lewis Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 I got 15 hours into my PPL at Leicester Aeroclub a few years ago but started getting too expensive. Was £122 an hour back then. I went to an open day at Oxford Aviation once to look at what it takes to be a commercial pilot. Thats around £80k for the ATPL license, which is frozen until you reach 1500 hours flight time. Then about another £20k to specialise in a particular plane. Then you get a job as a first officer with Ryan Air for about £30k a year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pistonbroke Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Did some as a spotty faced yoof in 969 sqaud West Lancs Wing ATC ( a great place to get your kids involved ) flew in provost trainers and a bit in gliders great fun , always wanted to pilot a DC 3 thought they looked sexy in the day , still do . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mooch Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 I got 15 hours into my PPL at Leicester Aeroclub a few years ago but started getting too expensive. Was £122 an hour back then. I went to an open day at Oxford Aviation once to look at what it takes to be a commercial pilot. Thats around £80k for the ATPL license, which is frozen until you reach 1500 hours flight time. Then about another £20k to specialise in a particular plane. Then you get a job as a first officer with Ryan Air for about £30k a year. That's about what I think, too. Short haul on budget carriers, particularly as a first officer is not glamorous and it's hard to move into the major airlines because there's so much competition. If you do get there, long haul is a few minutes of fun at each end of the route interspersed with hours and hours of tedium unless something catastrophic happens, which is vanishingly rare, and that's when you might be called on to earn your money. If flying was hard, they'd get the ground crew to do it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAFKARM Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 I must admit, the more I see micro lights the more I fancy giving those death traps a go... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Colonial Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Lapsed PPL and glider pilot here, much preferred gliding, especially aerobatics, great fun and some of the best moments of my life. Find a local glider club and go there for an intro flight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Pete Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 1 hour flying lesson under my belt, flew out of Southend Airport - you don't realise how big the runway is until your in a four Cherokee trying to get off the ground. Russ you will be at home at North Weald this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAFKARM Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 I work in the industry Pete, so a passing interest mostly from the ground!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingster Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Microlights are great fun and not as expensive as GA aircraft. Despite crashing and nearly never walking again I would recommend it and have piloted one since recovery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemesis Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 I have a squint that offers me less than perfect depth perception...... so i get something called 'ground rush'... I think i'm closer to the ground than I really am..... scared the expletives out of my instructor, doing touch and go circuits when I repeatedly flared at about 80 feet...... that was the end of powered flight for me..... only found out what the problem was when I started parachuting.....now there's a great way to get some thrills ! Nem............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corsechris Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 A passing interest I guess. For most of my life though. I always wanted to be an airline pilot when I was a kid, picked school subjects to suit, joined the Space Cadets as a lad, flew Chipmunks with them, wrote to the airline when we went on holiday and spent most of the flight to Majorca on the flight deck in the co pilots seat on a 707. Even got to have a fly of it. Ah, innocent times!! tried to join the University Air Squadron when I went to Sheffield Uni but failed the eye test. My plan was to get the RAF to teach me while I got a degree then join up with BOAC as was. Kind of came off the rails at the point I couldn't get into the UAS. Had nowt to do with full size stuff for many years after that, then got to know a chap who seemed to be able to fly pretty much anything from a 152 to an A300 so got to do quite a bit of messing about in planes of all sorts. Often as observer of check flights, which is fun, as you get to do the things in the name of safety testing that most pilots aren't encouraged to. I do recall one test flight in a Tomahawk where the ailerons locked up as we got close to VNE. That concentrates the mind. Did a couple of trips here and there with him, there was usually some kind of 'adventure' involved though. One time we took a Cessna 310 to pick up some guys from Rotterdam. Took off from Cheltenham, had to put down at Oxford as one engine started to overheat badly. Slightly worrying as it had only just been rebuilt after exploding mid-air over Spain. You could see the patches on the cowling where a rod had come through it. Turned out it was just a cowl flap linkage had dropped off. Also did some piloting under instruction on a range of things 152, 172, 310, Beagle Pup, a Rockwell something or other I can't recall the number of - a 6 seater low wing turbocharged thingy anyway. We did a day-trip to Cardiff airport for the crack. Cross winds were on the limit for the plane but my mate did a text-book perfect crosswind landing - he really did have good hands that guy. On the way back, we were flying VFR as he didn't want to file a flight plan and the weather was closing down. We ended up getting a bit squashed between terrain and cloud base so it got a bit bumpy. Always interesting to see how people react when you can see the wing skins buckling I was checking the approach to an alternate field in the blue book as we flew along and it was that bumpy, it smacked me in the face. Probably the wackiest thing I had a go in was a Rutan Long EZ, looked like a slightly overgrown toy plane to me the first time I saw it. Man, it was rapid though. One time we flew from Cheltenham into a model show held at Cranfield - what a classy way to arrive that was, although we were a tad heavy for the length of the runway in use so we hit the taxiway at the end still going pretty quickly. Ah, happy days. Also did some work on planes for a local maintenance firm (that was subsequently checked/signed off by a qualified bloke I hasten to add), took the chance to have a go in a T6 (hence the avatar) and a Bell 47G when in Florida a few years back. That was fun - full-on aerobatics in the T6 and an hour of general hovering about in the 47G. Like most of the previous comments on here......main reason I never went for my own PPL is the cost. Even if I went to the US and got a licence there, it's still an expensive game just to keep your hours up. Always said I'd get into it if I ever won the lottery. Probably still would TBH as I love it. Only bit I enjoy in commercial flying as a passenger is takeoff and landing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarmanUK Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 I have done a few 1 week holiday gliding courses. Great fun but not enough time to go solo. Unfortunately, I found my local gliding club a bit 'clicky' so didn't keep it up after the week I spent there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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