aplund

I want to look at all options. Is it that you need 5 hours in RA-Aus due to insurance requirements? The privileges of a PPL are that you can fly a plane up to 5700kg MTOW. I cannot find where it states this _has_ to be only VH registered aircraft. What are the PAX privileges for RA-Aus? For the MTOW allowed for 24- and 19- it seems unlikely to take 3 people in a plane. What about navigation and controlled airspace? Surely these questions have been asked before. I cannot seem to locate a central authority which answers these questions. One of my concerns at the moment is currency. If I complete 3 take-off and landing cycles in RA-Aus aircraft, does that satisfy the PPL PAX requirements?

So I added up the costs of my PPL. It's come to about $33,000. No wonder my bank account is looking rather sad. I have almost 75 hours total experience in my logbook. I was told this would be roughly what the cost would be and only about 10% more than I was told. Given that my whole flow was disrupted by the RQAC bankruptcy, I think that's come out OK. There's many oddities that I've found going back. Some can be reconciled with the RQAC invoicing going crazy just before they went under. The most direct oddity is the landing fees. I was charged pretty much always $33 for landing fees at Archerfield. Now if you look at this document: http://www.archerfieldairport.com.au/Downloads/Schedule%20of%20charges.pdf for a 2300lbs MTOW aircraft the charge should be $14.39. Sure it's only $19 per flight, but where did it actually go? Also, some of the other fields I was charged $15ish but I haven't found out exactly what their landing fee schedules are. I'm still very confused as to how it comes out that private hire (excluding landing fees & taxes) of C172s comes out to be almost $300. Perhaps it's the insurance. But given some guestimates based on google for tiedowns/insurance/oil/fuel and including a fair margin for profit it works out to over $10,000 in other costs on average for each 100 hourly/annual which would be maintenance/parts/rego. Does this sound right?

I'm very.. err.. green on this. I was hoping to find people through the RQAC, but now they look more dead than ever. The last I head was that the offer that was on the table to revive them didn't eventuate. So I'm looking for new avenues. I have places I want to go and things I want to achieve, just the bank will need a recovery period. How much does it cost to get involved in a syndicate? How many are there at Archerfield? How do you find out about them? Though I have achieved this, filling my brain full of facts and rules, there is so much I don't know. Like for example, what's the deal with a PPL and RA-AUS registered aircraft? Can you fly them? The rules would say yes, but my guess is that there are the owners who would say no, probably due to insurance issues. During much of my training, I couldn't help but think about the two seats being dragged along behind. They were only ever occupied by a bag or water bottle. Not that you can easily exceed the MTOW if you put people back there, but still, why did everyone recommend the 172 and not something smaller like a 150/152?

Does anyone know the current status of the pilot information evenings? I emailed [email protected] but have had no response. They don't seem to list the dates on the website anymore either.

