My wife also had a PPL. She quite flying at about the same time as I did but haven’t started again. It is not necessarily an advantage that she can see a situation from a pilot’s point of view because she may also have a quite different — well motivated — opinion. 
Amazing! The pink plane actually exists!!!
MedEwok wrote:
Reading EuroGA topics made me realize that many pilots drop out after holding a PPL again, especially if they have nothing to aim for. I never thought much about this before signing up, I admit, but now I think my aim is rather simple: I’d like to fly my family to places all around Germany and Europe.
Welcome to euroga and to flying. Enjoy the rest of your training and good luck for the checkride. Once you hold the ppl maybe budget for 30+ hours of some fun flying and timebuilding. You can team up with someone from the club who can come along and mentor you for some longer trips to other countries.
For later endeavors with your family keep in mind PPL SEP is primarily recreational activity and if all parameters are met also a mode of transportation. A short trip by car can take 3 days in a plane if the weather is below minima. Not a problem at all if you book a vacation or hotel that can be cancelled at the last minute. And at some point you might not make it back in time to your club to return the plane as promised. Keep that in mind and you will be fine, but more importantly safe.
Happy landings!
Hello all,
Just wanted to let you know that I did my first cross-country solo yesterday!
EDWF – Leer-Papenburg to EDWQ – Ganderkesee. A mere 41 nm but still I’m very proud of myself. Weather was NSC but quite hazy (3000-4000 BR), but I did have no problem finding my way. My FI instructed me not to use the FlyMap (GPS) unless I had to, and I didn’t need it. ICAO chart on my kneeboard and my eyes on the ground were enough.
Today he told me to prepare for the 150 nm triangle flight next. Unfortunately my flight to ETND, planned for today, is likely to be canceled:
Emden 161130Z AUTO 23008G12KT 5000 BR OVC002 07/06 Q1027=
Well done!
In many other places, the instructor wouldn’t send a student on his first cross-country solo in 3000-4000m vis (although I do think that this kind of vis is indeed a little bit on the low side… it doesn’t even allow access to class E, so the student would have to fly quite low very often to stay in Golf). Anyway, some schools stupidly even put such hard limits into their training manual, or however these bloody things are called. It seems the UK is a particularly bad place in this regard and then, nine out of ten solo cross country get cancelled, leading to students waiting for half a year. Good to see you make good progress…
Yes; I saw one poor bastard wait 6 months – the entire summer – for his cross country flight because the vis was constantly about 5km.
OVC002 is a bit of a non-starter for VFR though
Great experience. You’re lucky to have the Frisian Islands so close!
WhiskeyPapa wrote:
Great experience. You’re lucky to have the Frisian Islands so close!
Compare that with a 1.5 hour ferry trip (and you have to get to the ferry first, which for us takes another hour by car).
MedEwok wrote:
Indeed. As is often discussed GA usually is a less practical (and cheap) transport compared to cars, trains or commercial flying. In case of the Frisian Islands however GA beats every other mode of transport hands down. Leer to Juist in 20 mins? No problem Compare that with a 1.5 hour ferry trip (and you have to get to the ferry first, which for us takes another hour by car).
Good to hear of your progress. While GA is rarely cheaper it can usually be a lot faster and more efficient. People often talk about how incovemient it is. I disagree. As you say, anytime a water crosing is involved it becomes super convenient. Or longer distances. Constantly dumping on how inefficient GA is is a very European pastime.
Obviously different pilots, aircraft and flight rules change the dynamic but GA is a great way to get around if you can afford it and have the flex to deal with the odd weather and tech issue.
So, I’m supposed to fly my next solo cross country from Leer-Papenburg EDWF to Diepholz ETND tomorrow, but the weather doesn’t look to good. The flight is supposed to take place at 251400Z:
EDDW Bremen TAF EDDW 241700Z 2418/2518 30009KT 9999 FEW025 BECMG 2419/2421 22004KT PROB30 TEMPO 2421/2502 4000 MIFG PROB30 TEMPO 2502/2509 BKN006 BECMG 2508/2510 21012KT TEMPO 2509/2518 4500 -RADZ BR BKN009 OVC020=
Note that thanks to the flat terrain here in northern Germany (where usually AMSL = AGL), BKN 009 isn’t a no-go per se, as there are very few obstacles around that are that high. But low clouds + low visibility could be a problem.
