Obtaining a PPL in France

On May 23 I arrived by Ryanair at Limoges Bellegarde, picked up a hire car and followed Sue Virr’s precise instructions to reach her base, La Chataigneraie, near the village of Gorre about 20 km away.

The intention was to convert a lot of flying hours done at the Limerick Flying Club near Shannon into a JAR PPL.Having been thwarted for several years from obtaining an Irish licence, by the weather and the very short and narrow strip at Coonagh.

I turned to Google and found an FTO run by Sue Virr and attached to the Aero Club de Limoges that offered Civil Aviation Authortity (CAA) PPL training in English for a British issued JAR PPL.

Sue is Joint CFI at the aero club and a CAA instructor and flight and ground school examiner.

 

She started flying about 20 years ago during an enforced break in a distinguished career as a steeplechase jockey and obtained her CPL and instructor rating following a very serious horse riding accident that terminated her riding career .

The following day we discussed what flying needed to be done and also the CAA written exams that had to be passed before the flight test - and how to fit everything into a two-week time frame.

The Robin DR 400 which I used for my training.

 

We then went out to the aero club at Limoges Bellegarde which has one runway 2500m long and 45m wide. Ryanair and Air France flights use it but it is by no means a busy airport and the airspace around it is very quiet.

 

The Club has three Robin 400-140s and one 400-180, as well as a Piper Archer and diesel Diamond Star. The first flight in one of the 140s was to familiarise me with the aircraft and reporting points round the CTR.

 

The following day we did an hour of touch & go circuits. The Robin is a very easy and stable plane to fly, but I soon learned that  the nose wheel needs to be put down firmly upon landing or the centering mechanism may not engage  and the plane may head for the grass.Once I had grasped that fact everything just fell into plac and the circuits became a pleasure.

 

The next two days Sue was busy working with a pilot renewing his rating, so I started studying. Since I was already familiar with the JAA syllabus, this mainly consisted of familiarisation with the more searching CAA multiple choice question system. The PPL Confuser, based on actual CAA examination questions, proved extremely useful.

 

On 27 May, I took the first paper - Human Performance. The useful thing about CAA written examinations are that each subject can be taken separately, marked immediately and retaken if necessary. This is simpler than the Irish system where ground school exams can only be taken centrally (in Dublin) every two months – but on the other hand there are only four papers compared to the CAA’s seven.

 

We then completed three hours of navigation exercises, first to Poitiers and then some smaller airfields including a grass strip where we did a few touch & go’s to experience the difference between tarmac and grass. Then back to Limoges for more circuits.

The next two days were mainly spent with more nav ex., diversions and touch & go’s, with an hour of unusual attitudes followed by circuits at Limoges and simulated EFATOS. The CAA has a very practical attitude to diversions. The argument is that a diversion is probably required because of bad weather ahead or some technical problem like falling oil pressure, requiring a quick decision where to go.Once established on the new track there is then time to check, adjust and establish.

30 May we concentrated on air work – stalls, steep turns, engine-outs, flapless and glide approaches, side-slipping, inspection for precautionary landings, low level (bad weather) circuits and finishing up with a normal circuit. All well there.

 

The day after was another study day after which only the Navigation exam remained. Sue polished up another student for his PPL which he passed on 1 June and took the opportunity to put the examiner Mike Grierson on standby for my test later in the week.

 

 La Porcerie my home for the two weeks training

 

We completed another short nav ex including VOR tracking and then checked out basic instrument flying under the hood, followed by some slow flying.

     

I found studying for the Nav exam difficult because it is based on 1:500000 charts of the UK where the airspace is considerably more complex than in Ireland and 80% of the questions are based on it. But by 2 June, I felt I had enough done to pass the exam, and this proved to be the case.

I was not entirely confident about practical navigation and I felt I could do with more time settling everything into place, but by now, I was only two days away from returning home. Sue reckoned that if I took the test, I should at least get a partial pass and second, if there was a break in the training – to use horse terminology – I would lose condition and need time to get it back when I returned.

 

So the next day we did another nav ex with diversions. Sue from an examiner’s perspective reckoned I would have passed, we decided to go for it and that evening I was given the flight-test route.

 

On 4 June, we did a few warm-up circuits before Mike Grierson arrived for the Test We had flown so much I felt fairly relaxed about it and Sue repeated a very helpful piece of advice – don’t panic if you make a mistake, it may not be terminal.

 

The Test started with routine flight planning after which we took to the air. I was expecting to start the nav ex immediately, but Mike wanted a normal and then a flapless touch and go first. While recovering from the T&G he pulled the power for a simulated EFATO, after which we started the nav. I felt the first leg was pretty messy but there were good landmarks and the first destination, St Savin, was in the right place, with two large towns and a power station as confirmation.

 

We then turned East on the second leg and about halfway along  I was told to put on the hood and do 180° turns left and right and then  establish our position – not difficult since again there were good landmarks with confirmation using an  appropriate  radial from the Poitiers  VOR.

 

After that, we diverted to Magnac Laval about 20 miles away, estimating the heading and bearings from

Poitiers and Limoges VORs. We flew the heading until it intersected the radial from Limoges VOR overhead what was probably Magnac and confirmed its identity using geographic features and the intersecting radial from Poitiers VOR.

After landing and parking back at Bellegarde, Mike asked some general questions about aircraft – one was the purpose of the cranked wing on the Robin – and said I had passed. Although I had made mistakes, he felt safe throughout and that was the most important consideration.

 

Altogether, I flew about 18hours training and 2h30 on the flight test. It was all “go”, but Sue was always encouraging and confidence was building all the time.

 

I could see my steady progress for myself, culminating in a busy but not very stressful flight test and a mighty sense of achievement when Mike uttered the magic words: “You’ve cracked it!” Thanks, Sue!

 

Peter Cazalet

Comments

[Stuart Morton]

and what was the answer about the cranked wing on the Robin ? I will be doing my flight test before the end of the year in Limoges....?
Its nice to hear first hand how the test goes, congrats......

[M.Galvin]

I believe that the 'cranked wing' configuration found only on Robin aircraft are twisted nose-down so that they only generate lift and therefore drag when the aeroplane is climbing or coming in to land.

In cruise they produce no lift, very little drag, and enhance the wingtip airflow and lateral stability.

This is the secret to the DR400's realively high performance.

[Peter Cazalet]

Glad you found the article useful, Stuart. I deliberately angled it at students like yourself who wanted an idea about the structure of the GFT.

Cranked wing - in a nutshell the outer section has a lower angle of attack than the inner which therefore stalls first, hence little or no wingdrop. The examiner accepted this, anyway!

Goodluck with your test when the time comes.

[Aurelia]

Could you please tell me if you took the exam in French? I live in France but don't speak French !
Thank you !!