Well, after a long and arduous process, I did my PPL flight test on Friday, and the end result was a good outcome. Even two days later, I'm not sure it has all exactly sunk in, and I'll try and go through some of my thinking. My trajectory through the system has been a somewhat painful process. Some will probably remember the thread I started about the Royal Queensland Aero Club going bankrupt. I was caught up in this mess, fortunately not in a financial sense, but it definitely hindered my progress. I started training at Archerfield with the RQAC (strictly speaking their training subsidiary, Airline Academy of Australia or AAA) in November 2015. My logbook is packed with entries from the basic handling stages in November and December 2015. I did my first solo during this time. Then things got very busy for AAA as they were taking on lots of VET FEE-HELP students (what eventually sunk them) and they were preparing for an influx of Griffith aviation students. I had started off doing all my flights with one instructor but I quickly found myself flying with different instructors pretty much each flight. This was OK for me, and I met lots of good pilots that way, but I can see how this would be problematic for some people. Now, AAA sold me on the idea from the new Part 61 rules around granting licenses and endorsements on demonstrated competency and that I should try and expedite matters by not sitting an RPL flight test. This was almost certainly a bad idea. Anyway, as planned, in January 2016 I started navigation training. Things slowed down here a little as I had booked a summer holiday many months before and it's a notoriously busy time for conferences in my work (at the university, people schedule workshops and conferences whilst teaching duties are less). So I had to take some time away from flying but I did complete a navigation flight every few of weeks. This was also one of the times where I had a lot of "what the hell am I doing?" moments, al la Mythbusters. I would complete the Nav, which would be roughly a 3 hour flight and they were generally pretty awesome. Then get an invoice for ~$1500 and think: "How on earth does anyone afford to fly?" or more precisely "How the hell am I going to afford to fly?". I had gone into this with a plan for how to manage the costs of flying after getting a licence, but I think I just told myself that my training would soon be over and I just concluded that I would probably be flying a lot less than I expected initially. I was endorsed to do my first solo navigation during March 2016 and I had booked the plane for my flight and shortly afterwards I got the news. The flight school would stop all operations immediately. I really had no idea what to do (and subsequently posted a thread on here). I pretty quickly called a number of places to see what they could offer. I ended up talking with the guys as Southern Skies who I eventually completed my training with. The sticking point was the lack of RPL. They really wanted me to do that, and maybe I should have. But after considering the opinions from here (another thread) and talking with others I tried to push them to stick with the initial plan. We managed to transfer my training records but, understandably, they wanted to see where I was at. So we had a few steps backwards. What made things many times more difficult was that AAA had a way of doing navs which was different to how the guys at Southern Skies operate. Not having seen what they do, it would have seemed to them as if I hadn't actually been trained on how to navigate. Anyway, what transpired was a drastic slowing of progress. But then the my deadline loomed. Due to the way universities are funded, many who work there find themselves on short term employment (even if you have been around for a decade or more). I am no exception. My job was to end in September 2016. As the year went on, I had to dedicate more time to sorting that out. I eventually sorted out another 12 months, but my teaching doubled and I had little time to do the work required for flying. Then the university semester ended in November 2016 and I pushed myself hard to get over the line for PPL even if my calendar would soon be full again. Navigation solo was finally achieved. I was to head to Gympie, then on to Nanango back to Archerfield. It was on the cruise from Gympie to Nanango where I had time to reflect on what I was achieving. There I was, just me and the plane, a view like you'd never believe and a feeling of understanding of what was going on and realising that I _could_ do this! I also had a couple of commitments in December 2016 and January 2017 which, even if I wanted to fly, I couldn't. But I tried to sick with it as best I could. If I couldn't fly, I could read the VFRG, or plan out a "fake" nav of my own doing. End of Jan early Feb I did some more dual flights and given I didn't have an RPL, we did lots of practise of stalls, steep turns, etc. It was Monday last week when doing a "pre-test" nav when I felt like it all came together. Managed controlled airspace with ease. Used the navaids without drama. Diverted from our plan, no problem. Did the IFR component and quickly figured out where we were after being "lost". Did some perfect stall recoveries and beautiful steep turns. We did a forced landing and PSAL and sometime after