UK Private Pilots Licence (PPL)

Private Pilots Licence (PPL) course offers you the training and experience you need to be able to fly for your own pleasure or business. If you want to go further and pursue a professional aviation career via the UK Modular route, the PPL is the first step.

What can you do with a PPL?

The Private Pilots Licence allows to you to pilot an aircraft during daylight hours in reasonably good weather within the limits of Visual Flight Rules (VFR). 

If it is your intension to continue to add to your PPL  and you want to be able to fly in more challenging conditions your licence can be upgraded to include the ability to fly in cloud under Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) and/or at night.

One of the requirement is that you must pass a medical examination by a CAA-approved doctor. The medical is straightforward and anyone of average health should pass the medical without any difficulties.

The Private Pilots Licence (PPL) course is designed to combines both practical flight training and the theoretical knowledge required to fly light aeroplanes within the UK and Europe. It is the same as that required to fly an helicopter but the training would be conducted on a helicopter instead of a light aeroplane. 

Your PPL training would requires you to fly a minimum of forty-five hours flying time.  Ten of those hours you will use to build up some solo experience. You will be required to undertake a skills test with an examiner. 

The skills test is used so that you can show you have obtained the  general handling and navigation skills required for the issue of a PPL.

There are also nine multiple-choice exams to be completed they all relate to the knowledge you will require to be a safe pilot the pass mark is 75%. 

      • Human Performance
      • Meteorology
      • Communications
      • Principles of Flight
      • Operational Procedures
      • Flight Performance & Planning
      • Aircraft General Knowledge, and
      • Navigation
      • Aviation Law

Your training will be designed around your needs therefore, you can fly as often as you like, but we do recommend that all students should aim to fly at least once per week. Recency plays an important role in the training.

In the UK there is an option for a Light Aircraft Pilots Licence (LAPL) that offers a slight reduction in flight training required (30 hours instead of 45 hours minimum), but with additional restrictions being placed on what you can do with your licence. The medical requirements for the LAPL are also reduced.