I was recently looking back on some of my old posts and realised I never finished the updates on this.
After the closure of Panshanger in 2014 I let the flying drop for a while,before picking back up again in 2016 at Denham. I completed my PPL in 2017 and am now at circa 100 hours flying, mostly in PA28's, but more recently in a Chipmunk which I am in the process of converting to. I actually am hoping to buy into a Chipmunk at some point next year having fallen utterly for the charms of vintage flying (it is the closest thing I have experience to a 7 for the skies).
I have to say the whole process of learning was one of the most satisfying things I have ever done, but it has been challenging to keep the hours up to feel confident and comfortable on an on-going basis. Flying with friends has really helped, but buying into an experienced syndicate will hopefully help further.
Going solo for the first time was an experience I will never forget, nor will be the day I passed my skills test, but the experience that stands out beyond all others was a 50 minute flight in the Ariel Collective 2 seat spitfire PV202 earlier this year. I now spend my evenings scouring classifieds to work out how I can afford to buy and run a spitfire without having to sell everything I currently, or am likely to ever own!
For anyone that has been tempted to try it, I could wholheartedly recomend the whole process :-)
We need to catch up and discuss this Ray, I've still got an idea in the back of my mind to build a Ninja, but I doubt it'll ever happen.
Hi Alex - glad you kept it going, I've still only flown PA28s and I haven't been in a Spitfire either! I'm thinking of trying the Club's C42s sometime, a bit more like Ray's toy above!
Ray - can you pm me your address and phone number please?
I was recently looking back on some of my old posts and realised I never finished the updates on this.
After the closure of Panshanger in 2014 I let the flying drop for a while,before picking back up again in 2016 at Denham. I completed my PPL in 2017 and am now at circa 100 hours flying, mostly in PA28's, but more recently in a Chipmunk which I am in the process of converting to. I actually am hoping to buy into a Chipmunk at some point next year having fallen utterly for the charms of vintage flying (it is the closest thing I have experience to a 7 for the skies).
I have to say the whole process of learning was one of the most satisfying things I have ever done, but it has been challenging to keep the hours up to feel confident and comfortable on an on-going basis. Flying with friends has really helped, but buying into an experienced syndicate will hopefully help further.
Going solo for the first time was an experience I will never forget, nor will be the day I passed my skills test, but the experience that stands out beyond all others was a 50 minute flight in the Ariel Collective 2 seat spitfire PV202 earlier this year. I now spend my evenings scouring classifieds to work out how I can afford to buy and run a spitfire without having to sell everything I currently, or am likely to ever own!
For anyone that has been tempted to try it, I could wholheartedly recomend the whole process :-)
Well done, and thanks for the update.
I did most of my CCF Air Experience in Chipmunks, lovely simple honest machines... I know what you mean!
And most of my RAF Flying Scholarship in Cherokees. And saw G-AVLT on my birthday present hour in a Tiger Moth.
What's next?
Jonathan
As we are resurrecting this thread...
I got my NPPL just over a year ago and my SkyRanger is complete and flying.
You would not get me up in that for a gold clock
derek
Did you build it, Ray?
Jonathan
Sure did.
I figured that after building my car how hard could it be?
(The answer is: Quite hard)
We need to catch up and discuss this Ray, I've still got an idea in the back of my mind to build a Ninja, but I doubt it'll ever happen.
Hi Alex - glad you kept it going, I've still only flown PA28s and I haven't been in a Spitfire either! I'm thinking of trying the Club's C42s sometime, a bit more like Ray's toy above!
Well done, Ray. have you written that up?
...
I've still only flown PA28's
It's going back a bit... in fact to 1971... but the Cherokees were so stable that we did stall and spin recovery in Cessnas.
Jonathan
I'm ashamed to admit that I abandoned my blog.
The first half of the build is still there at http://gofaster.plus.com/wordpress if anyone is interested