UK Pilots - Step Up to Digital - Fly the Cirrus SR22 from Cambridge (Cessna 172SP also available)

 

UK PILOT interested in an FAA Instrument Rating? Click here!

 

To learn about flying the CIRRUS, read below the next line.

To learn about the BEST DEAL IN THE UK FOR GETTING YOUR FAA INSTRUMENT RATING, CLICK HERE.

 

The world of aviation is changing - our beloved 1950s technology is slowly but steadily being replaced with digital and composite bits and pieces

No general aviation aircraft better personifies this than the stunning Cirrus SR22.

 

UK PILOT interested in an FAA Instrument Rating? Click here!

 

It's composite. It has that whole-aircraft parachute system (CAPS) that you've read about in magazines. It flies like a dream. It's very, very fast. It has perhaps the niftiest avionics package this side of an Airbus, including a giant Sandel display, stormscope, dual Garmin 430 GPSs, HSI/MFD, integrated traffic radar / alert system, and much more.

Oh yes, and there's no yoke, just these F-16 like sidesticks

and here's the real kicker: YOU can fly it for only a little bit more than a Cessna 172.

You're invited to fly the Cirrus from Cambridge, UK (EGSC) with Adrian, an FAA-certified single-engine, multi-engine, and instrument flight instructor (also advanced ground and instrument ground instructor). Adrian is an experienced and capable instructor who, while always insisting on high standards of training and performance, never forgets that this is supposed to be fun. References available on request.

The airplane is on the N-register, but can be flown by pilots with any country license (or even none at all, if you're interested in a bit of sightseeing). If you're just visiting Cambridge, perhaps from another country, why not take the opportunity to see some of the magnificent English countryside and historic Cambridge colleges from the air?

Cambridge University College Tour (purely optional, of course): If you're just visiting Cambridge, perhaps you might be interested in taking a tour of the historic university. If you're thinking of doing this, Adrian might (depending on the time of year and schedule issues) be able to invite you to a meal at one of the dining halls of Cambridge's ancient and historic (and private) colleges. What great places to discuss post-flight! Please inquire if interested.

For licensed pilots: in a relatively short time (commensurate with safety and experience), Adrian can check you out in this airplane and introduce you to the world of fast, composite, and/or digital flying. Solo flying may be possible with the consent of the owner, but please check beforehand if this is one of your goals. Even if we never get as far as the digital avionics package, just flying this aircraft is a great experience and treat.

This is an honest flying aircraft with no aerodynamic nasty surprises. However, due to the high performance nature of this aircraft, it is recommended that pilots have at least 100 hours of experience in airplanes before attempting to fly the Cirrus.

COST: The cost for the aircraft is: GBP 170 per hour (wet) + Landing/Approach Fees as charged by airports + vat (not paid if dual - you only pay VAT if/when you solo the airplane) + instructor fee (GBP 30/25 (weekend/weekday) air or ground). Adrian can also come bring the airplane to your location in the UK. Foreign pilots: this may seem expensive. Relative to flying in the USA, it is. But given the quality and capabilities of this aircraft, this rates as somewhat of a bargain for the UK.

Sightseeing flights can be as short as 1/2 hour. Up to three passengers (plus the pilot) can be accommodated.

It is very possible for a pilot to become checked out and reasonably familiar with this aircraft in 2-3 hours flight time plus an additional 2 hours of ground time. Very possible, of course, does not mean guaranteed. If you are an FAA-certified pilot, we can count this time as or towards your Biannual Flight Review (BFR) necessary to keep your certificates current and/or a flight check for the Wings Pilot Proficiency program. If you're interested in pursuing an FAA certificate or rating (such as an instrument rating, commercial pilot certificate, instructor rating), that's also possible. We can even train you for a Private Pilot certificate in this airplane--though we'd have to have a good long discussion discussing the pros and cons of this before we went down this route.

Have a look at the SR22 POH and some related material from my aircraft checklist web page

The airplane is fully insured for commercial / training use in the UK.

 

Interested? Please e-mail Adrian at

or call Andrew at +44 01223 467255 to inquire

 

it will be fun, challenging, and a unique flying experience. If you're interested, you can even get digital photos of yourself at the controls - does wonders for the vanity, that.

 

Flying is great fun, but safety is NEVER compromised.

