Learn to fly in Europe

I did mine at a grass airfield in the uk. booked only weekends (except a weekday for xcoubtry after 2 cancellations due to weather), did over 90% over 3 month – Feb march April. Helped that the school wouldn’t cancel lessons easily – I’d even ask and go solo circuits with 1000 ft cloudbase.
2 or more flights a day, with the occasional exam between flights.

Yo!

To be clear, all I am saying is that it does not have to be a long and complicated process.

You can of course make it as long or short as it suits you, but …

1. There is no fundamental reason why you would have to go through a lot of ceremony, as some national authorities seem to think (criminal records? education records? applying for permission to train?) I can’t see what benefit being stuck in a cold war mindset can possibly bring to recreational flying.

2. Going through the theory can be as simple as reading the books (I used the same ones as everyone else in the UK, can’t remember the name, but they’re good) and turning up for the exams when ready. Again, some authorities like to make this a solemn occasion and schedule exams at their headquarters only a few times per year—under the UK system you arrange a convenient time with your instructor and do it at the clubhouse or so, which saves a lot of grief, time, and money. In France, sometimes high school students can do most or all of the theory (free!) as an optional subject.

3. The flying itself is only 40 hours to the skill test and 45 to the licence. That’s one week’s worth of practical experience. No, you won’t have the faintest idea how to fly after that¹, but you will have a licence, just like a car. Whether you spread that over seven days or over one year, all that is required is still one week’s worth of flying, so it follows that it cannot be that complicated.

Of course, if you are constrained by whatever other commitments, finance, etc., you will have less options open to you. It still holds that anyone who wants you to believe that you are doing something special or important (other than the captivating hobby it is) is either delusional or trying to get your money. A lot of people seem to get that impression by association with the airline world, which is an entirely different kettle of fish. As a PPL you will be learning how to ride a bike, not drive a coach.

So there you go. Just saying this because I’ve seen a lot of people taking their PPLs waaay too seriously². Don’t fall into that trap, it’s just a fun way of spending money!

¹ Unless you come across one of those really good instructors, but those are few and far between, and nobody likes them because they verge on the psychopathic.

² Run away from anyone wearing epaulettes unless they just got off a £5M+ ride which they are paid to fly.

cucumber wrote:

However, they only seem to have an Aquila A210 and a Cessna 177. Since I prefer low wing and yoke, not sure if it would be a good fit. Though maybe for training it matters less.

Yoke/stick whatever else as primary flight control does not really matter. It took me literally seconds to transition from yoke to centre-stick, then a similar amount of time to adjust to side-stick.
Low wing / high wing mostly matters for visibility. I myself also prefer (and actually fly) low wing, but got my PPL on a high wing. The biggest difference is in the head movements necessary for scanning traffic. When I briefly flew a high wing with an instructor after flying low wings for more than a year, he commented that I did not properly scan for traffic before turns.

Also I just read that a PPL only allows me VFR during day time. Would I have to do additional IFR training to be able to fly in clouds and at night?

There is a night VFR rating (min. 5 hours) that allows you to fly VFR at night. To legally fly in clouds, you need some form of IR. There are numerous threads on this forum discussing this option. In any cases, however, IR will take you a similar amount of flight time (and possibly much more money) than the initial PPL.

Is it worth it to eventually join a flying club as opposed to own my own plane?

It depends on a lot of factors. If you can find a good club nearby, owning your own may not be necessary. OTOH, ownership gives you possibilities and joys that you could not experience with a shared plane. And it also gives you a much lighter wallet…

HJan_Olieslagers wrote:

That sounds like wisdom. Be aware however that “ground class” i.e. the theory course is started only once a year especially at the smaller clubs – or so it is at least round here, and I think Germany will not be very different. So get your info in time, to start the theory lessons in September which is the usual time – again, round here in BE at least. German and Swiss forum members please confirm, or otherwise?

Dont go to ground classes!
The slowest to comprehend sets the pace and you get pre-fabricated, over-rehearsed lessons.
Online/offline courses at your own pace plus some books and online discussions for topics that really matter.
You will still have 8+ attendance hours which you then can use for actual discussions to clarify important stuff.

As to specific models. I can concur that new models are (surprisingly, to be honest) easy to adapt to.

I think the benefit of organised ground classes varies.

If you are an “older” and more organised person, or perhaps just one used to recent academic work (e.g. someone who was recently at university) then you can just read the books (which contain much trash – even at the PPL level) and then hammer the computer question bank, and do it all on your own. I am sure the majority of contributors on EuroGA are in this category.

But others find motivation hard. I know of several people who enjoyed the flying training but when they picked up the first book, they gave it all up immediately. One was the son of a flying school owner! So, the motivation of doing it in a group can be helpful.

BTW I wouldn’t worry about what sort of plane you do the PPL in unless you

• are fairly clear about your expected mission profile, and
• have access to a suitable plane for that, and
• you can organise flying lessons in that plane

in which case it is obviously better to do the PPL in that plane.

What nearly everybody does is that they go to their nearest school, check out the kind of old junk variable quality aircraft on offer, pick one (in most cases, pick the cheapest one to fly) and then having got the PPL they spend 5-10hrs (and a fair number of €) converting to something in which they can take friends out to Le Touquet or the local equivalent

I started my PPL in an absolute junk of a PA38 (run by an AOC holder company – look up the G-OMAR accident report for some clues), walked out after 20hrs, after which they “lost” some of my student records so I had to re-sit some exams, then finished in a C152. None of these I ever flew again. I converted to a PA28-181 ASAP, and a year later bought the TB20.