Forty five hours

As some may know, since October 2013, I’ve been studying to gain my Private Pilot Licence, and I finally achieved this goal. It’s actually taken quite a bit more than 45 hours – a total of around 60, but that does include a day trip to France (Le Touquet) and getting my night rating as well.

This basically means I can fly single engine piston aeroplanes on my own, with passengers, as soon as my paperwork gets processed by the Civil Aviation Authority anyway.

I’ve been flying Cessna 172s from Cambridge Aero Club, where they have four of them, G-SHWK, G-UFCB, G-HERC and G-MEGS, as well as a Extra 200, G-GLOC. It’s a great club, with fantastically maintained planes and great instructors, and Cambridge Airport has a full ATC service as well, so it’s been useful to get that experience, especially as the UK’s airspace is fairly contended with a lot of controlled and military airspace which needs permission to enter.

As for what next, I need to work that out. When you get your licence, it’s often described as a license to learn, so that’s what I intend to do. Apart from popping over to France for lunch every now and again, I’m probably going to have a go at aerobatics and farm strip flying, then probably look at my IMC rating.

So, if it’s a nice day, and you’re around in Cambridge, let me know if you want a trip up in the skies!