 

 

 


 

UK Pilot Interested in an FAA instrument rating?

 

NEW! The easiest and fastest way to get an FAA Instrument Rating for UK pilots.

INTENSIVE FAA IFR TRAINING!

This is a LIMITED OFFER - do not assume it will be around forever. Contact me ASAP if you are interested in such a rating. I (Adrian) can be reached at 01223 505164 or 07816 460677.

You are a pilot in the UK with at least a UK PPL or equivalent. Additionally, you have an FAA PPL or have filed the paperwork to do so.

While not strictly required, hopefully you also hold a UK IR or IMC rating and have at least 8-10 hours "hood" (simulated instrument) or actual instrument time in an airplane. Ideally, you have at least 20 hours of hood/actual time.

Additionally, you have at least 30 (Ideally 50) hours of CROSS COUNTRY flight time (VFR or IFR, solo or dual) logged as defined as follows: a cross-country flight is one where if X is the airport of original departure, then at least one landing (touch and go, or IFR approach) is made at a point more than 50nm from X. So, if you fly from A to B to C and back to A and the B to C leg is 64nm but A to B is 34nm and C to A is 22 nm because you flew a triangle of sorts, this is NOT a cross country flight per the FAA requirements for the Instrument rating.

I am an FAA-certified single-engine, multi-engine, and instrument flight instrutor (M/CFI/I) and also hold FAA SE and ME ATP certificates. I have trained dozens of pilots for FAA instrument ratings. I am based in Cambridge, UK (EGSC).

I have with me here an Elite PI-135 simulator which I can use to train you for up to 10 hours of flight time towards your FAA IFR rating. Yes, you can log this as simulated flight time in your logbook!

You be ready to take your FAA IFR written test IMMEDIATELY. You can take the actual test later, but you need to be ready for the written test NOW or the other training will be COUNTERPRODUCTIVE. You can use my software to help you prepare for your written test, which you can download from www.faatest.com. I will give you the necessary instructor's signoff when the time comes.

We fly (at least) 10 hours in the sim here in Cambridge (we may need to fly more, but only 10 are loggable).

Ideally, we fly intensively for 5 hours a day for two days (for example, a weekend). Your cost for the 10 hours of dual in the sim PLUS up to 10 hours of additional ground instruction done during those two days is GBP 750. You eat, breathe, and sleep FAA IFR over those two days.

If necessary, we do some more training either in an airplane which you provide or in the sim or possibly in an airplane that I provide over the next few days.

If and only if you are ready - I send you off to the USA to fly 5 additional hours of dual in an airplane, probably from an airport in central New Jersey near Philadelphia and not too far from New York city. On day one you fly 5 hours with an instructor (possibly me if I am in town). On day two you fly with an FAA designated pilot examiner and hopefully get your certificate. You will fly in real life the same approaches and airspace that you have learned from the sim. Airplane? Likely Piper P28A (Warrior, etc) though others are available as well (Cessnas, Arrows, Twins, etc).

There is also a possibility that I can bring an FAA desginated pilot examiner here to you though in the final analysis this will probably cost more.

FAA IFR requirements in brief

  • holds an FAA Private Pilot certificate
  • has 50 hours cross country flight time logged at the time of the checkride (flight test)
  • has 35 hours simulated or actual instrument time logged at the time logged at the time of the checkride.
  • 15 of the 35 above hours must be with an FAA certified instrument flight instructor.
  • up to 10 of the 35 (15) may be in an approved simulator with an FAA certified instrument flight instructor.

Non-intensive instruction also available. Prices slighly higher. Prices subject to change without notice.

Interested? Call me 01223 505164 or 07816 460677 (mob).

 

Blue Skies,

 

Adrian

 

 

 

 

 

I tend to get several such requests, so instead of repeating myself in email each time, below is a copy of an email that I responded to a recent inquiry from a 165 hour JAR PPL/IMC with experience mostly in archers/warriors.

You should also check out my US/UK pilot information page here.

 

 

In order to get an FAA IR, you need to have a FAA PPL. This can be an 'on the
basis of' PPL rating or an actual one. See my document www.faatest.com/usuk
for a description of this. In theory, an OTBO certificate requires no
additional flying on your part.

