Short 30min flight with my girlfriend from Chaubuisson to Lognes (both east of Paris), I still refuelled just for the sake of it 
I probably flew 150 hours (instruction & solo) before getting a licence that allows me to carry passengers, so while I tried sightseeing and flying low I remember my pax comment “can you either fly or speak, you just can’t do both at the same time !”. So I got a lesson for myself after that short flight: “this is no longer top-gun, I am in the family model now”
I wanted to get my PPL a little bit sooner and did not want to wait for the examiner’s next visit to our airport so my instructor gave me the C152 and sent me solo to the airport where the examiner was based (21NM). After the successful checkride I flew back to to our home base again, which was practically the first flight after getting the PPL (even though the physical license was issued a little bit later).
My first flight after getting my PPL was routine.
But the first flight after passing my IR was instructive. I was based in the Switzerland at the time, but did all my training, and the practical test, at Le Touquet in France.
I passed my IR test on a summer day, no problem. That done, I realised I wanted to fly home in my Cirrus. The weather was rather unsettled, with a weak cold front across my route. I instinctively chose to fly back to Switzerland VFR, under the clouds and the front. This made me realise that despite all the IR training, I had no idea how to actually plan and execute a long two or three hour flight IFR!! It was only on the next flight, from Switzerland to England, that I finally grappled with a long distance IFR flight, and for the first time flew into a frontal system and into real could without an instructor on board. It was a very memorable experience. As they always say, “an instrument rating is just a license to learn”. The formal IR course simply teaches you how to fly approaches. The real business of flying a typical 2 or 3 hour instrument flight, thinking about weather, alternates, fuel, this you figure out on your own afterwards.
Buckerfan wrote:
This made me realise that despite all the IR training, I had no idea how to actually plan and execute a long two or three hour flight IFR!!
And that is the nub of it. An IR in Europe does not teach you how to plan and fly an IFR flight.
I passed my PPL checkride in Altenrhein in 1983. The next flight was bringing my then first airplane (a Cessna 150) home from Birrfeld to Altenrhein. In the next few weeks I flew with the usual suspects (girlfriend, mother, friends) who all wanted to see how it works. Was a great time. Practically no bureaucracy and a lovely airport to fly from.
As Ibra and Jujupilote said, by already having the brevet de base (BB), the PPL wasn’t such a big deal.
With the BB I revisited all the nearby airfields (slightly stretching the distance limitation) and became very familiar with the local terrain, which was good experience for getting home in marginal weather. Essentially, I could go do circuits or have a fun flight without needing an instructor present.
Good for general handling skills and practising landings, but not if you want to do a PPL in minimum hours. Of course, you still need the PPL to do any serious flying.
The new IR pilots best friends are the planning tools, such as RocketRoute. Gets you a working route, info on weather and NOTAMs at destination, and a start on enroute weather. Thats what saved me as a new IR.
Paul Beckwith
My first flight was about six weeks after my PPL check ride. The license took a while to come to me due to various checks. It was quite an excitement since my mom was visiting us and I was keen to take her for a ride! Weather was quite decent almost no wind and few small clouds really high up. I did a solo traffic pattern and then took my mom for a short flight of about 20 mins. It was followed with couple more shorter flights, all about 20-30 mins each with other relatives.
In the next two months I managed to get just another 5 hours of flight time and then I am on a forced break due to relocation. I probably will have to start afresh now with new environment, different machines and hopefully a sympathetic instructor.
Back when I got my PPL there were no temp papers.
After passing my test, I got an instructor to sign me off to a flight to goodwood.
Day after picking up my licence (at Gatwick), flew to Bembridge (Isle of Wight) with 2 of my (brave) flatmates.
Day after that, went on a fly out, had an instructor with me (and another pilot), got checked out in a 182 (only had flown PA28s till then), and managed to fly at a couple cool places in france (mostly the Alps) – that also gave me the famous “cross channel checkout”. That longer trip into different types of environments was a good confidence booster, and then I started pretty much straight away to do longer travel (mostly to France) without any confidence issues.
Immediately after getting the licence my wife, my dog and me took of for our first flight and first holiday flight. We made a trip from EDDS via EDFL to EDDW visiting friends at Bremen, then continued via EHL to EDCA Anklam to visit family at the Ostsee. After that we contiued to EDPA for another family stopp over. After that we headed direction France with a short stop at EDTF to land in the end of the day at LFHO Aubenas. Here we did some freeclimbing with friends. After two days we continued to LSZB to vist another friend. Then back to EDDS. One week of flying 3 countries. With the C172 it took us 20 hours and gave me the feeling, that the decision to learn to fly was the best ever.
