FLYING..........my other great love 
A
photo (credit Colin Work) taken in the parking area at the 2004 G-VFWE fly-in
at Abingdon of yours truly just after landing in Piper PA-28-161 Warrior II, G-BPRY,
one of two operated by East Midlands Flying School (the other being G-CDON). These
two aircraft are the regular transports of fellow pilot Andy Martin and myself
and we try to get somewhere at least every two weeks - weather permitting of course
!!!Learning to fly was always something I'd dreamed about but never thought I could do due to colour-blindness. A passing comment about it down at the pub revealed that I could still get my PPL even with my "disability" (perhaps "visually challenged" would be better !!). A long time friend, Andy Martin, and I were chatting one day and the subject turned to learning to fly - surprise, surprise - he too had always wanted to get his PPL! We trawled the magazines to see the best way to go about it and decided to go to the USA to learn. A trip to Florida and the West Coast was arranged to check out the UK syllabus schools over there and after a fortnight's trip we decided on Ormond Beach Aviation near Daytona Beach.
In April 1995 we arrived at Ormond and within two weeks the 40 hours of flying were done, the NFT and GFT completed and we only had the six exams to undertake which were duly completed in the next five days leaving a couple of relaxation days to finish off on ! Flying was intense - up to five hours per day - starting at 07:00 (even earlier when cross-country planning was required). First solo was completed within 14 hours - only three days after first taking to the air !!
In between flights it was head in books or watching instructional video's to prepare for the next flight and gen up for the exams. At the end of the day it was time to let your hair down in the school's on-site bar.
Accommodation was in school owned bungalows located about 15-20 mins walk from the Airport - these were excellent with spacious common lounge and kitchen, 4 twin bedded rooms and either en-suite or separate bathrooms (one for each room).
The aircraft were how shall we say - tired - but mechanically sound. Not surprising really seeing how much they were used. A number of American instructors meant that tuition was not one-to-one but after a few flights you had flown with them all and their typical American friendliness meant that an individual instructor was not important.
For anybody thinking of doing their PPL - I can recommend the US option. The weather was superb (only one days flying cancelled in 3 weeks), everything was done to the CAA syllabus so it was just a case of handing the paperwork and the cheque in at Gatwick on our return and two weeks later our licenses arrived in the post. Most of the students at Ormond were British so a good rapport was soon established - we still keep in touch with other "students of 95". Accommodation was excellent and the whole experience including flights, food and beer (!!) cost less than £3,000.
On arrival home it's best to do a couple of hours with a UK instructor to master the slight differences in RT and procedures in UK airspace. The beauty of learning in the US is that you can fly when you go on holiday over there and it's like riding a bike - you just fall back into the old procedural ways !
Since
coming back from Florida, we have both become members of the East Midlands Flying
School at Nottingham East Midlands Airport and now fly their two PA-28 Warrior's
G-BPRY (above at Abingdon) and G-CDON (left at Cranfield).
Andy and I try to fly every two weeks and book three back-to-back 90 minute slots to enable us to "land away" and have a little time for the famous "£100 hamburger". We also try to get to fly-in's when possible so keep an eye out for us and say hi.
Return to front page