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Friday 27 May 2011

Choices, choices ...

The first choice to make is, of cause, where, how, and with whom I will do my PPL course



First of all, I would like to be able to reach the course site easily (by car or motorcycle), so that I can be as flexible as possible with times and days of lessons.
I live just West of Amsterdam, so Valkenburg (ZH), Hilversum, Rotterdam, Lelystad apply. But in my free time, I usually stay in the centre of the country, which makes Lelystad, Teuge, Hilversum, and Hoogeveen "reachable".
Choosing between Hilversum and Lelystad, my preference goes to Lelystad, because it has an hardened runway, whereas Hilversum only has grass runways. Grass limits the flying potential a little bit, because of relatively frequent wet conditions. A good second with a paved runway would be Teuge, but because that is located further away from home, and because there are enough flying schools at Lelystad to choose from, I will limit myself to Lelystad for now.

Then, the how ...
In order to lower costs I could participate in a shared ownership programme (if a share is available), and fly (also during training) at a lower rate (€60/h for a DA-20; €80/h for a DA-40, instead of the €120/h - €165/h without share). I would prefer a share in a 4-seater (like the DA-40 of Diamond Flyers), but that would mean I would have to invest more now, in order to fly cheaper after my PPL. The cost of such a share are considerably higher than the savings during training. Another perceived disadvantage of a share is that if I want to go on holiday with "my" plane, I assume the other participants will start sputtering. They probably also want to fly during that time ...


With whom is an even more dificult choice. I'll get back on that later.
Stand by.

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