Things to do once you have your PPL

[Put1992]

This most likely will have come up before, but nothing wrong with a fresh dicussion.

So, Just any tips on places to go, who to take up, passenger advice, additional courses to take, you name it.

I'll start off with a question Im clueless about.

Say one would like to fly over to the north coast of france for a few days, departing from an airfield in the south east of the U.K. Obviously the problem of keeping the aircraft at the away airfield is not a problem, but the question arises of where would you actually get this aircraft from? Are flying schools willing to hire out aircraft for such lengths of time, and at a reasonable cost? Or is this simply a luxury an aircraft owner/sharesmen can only enjoy?

Cheers

[BackPacker]

If you want to take an aircraft away for more than one consecutive day, there's usually an agreement that you have to fly at least X hours each day, on average. X is sometimes negotiable, depending on whether it's busy, how often you rent from the place and so forth.

And in any case, if you venture further out there may be issues with things like hours to the next check, additional insurance premiums, carriage of spare parts/oil, tie-down kits, rental of life vests/rafts, a more costly repair/recovery if the aircraft breaks down abroad and so forth.

So your best bet is to make tentative plans (hours to fly vs. days to take the aircraft) and then call around to see what sort of conditions/rates you can get.

If you intend to fly cross-channel anytime soon after your PPL, make sure you talk things over with an experienced pilot or instructor. You need to think about flight plans, customs, ditching, perfect-VMC-is-almost-IMC-over-open-water-syndrome and a load of other things you probably did not consider as part of the PPL course. But even with limited experience it is doable, as long as your preparation is spot-on. And if you're not afraid to turn back if the weather is not quite optimal.

I see you have listed your age as 16. Although technically fully legal for you to fly cross-channel once you have your PPL, I suspect your age might raise a few eyebrows and subsequently, more thorough checks than usual. It might be a good idea to take a somewhat older pilot with you.

Furthermore, I can recommend doing some unusual attitudes/intro aerobatics course to improve your handling skills near the edge of the flight envelope.

[Put1992]

I see you have listed your age as 16. Although technically fully legal for you to fly cross-channel once you have your PPL, I suspect your age might raise a few eyebrows and subsequently, more thorough checks than usual. It might be a good idea to take a somewhat older pilot with you.

Thanks for all the information you gave backpacker. Cross channel is more of an idea for when I have alot more experience.

Although what appears to be a relatively short distance over certain parts of the channel, I can imagine it's fairly nerve wracking intially

[Tall_guy_in_a_152]

After eleven years of flying and countless trips to France and beyond I made my first trip to the Channel Islands on Saturday via the long crossing (Isle of Wight to Cherbourg). Completely painless experience, although I could have done without the headwind that reduced by groundspeed to 85 kts.

I have recently bought a folding bike that fits in the back of the Cherokee so at last I can tour around a bit after flying somewhere, rather than having a cup of tea and then flying home again!

Most clubs will allow a day booking for a minimum of three or four flying hours but I have the luxury of a share with no such restrictions.

[mark sicknote]

After some negotiation, I was allowed to take aircraft away overnight while a student. Apart from being great fun, it gave me added responsibility at an early stage in my flying career. It was a great feeling being off base with the keys to the aircraft in my pocket.
Magic.

I guess you need to find a quiet flying club with excess rental aircraft!

Best,

Sicknote

[foxmoth]

A number of suggestions, first of all as said you will find most hirers want a minimum amount of flying if you take the aircraft away, if you are looking at doing a reasonable amount of flying then it is worth looking at buying a share then this problem largely goes away, a cheaper way of flying in the long run, especially if you buy a share in something a little more basic than a club aircraft and is good experience.
Another idea is either the Advanced PPL course or the Aeros course, I would recommend UH at Kemble for these, but there are lots of places for it.

[Squeegee Longtail]

Things to do now you have your PPL...

...go get some experince. Different aircraft, airspace, airfields, weather conditions etc etc.