Your First Licence

Congratulations!  Northumbria Flying School at Newcastle Airport is the perfect choice for all your aspirations when it comes to being a safe and proficient pilot. Whether you just want a taster of the lifestyle, or you want to become fully qualified, Northumbria Flying School has the knowledge and dedication to allow you to succeed.

You can begin your pilot training with us with absolutely no previous experience. As a member of Northumbria Flying School you get unrivalled access to some of the very best instructors in the UK. They will guide you through the bewildering maze of information available to you. You will become one of a growing number of people in the UK to possess a pilots licence. The figure currently stands at less than 1 in 2000 people!

Flight Time

The minimum amount of experience you must acquire to be considered for a UK pilot's licence is 32 hours of flight time (NPPL). You can achieve this either full-time or part-time. The vast majority of students will undertake their learning on a part-time basis. This allows the student the flexibility to learn around other commitments such as work and will generally produce a more balanced pilot come the end of the course.

Theoretical Knowledge

We assume that each student has no background in aviation. This way, all students coming to the end of the flight course will have an equally impressive level of knowledge. Material is covered on a distance learning basis, supplemented by regular informal classroom sessions. Unlike other schools, we also encourage you to attend regular night school courses which are run throughout the year. This not only reinforces your knowledge, but also gives you the opportunity to meet other like minded people and be exposed to the workings of the rest of the aviation sector. A group social visit to the Newcastle control tower and radar room is the highlight at the end of the ground school course. Personal one-to-one tuition is always available if requested. The knowledge you gain is invaluable and as such we make this stage enjoyable for the student.  Your knowledge is tested in the way of multi-choice written exams.

Medical Requirements

It is a myth that pilots need to be in perfect health. Since 2002 many thousands of pilots have gained their pilots licences with just a DVLA HGV Medical Declaration of Health issued by their GP. The medical restrictions for a recreational or hobby pilot are thus not particularly stringent.

Glasses and contact lenses are permitted. After correction, your eyesight should good enough to drive.

If you are interested in making flying a career, then we highly recommend you obtain either a class 1 or class 2 CAA medical. For either case we suggest you come into the office, so we can tell you how to go about obtaining them. For class 2 medicals the club has it's own doctor with a surgery in Newcastle. Class 1 medicals must be obtained at Gatwick.

Age

You will be pleased to hear that there is no maximum age to start your flight training - so if you have been putting off your dream because you fear you are too old, then please pay us a visit and rekindle your passion for flight. We have members learning in their 60's. Why don't you become one of them?

Strictly speaking, there is no minimum age to begin pilot training. The only requirement is that the student be tall enough to reach all the controls including the pedals. Pay us a visit should this be in doubt. There is a minimum age restriction of 14 years however, before a flight student can begin counting their experience towards a pilots licence. Two more restrictions apply; namely: 16 years for solo flight and 17 years for licence application. Put simply a pilot can not get their 'wings' until they are 17 years old.

Flight Course Structure

The course is designed to take a complete novice to a level where they are competent to fly an aircraft by themselves with passengers.

The NPPL/PPL course consists of the following:

• Pre-flight operations, including mass and balance determination, aeroplane inspection and servicing;
• Aerodrome and traffic pattern operations, collision avoidance precautions and procedures;
• Control of the aeroplane by external visual reference;
• Flight at critically slow airspeeds, recognition of, and recovery from, incipient and full stalls;
• Flight at critically high airspeeds, recognition of, and recovery from, spiral dives;
• Normal and crosswind take-offs and landings;
• Maximum performance (short field and obstacle clearance) take-offs, short-field landings;
• Flight by reference solely to instruments, including the completion of a level 180 degrees turn;
• Cross-country flying using visual reference, dead reckoning and radio navigation aids;
• Emergency operations, including simulated aeroplane equipment malfunctions; and
• Operations to, from and transiting controlled aerodromes, compliance with air traffic services procedures, communication procedures and phraseology.

Licence Privileges

After gaining your first licence you are entitled to a number of freedoms. These include but are not limited to:

1. Flying with friends for pleasure;
2. Sight seeing;
3. Holidays abroad;
4. Rapid transportation between towns and cities using uncongested local airfields;
5. Air Rally competition flying.

Cost

The cost varies from person to person. Therefore please bear this in mind when estimating figures.

Students' guide to costs.

After your First Licence

Why should training stop after you gain your first licence? There are many supplemental structured courses available to you as a pilot. These include:

• PPL Upgrade
• Night Qualification
• IMC/Instrument Rating
• UK/European Touring
• Hour Building
• CPL Upgrade
• Aerobatics Endorsement
• Taildragger Endorsement
• Multi-Engine Rating
• Flight Instructor Course