Any pilots here?

[Gixer]

Rubbish

Brothers!! be quiet Dave, go play sand castles because I know too well that you are only jealous because you can't go flying as you'll hurl up everywhere

 

[Gixer]

Look into paramotoring . I've done 7 solo flights now and it's shiny. It really is the magic flying chair we all dreamed of. Training to a flying solo level is under a grand, total equipment cost is under 10 grand all new, less if you buy second hand.

It is easily the cheapest most personally accessible form of flight.

You could go cheaper still and go for paragliding. I've had a days worth of lessons doing this on the Isle of Wight and it was much fun. For me I want a rigid wing at the moment, though the idea of being able to trundle up a mountain in the Alps and soar off down a valley very easily is quite an attracting appeal.

 

[Blinkz]

Its nice to see a lot more pilots appearing on here!

I first learnt to fly in gliders and recommend it to anyone. Its a great way to learn and is a relatively cheap way of getting into the air. I then moved onto powered aircraft and did my PPL before doing my commerical training. As has been said above powered flying can be fairly expensive!

If you are just wanting to have a go then just grab a trial flight (either powered or gliding) from your local airfield and see how you enjoy it. If you do then make sure you do lots of research before spending lots of money taking it further as a hobby or a career.

Para gliding/motoring certainly looks fun and I'm keen to have a go but it is very different to flying an actual aircraft!

 

[Dynix]

Yeah at least 100k to train, and ex-mil types who love flying will basically do it for free

Not at all feasible for most of us.

But still, an amazing job if you can get it

That cost highly depends on which route you go down if you decide to go all the way to fATPL. If you go down the integrated route through a school like CAE/CTC then you'll be looking at £85-100k+ depending on the school. If you go modular then it's a lot less (£35-50k last time I checked earlier in the year) but may take more time to complete the training and you're not guaranteed to have a job at the end like some of the integrated schools promise.

I don't know the specifics but a friend of mine went through CAE, has a fATPL but never got a job at the end of it. That was over two years ago now and most of his ratings have now lapsed - real tough situation especially the money his parents spent on it.

Sadly I've just bought a house a lot sooner than I anticipated - not managed to fly since April, was going intensively and had just starting navigation, ~2 hours solo - but once I'm back I plan on continuing on a modular basis hopefully to FI level.

Your license for Microlights is NPPL - similar to PPL but with more restrictions compared to PPL but less training time required (depending on the student, obviously).

 

[Puzzled]

I was looking to into the microlights license as it seems to offer a cheaper way into powered flight.

That said I'm quite a large chap so really need to do a trial flight in a fixed wing to see if I fit as I really didn't like the flex wing.

 

[adolf hamster]

If you just want to try it then theres plenty of places will do a lesson where you fly with an instructor.

Mate of mines kid is obsessed with flying, tagged along on one of his lessons and for a 15 year old kid he can land a plane pretty smoothly.

I did a stint in the atc during my teenage years, so have had a few hours behind grob tutors/motor gliders. Never bothered with the licence though like yourself i was just in it for the experience. No better way to see blackpool tower than upside down at 4000ft

 

[FoxEye]

Look into paramotoring . I've done 7 solo flights now and it's shiny. It really is the magic flying chair we all dreamed of. Training to a flying solo level is under a grand, total equipment cost is under 10 grand all new, less if you buy second hand.

It is easily the cheapest most personally accessible form of flight.

What about auto-gyros? They look pretty neat.

Anyone flown one of those? I know they aren't choppers (and don't behave like choppers), but they at least *look* a bit like a chopper

 

[Gixer]

Auto-gyros don't do it for me, neither do helicopters. Too many spinning bits required to keep it airborne. If things do go wrong and you don't auto-gyrate in time you're a falling rock. At least in a fixed wing if engines fail you can drop the nose, keep the speed up and glide albeit at an awful glide ratio. Even better in a glider there isn't an engine to start with you just might end up landing in some poor farmers field

An autogyro relies on a motor / propeller pushing the aircraft forward and due to the angle that the upper free spinning blade is set at it rotates faster as you move forward faster. As the upper blade spins faster it creates the lift required to get you airborne. I'm unsure if the upper blades are constant pitch or not. I'd assume most are but maybe there are some fancy auto-gyros where the pitch of the blades can be adjusted.

When anyone mentions auto-gyro first thing I always thing of is Little Nellie used in that James Bond film

 

[No1newts]

I got my wife a helicopter flight experience a long time back and it made her want to get into it but looking st it job wise the cost to get trained with no job guarantee at the end of it all there was no chance

 

[adolf hamster]

From what ive seen of autogyros at air shows being flown well, they can give stunt planes a good run for their money when it comes to the crazy tumbling about in the air malarkey.

