Ashley's Flight School

How many of us have watched disaster movies where the pilots die or fall ill and a stewardess or passenger has to fly the plane and thought "I could do that!" it is now very easy to learn to fly planes or helicopters, there are flight schools springing up all over the country, the only problem is one of cost. A full PPL(H) (a Private Pilots Licence-Helicopter) costs £8,750! For this you get the minimum 40* hours in the air required by the CAA along with groundschool training, landing fees and insurance, but if you do not pass first time you may have to pay for further lessons. Cabair suggset budgeting around £10,000 for a PPL(H), though you may qualify for tax relief via an NVQ scheme and thus pay less. But do not be disheartened as there are trial lessons which you can have as a taster of flying to see if it is worth the money doing the full course. There are 2 flight schools at my local airport, Blackbushe. European Fliers and Cabair who offer the following courses:

• Trial 1: 30 minute flight - £50
• Trial 2: 60 minute flight - £95
• Explorer Trial: 60 minute flight and land at another airfield- £120
• Introductory Course: two 40 minute flights & 40 mins ground school - £150
• Flying Start: 3 flights, lunch & a fun quiz - £275
• Aerobatics:60 minute flight doing loops & rolls - £120
• They also have the Dakota Club where you can learn all about a DC3 and fly to airshows and help restore it.
• They will be offering trial lessons for £25 at the Blackbushe Open Day on the 25-26 March 2000!!

• 30/30 Helicopter - £125 - 30 minutes groundschool and 30 minutes flying.
• 60/60 Helicopter - £195 - 60 minutes groundschool and 60 minutes flying. This is a little more involved than the 30/30. Check out my 60/60 flight page.
• 1 day Helicopter - £555 - 3 hours flying and groundschool.
• Land Away Double (Fixed Wing) - £125 - Two 30 minute flights in a fixed wing aircraft where you fly and land at another airport, then take off and land back from whence you came.

   

These are all good ways to learn how to fly. Other ways are to go for joy rides at airshows such as Middle Wallop or Dunsfold. These cost £15 for a 3 minute helicopter ride, but you do not get to fly the helicopter. Take a look at my helicopters page. Another way is to buy a decent flight simulator for your home computer. Most of the sims available are combat sims, where you fly a military jet or chopper and shoot people down, all very exciting, but you learn little about aerodynamics and naviagtion. Laminar Research's X-Plane for both the PC and Apple Macintosh provides accurate flight dynamics with plenty of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft to fly along with real scenery and real weather, and is preferred by real pilots for flight training. Look at my Flight Sim page and X-Plane page for further details.

*The new JAR licence which requires 45 hours has now started and so costs will change.