Do any of you fly privately?
 

Mods please move if in the wrong place.

Nosey question really, I understand that many of you love flying, do any of you hold a PPL and fly privately aswell as commercially?

I am a military pilot in the Reserves, and also fly myself in a small airplane (Piper Arrow) for my civilian job sometimes instead of taking commercial flights. It actually saves me time on short flights, as I don't have to deal with security/etc and I can fly into small airports that are closer to my business meetings.

Yep, relatively frequently between UK and mainland Europe.

Yes, PPL, PA-28.

I hold a PPL and fly a C172/C182. Not so much for real transportation, but to take trips around the region.

Do any of you fly privately?
 

Work insurance doesn't cover private flights so commercial flights it is.

Yes, in my previous life! I have approx. 1800 hours total time. I hold commercial pilot certificate (Single & Multiengine Land, Single Engine Sea) and Flight instructor certificate: CFII/MEII. Flown everything from C152/172/182/303/310s, Mooney M20, Piper Arrows, Seminoles and Senecas, CAP-10B aerobatic trainers (my favourite, obviously!)

Unfortunately I can no longer qualify for anything other than a 3rd class medical certificate, so flying for hire is not possible (other than instructing - which doesn't exactly pay bills ;))

Half way to PPL when I moved and stopped. Will pick it up at later time

Yes I do both for fun as a pilot of small single-engine airplanes and as an occasional passenger, for work, on business jets ranging anywhere from Beechjets and Lears on up to ultra long range Gulfstreams.

Lapsed PPL.

No more time or money :-(

I started my ppl, but a) didn't have the money at the time, and b) dreaded having to do stalls to the point that I started to dread flying.

Thanks for the responses so far, they are doing wonders for my nosiness :D

That sounds familiar, I made it to going solo and doing solo circuits then I developed a completely irrational fear of flying and gave up :( I'm still a nervous flyer now. Are you nervous flying in airliners Cloudship?

Not a bit. I do have a really bad fear of height, but even being inside a small plane I didn't really have an issue with it. It was just the stalls themselves. I can't even do a kiddie roller coaster, so that might be part of it. After that I think I was just so caught up in worrying about being in control of the aircraft that I stopped enjoying the whole just being up in the air bit.

However, I did know someone who was taking lessons at the same time who told me she was struggling with that a bit herself. We lost contact when I gave up flying, but I know she got her license at somepoint, so she somehow found a way to overcome it.

Unfortunately this is all to common in pilot training. IMO (as a flight instructor) it is due to poor instruction and incorrect/incomplete introduction to stalls and slow flight. I'm sorry that you had this experience as it's unfortunate.

Many typical training regimes begin with stalls almost immediately, which I believe to be incorrect. Making the student comfortable and confident (somewhat) with the controls and the aircraft in general is vitally important before beginning stall training. Stalls should begin very very slowly, especially with nervous students, recovering from all kinds of incipient stalls and slow flight before ever conducting a full stall/recovery. In addition the aerodynamics of stalls are rarely taught properly before practical applications.

I always taught my students the "let go of everything and let the airplane recover itself (which a training aircraft will ALWAYS do) method before the typical PPL/CPL stall entry/recovery technique.

From my experience with many flight instructors; it begins with the fight instructor demonstrating a stall entry/recovery, even a full power on (departure) stall, then telling the student to try. This is bound to scare nervous students, and is why so many start flight training and never make it to and past solo.

</rant> Sorry! :)

I understand that, and agree with you to an extent. Although I do think they need to introduce them sooner rather than later, if for the simple factor of safety. In my case it was little different. I wasn't afraid of loosing so much control of the airplane and my sight, namely from what came out of my stomach and ended up all over the plane. Like I said, I did not do up and down well at all. In ind sight I kind of wish I had figured out a way to work through that bit, but by the time I had found a new job and would have been able to fly again I would have been too busy or too bad of health to pass my physical. Besides, they nearly closed down the airport I flew out of, the $#@!$! developers!