My path to the private pilot licence (PPL)

Provisional attestation and log book.

A week ago, on Friday 27th of November, I finally took and passed the practical exam towards obtaining the private pilot licence (PPL).

I have written several posts along these years of different experiences during the learning process: the start of the flight lessons, the first take off at the controls, about weight and balance calculations, the preparation of a flight to Corsica, the flying experience to Corsica, the first solo flight, about refuelling or not, the flying experience to the Loire Valley, and the grand navigation solo…

In this post, I just wanted to share some figures of my educational path that may help readers form an idea if they are interested in pursuing the licence:

• I arrived to the exam with 62.4 flight hours (FH) (1),
  • thereof 51.92 FH accompanied by an instructor.
  • thereof 10.48 FH flying solo (2), a 17% of the total amount,
    • thereof 6.31 FH flying solo in navigation flights (3).
• To complete those flying hours I performed 71 flights,
  • thereof 14 flights flying solo, a 20% of the total amount.
• In those flights I performed 123 landings (4)
  • thereof the first ~17 were performed by the instructor (4).
  • thereof 29 landings flying solo, a 24% of the total amount.

I didn’t fly often, therefore even if it has not taken many hours above the minimum requirement to obtain the licence it has taken a long time. Exactly 1503 days since the first flight, or 4 years, a month and 11 days.

Chronologically some dates to remember and as reference:

• First flight: October 16, 2011.
• First take off at the controls: December 17, 2011 (on the 5th flight).
• First landing at the controls: not sure, about June / July 2012 (16-17th flight and about 14-15 FH).
• First solo flight: August 30, 2013 (the 33th flight and after having completed almost 30FH).
• First solo navigation flight (from A to B): May 16, 2014 (the 50th flight and after having completed almost 42 FH, of which almost 3 solo in the aerodrome circuit).
• First solo navigation  flight (from A to B to A): August 19, 2014 (the 55th flight and after having completed 47 FH, of which 3.5 solo).
• Grand navigation solo: July 23rd, 2015 (65th flight and after having completed 56 FH, of which almost 8 solo (3.6 in navigation)).

Flying in November 2015.

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(1) Minimum requirement: 45 FH.

(2) Minimum requirement: 10 FH.

(3) Minimum requirement: 5 FH.

(4) Thus, about 106 landings, as I started doing the landings when I had cumulated about 14 FH.