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PPL in The Netherlands, with exams in English?

I wonder how @piper got on?

It doesn’t take 6 months to get a PPL if the wx is ok and you actually get on with it. It takes most people in N Europe a year to do it but that’s because the wx is so variable and they fly only at weekends; also many have only just enough money for 1 lesson at a time and then they have to save up. If you get the exams (and the medical) out of the way first, and go somewhere where the wx is good and the planes are not shagged so most of the time the school can scrape up one that works, and you have a reasonable aptitude for aviation, and fly every day that it is physically possible, 6 weeks would be normal. If you have previous (unlogged) flying experience with a pilot who has shown you how the whole process works and got you to do some planned flights then you can do it in the time it takes to pack 45hrs in your logbook i.e. 3-4 weeks (I did this for one young guy a few years ago).

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Thankfully, I have relatively flexible working hours, i.e. I can pop out to the airport which is 20 minutes down the highway. I looked at good-weather options for a high-intensity course as you suggest, but to be honest, I would feel a bit as if the school would then have me over the proverbial barrel as I would be quite inclined to pay a premium to get everything done while I’m at their place.

Can I ask if instructors normally see how much people can do already on their first flight? When I did the aforementioned introduction lesson, I had done only another one ten years ago (live and job came in between), and in both cases, the instructor let me taxi, take-off, fly around according to his instructions, and land, which was especially with the landing segment a bit surprising (but of course positively encouraging).

Cheers,
Sebastian

EHRD / Rotterdam

I would be particularly interested to know whether Germany, Norway and Sweden offer PPL theory exams in English, and if not, whether successful foreign theory exams are accepted as a basis for PPL training in that country.

Danish CAA does not, and is not likely to, offer exams in English, reportedly due to lack of ressources.

huv
EKRK, Denmark

huv wrote:

I would be particularly interested to know whether Germany, Norway and Sweden offer PPL theory exams in English, and if not, whether successful foreign theory exams are accepted as a basis for PPL training in that country.
Sweden does offer PPL theory exams in English (source).

As far as I know, a successful theory exam done in an EASA country is valid in every other EASA country — but I can’t back this up with a quote from the regs.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Thank you a_a, that is useful. In the meantime I have been informed that AOPA Germany confirms that PPL theory exam is available in English, and also that in Norway it is not (yet?).

I shall try to find out whether TK exams are generally valid across borders within EASA. In the JAR-age, they were not, unless the two countries concerned had specific bilateral agreements.

Last Edited by huv at 26 Jun 11:11
huv
EKRK, Denmark

It took a while for both getting the theory out of the way, and also writing up a bit. Short version: I finished the Oribit Groundschool distance learning course by participating in their presence week in January, and took in February/March the PPL theory exams in Brussels with success.

How does the distance learning with Orbit work? You pay the fee, get a login to their online campus, click through the web slide shows for all subjects, each subject broken down into smaller units of around 30 slides each. At the end of each of these sub-units, you have to pass a multiple-choice test on the subject-matter of the respective sub-unit. In order to get a recommendation to sit the theory exam, each sub-unit test (and not the aggregated value for the respective subject) has to be passed with more than 75%. The tests appear non-repeatable on the web interface, but the course admins can reset individual ones on request. The course material is bought from an UK outfit as some questions (e.g. MATZ penetration, UK weather charts, etc.) are clearly not applicable to a non-UK learner. The sub-unit tests are made artificially harder as they do not reflect the actual material of their sub-unit, but seem to be created by someone who has gotten merely the overall outline of the course – knowledge of subject-matter that has either not been dealt with at all, or would be dealt with in a different subject (not sub-unit of the same subject!) is necessary to pass the tests. I would recommend prospective future students to first go through all the material, and then attempt the sub-unit tests (but no sweat, the course admins do reset them for a second attempt if necessary and asked for).

