Flying to foreign countries was neither part of my PPL nor IR training. No time was spent looking at how to plan such trips but that’s OK, I didn’t learn how to drive in the UK when I got my driver’s license in Germany either.
If you’re an open minded person, you quickly get the hang of it. I know quite a few US pilots flying in Europe and they have no problem doing that. The differences are not that big. I started exploring the US of A after 2 hours with an instructor and while it was not easy in the beginning mostly due to different radio habits, it is no big deal. To me flying in the UK was a much bigger challenge than flying in the US.
I am always willing to accept the extra hassle in Europe caused by the large number of sovereign countries for the benefit of being able to reach many different cultures in short time.
Yes, but only within the US. If any US pilot (even an experienced one) had to go from Munich to Losinj, or Hamburg to Paris, he would go completely in tilt. Most US pilots never venture abroad in their life as a pilot. Can’t compare the two.
I wasn’t comparing the two, but anyway your statement is true only for the more dumb pilots, and then is true only because the European GA support “ecosystem” is so full of crap.
We have weird charts which vary from one country to the next, near-useless airport data publications, weird languages which don’t sound anything like English so phoning airports is a technique whose usefulness is variable – unless you call a handling agent.
Plus we have crap disjointed weather services stuck in the 1950s…
And most real “how-to” flying information is buried on websites and is discussed only in the more technical pilot forums. Americans have them but there aren’t many in Europe. Apart from EuroGA, most forums are buried in one-line zero-information drivel posts and if you post what looks like a daft question some troll/sky-god jumps on you and then somebody jumps on him, and it all descends into one big fight and it is great because you get a 22 page thread on how to fly from Shoreham to Bembridge which generates a fantastic number of clicks on the surrounding adverts 
I have found that Americans in Europe get totally stumped on the Eurocontrol route validation system. However that doesn’t affect plain PPLs, who just struggle with the VFR charts and the bizzare nonsense depicted on them – like e.g. the UK AIAAs. But very few American natives with PPLs fly in Europe. Most FAA PPLs here are owned by European resident pilots who already know the game; most of them previously had local PPLs anyway.
75 percent, estimate, would never understand the radio – and for many German pilots it’s a problem if there’s nobody on the ground allowing them to land :-) It’s really a small ELITE that goes to the US and flies the Bahamas.
I would agree. The US accents can be very hard. I spent perhaps 2 days in Arizona learning to understand it.
Just like any European pilot flying in the US. 75 percent, estimate, would never understand the radio – and for many German pilots it’s a problem if there’s nobody on the ground allowing them to land :-) It’s really a small ELITE that goes to the US and flies the Bahamas.
There is something wrong with that 105hr figure. I have been in the US system and it is pretty well organised and efficient and produces pilots who are competent enough to jump into a plane and fly from A to B.
Yes, but only within the US. If any US pilot (even an experienced one) had to go from Munich to Losinj, or Hamburg to Paris, he would go completely in tilt. Most US pilots never venture abroad in their life as a pilot. Can’t compare the two.
No wonder many people shy away if they hear such hours and then make the calculation.
True, but 100 hours in the US surely must be about the same price as 50 hours in the average EASA country?
There is something wrong with that 105hr figure. I have been in the US system and it is pretty well organised and efficient and produces pilots who are competent enough to jump into a plane and fly from A to B.
I have met several 100+hr PPLs but they were mostly old ladies who just enjoyed flying with “young virile” instructors
I took something like 60hrs, at age 43. The figure increases with age and there is a (scarily accurate) formula for how long you will take
I had about 180 hours when I got my gliders licence. But then again, I started age 13 and was not allowed to take the test before the age of 17. I had plenty of time in the afternoons after school and my parents towed me, whenever there was good weather to fly. Great times.
We don’t charge the gliders by the hours though.
Very high. No wonder many people shy away if they hear such hours and then make the calculation.
Just checked my log: I got my PPL at 36:29 hours and 197 landings in 1983.
Should leaf through old logbooks more often… the next flight after my PPL was the ferry with my own C150. Treasured memories.
My ultimate goal during IR training was that I would never have to fly their training aircraft again so I took the exam right on reaching the minimum number of hours
Couldn’t agree more! High time indeed!
