I’ve been flying fixed wing since 2010 when i bought my first Microlight Jabiru. I flew 150 hours in my first year, really going places at 90 knots. I then upgraded to a Europa, then to a Retractable Tecnam, and now I fly both a Kitfox and an RV-10. Ever since the start my mission has always been about going places, i get bored bimbling. I haven’t flown the kitfox this year once.
I have a very busy life with work, a young family, and lots of other commitments, time is short! I’ve managed to fly 50 hours in the RV-10 this year so far, which has been great. Its about sharing – my Dad, my wife and my Son have all come with me to Jersey, Guernsey, Cambridge, or Oxford, or anywhere – and as my 2 year old gets older we’ll go much further, but for now we keep flights below 1 hour, preferably 30 minutes. We’re probably going to try for a 2 hour flight to La Rochelle, but we’re nervous as 2 hours is a long time for a 2 year old. Because the aircraft is so fast, 1 hour limit on flights gives quite a few options.
I also started flying helicopters last year, and i’ve had my license since January. I have my own Enstrom 280FX at home. However, i’m starting to see that I’m likely to get bored with it, and perhaps won’t continue to own a helicopter forever. The reason? Usually on a nice day the RV-10 wins. The helicopter is comparatively useless – it’s slow (90mph) and I won’t take it over water. Its a great novelty landing at hotels and other private sites but I don’t know many people with a big enough garden, and hotels are of limited use!
After 7 years of flying, it seems that I’m very clear what interests me, and I find Peter’s flying inspiring. In an ideal world I would do the same, but I have a few roadblocks stopping me- firstly, medical, i’ve never had a class 2 and it will be some effort to get it due to a heart condition, secondly my aircraft is not yet IFR approved but i can start that process next january, and thirdly my family and age of my little one. In a perfect world all these issues can be resolved and i could do IFR flights with the family around Europe. Meanwhile, i’ll do as much VFR as possible!
My airfield, Deanland, is a great place with lots of friends. There are around 30 aircraft based, and nearly all are just bimblers. Only one or two use their aircraft to actually go places. So, in this environment, i’m unusual – and most pilots are happy just using it as a toy to have a bimble. When i turn up at the airfield, people walk over to me an ask where i’m going with great expectations, as they’ve just come up for a local fly!
So – sorry for the ramble – but my view on aircraft and PPL is very simple. Firstly decide who you are – a bimbler, or a traveller. If you’re a bimbler, you can probably just rent. If you’re a traveller you’ll definitely find renting too restrictive. A group could work, i know a couple of groups that are really low utilisation, but for maximum utility and “do what you want” there’s nothing like ownership.
Carl, that is a great post. Whether you are flying a Kitfox, RV10 or TB 20, just go places. Some are faster than others but to be honest all are slow. Cruise speed matters little as you can fly almost direct and spend less time at airports than CAT passengers. It is easy to find reasons not to fly – the challenge is to just go flying and go to places you couldn’t get to by road or rail easily.
I agree with Jason, great post – but I’m always the first one here to jump at these statements:
carlmeek wrote:
If you’re a traveller you’ll definitely find renting too restrictive
In my view (and experience) you can’t generalize that way. It’s going to depend on a lot of factors in your environment, availability, schemes etc. but: I’ve been a happy travelling renter for almost half a decade now. I’ve slowly expanded my “network” of opportunities and rarely was there a trip that I wasn’t able to do due to aircraft availability. Plus you get to fly more different types than when you own one.
I’m not saying I never want to own – but if I do, that’ll be for emotional reasons mostly.
Thank you all so much for your passionate and informative replies. It has vastly exceeded my expectations when I first posted.
When posting I was already of a mind that the right thing to do was to finish the PPL. Now I am certain that I should. I particularly liked the quote from Patrick about better to have once been a pilot than once been half a pilot!
Thinking about owning my own plane has certainly made me feel a LOT more positive about the whole thing. Not sure why I discounted it before, perhaps because of perceptions of cost. I’m still not quite sure on costs, particularly maintenance related, so need to do some more research. There is loads of info out there on it for different types.
I am also drawn even more towards a permit aircraft. Partly the much reduced cost, but increasingly also the ability to just get on with it. All the administration, bureaucracy and messing about (eg has that bolt got a certificate with it?) would drive me insane. I like opening things up to see how they work; it makes me trust them more (hopefully).
I certainly haven’t ruled a group out. There are a few people local to me looking to start a group but I haven’t really engaged with them given that I haven’t got my licence yet. A small group of like minded people with the same general flying aims could well work out.
A Europa is still at the top of my list. It would appear to do a lot of things very well. It would be great for bimbles as well as pretty serious touring. You can even buy some extra wings and go gliding! I have booked a date in the diary to go to the LAA rally in September to try and see some. I take the point about the hassle of rigging and de-rigging the wings each time. How long does it take you Europaxs? One good thing is that recovery is easy (relatively speaking) in the event of bad weather, a mechanical problem when away or, God forbid, a forced landing. They can get in and out of small strips which would help keep local options open.