Iirc their main advantage is they dont stall in the same way a plane will, but are light and small enough to tumble when few helicopters have the strength to do a full loop

 

[lucarocks92]

I would recommend doing a PPL for anyone interested. If you ever do decide to go down the route of being a Commercial Pilot having that PPL makes it easier.

The experience I got from doing my PPL this year was definitely a 10/10 experience with all the new people I got to meet and the fun I had with them flying and outside of flying.

I done my PPL in Poland and had to live there for a few months, I would do it all over again in a heart beat.

 

[HAz]

Lots of aircraft crash investigators and pretend pilots on here

 

[Gixer]

Lots of aircraft crash investigators and pretend pilots on here

I'm a pretend pilot on here at the moment. For a lot they will remain in the sim world too as they simply cannot afford the jump to real world flying. I'm sure many would like to. Even if I end up not continuing learning straight away I'm still looking forward to a whole 5 days of flying a real glider!

 

[Blinkz]

I'm a pretend pilot on here at the moment. For a lot they will remain in the sim world too as they simply cannot afford the jump to real world flying. I'm sure many would like to. Even if I end up not continuing learning straight away I'm still looking forward to a whole 5 days of flying a real glider!

You'll love gliding, its awesome. Lasham isn't bad to fly at but very expensive and a little limited in options! The only way to stay up is to find thermals! Its best to find somewhere with a hill or two as can make flights last longer, you can fly up and down a hill when the wind is blowing up it.

 

[Puzzled]

You'll love gliding, its awesome. Lasham isn't bad to fly at but very expensive and a little limited in options! The only way to stay up is to find thermals! Its best to find somewhere with a hill or two as can make flights last longer, you can fly up and down a hill when the wind is blowing up it.

I think gliding would freak me out, do you have a backup motor or anything to give you a boost if you get in trouble?

I need the reasurance of an engine forcing me through the air.

 

[Gixer]

You'll love gliding, its awesome. Lasham isn't bad to fly at but very expensive and a little limited in options! The only way to stay up is to find thermals! Its best to find somewhere with a hill or two as can make flights last longer, you can fly up and down a hill when the wind is blowing up it.

It would be nice to be local to a club that is near a ridge to soar along however I live in Southampton. My nearest flying club is at Lee-On-Solent however with the prevailing wind being SW that blows weather straight in off the solent. Also for learning it was 4:1 at Lee-On-Solent and it's only 2:1 at Lasham. Lasham is inland so I'm hoping thermal generation will happen a little easier, that said as I am learning I think it will be more about flying patterns in that first week?

It's going to be great to experience thermalling in a real glider. Have used thermals plenty of times with RC gliders over the years. Just have to hope I don't get any blue days.

MonkeyMan, your logic is flawed A glider is designed to fly without an engine. It'll get you where you need to as long as you don't push your luck too much whereas in a power plane if you lose the engine you now have a glider albeit one that glides like a brick. As a note some of the cross country boys in modern gliders are averaging over 100mph around a set course without an engine! that is impressive.

 

[Gixer]

Thought I'd update this post as I've now completed my 5 day intensive course up at Lasham and I think I can call myself a pilot, of sorts, now

It would appear the years of interest in aviation, flying RC gliders, flying in simulators and having an understanding of aerodynamics paid off. I flew my first solo in a K13 last Friday afternoon after about 30ish flights. It was a relief to land back at the airfield only then to be told I had to complete two solo flights. On my second solo flight I even managed to hold altitude in a few weak thermals for a while which I was extremely chuffed about as I'd done zero thermalling lessons due to those not being required for going solo. Flying RC Gliders and using Condor and FSX helped me out there. Was my longest flight off the winch all week, but still only around 10mins.

Now to start working towards my badges and gaining flying experience especially my TLAR (that looks about right) angle when checking the landing reference point. I couldn't have asked for better weather last week either, albeit the wind changing direction pretty much every day so I flew a multitude of different circuits.

 

[Dynix]

Great job! There's nothing like flying solo for the first time, certainly won't forget mine

 

[Narj]

You could go cheaper still and go for paragliding. I've had a days worth of lessons doing this on the Isle of Wight and it was much fun. For me I want a rigid wing at the moment, though the idea of being able to trundle up a mountain in the Alps and soar off down a valley very easily is quite an attracting appeal.

I do Hang Gliding and Paragliding, although I'm finding Hang Gliding a bit frustrating these days what with the logistics of it and my job meaning that I miss a lot of flyable days. At least I can ground handle my PG in the park after work for a bit of fun.

I'm tempted to sell the HG and get into paramotoring in all honesty. The only reservation I have is that I'm not mechanically savvy so would struggle to do maintenance on a 2 stroke engine.

 

[CREATIVE!11]

I'd love to build a kit plane.

There was some guy from reddit who built one for 4k dollars lmao so he could fly to work.

Open cockpit lol.

Edit: dug up the story http://indianexpress.com/article/tr...-save-seven-minutes-from-his-journey-2998017/