With this mock-exam passed, one is allowed to participate in the “brush-up” presence phase which takes place every three months or so, and comprises a work week’s evenings from around 19:00 to 22:00 hours. The idea as put forward by the school is that selected topics will be rehashed (usually where the students have the most difficulties). In practice, I joined a week session comprising for the whole week of one other similarly middle-aged PPL candidate (also with a strong sailing background), two young people who took the PPL course as part of their goal of getting and ATPL, and a few people that appeared for an evening, seemingly to get their PPL/ATPL as well. The instructors were mostly professionals flying for e.g. Transavia, and it looks as if the school does the PPL theory as a side job as most of my instructors had very little idea what to do with people that want to fly for fun and not as a career. The most depressing subject-rehearsal was again navigation where the slide rule, map, and compass ruled supreme (I understand that you need to teach the understanding of navigation, but I am still at loss why fifteen years ago my Yachtmaster instructors taught clearly that the future is to use your chart plotter i.e. moving map, and rules of thumb for plausibility checks). Taking a SkyDemon briefing pack as an example with me, one of my instructors got seemingly upset, ranting along about pilots keeping their heads in the cockpit staring at the GPS, and not looking out; it was clear after a while that for her “GPS” really meant exactly that: the old-style display of actual latitude/longitude, and the necessity to then check that agains the map … And that from the same people which when going home switch on their TomTom or Google maps …

For whom is the distance learning course? If you have a grasp of the subjects either by self-studying using e.g. the very good FAA material available, having a sailing or gliding background, etc., then the Orbit package is great as you lose only the (pointless) evenings of the presence phase. The course itself is in my opinion absolutely useless to start from scratch, but I wager that most people that pick up their PPL come from a technical/scientific background and have no trouble with self-studying. The Orbit people organising the course are great, very responsive via mail or phone, and if you see their course as a means to tick the useless ATO requirement for exam preparation, it is cost-efficient (I paid around 800 Euro for the course plus some additional cost for fuel and speeding tickets for the presece phase commute from Rotterdam to Arnhem).

How does the theory exam work? Orbit clearly indicates that while they work within the Dutch regulatory framework, they do not recommend taking the Dutch exams. Why? The Dutch want around 100 Euro per subject for the exam, i.e. almost 900 Euro for the whole PPL TK. In contrast, the Belgian CAA wants around 100 Euro for a sitting that can include all the subjects. I went thus to Brussels (Thalys from Rotterdam, coming in the morning, leaving after lunch), sat the whole nine exams, failed meteorology abysmally, and went back three weeks later for a second sitting passing meteorology with an almost perfect score. Luck of the questions … The Belgians offer the exams in Dutch, French, and English, and apart from some weird translations (extrados/intrados in one of the questions, was clear it should refer to the upper and lower wing surfaces), the whole process is quick. You arrive at the entrance, get a username and password with which you log in at a booth to select your exam, and when called for, walk up into the cubicle farm of computerised test stations in the first floor. Electronic, non-programmable calculator is provided for as well as scratch paper.

All in all I was happy with my choice of Orbit + Belgian CAA as it offered the best possibility of independent study and taking my own time. The local aeroclub offer also theory evening lessons in Dutch which I could have taken in retrospective as well (with the caveat that I have no idea if the practical exam sitting in Brussels would then also be an option).

Last but not least, the R/T exam: I took the advice of a friend who got his licence a year earlier and booked the VFR R/T and ELP course with ATC-COMM (http://www.atc-comm.com). It’s a very nice evening course once a week for five weeks, where the trainer and a group of around six students are in a TeamSpeak chat room and starting from requesting startup clearance to flying a circuit to simulating a cross-country flight with CTR crossing, everything is explained nicely by the trainer (a professional ATC controller), and then repeated by each student doing his own simulated flight with the TeamSpeak setup providing the radio channel. I would very much recommend this course to any prospective student.

OK, long post, and finally I’m starting with the practical lessons this Saturday at my aeroclub (Vliegclub Rotterdam). Subject for another thread is my acquisition of a share in a plane before even having my licence

EHRD / Rotterdam

@Sebastian_H: Vliegclub Rotterdam is a good choice.

EDLE, Netherlands
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