Air experience flights

The air experience flight, also known as the trial flight, or introductory lesson is your first step on the road to becoming a pilot. During your trial flight, your instructor will demonstrate each of the basic flying manoeuvres, then, under his instruction, you will take the controls and have a go yourself.  It is not a 'pleasure flight' as such, but an air experience in which you can take part at a basic level if you wish. For the full legalities please read on!

What is an Introductory Lesson?

According to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which regulates flying training in the UK, the introductory lesson is Exercise 3 of the training course for the Private Pilots Licence (PPL). In case you're wondering, Exercises 1 and 2 consist of instruction on the ground about the aircraft itself and procedures before and after flight.

Exercise 3 is also commonly known as the trial lesson, or the air experience flight. Whatever the flying school calls the flight, the objective is the same. It is the chance to get airborne in a light aircraft and to try your hand at flying it under the supervision of a flying instructor.

So, that is what an introductory lesson is. There are a couple of things that it is not. An introductory lesson is not the same as a pleasure flight around some famous landmark, where you sit in the back and the pilot is, in effect, an aerial chauffeur. The introductory lesson is a flight where you get to do some actual piloting, it is an introduction to the art of flying an aircraft. Neither is the lesson an irrevocable commitment to learn to fly. Plenty of people take an introductory lesson just for the experience, as you might try sailing a boat or driving a racing car just the once. There is nothing wrong with that at all - even though some pilots find it difficult to believe that anyone could not want to learn to fly! Beware though, flying can be addictive. There are plenty of pilots who got started by deciding to have an introductory lesson just for the fun of it, and found themselves hooked!

BAT Introductory Lessons

BAT offers introductory lessons of 30, 40, 45 or 60 minutes duration. The introductory lesson voucher will state the duration of the lesson, and the flying school staff will be pleased to confirm this for you. The flight time starts from the moment the aircraft starts to 'taxi' away from the parking spot, and it ends when the aircraft parks after landing.

You decide where you'd like to go! A 30 minute flight could take you over your home, if you live in the Carlisle area, or out along the Solway towards Dumfries or perhaps to the northern edges of the Lake District. 45 minutes of flying will get you into the northern Lakes, for example Bassenthwaite Lake to Keswick and along to Penrith, before returning to the airfield. With an hour of flying, you can really explore the Lake District or the Eden Valley.

If you are seriously thinking about learning to fly, it is worth knowing that the flying time on this flight does count towards the total required for completing the PPL course, of which more later. If you buy a log book at the time of the introductory lesson the instructor will help you enter the details of your flight, and you will have logged your first flight time on the way to becoming a pilot.

Border Air Training presents a personalised picture calendar and a signed certificate to all those who undertake a trial flying lesson.

Sounds like fun? Contact Border Air Training to discuss an introductory lesson (and to book one!). We look forward to introducing you to the pleasure of flying a light aircraft.