Birthday Trial Lesson

For my 50 birthday in 2013 I was bought a trial flying lesson as my family knew I always wanted to learn to fly, but could not justify the cost. In the voucher information it said I could take a passenger to experience it too, well my wife doesn’t like flying much on commercial aircraft so there was no way I would get her on board and my son needed to return back to his work placement, but luckily my daughter was fearless enough to offer to come up with me.

Gayton by Air

The voucher they presented me was from “Into The Blue” for a 60 minute trial lesson at Norwich Airport with a company called “Premier Flight Training” (http://www.premierflighttraining.co.uk/). I booked the trial lesson for Sunday 9th June 2013, Premier Flight Training were very professional and after having been introduced to the pilot David Hollingworth, he took us all through to an office where he gave us a talk on the principles of flight and how the control surfaces work, which was a lot more interesting then it sounds!   Next my daughter and I got to don some trendy hi-viz gear and we were driven over to the airplane a Piper Warrior PA28-161 (circa 1981) with a registration number of G-BNNO. David got us into the plane and then carried out the external per flight checks, everything was OK so next came the remaining pre-flight checks and then we were off. We flew west towards King’s Lynn flying over my village (pictured above) on route and then we turned north up to the coast and flew along the coast line for a while, but all to soon my 60 minutes were up and it was time to land back at Norwich.

 David and I about to go into the blue

I real enjoyed my present, but it reawaken my desire to learn to fly. I looked into learning with Premier Flight Training, but the cost were too high for me given the number of hours needed and the additional landing fees, VAT etc. I then came across a company down south offering training on what to me looked like a normal light aircraft, but for a lot less money, it turned out to be an Ikarus C42 which I now know is a 3 axis microlight, I had always thought or a microlight as a hang glider with an engine before this. A quick Google for C42 Microlight lessons and I found AAA Microlights (http://cambridgeshiremicrolights.co.uk/) in Cambridgeshire, who’s prices were much more affordable to me. Overall  learning to fly on a 3 axis microlight costs less money to fly per hour and less hours are needed to qualify so it works out about half the price flying with such a club.

Needless to say this was the route I decided to take and in my next blog I will tell you about my first encounter with the C42 and the club I decided to learn with.