Learning To Fly?

[John]

Hi All,

Firstly apologise if this is not the correct group to post to (My first time
;0)

I'm thinking about taking up flying and have found a few schools in the US
that seem quite resonable (for price and facilities). They offer several
courses - i've narrowed it down to two: 'PPL Private Pilot License' and
'CAA/JAA Private Pilot License'. Can someone tell me what the difference
between the two types of license is? I've had a good rake around and can't
seem to find anything!

I would like to at some point get a night and IMC rating so with this is
mind does anyone have any suggestions on what I should go for (license
wise)?

Lastly, there are several aircraft to choose from on each course: Cessna
152, Cessna 172 and Piper PA28. Does anyone have any recommendations for
choosing an aircraft for learning to fly in?

Regards,

John.

[Jeroen Wenting]

> I'm thinking about taking up flying and have found a few schools in the US
> that seem quite resonable (for price and facilities). They offer several
> courses - i've narrowed it down to two: 'PPL Private Pilot License' and
> 'CAA/JAA Private Pilot License'. Can someone tell me what the difference
> between the two types of license is? I've had a good rake around and can't
> seem to find anything!
>
CAA/JAA is the European curiculum.
You need that if you're a European citizen and want to be able to fly a
European registered aircraft at any time.
If you're not an EU citizen an FAA PPL is enough, which is a lot easier to
get (the European guidelines are far stricter, as is the medical).

> I would like to at some point get a night and IMC rating so with this is
> mind does anyone have any suggestions on what I should go for (license
> wise)?
>
You always start out with PPL. After that you can do extra training (and
exams) for night and IFR ratings, multi-engine rating, etc. etc.


> Lastly, there are several aircraft to choose from on each course: Cessna
> 152, Cessna 172 and Piper PA28. Does anyone have any recommendations for
> choosing an aircraft for learning to fly in?
>
Doesn't matter much, except for cost (152 being cheapest, Pipers usually the
most expensive).
I find 152s too small (I'm rather large) and cramped.

Finding a school that has well maintained aircraft AND good instructors is
more important that finding one that has fancy aircraft.

[David Cartwright]

"John" > wrote in message
...
> I'm thinking about taking up flying and have found a few schools in the US
> that seem quite resonable (for price and facilities). They offer several
> courses - i've narrowed it down to two: 'PPL Private Pilot License' and
> 'CAA/JAA Private Pilot License'. Can someone tell me what the difference
> between the two types of license is? I've had a good rake around and can't
> seem to find anything!

In the UK at least, a "PPL" and a "JAA PPL" are synonymous. The basic
requirement is 45 hours' flying (a mix of dual and solo) plus the passing a
of a number of multiple-guess ground examinations (oh, and a medical and a
practical radiotelephony exam). There is a new licence in the UK, called the
National PPL (NPPL); the basic requirement is officially less hours, and the
medical is less strict, but you tend to find that most people need
40-something hours to be competent anyway, so it's probably worth going for
the full PPL unless you have a medical problem that prevents you passing a
Class 2 JAR medical (but which doesn't prevent you passing the NPPL one,
whose medical requirements are equivalent to those of an HGV driver, and
which are signed off by your GP, not necessarily a specialist aviation
medical examiner).

> I would like to at some point get a night and IMC rating so with this is
> mind does anyone have any suggestions on what I should go for (license
> wise)?

The IMC and night ratings are both useful, and are both unavailable if you
go for an NPPL. If you do the night rating before the IMC, you have a couple
of hours knocked off the requirement for the IMC course, so you save a bit
of money. I have a colour vision problem and so I couldn't do a night
rating, so I had to do the full 15 hours for the IMC.

> Lastly, there are several aircraft to choose from on each course: Cessna
> 152, Cessna 172 and Piper PA28. Does anyone have any recommendations for
> choosing an aircraft for learning to fly in?

These are all fairly standard training aircraft. The C152 is small and will
be cheaper to fly than the other two, but once you've got your licence you
might want to do a type conversion onto either a 172 or a PA-28 so that you
can take up to three passengers beside yourself. I learned in a PA26-161
Warrior simply because I was too heavy to fly the C152 alongside an
instructor! Now I'm five stone lighter I may do a conversion onto the C152
just for the sake of being able to fly something a bit cheaper, but to be
honest I like the spacious nature of our club PA28 (a different, newer
Warrior) so I may well just stick with that. My brother-in-law is learning
in a C172 due to a similar weight restriction!

D.