Flying

I have been interested in flying aeroplanes since I was a child. I finally got together enough money to start on the British Private Pilots Licence (PPL) course when I moved to my job in Bell College. Unfortunately the weather in Scotland mitigates against learning to fly cheaply. Apart from the fact that it is obscenely expensive to fly in the U.K., the need to constantly rearrange flying lessons due to bad weather leads to a loss of continuity which in turn makes learning longer and the number of lessons needed to keep ones skills up much greater. Eventually I gained my PPL in June 1990.

For a while I entertained the idea of gaining a commercial pilots licence and to that end went to Florida in July 1990 to build up the requisite flying hours as cheaply as possible. Flying is very cheap in Florida. It was still cheaper for me to buy 70 hours of flying and pay for the full trans-atlantic airfare,food and accomodation than to buy the same number of hours in Britain.

My advice to anyone wanting to gain a PPL is:- DON'T DO IT HERE!!!!

Go to the Sunshine Flying Shool in St Petersburg, Florida, (it is the cheapest in the world) get the FAA PPL for a third of what it will cost you here, in about three weeks (to give yourself plenty of time) and convert the licence to a British licence when you come back. This can be achieved by sitting the airlaw exam and the radiotelephony exam in Britain. You will get your licence faster, cheaper, and have a holiday in Florida as well!!

After nearly a nine month break I have started flying again. I am flying with Merlin Flying College who among, other planes, own two Katanas. This is a nice stable fun little plane to fly with excellent visibility. My only misgivings about it are the rather strange trim control and they low power engine. Because the plane is very aerodynamically clean it can fly fast (about 100 knots), but in the climb it is very poor. Have a look on my BSL page.

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