Got the license, how to build up experience and confidence?

Patrick wrote:

There is a bias towards that opinion on EuroGA

It very much depend on how the club works. I fly 40-50 hrs/year, most of my flying is going places and I do it in rented (club) aircraft only.

There are two things you can’t typically do in a club. One is make a 4 hour flight somewhere, be away for a week and then fly 4 hours back. The other is booking an aircraft for several days (or even a single full day) on short notice.

Your best option is to block charter a nice plane for a week or two. Too bad you are far away: I gave my Warrior to a friend who just completed his PPL for free. “Free” means that he pays for the insurance, maintenance and hangar for the time he has it …

There are two things you can’t typically do in a club. One is make a 4 hour flight somewhere, be away for a week and then fly 4 hours back. The other is booking an aircraft for several days (or even a single full day) on short notice.

… Which are the two most important things in “travelling” by GA.

Same here and I suppose in most clubs. It’s also understandable – they want to make profit from the planes and planes

I think one would have to differentiate between schools/rental businesses on the one end and “clubs” (real clubs) on the other.

The former will want to make a profit and that’s OK.

The latter mostly have something in their bye-laws saying “purpose of the club is to promote flying…”.

I think that clubs are thus, IMHO obliged to make provsions for doing trips and not impose 3-hours-a-day minimums. “Promoting flying” in my book means to allow members to usefully utilize their aircraft for real missions/trips. But then, in the end, accountants often prevail…what they miss that if people realize they can’t use the club planes for anything useful, people will soon get frustrated with the “9-12-o clock-timeslot-burger-runs-to-Compton Abbas” and give it up altogether.

To promote flying as much as possible, clubs need to operate their planes at optimal economy. That is part of their mission profile.

The other factor I have seen is that the club/school (in the UK the separation is usually in name only – the finances are the same) is keen to train new pilots and then have them self fly hiring afterwards.

There is zero incentive to help them acquire experience (longish foreign trips) which will draw them away.

I know people will say I am being cynical but this is just a standard business protection procedure… I’ve been hanging out on this scene for 15 years and have tried and failed to “work the system”. You end up doing Bosco’s trip to Compton Abbas a few times and then chuck it in because that cheese roll has cost you £300. I was fortunate in being able to buy a plane. I first tried syndicates but in that particular time/place, and having absolutely zero contacts (19/20 of those doing the PPL with me vanished very quickly) didn’t find any suitable co-owners.

…the other half of the truth however is that the majority of PPLs never get to the point (in terms of proficieny and self-confidence) where they would be comfortable doing anything beyond one-hour flights. They don’t want (or feel like) doing trips. See the “can’t find sleep before a big flight”-thread.

So the clubs actually do cater precisely for the majority of the market, which could be considered as “fine”. The minority will then step out from the clubs and buy an own aircraft or a share. And that’s fine, too.