Nothing To See Here!!
It has been nearly 7 weeks since the trail flight in the Microlight and 8 weeks since my trial flight in the PA28. I haven't done any more flying at all. I have a day at Freedom Aviation at Wellesbourne Airfield coming up on the 2nd June and I intend to have another flight then, but it is only to fly again, not to start anything serious. It is a BBQ and open day so it will just be nice to be there.
So what have I been doing for the last. 7 weeks? More research, more thinking and a holiday with my Dad. As part of that we did visit Retford Markham Airfield to have coffee and lunch, so it was good to still be around some aviation.
As I write this, one of the things I think I have decided is that I am not comfortable borrowing the money to pay for my licence. I appreciate there are pro's and con's to it, but I think I would prefer not to have the debt. Every morning, before work, I go for a 20 minute walk near where I work. This has given me plenty of time to do lots of mental sums in my head looking at the money I will have left over from my redundancy and also what I get from my pension. I won't talk numbers here as nothing is set in stone yet, but I do think I will have the funds available then to do this properly.
I have also been looking at the possibility of using an overseas school such as Pilots Paradise in Florida. My initial thought was that this would be far too expensive. I sent off and got some figures and the reality is that it would actually be a feasible way to get the hours in a short period of time. Price wise it works out at about the same rate per hour as over here, but you get a 2 or 3 weeks holiday thrown in for the price.
They say that I would be best advised to do the exams first over here and then I could concentrate on flying over there. The advantage is that Dave L (The Captain) is co-owner of a ground school over here and he has already said he will help me with the exams. His company is also affiliated to Pilots Paradise so he can help me bring it all together.
If I did it this way I could start the exams early next year so that they are completed before I went to Florida in April or May of 2021. That would be one heck of a 60th birthday present to myself!!
There is plenty of time to change my mind on this yet and, to be honest, writing all this down in this blog is a good way of me recording my feelings on the subject. Like a lot of people, I go back and forth on it from 100% wanting to do it, to not wanting to do it, to going back to microlights, to full PPL. I have even thought about gliding again! I used to be indecisive but now I just can't make my mind up!!
Totals
Purchases: None on this post
Total Costs = £366.14
Total Hours PA-28 = 1.05
Total Hours Icarus C42 = 1.00
Update 2nd June 2019: The BBQ was a washout. I did drive up there, but it just kept raining. I stayed for a while but it showed no signs of clearing, so I went home again!
So what have I been doing for the last. 7 weeks? More research, more thinking and a holiday with my Dad. As part of that we did visit Retford Markham Airfield to have coffee and lunch, so it was good to still be around some aviation.
As I write this, one of the things I think I have decided is that I am not comfortable borrowing the money to pay for my licence. I appreciate there are pro's and con's to it, but I think I would prefer not to have the debt. Every morning, before work, I go for a 20 minute walk near where I work. This has given me plenty of time to do lots of mental sums in my head looking at the money I will have left over from my redundancy and also what I get from my pension. I won't talk numbers here as nothing is set in stone yet, but I do think I will have the funds available then to do this properly.
I have also been looking at the possibility of using an overseas school such as Pilots Paradise in Florida. My initial thought was that this would be far too expensive. I sent off and got some figures and the reality is that it would actually be a feasible way to get the hours in a short period of time. Price wise it works out at about the same rate per hour as over here, but you get a 2 or 3 weeks holiday thrown in for the price.
They say that I would be best advised to do the exams first over here and then I could concentrate on flying over there. The advantage is that Dave L (The Captain) is co-owner of a ground school over here and he has already said he will help me with the exams. His company is also affiliated to Pilots Paradise so he can help me bring it all together.
If I did it this way I could start the exams early next year so that they are completed before I went to Florida in April or May of 2021. That would be one heck of a 60th birthday present to myself!!
There is plenty of time to change my mind on this yet and, to be honest, writing all this down in this blog is a good way of me recording my feelings on the subject. Like a lot of people, I go back and forth on it from 100% wanting to do it, to not wanting to do it, to going back to microlights, to full PPL. I have even thought about gliding again! I used to be indecisive but now I just can't make my mind up!!
Totals
Purchases: None on this post
Total Costs = £366.14
Total Hours PA-28 = 1.05
Total Hours Icarus C42 = 1.00
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