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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0402.PDF
402 FLIGHT, 25 March I960 SPORT AND BUSINESS FLYING THE current resurgence of interest in flying light aircraft, both for fun and for profit, is the subject of this special 18-page section of FLIGHT. Among the contents are a review of club and private flying in Britain, and one of ' - business flying in the USA; ideas are put forward by FLIGHT on the subject of the future directions in which light aviation should develop, and further ideas have been contributed by the Ministry of Aviation, the Royal Aero Club, the Association of British Aero Clubs, and the Air League. The function of these pages is to inform, to stimulate thought, and to provoke action , - .: The British Scene BY KENNETH OWEN PERHAPS it was the bright new US machines, whose enginesactually started when you pressed the button, and which tookyou where you wanted to go quietly, without fuss, and brought you back smoothly on time without a drop of oil on your fingers,a crease in your suit or a hair on your head out of place. Perhaps it was the crisp aerobatics of the Continental pilots at Baginton.Or perhaps it was our own Tiger Club, whose members showed that you could do impossible things, even with a Tiger. Whateverthe reason, you had just about had enough of the apathetic inacti- vity of British postwar light aviation, and the start of the 1960sseemed a good time to do something about it. There were a lot of people already in the business thinkingthe same way. And there were lots of keen newcomers writing to Flight and saying "I want to fly, but. . . ." For all thesepeople, as a background preliminary to the more controversial ideas which are aired later in this special section, it may be usefulto present a basic review of the British scene as it is now. The questions we hope to answer are the simple ones, yet theones about which there is frequently the most ignorance or confusion. How much does it cost to learn to fly? Where canI learn to fly? What kind of clubs are there? What aircraft are available to the private and executive owner? How do Ichoose a suitable aircraft? How is business flying developing over here? Which organizations are involved, and what do theydo, anyway? Learning to Fly. How long does it really take, and how muchdoes it cost, to obtain a PPL? The legal requirement is for a minimum of 40hr dual and solo flying training, which can bereduced to 30hr if an approved course is taken and completed within six months. Hourly rates at clubs in the London areavary from £4 for a Tiger Moth to £5 10s for a Chipmunk so that, in theory, one might spend a minimum of £120 and a maximum SKETCHES BY GORDON HORNER of £220 on flying training. Although the cost of qualifying willalmost certainly fall somewhere within this range, the calculation is not quite as simple as that, and it is instructive to considerthe experience of a number of clubs who have provided Flight with actual examples from their records. A basic point to bear in mind is that the 30hr figure is aminimum. Many clubs find that a pupil with average aptitude needs more than 30hr to complete the syllabus, even when hiscourse is carried out reasonably continuously. When delays in training occur, for example because of weather or a pupil'sinability to attend frequently, there is an inevitable loss in con- tinuity and the total number of hours to qualify goes up again.Most clubs, however, can give a prospective pupil-pilot a realistic estimate of the average hours, and cost, to solo and to PPL. For many pupils, of course, flying lessons are taken as a week-end recreation, and the attainment of a PPL is a rather distant objective. Because of other commitments and a shortage of moneythese members take only short lessons at the rate of one per week at most, and sometimes do not appear at the club to fly for threeweeks or even a month at a time. Inevitably such a pupil takes much longer to qualify than if he were to take regular training,and the ultimate cost of his PPL is accordingly greater. On the other hand, this cost is spread over a longer period. At one west-country club last year, a 28-year-old geologist onleave from East Africa began training with no previous experience, but with almost unlimited time available for flying. His PPLcourse was completed in only 45min over the 30hr minimum, in a seven-week period, at a total cost including club membership,medical examination fee, publications and licences of £118. The same course, taken by a 41-year-old shopkeeper able to attendonly once per week on average (and occasionally only once per month), required 55hr 40min over a period of 18 months andcost £208. Between these extremes lay the average of 35-40 hours' flying, about five months' overall time, and a cost of about £140;while ATC and CCF cadets trained by the same club logged the 30hr PPL course in 2-4 weeks. A club north of London with a recognized high standard oftraining and flying discipline (combined with a distinctly awkward site) reports that its average figures over the past two years show14hr to first solo and 38hr to PPL—in each case higher than the national average. One member who began training last Septemberwith no previous experience has completed the PPL syllabus in only 28hr, flying at weekends only, mainly by making good useof spare time on the ground to familiarize himself with aircraft, learn cockpit checks, and read and digest instruction notes. A "3*
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