that my instructor turned to me and said "Oh! Send me home!! We're done!" I think that was the official sign that I was ready for the test. I had it booked for Thursday, but due to some unfortunate circumstances with the testing officer, we had to change who was to do the test and the day. So Friday 8am it was. I did lots of practise going through the Part 61 PPL test checklist so that I covered everything that I thought may be covered. But when I went into the oral component, the questions I got, were not those that I expected. I spent some time thinking about what the right answer was in each case, and I think I'd pretty clearly demonstrated that I had read and understood the VFRG. But the questions were tricky and needed some knowledge of the wording in the CAR or CAO. So I wasn't awfully confident about that, but the thing that kept me going was that I was learning a lot just in this short time and I could converse about the topics from my own knowledge base and understanding. We got to the end and I was told that we should get ready for the flight. So I took this as a good sign that I wasn't going to fail from the oral component. Things went pretty well for departure, I thought. When we got back I was told of a couple of things I could tidy up on. I had also rang the tower the day before and told them that I was going to do my test and in which plane. I also asked them a few questions about some oddities of procedures in Archerfield which I really wanted sorted out. I'm not sure if they knew or not, but things went perfectly on the taxi call and getting ready to depart. We departed the zone and there is lots of opinions out there of leaving the zone at Archerfield and how to stay clear of the CTA above it. I was told when we got back that I should have climbed earlier, but I was so concerned about not busting into the CTA steps I delayed the climb until I was more than doubly sure that I was clear of a step. We headed into Sunshine Coast and I was already a bit flustered from the experience and I needed to confirm a couple of things with the tower. Did they actually clear me for a visual approach? Did they want a left or right circuit for runway 18? Anyway, I have always been told to ask if unsure, and it didn't seem busy there so I don't think I caused any dramas in asking. It wasn't mentioned when we got back, so presumably I did OK. Being a student pilot, crosswinds and gusts on final have always been difficult for me. And we were to land on runway 18 with a easterly wind of about 12 knots. I saw the windsock, knew exactly what I had to do, and after my checks on final I said to myself, "left wing down, right rudder" over and over. On short final I put in the slip, and I amazed myself at just how well it all happened. I felt the left wheel touchdown, a second or two later the right. I thought to myself "that's exactly how it _meant_ to be". And in that moment, I released the crosswind correction. Very little happened, maybe a slight lift up of the left wheel but it was just a little bit. Once the nosewheel was down I realised what I did and put back in the aileron correction. Not to mention this was talked about when we got back. We taxied to the GA apron as required, and I pulled up in the short term parking area. Then one of the most embarrassing times in the test. It was put to me that we have flown here for some friends to catch a flight and I should describe what I'd to do get them to the terminal. So I look over to the terminal building looking for entrances. I say something like, "well, the terminal is that way". The response was a little laugh. I did see the big sign saying "security controlled area". I had never been posed this question before, though I had thought about it. It was put to me that this was "Ground Navigation". I admitted that I had never heard of this before. I said that if I was actually in this situation, I'd call ground and ask for advice. This was an OK answer, but answer that was required was to go to the gate and read the sign. I think this is a really good question, particularly if you have passengers. What do they do? Where do you go? Nobody had explained this to me before. Then we departed, crosswind takeoff which seemed to go well. I was to depart by the VOR but I got so caught up in making my departure report (not required in Archerfield when going into class G) that I took up the track without intercepting my track early enough. I did realise this and deviated to line up the needle and when I did the departure report, we weren't actually tracking the track I reported. So it was all a bit of a mess. Needless to say, this was mentioned when we got back and I got some questions about what the rules are for taking up your outbound track, which I answered. It was one of those "in the moment" brain fades. We departed the zone and I started navigation on my WAC. We went right over Kenilworth, which was where my line was and I marked it down on the WAC. Then the difficult DR navigation began. After Kenilworth, there is really nothing to use to find your location. The terrain is just rolling hills and nothing stands out particularly. There is a road, but good luck finding it. I took my best stab at it and thought we were slightly slow and maybe on track. I was then asked what attitude I was trying to maintain. I said 3000 