking of working toward the NPPL, ensure you have enough funds & time to fly 2 x per week as a minimum, and certainly plan to continue lessons for 6-12 months to get you through the min requirements for the cert. Weather (Wx) will stop you very very often, and you will find that even a week or so out of the cockpit at the early stages really holds back your progress. Ive been really busy at work this year so havent flown at all since December. now the evenings are lighter, ill be back in the left seat soon, though I expect i will have forgotten loads! Good luck.
@Andy Flies Planes Hi Andy thanks for your reply. My gift flight was in Lambourn, Membury. The instructors were great its just a bit of a slog to go there and back each time. Thanks for your advice. The other thing I was thinking about is whether having a VR headset on a MS flight sim might help speed up some of the learning. Probably a ridculus idea. Great videos by the way. Just realised I went into my question without saying that! All the best, Andy, our paths might cross at some point. Bw Paul
@@paulmaddock4167 Yeah I hear ya. I know that Julian runs groupons for trial flights at Yatesbury so thats prob good place to start. I cant speak about Flight sim idea, but I think if you had the same plane in a FS environment you could prcatice running through checklists etc, saves time at the start and end of flight and memorising the cockpit, all good stuff imo. Hopefully meet you IRL if you get to Yatesbury. Cheers Paul
The advice from Andy is decent, so I'll second what he says; I'm a recently minted NPPL pilot (at Kemble funnily enough, I did this same flight but in reverse!). Can't stress enough the importance of staying 'current' and minimising gaps in your training. Personally I purchased blocks of training, I'd recommend this as it takes the stress out of counting the pennies (although it can be painful when it's time to buy the next block). If you're near Yatesbury, then Clench Common (GS Aviation) may also be an option for you. I've flown into Clench and the team there are very friendly and welcoming. Also, importantly, Clench has two runways in an X configuration, so when one is a high crosswind, the other is usually straight down the runway. When it comes to flying microlights, wx is an issue, and that issue is usually high winds. The C42 has a 15kt crosswind limit, which is pretty high, however, as a student pilot you wouldn't be flying in anything 8kts or greater (10kts cross can be a real handful). So picking an airfield with multiple runways is a bonus. @FlyingAndy Where do you live mate? I'm in Chippenham
Hi Andy recently had a gift flight and would like to work towards piloting. I live close to Yatesbury and wondered what you would advise as the best way forward? Blocks of lessons or a pilot course?
Hi Paul. thanks for the comment. Where did you have the gift flight - at yatesbury or elsewhere?
I can only give you my advice which would be, if youre thinking of working toward the NPPL, ensure you have enough funds & time to fly 2 x per week as a minimum, and certainly plan to continue lessons for 6-12 months to get you through the min requirements for the cert. Weather (Wx) will stop you very very often, and you will find that even a week or so out of the cockpit at the early stages really holds back your progress. Ive been really busy at work this year so havent flown at all since December. now the evenings are lighter, ill be back in the left seat soon, though I expect i will have forgotten loads! Good luck.
@Andy Flies Planes Hi Andy thanks for your reply. My gift flight was in Lambourn, Membury. The instructors were great its just a bit of a slog to go there and back each time. Thanks for your advice. The other thing I was thinking about is whether having a VR headset on a MS flight sim might help speed up some of the learning. Probably a ridculus idea. Great videos by the way. Just realised I went into my question without saying that! All the best, Andy, our paths might cross at some point. Bw Paul
@@paulmaddock4167 Yeah I hear ya. I know that Julian runs groupons for trial flights at Yatesbury so thats prob good place to start. I cant speak about Flight sim idea, but I think if you had the same plane in a FS environment you could prcatice running through checklists etc, saves time at the start and end of flight and memorising the cockpit, all good stuff imo. Hopefully meet you IRL if you get to Yatesbury. Cheers Paul
The advice from Andy is decent, so I'll second what he says; I'm a recently minted NPPL pilot (at Kemble funnily enough, I did this same flight but in reverse!). Can't stress enough the importance of staying 'current' and minimising gaps in your training. Personally I purchased blocks of training, I'd recommend this as it takes the stress out of counting the pennies (although it can be painful when it's time to buy the next block).
If you're near Yatesbury, then Clench Common (GS Aviation) may also be an option for you. I've flown into Clench and the team there are very friendly and welcoming. Also, importantly, Clench has two runways in an X configuration, so when one is a high crosswind, the other is usually straight down the runway. When it comes to flying microlights, wx is an issue, and that issue is usually high winds. The C42 has a 15kt crosswind limit, which is pretty high, however, as a student pilot you wouldn't be flying in anything 8kts or greater (10kts cross can be a real handful). So picking an airfield with multiple runways is a bonus.
@FlyingAndy Where do you live mate? I'm in Chippenham