Lydd Aero Club

The current requirement for the issue of a JAA PPL is a minimum of forty fove hours of flight training. This licence is valid throughout Europe without formality, and the rest of the world with mostly simple validation. Broadly speaking the course is in two parts.

1. Not less than 25 hours of Dual instruction with a flying instructor covering: basic handling, stall / spin awareness, navigation - both by map and by radio instruments and instrument flying

2. Not less than 10 hours of SOLO flying, five of which must be on solo navigation, where the instructor remains in the clubhouse.

The remaining hours may consist of dual and or solo flying depending upon the students requirments. Before the student can be sent on the mandatory solo cross country flight it will have to be flown dual tothe satisfaction of the club examiner. This consists of landing at two other airfields and is of at least 150 nautical miles. The course culminates in a flying Skill Test which covers all aspects of the training and has a general question and answer session afterwards in the briefing room.

The Skill Test is quite straightforward and a natural progression from the culmination of the training. The examiner will not ask you to do anything that has not been covered with instructors during your course. As with all other steps throughout the course, yo will not be recommended for the skill test until you are ready.

Lydd Aero Club corrently operate up to three differnet types of training aircraft, the CESSNA 152 and 172 and the PIPER PA 28. All types are perfectly suited to training for the PPL and are fully equiped to cater for any of the subsequent ratings or training course that we offer.

Both the Cessnas and the Pipers have side by side seating, full dual controls, good visibility and excellent handling characteristics. All our aircraft are superbly maintained to the highest standard.

The Cessna aircraft are high wing, two seat trainers (C152) and four seat trainer / tourers (C172) that over the years have become by far the most popular training aorcraft world-wide.

The Pipers are low wing configuration, four seat training and touring aircraft which offer excellent stabbility and greater speed than the C152. Like the Cessna they are ideal aircraft on which to train for the PPL. Some students prefer the Piper and the Cessna 172 because of the extra speed and especially the larger cabins, which give increased leg and headroom.

Lydd Aero Club is based at Lydd Airport close to New Roney in Kent. The airport is able to offer facitities not always available at other training airfields. With nearly 5000 feet of wide tarmac runway, year round flying is possible. This is often not the case at other airfields where water-logged runways are often the norm during the winter months. The readily identifiable coastline with Dungeness power station to the south and the fact that there is no transit time to our extensive training area makes Lydd the ideal training environment.

Many other airfields are hampered by busy controlled airspace nearby and often close above, which effectively restricts the size of their training area, both horizontally and vertically.

Lydd Airport is situated in a large area of incontrolled airspace that extends to an altitude of 5500ft, which means that all of the exercises in the PPL sylabus can be carried out in the local area, saving paying for flying time just getting to the training area.

The close proxinity of the French mainland and the availability of Customs facilities at Lydd means that flights to Le Touquet and Calais can be easily incorperated into your course.

Having obtained a Private Pilot's licence a whole new world awaits you - lunch on the Isle of Wight, dinner in Deauville, a weekend in Paris for friends and family (Pilots trained by us have flown to Prague, Nice, Corfu, Corsica, Faro to name just a few) or just the satisfaction of touring Great Britain.