Spreading Your Wings
Battling towards your Private Pilot’s Licence or NPPL it’s easy to focus attention exclusively on your regular training aircraft, your home airfield and the local area where you spend most of your time aloft.
It’s crucial, certainly as you build towards first solo and the qualifying cross country flight, that you get to know your aircraft inside out and also that local landmarks become as familiar as the back of your hand.
But having become comfortable in your environment, there’s a lot to be said for spreading your wings and trying something different. You may choose to delay this until the shiny new licence is in your hand. Whatever works for you.
The point is to get out there and try something different. If you fly high wing Cessnas, why not book a flight in the club PA28 — or vice versa? Perhaps sample the thrill of high performance aerobatics with a quick 20 minute sortie in an Extra or Pitts Special. Or how about a sedate jaunt in a Piper Cub, a lovely summer’s evening and the doors open to the elements as you waft above the beautiful British countryside.
What about the delights of a timeless Tiger Moth that will take you back to the days of aviation pioneers?
I’ve been tremendously lucky in my flying to have sampled a raft of different machines early on. Some I sought out — as a professional journalist I’ve made it my business to get into the cockpits of some high performance aircraft. Others I was invited to fly in.
The first of these were the Beagle Pup and Scottish Aviation Bulldog. Through an acquaintance I was offered a right hand seat in the Pup to see what it was like to fly an aeroplane with a stick, rather than the yoke I was used to flying my club PA28 as I worked towards the PPL.
The experience was invaluable. This was a semi-aerobatic machine but with much in common to the other light single-engined Pipers I was training on. The feeling of improved handling was profound in the Pup.
Next up the Bulldog provided a more powerful engine, a real military feel to the cockpit and the superb bubble canopy with fantastic all round view. Together these two factors suddenly gave me the sense that this was a ‘proper’ aeroplane and a far cry from the 1960s car-like interior of the Cherokees and Warriors I had flown previously.
With a variable pitch propeller, the Bulldog took a bit of getting used to but it was all valuable experience. I did many happy cross-countries, took friends and family flying and generally enjoyed the experience these fabulous machines offered.
I later joined a group operating both aircraft based at North Weald in Essex.
Besides my regular PPL flying I’d taken the chance to try much more advanced machines. I flew in the rear seat of a Harvard at Goodwood — the former RAF Westhampnett near Chichester. Climbing up into the Second World War trainer triggered goosebumps as we took off for a ‘fighter sweep’ along the south coast of England.
This was the aerodrome from which Douglas Bader set off on his last wartime mission in a Spitfire before being shot down over France. What better way to excite your passion for aviation than a vintage machine?
For the average PPL it would be prohibitively expensive to get checked out in such an aeroplane. But the odd flight to build confidence and experience is accessible.
I also flew several sorties in various Extras, including with the fantastic Ultimate High academy at Kemble — now known as Cotswold Airport. If you want to see how the professionals prepare, brief and execute a flight then book a visit here. Mostly ex-RAF pilots there was a level of professionalism and focus on safety that I’d never seen before. Even just listening to these flyers talking amongst themselves makes you a better pilot, never mind having a former fast jet ace guiding you as you steer an aerobatic ship through the skies.
I endeavour to incorporate the famous Ultimate high ‘outbrief’ and emergency drills on every PPL flight to this day. I’ve also been privileged to fly with The Blades aerobatic team a number of times. These ex-Red Arrows can demonstrate more in 10 minutes of airborne time than I would have learned on perhaps 300 flights as Pilot In Command. Flying with the Blades out of Sywell I had my first experience of close formation aerobatics. It was hard to find my feet again on landing! I learned about using a soft touch on the controls and also how to get out of a spin in these aeroplanes.
If you want to try something more military, how about an hour in a jet? There are several places here in the UK where you can sample the ex-RAF Jet Provost trainer and at least two Hawker Hunters in which you can fly — for the price of several hours in your average Cessna admittedly.
Swords Aviation at North Weald can train a vanilla PPL on jets. It’s surprisingly easy to fly but difficult to master — true of almost everything in flying. The Hunter Flight Academy can train you to fly Hawker’s classic jet.
It’s important to realise that your goal here is not necessarily to solo these machines, although if one really takes your fancy you can complete the right training to do that.
Rather you want to fly with a range of instructors and other pilots even if only as a passenger just to absorb the lessons they can teach you. You may even fulfil a lifetime’s ambition at the same time!
With the Boultbee Flight Academy you can now even fly a rare two-seat Spitfire — truly the preserve of fantasies until very recently.
Other types including light twins, the latest machines equipped with digital displays and all the gadgets are just a phone call away.
The next time you climb into the club PA28 or your current group aeroplane the experience of having flown more advanced types and in different environments from your usual stomping grounds will have expanded your flying envelope considerably. And you’ll have had much fun in the process.
I’ve met a number of pilots who were approaching the end of their PPL training and ready for the general flight test which would hand them the licence. Some were wondering what to do next. Others were in need of a bit of inspiration to get them over the finish line.
A flight out of the ordinary could reinvigorate the passion for flight that enables the PPL to be completed, turns the 12 hours-a-year flyer into a committed aerobatic competitor or opens up the doorway to flying vintage biplanes.
The best advice I’ve had in my short flying career was to leave the training environment and fly some different types before settling on the kind of pilot you want to be.
So shrug off all the gloom about rising fuel prices, challenging EASA rules and the soggy summer weather. Get out there and try something new while you’ve got the chance.
Ben Griffiths is a journalist and PPL holder.
