Advice?

alanobroin

Hi all,

I'm a fourteen year old and i'm very interested in flying. I live only 2 miles from Galway Airport. I was just wondering what are the right guidelines for age and PPL and all that, i've read alot of the threads here but still i'd like you guys to verify! Is it 15 years to log hours, 16 to fly solo and 17 to take the PPL exam? Or maybe it varies from Club to club?

I'd love to be able to fly for just leisure but my main aim would be to get into the Air Corps. Is it a good idea to have a PPL before you go to the Air Corps?

My uncle is a Private pilot in Trim and i've been flying with him twice.He gave me the first book for the PPL and i've been having a read out of that, what do you suggest for the next step? Is there anything i can be doing now to give me a better chance of getting into the Air Corps in a few years time?

I've been flying the new Flight Sim X, its good for getting to know the instruments and understanding the ATC terms, any advice would be great!

Thanks in advance!
Alan

highlydebased

Alan

Yes you are correct with the ages you quote. The flying club in Galway will probably take you up for an introductory flight, and other flights at that but you cant log any hours until 15 unfortunately

As a fellow teenager, I had a similar ambition at 14, but that went down the drain when the Junior cert came along! I might actually get to do some flying now that its over.

Air corps....dont know what the story is. Check up their site www.military.ie

Flight simulator is useful for learning the basics. ATC...on FS I think the ATC transmissions may be in the FAA style. In europe we use the ICAO style. Just a tad different, the way transmissions are worded, and the way it operates

pclancy

Best way to verify all is pop into the nearest flying school, im sure theres one in Galway, ask them and take an intro flight with an instructor, you'll get to try it hands on for yourself!

FSX is great fun and usefull to get to grips with a lot of the terminology and instruments. If you want to learn a lot about European ATC procedures obviously you can read up on it from the official text books but to have a little fun on your PC and learn a lot too, try out VATSIM....

www.vatsim.net

You'll need a headset and a decent net connection but its fantastic for adding a new dimension to FS, busy airports with other virtual flyers and good professional ATC. You basically fly with real world procedures and they often organise events and fly-ins etc.

Also take a look at http://www.vateir.com/ thats the Irish division, some very nice people run it all, well worth a go.

Enjoy

Steyr

Neon-Circles wrote:

Yes you are correct with the ages you quote. The flying club in Galway will probably take you up for an introductory flight, and other flights at that but you cant log any hours until 15 unfortunately

Correct but there is an awful backlog of people wanting to go up so dont expect anything soon, believe me ive seen the books..

highlydebased

Steyr wrote:

Correct but there is an awful backlog of people wanting to go up so dont expect anything soon, believe me ive seen the books..

Its like that nearly everywhere right now unfortunately :mad: :mad: :mad:

DennisZ

pclancy wrote:

try out VATSIM....

www.vatsim.net

Thanks PClancy That's so c00l !

http://alt.liveatc.net/eidw

DennisZ

Neon-Circles wrote:

Its like that nearly everywhere right now unfortunately :mad: :mad: :mad:

I did my intro at Weston four weeks ago - phoned them 21/06, got it on 26/06 .