[Surfrdan]

I think it's time to learn to fly. I've been lucky enough to spend time in DHC chipmunks and Grob Vigilants as well as winch and towed viking gliders thanks to the Air Cadets in the 90s. I've always been attracted to flight and now in my late 40s I am in a position to follow my dreams and become a licenced pilot.

Having done some reading around on the subject, I'm not clear on the best path to take. My intentions for the next 5 years are to regularly fly VFR in a SEP from an airport like Welshpool or Llanbedr. It seems that the LAPL might be the simplest way to achieve this initially. It leaves the door open to upgrade to PPL in the future but gets me out there withthe ability to build the hours on my own in a short time. I'm also giving serious consideration to purchasing a small trainer in order to build those hours. Something like a pa38 can seemingly be had for relative peanuts and is surely at the bottom of its depreciation curve when priced below 20k ? I'm making enquiries to hangarage costs and maintenance costs but initial research sounds promising.

Does this sound like a sensible approach? I've considered the 2 or 4 seat argment and although I have a wife and 2 kids, it seems there isn't a huge apetite for them all to join me at the same time... yet? so a 2 seater would probably fit the bill for a few years and enables me to take one up at a time once past the qualifying hour requirements.

My heart would love some sort of STOL cub derivative so I could live out my alaskan bush pilot dreams but the reality is that even with a few expanses of beach and remote uplands around here, that sort of flying is almost non existant in the UK and my time would be better spent doing classic GA from paved runways and longer grass strips with cafe/hotel stops.