as we have cloud directly above us. The reply that came from that was "nah, you have another 2000 feet to the cloud." I didn't really believe it, but I climbed and sure enough the clouds were higher than I thought. Then I found we were heading right for a town. I noted the power station and tried to orient things relative to it on the map. We were getting close to the time for an inbound radio call point and I kind of freaked out a bit. Were we at Kingaroy? It didn't make sense we should need more time and the power station was in the wrong location. I saw another town on the map, Nanango. That was my guess and it seemed to work. I declared that we were almost certainly over Nanango and that we will have to make a significant heading deviation to head to Kingaroy. There he said "you bet, but you figured it out." I was then asked to divert to Watts Bridge. Was this the "go home" point? Presumably he would have asked to go direct to Archerfield if I'd failed. I thought it couldn't be so I tried to forget it. It took me a while to do the diversion to Watts Bridge. The conditions were bumpy and the thought of failure was in my mind. We did 4 orbits of Nanango whilst I did the planning for the diversion, almost 10 mins!! But we were on our way to Watts Bridge. There we did some IF which I found OK. We did some unusual attitude recoveries and they were OK too. So we ended the IF and simulated engine failure. I picked an obvious enormous clear paddock which we were almost directly over the top of it and executed my plan. Did the restart checks maybe a little late, but I did get through things. As we were over the top of the paddock I found myself a little high to land in it, so I did a sideslip and we looked like we were going to make it and we did a go-around. When we got back, he told me that we were well in range of Toogoolawah field and that was clearly the best place to go. I just didn't see it. Then we did some low-level navigation to Watts Bridge where I did a PSAL. This went OK but I kind of stuffed up the short field landing. Then he asked me to divert via Amberley restricted airspace back to Archerfield. Well, I knew we didn't have much time. It wasn't too many miles to the boundary of the airspace. I dialled up the NDB and heard they were still active. (Some other bloke should have done this. Every minute or two they were trying to get hold of someone squarking 1200 and not on frequency in the restricted airspace.) I had my plan to go via the Wivenhoe dam wall to Goodna so I called up the clearance delivery and asked to do that. He gave me a squark code and then didn't get back to me! I didn't know what to do so I thought I should orbit. Then it was pointed out that the airspace I was avoiding was above 4500 and we were at 3500, so we progressed forward. And just before the boundary he gave us the instruction to contact approach which I had already in the radio so managed to do that very quickly. Then we were going home! So I asked if it was OK to dial up goodna in the GPS and go direct there using that. Not only was the answer yes, but I got shown the usefulness of OzRunways! It all went pretty well going in, but I just needed to confirm in my head the runway assigned. Sometimes things go into my head and straight out again. I definitely don't remember the words "change of runway" and we were going to be coming from the west so that'd be runway 10R (I remembered the 10 bit). So that's what we went for. Sure enough the clearance for 10R came through. Back on the ground, I parked and shutdown and suddenly felt kind of exhausted. 3.6 hours on the engine. But I did mention SARTIME as soon as I saw my phone. As the plane was to be packed up I said I would do everything and meet him inside. But he wanted to hear me do the SARTIME phone call as he was listed as PIC. Whoops. Anyway, back in the room, we discussed many of the above issues and started filling in the paperwork. I must have had a confused look on my face as at some random point I heard the words "Congratulations" and saw a hand being extended in my direction. That was it? It didn't hit me like I expected it to, it just kind of happened. I had passed the test. My mind was almost exactly like the training flights, thinking about what I could improve and when I should book the next one. It didn't dawn on me in that moment that I didn't need to think about when to book the next nav flight. So here I am, downloading my thoughts into this document. The paperwork needs to go through CASA before it's all official. But I'm trying to get my brain into answering the question of what am I going to do from here. There is time, and I still have other part of my life that need more attenuation than I have been able to give them since perusing this dream. But one thing that does hang over my head is the cost. If I were to fly just the C172 my budget would allow for only about 10-15 hours of flying a year. Is this how much other people fly? I was kind of hoping to get to 300 hours in a reasonable time frame. Now it looks like I won't get there for another 15 years!! Anyway, I have achieved something significant for me. I promised myself when I was about 13 years old that I would one day learn to fly. Pending paperwork, I'm at the stage where it is an official documented fact. That, is really quite extraordinary.

