You're almost never too young to start flying….

Followers of our blog will remember our 13 year old student, Phillip, who has already had two lessons with Redhill Aviation. Yesterday he had his third lesson and not only performed the take-off, but also his first landing (with help and encouragement from instructor Laurance). 

Phillip shares his experience of learning to fly so far….

My first flight, other than in a commercial jet, was in a Chipmunk when I was 11 years old as part of the BBC programme The Dengineers. It made me want to fly myself and for my 12^th birthday my parents got me a flight experience with Redhill Aviation. In that first flight I got to take the controls and navigate to my house. Before the flight I was really nervous but once in the air it was fantastic. I wanted to fly more. 

In my next flight I got to take-off and flew over Bough Beech to learn how to trim and turn the aeroplane. Still I wanted more, but the weather held me back and in November last year whilst I couldn’t fly, Laurance let me practice taxi-ing and turning on the ground. And finally in February half term the weather cleared and I got to take to the skies again. This time Laurance gave me almost full control and I got to taxi, take-off and land. The only thing I was too nervous to do was to talk to ATC. 

I fill in the time between flights by flying on X Plane 11 and now have the rudder pedals to make it more realistic, I am saving hard for the yoke and throttle quadrant. I have also joined 2427 Biggin Hill Squadron of the ATC so that I can further my knowledge of all things aeroplane and I really hope to join the RAF when I am old enough. I’d like to thank everyone at Redhill Aviation and especially Laurance for helping me and being so patient, I cannot wait until I am 14 so that I can start to log hours and work towards my pilot’s licence.

Below are videos of Phillip's first landing (yesterday) and his first take-off (his previous lesson). We think he's making great progress – congratulations!