Assorted licensing questions and finding a suitable aircraft to fly

That’s correct, but sooner rather than later (after getting your PPL) you will get fed up with chasing up where to find the airfield’s AIP VFR, make poor photocopies etc. As an add-on to say Skydemon, the German AIP VFR costs 59€ a year. If you happen to go for Jeppesen MFDVFR, all the infos contained in the AIP VFR are included.

You will need some type of flightplanning program anyway…

Wboscomantico wrote:

That’s correct, but sooner rather than later (after getting your PPL) you will get fed up with chasing up where to find the airfield’s AIP VFR, make poor photocopies etc. As an add-on to say Skydemon, the German AIP VFR costs 59€ a year. If you happen to go for Jeppesen MFDVFR, all the infos contained in the AIP VFR are included.

You will need some type of flightplanning program anyway…

That is why I’m here, because they don’t teach you these things at PPL training (and I consider my training to be good). We’re still learning that all you need to plan a flight is a map, a pencil and maybe a calculator. I personally use fl95.de which is web-based and free, but suitable for the kind of flying you do in PPL training.

MedEwok wrote:

I personally use fl95.de which is web-based and free, but suitable for the kind of flying you do in PPL training.

Me too on the rare occasions when I fly privately and can not borrow an iPad of our company that runs Jeppesen VFR… I don’t know if a map downloaded from fl95 would pass a ramp inspection (my last one was in Dresden 3 days ago) but unless they can prove that vital information is missing they can’t possibly do much.

We’re still learning that all you need to plan a flight is a map, a pencil and maybe a calculator

As you should. You need to learn the basics “by foot” at least once, and these techniques always work. And even if you utilise Skydemon or Jepp, EasyVFR, Fly Is Fun you need to understand what the program is doing, unless you want to fly “blind”. Navigation with GPS is pretty easy anyway, and at least our ATO does teach the use of these tools, but not at the very beginning.

Don’t get my wrong mh, I am glad I learn it this way. On my first x-country solo I didn’t need a GPS for one second despite hazy conditions, and I’m glad about that.

I guess congratulations are in order!

Very well done, @NinerEchoPapa !
I’m still waiting for my second solo…all lessons since my first solo a month ago had to be cancelled due to bad weather :(

NinerEchoPapa wrote:

I saw in another thread you fly an Aquila A210. That’s on the list of potential aircraft of aircraft I could be flying in Hamburg. Do you have a photo of the cockpit by any chance? Good luck for when you do finally get your second solo done!

This is just part of the cockpit but here goes:

Note that we have a GPS (the big empty slot on the right) but it was removed for maintenance when I took that photo. I also flew a glass cockpit version of the A211 but didn’t take any cockpit photos back then.