This is an interesting idea for an exercise. If I understand what you've written correctly, you'd have a random list of: LOCATION, EVENT like: Gympie, Join CCT midfield crosswind Wondai, inbound (10 South, 3500') Watts Bridge, Departing circuit from downwind ... And then you flash them up on the screen to and read out the full call. I must admit to not understanding fully your point number 2. Do you mean create audio which just has the location/event, then a 20 second pause, then the correct readback, (rinse and repeat)?

I still seem to get tongue/brain-tied a bit on the radio. There seems to be this odd side-effect of depressing the transmit button that significantly decreases your nervous system's ability to function. I'm OK with Class D procedures, but I guess being based at YBAF, it's not overly surprising. It's some CTAF calls in which the thinking occurs, but the speaking doesn't. Calls like inbound with intentions and departing/joining the circuit. Position reports in the circuit I find OK. So I've started just blurting out CTAF calls whilst I'm driving the car (which has made for some odd stares when my wife is with me). I find that I really do have to speak and not just think about it, in order to make it effective. So I'm up to about 50-60 hours total experience, but ~10 hours solo. So I'd still be classed as being rather "low time". How long was it for others before the words started to flow naturally after pressing the button?

This has been _really_ useful for me to think about. Thank you so much for that. Just a couple of follow ups: You mentioned "procedural flight plan". Presumably this is what is filed in NAIPS. Are there other types of flight plans? The word procedural comes up a lot. Like "procedural service" for Class D airspace. I've tried tracking down a definition of what is meant in procedural in this context, but I've been unable to locate it. On the charts, it particularly says the contact BN CN for clearance into the Brisbane area CTA. So I guess what you say about contacting approach directly could apply, but goes against what the published procedure is for that area. I would _really_ love to, but cannot make the December one for Brisbane. Presumably your statement about security goes further than merely having an ASIC (which I have).

OK. So I'm now not sure what role the Squark code plays. Doesn't a discrete code just link to your callsign, and hence your filed plan? So if I have a code, there shouldn't be anything to look up. If I'm squarking 1200, I can imagine that on first contact it could take a few seconds to pull up all the filed info. The only reference to amendments to flight plans I could find in AIP is in ENR 1.10 Part 4. It doesn't prescribe a standard phraseology for amendments. It says to announce your intention to amend and then wait for response. The info sheet I got given after that flight, wasn't really anything new. In fact is says to use "Brisbane Radar" and looks like it's the 100th derived photocopy of the original. It does emphasise the "now tracking" part for a diversion/amendment. But in my mind, if you amend like you file, then a track is only necessary if you are not going to a well recognised location (e.g. YBAF335045). So I thought DBO (Dayboro) should be fine. The info sheet also doesn't actually mention anything about SARTIME. Anyway, I'm hoping this was a minor issue even if it did involve lots of talking.

This is all very interesting, and somewhat confusing. But if I imagine that my only interface is NAIPS, then when I submit the ICAO Flight Notification form, where does it go? From the comments here, it seems that the information from a NAIPS submitted ICAO Flight Notification isn't commonly used by ATS for organising traffic within CTAs, or am I reading that totally wrong? One of the issues that I had on my pre-solo check for navigation was about notifying of a diversion. We only simulated it, but I think I said something like this: "BN CTR, X-Ray X-Ray X-Ray, Flight Plan Amendment, Diverting 4 miles south of Kilcoy, direct to Dayboro, then Archerfield". When we got back we had a long conversation about how this was not standard and could confuse SAR or ATC. I was told to use the AIP phraseology that used just the new track (I haven't been able to find this in AIP yet). But this seemed _less_ useful to me, but as I've made clear, I'm not sure how things work on the other side of the radio. What interface does Centre have with your filed flight plan? What information is needed if a diversion is necessary, particularly if you want to try and divert into CTA?

OK. So I'm still confused as to the role of the flight plan. If I'm going to remain outside CTAs (but possibly operate within CTRs, perhaps only Class D) then nobody will ever actually see it (unless in the hopefully unlikely situation of there is an unfortunate event). What happens when a random VFR operator calls up out of the blue announcing a flight plan amendment? My training has always been in VH registered aircraft, so presumably there is no issues finding the flight plan. From what you write, it seems to me that the systems tracking SSR and accepting flight plans are separate (not sure what FDC is). We have always requested a code on the ground so far (except for MIL airspace). Presumably, our flight plan is migrated in some form when we get assigned a code.

Does this stuff about VFR flight plans apply to Australia: One thing I still get lost with is how the system works. I find that the VFRG and AIP don't help much with understanding what happens in the ATC system. I've been to Archerfield tower once, and asked a few questions, but time was limited and it was when I was pretty new to the whole thing. I've been wanting to go to one of the BN Centre pilot evenings, but the dates haven't worked out for me as of yet (and the December one wont either, unfortunately). Does anyone have any links to information about how things happen behind the scenes (or radio in this case)?

I'm a little bit late to this conversation, but there is an issue here that, as a student pilot, I'm not entirely sure I understand. What has been said in this thread is apt for VFR in Class G and perhaps E airspace. But what about Class D and Class C in particular when busy? There needs to be some back and forth between you and the controller about what clearance would work out to maintain VMC whilst not causing some other conflict. If a clearance to descend or change track doesn't come in a timely way, then a loss of VMC, to me, seems very possible. I cannot seem to dig out what rules apply in this situation. Is there a reference in the VFRG or AIP which clarifies this situation?