It would appear that quite a few owners are looking to get their Europas cleared for IFR through the LAA. It makes sense given that it is a touring aircraft. So perhaps that gives options in the near future for use in IMC. Granted it will never be capable of FIKI, or the like but it would still presumably add a huge amount of utility when visibility isn’t good enough for full VFR. Peter and others have stated many times that full IFR capability is very expensive and I have to accept out of my price range for a few years yet. I would rather save money operating a Europa and get loads of flying in with the money saved to gain experience and perhaps become clearer about the type of flying I want to do longer term. There is still Easyjet for the flights when I just have to get there on a certain day!!!
So thanks again to everyone. The warmth and generosity shown by private pilots really stands out and does make me want to be part of the club!
Hopefully I will be able to report some good news later in the year.
S57 wrote:
I take the point about the hassle of rigging and de-rigging the wings each time. How long does it take you Europaxs?
@S57 It takes me about 30 minutes to get the Europa completely rigged with tailplanes (they only add about 5minutes). That is me alone with my rigging aid http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/PH-ZTI.html
Usually I’m in the air one hour after I arrive at the airfield, all checks included. As you’ve wrote already, a trailer has more advantages like recovering the aircraft from remote places for whichever reason, taking it home for maintenance where you have all tools at hand, refueling Euro 95 for 1,30/l at the car station. That way you can cut down the costs dramatically, that’s where the Europa shines. It is disigned to be rigged from scratch.
Ok. Update as promised. Good news and bad news to report.
So I spent the summer reading my PPL theory books and generally getting my head back into it. My medical is sorted after a bit of messing about. I went for a flight at the school when I was over that way just because ‘why not’. Instructor seemed impressed with my abilities despite it being some 13 years since I last flew and felt that 15 or so hours would just about do it. I thought 20 might be a little more realistic. I also spent time trying to clear the decks of some other outstanding items in order to free up time.
Went to the LAA rally as planned and spoke to loads of people with Europas. This is definitely the most appealing option to me. They feel good inside and have a very eager following in their members’ club. The wife came with me (only as we were enroute somewhere) and had a sit in the RHS of one. I think she has moved from skeptical to inquisitive.
I started back with lessons this last week and have notched up 3.5 hours already. In the last hour of these I really felt like I was getting into it and my confidence was increasing rapidly. I bought some more supplies and upgraded my headset. So far so good. I have a lot of time available between now and December in which I was hoping to finish it off.
But then last night I came across this… CAA notice IN–2017/012 [ local copy ]
It came out some time after I looked into my hours being valid with the school. A forumite in another place is in the same situation as me and is rushing to finish his skill test by the deadline. There is no way I can meet this deadline and so, if the situation is indeed as it appears, I will go from having 60 hours to having 5. This means I’ll have to fly and fork out for an extra 25 or so hours over that planned. The new business venture I will be involved in from December will take up a lot of time and I think this, coupled with winter weather will push me back well into next year.
I’ve come too far now to let this put me off. If I do indeed have to fly the extra hours then I am sure I can maximize their value through advanced training, perhaps even night or IMC stuff, so all is far from lost. It does however open up some other options given that I am effectively starting a PPL from scratch. I’m no longer tied to the same school for starters although they seem ok to me. The school’s owners do a lot of commercial flying outside of training and so I think I have a lot of knowledge to draw on. I could also go abroad and do it in a shorter time frame.
I’m inclined just to push on and do it as I have been and at a familiar airfield and just carry on paying £175 or so an hour for it. However your thoughts and encouragement on the matter would be most welcome.
Read section 2 of that IN again, and contact the CAA. The only thing that changes it that the automatic recognition ends, unfortunately the IN is less than clear exactly what will be recognised thereafter.
Applicants wishing to rely on training time completed prior to entry into force of Part-FCL in the UK must contact the CAA (see paragraph 4, below) prior to being recommended for the skills test to establish what administrative steps will be required to enable recognition of training completed under JARs.
There will be no further extension to allowances I understand. However, NPPL credits will remain so you could just test for a NPPL as soon as possible and then do a paper conversion to LAPL (that route is valid until April 18) then do the LAPL to PPL upgrade. Make sure your school doesn’t wast time with IF or radio nav as you can do that during the LAPL to PPL upgrade.
A small point: old credits may be worth less than they appear because the currency is lost so a lot of the flight training needs to be re-done anyway. The scenario where any credit, regardless of age, is great to have is where you are actually competent e.g. via flying with another pilot or mentor, unofficially and – since all training admissible towards a PPL needs to be done via a school – without being able to log it even if the said pilot is an instructor.
I did wonder if there is a route via the NPPL or some such which protects these old credits 
Yes, S57, definitely get on with it and get it done
@Cobalt, yes, contact with the CAA is the first priority. My FI is going to speak to them on Monday.
@Balliol, thank you for the suggestion. That sounds a very good plan B.
@Peter, I totally take your point and yes, much will have to get redone. But, it will take less time to re-do it than to do it from scratch. I am merely going on what my instructor said in terms of hours needed to get back up to speed and test ready. In some ways I quite like the thought of being forced to do another 20-25 hours of training as I can see a real benefit in that which could put me in a very good position post PPL.
