Hello All,
I’m a newbie here and in the aviation world, having finished my PPL training last month.
I already been through some threads and read some very interesting things. The quantity and quality of informations in this forum is unbelievable!
I will probably post sooner or later, but first of all I wanted to introduce myself.
I’m Christopher, in my late 20’s, from France and currently living in the Swiss Alps.
I have been interested in aviation since my teen years, but only decided to start training at the end of last year.
Mainly because I travel a lot for my job and because between traffic jams and speed limitations, travelling by car has become a pain in the neck!
So in the future I expect to travel by plane as often as possible.
I did start my training for the PPL in Spain in February. While in the last part of my training I had to swtich off due to the covid 19 situation.
I was finally able to go back to the school in July to finish my training and pass the skill test.
The next steps for me will be to earn experience and build the mandatory hours to do the IR rating (and probably the MEP rating) in the first half of 2021.
Then I will start to look for an aircraft to purchase.
Thanks for reading and looking forward to hear from you!
rschris, thank you for introducing yourself.
Please tell us, where do fly from in Switzerland, and what kind of flying have you done there? There are some Swiss members on the site and others with experience there (myself included).
Remember, the most dangerous time in the development of pilots is between 50 hours and 150 hours. I very nearly killed myself in the middle of that “death zone”, as have many others. There is even a book about it somewhere.
Fly safe but have fun.
Welcome to the forum.
There is a great deal of useful information on here which otherwise would be extremely difficult to discover for oneself. As Buckerfan says getting your PPL is a great achievement, enjoy your flying but do try to remember the risks as mentioned. I suspect we’ve all been there. I think the point is well put when people say it’s a license to learn.
I can only recommend you try to get some experience in some different types and try to figure out what mission you want to fulfill if you’re thinking about buying something at some point. Although I give this with the benefit of the experience I’ve gained having not taken that route myself and bought an aircraft pretty quickly following NPPL and before I got my JAA PPL. Luckily I ended up with something that has been very good for me. But I absolutely could have made a big mistake.
Thank you for your message and advice Buckerfan.
I haven’t fly in Switzerland yet. I did my training in Jerez, Spain and also flew a little bit in France at LFSM.
The nearest airport for me is LSGS. I will probably fly from there from time to time (there is an aero club with Robin aircraft) in order
to have a taste of mountain flying.
If anyone is near, or come to, Sion, feel free to let me know.
@Off_Field
Indeed, looking for an aircraft to buy is something in itself. That’s why I don’t want to hurry up and prefer to complete my training first.
Even if I already have an idea of where I want to go, with more knowledge and experience, I will better be able to determine my needs.
Does you alias means you are doing bush flying? That’s really something I would like to try.
What a coincidence! I learned to fly just round the corner from Sion, and now although I live in England, I fly to Sion about 10 times a year as we still have a chalet there, in Veysonnaz (we can see the Sion airport from the balcony 
). Where do you live?
Before joining the aeroclub in Sion also consider Bex, LSGB, closer to the lake. It has a very very active flying club https://www.gvmc.ch/index.php/fr/ “Groupe du Vol a Moteur du Chablais”. They have a nice range of airplanes from trainers (Robins) to a great old Piper Cub and an aerobatic Extra etc. And it would save you a lot of money as no landing fees etc. They also have helis, gliders, warbirds etc – an all round great place. Its only 30 mins drive from Sion.
Flying in Switzerland is fantastic. I spent hundreds or hours flying every valley and past every mountain top in the whole country in my early days. A wonderful blessing to be based there.
Lastly, the guy who posts as “Peter” is the founder of this site and its God Emperor and we all love him. He writes the best trip reports in the world and we all want to emulate his adventures in Greece, but are too afraid of running out of Avgas on some remote Greek island 
Buckerfan wrote:
What a coincidence! I learned to fly just round the corner from Sion, and now although I live in England, I fly to Sion about 10 times a year as we still have a chalet there, in Veysonnaz (we can see the Sion airport from the balcony ). Where do you live?
Ahaha yes! I’m on the other side of the valley in Crans-Montana.
Thanks a lot for the recommendation regarding Bex. Gave a quick look at their website and they indeed have an interesting fleet. A little bit more drive time for me, but for sure a place to consider especially if financially more attractive than Sion.
Peter wrote:
Welcome to EuroGA, rschris
Thank you God Emperor Peter
And thank you for the ton of useful informations you are sharing through the articles and the forum.
Hope I will be able to bring an interesting contribution to this.
I am definitely not a “God Emperor”; EuroGA is a well behaved community which doesn’t need one
Of course you will. We all started where you are now.
rschris wrote:
Does you alias means you are doing bush flying? That’s really something I would like to try.
Pretty much as close as you can get within the UK. I do a fair amount of landing in unprepared fields, beaches etc and I find it a tremendous amount of fun. Flying from one house to land at another or just a field somewhere for breakfast / lunch is difficult to beat.
You should definitely get some tailwheel time in a cub type. The joy of just bouncing around is something that really appeals to me.