1. At home I'm 1/2 way up Mt Coot-tha (15 mins walk to the Summit cafe). We are on the SE side so may get OK signals from over the city but will be blocked from the north and west. My plan was, after watching a youtube video on this, to dedicate some time and travel to a CTAF to monitor transmissions and "score" them to think about what was good and bad. Reception strength is one of the very grey areas of this for me. Will I need to travel far from home to actually receive anything comprehendible? 2. Well, that wasn't really the plan. It was more of a backup option to have in my flight bag. But I guess what you are suggesting is an option. LiveATC is great. But one thing that is awfully confusing is the way that multiple stations are put on top of each other. So for busy fields you will want to listen to an approach controller but they will get stepped on by ground just when you want to hear them and you will miss what actually happened. Same with the few CTAFs they have, they get stepped on by the other frequencies grouped together. Also, there's no chance to practise the fine art of rapid comprehension of ATIS. So it's great that LiveATC is there, it also has a few drawbacks for learning.

I'm thinking about the option of purchasing a handheld aviation radio. There are two main reasons why I'm considering this: listen and learn from radio comms and a backup radio in my flight bag. However, I have some hesitation points. First, can a student pilot purchase a handheld radio? Many moons ago I held an amateur radio licence and one needed to quote a licence number to purchase a radio. Is this the same in aviation? You just quote an ARN even if you are a student? Second, is it worth while? Is the reception range/functionality and benefits which may come from a handheld worth the cost of purchase? In terms of the learning part the cost has to be weighed up against the low cost option of LiveATC, which is good but confusing as they combine frequencies and doesn't have much CTAF coverage. And in terms of a backup, has anyone had a comm failure and would have liked a handheld backup? And if you think this is a good thing to pursue, any recommendations of what to buy?

I have no idea why they have really silly questions like they do. A cursory proof read, without the context of the legislation or VFRG, would make it clear that there are ambiguities. I'm not sure how these questions are set, but many seem to have not gone through any review at all. Having said all that, I'm talking about 3 or 4 questions in 55. I wasn't awfully stressed out during the exam, but I could imagine people who would be and having poorly worded questions would make things in that situation much harder than they need to be. That's fair enough. If your brain has shut down, then there isn't much use going through things again and you're more than likely to make things worse in that situation. I understand the temptation on review to oscillate between possible answers. But I think if you sit down and do the Bob Tait online practice exams beforehand, and realise that this is happening when you do them and try and fix it, then you can take that experience in with you. I'm no stranger to exams. I've completed a dual university degree and an honours year. I would have sit over 50 exams (mid-semester and finals) during that time. It was quite clear in that room that I was the least stressed out person. (Though I was the only PPL person it seems). Being as relaxed as possible before helps with keeping your mind focused for long periods of time during the exam.

After an extended duration (due to work/family/other commitments), I finally booked the PPL exam and sat it yesterday. Ended up with a pretty respectable 97%, so it was clearly time for me to sit it. Just a few comments: Make sure you take charts into the exam. They are too stingy to give you relevant copies like Bob Tait does in his book. I thought I'd get a workbook like what is available for download with extracts of the WAC. This isn't the case and they had a question about the Bourke WAC and I only had the WAC for my area. I managed to figure out the question from the PCA I had. There weren't too many choices and it involved road and train lines between towns as navigational reference points. You probably don't need to take in the whole CASR, CAR, CAO and AIP book that you are permitted, but if you have them then why not? The VFRG and ERSA is a must. There was a question on a restricted area and without the bits and pieces in the ERSA you'd be up the creek. I was pretty confident with most questions, but there were many that you can double check in the VRFG quickly just by looking up the index. I paid for the Bob Tait online practice exams and they were well worth it. I reviewed my attempts of the practice exams the morning before the exam and that we extremely useful. I spent all but the last ten minutes of the 3.5 hours in the exam. I double/triple checked everything and made sure to check carefully for particular wordings. There are a few multiple point questions which I checked many times. There is also a "mark" you can put against questions. I put down quite a few marks initially against things I wasn't 100% sure of. When I checked against the materials I had, I removed the mark. At the end, I was left with about a dozen marked questions for which I still wasn't 100% sure of. The wording of most questions is appalling. They are often vague and imprecise. The "invigilator" I had said something like this at the beginning and that he was very sorry but he couldn't help in that circumstance. The strategy I took was to look for words that seemed most memorable or exactly matched something in the VFRG even if I wasn't sure it was exactly what they meant. If there is only one option like that, then you're set, otherwise you'd have to rule out options in other ways. Not all questions are multiple choice. But the ones that aren't seem to just ask you to enter in integer values (e.g. a minimum overfly altitude or weight of a given volume of avgas). Don't drink lots of water just before going to the exam. 3.5 hours is a long time. There is a permitted toilet break after a period of time has elapsed, but I wouldn't want to be busting to go before that. It would be quite distracting. You never find out which questions you got wrong. You just get a, cheerfully named "Knowledge Deficiency Report". In my case, I can guess which ones they were, but if you get a mark in the 70s, I'm not sure how you'd know. Anyway, very happy with the result and on to the next task towards a PPL.