Now, I hate to sound technical, but the best way to get an idea of the FAA
requirements for the IR are to get them straight for the horse's mouth. These
are spelled out in FAR 61.65, which you can read here:
http://www.risingup.com/fars/info/part61-65-FAR.shtml

  • the salient points of this are as such:
    you need 50 cross country hours (cross country as defined by the FAA -
    flights to a point 50nm away or more) to take the IR checkride (aka "flight
    test"). this can be dual or solo and can include flights during your
    training.
  • You need 35 hours in simulated or actual instrument flight time (includes
    hood time and certain simulator time). therefore, your hood time in training
    for the IMC counts
  • the 35 hours must include a minimum of 15 hours dual with an FAA-certified
    CFII (instrument flight instructor, aka me or somebody like me) training.

Key point: unlike the PPL, which most people finish in the USA at 55 hours +-
10 hours, there is tremendous variance in the time that it takes IR people to
finish. That is because unlike any other rating or certificate, success in IR
depends very much on the student's pre-learning and mental commitment. It's
possible to do it in 15 hours dual (though one needs to be absolutely superbly
pre-prepared for this) though doing it in 30 hours dual with a CFII is an
excellent accomplishment. Having done an IMC rating before is a good thing and
will probably bring the total down substantially.

Have you seen my IFR training short spiel at:

http://www.dauntless-soft.com/PRODUCTS/GroundSchool/aboutifrtest.html

it goes into this in more detail.

Costs - the cirrus costs GBP 150 per hour. The Cessna 172SP costs GBP 90 per hour. If you commit to a larger block of time, the owner may reduce the cost or agree to do something like waive the landing fees. This is up to the owner, of course, but he is quite amenable and a good guy. My fee: in the USA, unlike in many places in the UK, we charge for ground and air time. This is especially necessary for the IR, where a good instructor will typically spend as much if not more time on the ground with the student as in the air. Therefore, I prefer charging *per lesson* with the understanding that a typical lesson would be 1.5 hours of flying and 1.5 hours of ground/discussion. GBP 100 per lesson is about right--we'd prorate it if the lesson time varied substantially. Therefore, and please take this as a very rough estimate:

15 lessons at 1.5 hours flying = 22.5 hours (may be quite realistic given your
IMC experience - it IS possible to do it in less time, and it's also quite possible that an unmotivated student can really get next to nowhere in that time)


22.5 hours x 150 GBP per hour (Cirrus SR22) = 3375 GBP

22.5 hours x 90 GBP per hour (Cessna 172SP) = 2025 GBP

15 lessons x 100 GBP instructor fees = 1500 GBP


add a bit for fees and miscellany and we're looking at GBP 5000 or so for the Cirrus and 3700 or so for the Cessna

In the course of this training if you flew the Cirrus I would also give you an FAA high performance signoff (necessary to solo the 310hp cirrus). Yes, the airplane is a bit more expensive than maybe some warriors, but it is gorgeous. Trust me--the owner does not make much on the rentals!

My schedule is flexible, as I am a Ph.D. student. However, it's also quite
packed as I run my small business at the same time. We'd fly out of EGSC
Cambridge or you'd have to pay for my time to fly to your location.

We would fly in VFR weather only. In the USA I happily train IMC, but will not do this in UK airspace.

Could we use a simulator? Alas there is no _certified_ sim capable of replicating
the Cirrus (if you have access to one for the Cessna, let me know and we can work on it!). however, there we _can_ use Microsoft flight simulator or something similar. This is a great tool. Again, all you need is 35 in the airplane, and flying MSFS with me, while not loggable, is quite handy. If you are a home simulator user, this would be great as I am keen on giving homework using that. Home simulator pilots who use the sim conscientiously inevitably do better than others.

One more thing, and I mean no disrespect, but 90%+ of UK PPL/IMC pilots are not up to standard as far as instrument piloting skill goes. They have been trained in essentially "emergency IFR" procedures so that they have a better chance of survicing unforseen IMC, but it's not much more than that.

A US/FAA IR, if done with me anyway, is a step up in precision and professionalism. It's good fun, but that also means that I may have to "unteach" you certain things. That in my experience IMC pilots have been taught quite poorly (how to set up for an approach, in particular) Of course, we do this in a "mutually agreed" way - I intend to show you not just how to do some things differently, but also convince you that it's a better way.

Blue skies!

Adrian
FAA M/CFI/I IGI/AGI
dauntless-soft.com