If the deed goes through, then they will all belong to the new financier. I've had two flights now at another school at YBAF. Hoping for minimal disruption.

I believe most of them are in the hanger.

Seems there is a deed of company arrangement on the table which includes the planes and would cover more of the creditors money than any other option. So it looks like there won't be any aircraft fire sale, unless the creditors reject the deed. Another interesting part of the agreement is that it will "reinvigorate" the club.

I did have a few extended breaks due to a summer holiday and a work trip. Haven't done a nav since a couple of weeks before Easter. It was generally about 1 nav every week or two in Feb and march. General handing in Nov and December was when I was getting up to 4 a week in.

How long is long? My first flight is from the end of Nov last year. Had 2-3 flights each week over most of December. Slightly less in January. My plan was to be done by the middle of this year, but stuff got in the way and now having AAA disappear doesn't seem to have helped. One flight a week is what I want my minimum to be until I finish. Clearly not "full time", but it seems to be working out OK for me.

Well, I wasn't actually worried about anything at all. It's just that I've now had multiple people tell me that the PPL test will be orders of magnitude harder if you haven't passed an RPL flight test. Things were cruising along at AAA and nobody there said this. It's the divergence of opinion that is probably most concerning. One thing that I'm considering at the moment is, if I was starting again but with some of the information I have now, would I go via an RPL. I'd have to say that I probably wouldn't.

Many of these questions I considered well before I started training, which is why I'm committed to PPL. It's just that I've had a spanner thrown in the works, and I'm now offered the route of RPL first, then PPL. This was not a consideration before and now I have to choose. The previous instructors from AAA which I have contact with have told me that it's a waste of my time and money to go via RPL, and that weighs heavily. But there is a lot of experienced people out there telling me going straight for the PPL isn't the right thing to do in terms of pressure on myself. To be honest, if I just kept heading towards the PPL without having multiple conflicting opinions, then pressure would be less (ignorance is bliss?). There were very few issues brought up during my time at AAA even with the extensive briefings and de-briefings they did. The last navigation exercise I did with AAA, I felt, was pretty good. The instructor was largely hands-off in terms of radios and corrective actions (e.g. low level diversion). Though sometimes I needed a little prompting to fix some things; the lost procedure seemed to take a bit too long, but it was my first time doing it. I'm not sure why you think I'm tense in being examined by a different examiner. I've not had a flight test to date, so I'm not sure what's different. But I'm well aware that self-confidence can make you your own worst enemy. I'm not exactly sure how the new school plan to gauge "where I'm at". I've gone through all their verbal testing fine and the flight to the training area was fine and I think my weaknesses were on display. So, the question I need to answer is, do I take the current path of least resistance and do an RPL or continue on the path PPL path that was interrupted? I'm not sure what others think here, but I think I'm going to try and push to continue to the PPL. Those flight test sheets are good to know and I think it has helped. But I am going to be told that the PPL test will be a lot easier with an RPL and that's the line I'm going to have to push back on.

That's a bucket load of stuff. Is this meant to be over multiple flights? The trick is that the instructors that I have done all but 1.4 hours of my flying are unemployed and won't be making that decision. Though they have said things to me, it's hard for me to know exactly what they were thinking. Right at the moment, in terms of dealing with flight instructors, it feels like I'm starting from scratch.