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Wingly - UK travel by small plane

Only 50 quid for the night flight mind :D

I've never been in a private jet, but if it's like a plush smaller version of a big plane I'm not bothered tbh. In fact I wouldn't go out of my way to do it. The exciting bit would be the light aircraft aspect for me. Feeling the engine beneath your legs, the noise, that sort of thing.

I think this is a highly irresponsible venture, and it sounds like it may result in a change of the law so it will fuck things up for everyone else if that happens. Quite tempted.


I've not been in one either, but am told they are quite bumpy and cramped, plus you will never again be able to tolerate going through a public terminal.
 
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I've not been in one either, but am told they are quite bumpy and cramped, plus you will never again be able to tolerate going through a public terminal again.

I've been in a couple of proper private jets on the ground. Even the medium to large ones are quite cramped but you get a lovely big comfy chair.

Entertainment options are shite in the ones I saw. Bring a laptop.
 
I've been in a couple of proper private jets on the ground. Even the medium to large ones are quite cramped but you get a lovely big comfy chair.

Entertainment options are shite in the ones I saw. Bring a laptop.
There you go. If you need to bring your own entertainment, it defeats the point. I want to be excited and slightly nervous about the whole thing, not reading a book.
 
There you go. If you need to bring your own entertainment, it defeats the point. I want to be excited and slightly nervous about the whole thing, not reading a book.

From what I've heard even on the stupidly big ones your options are limited because anything audiovisual needs to be tested by the FAA, which costs lots of money.

Hence aircraft AV stuff being 5-10 years behind your front room.
 
I must say your insight on this venture was a big surprise, A380. I thought flying was about the most strictly regulated activity/ industry there can be, in the Western world at least, and assumed if anyone was allowed to even offer this service it would undoubtedly be safe as fuck.

I completely trust your opinion so I'm not doubting you. I'm just astonished anyone with less than absolutely percent competence and proficiency would be allowed to offer such services over British skies. It sounds akin to someone who's just got his car driving licence and is training to get a D licence to drive full buses being allowed to operate 15-seaters in the meantime.

I'm sure is small planes enrolled in this venture started to come down, it'd be shut down ultra sharpish?
 
I must say your insight on this venture was a big surprise, A380. I thought flying was about the most strictly regulated activity/ industry there can be, in the Western world at least, and assumed if anyone was allowed to even offer this service it would undoubtedly be safe as fuck.

I completely trust your opinion so I'm not doubting you. I'm just astonished anyone with less than absolutely percent competence and proficiency would be allowed to offer such services over British skies. It sounds akin to someone who's just got his car driving licence and is training to get a D licence to drive full buses being allowed to operate 15-seaters in the meantime.

I'm sure is small planes enrolled in this venture started to come down, it'd be shut down ultra sharpish?
that exists too
Liftshare.com, part of the UK's largest car-sharing network
 
I must say your insight on this venture was a big surprise, A380. I thought flying was about the most strictly regulated activity/ industry there can be, in the Western world at least, and assumed if anyone was allowed to even offer this service it would undoubtedly be safe as fuck.

I completely trust your opinion so I'm not doubting you. I'm just astonished anyone with less than absolutely percent competence and proficiency would be allowed to offer such services over British skies. It sounds akin to someone who's just got his car driving licence and is training to get a D licence to drive full buses being allowed to operate 15-seaters in the meantime.

I'm sure is small planes enrolled in this venture started to come down, it'd be shut down ultra sharpish?

You're analogy about driving is probably spot on. This is pushing the regulations right up to (and maybe beyond) their limits.

Light aviation here is heavily regulated but mainly to keep non- pilots safe. Which is why there are much stricter rules when you start carrying paying passengers and, at the smaller less regulated end ( microlights, de-regulated and the like) aircraft aren't supposed to fly over towns.

I convince myself that the light aircraft risk per hour is about the same as riding a motorbike. Although it's probably a bit worse than that... so the question for people thinking of using this service is akin to ' would you get on the back of a bike with someone you don't know'. Especially if they had only been riding for a couple of months, which is probably the equivalent of a low hours PPL.

I think this service will probably get banned. But it might not.

Judging by their posts DownwardDog has a lot more flying experience than I do but seems to hold the same views on this service. I don't think it's s good idea..if you want to experience light aircraft flying ( and it's great) book direct with a flying school or commercial operator.
 
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In terms of the legality, this is from their site. Still wouldn’t go anywhere near it.

Is it legal?
Yes. According to the European Regulation (EU) No 379/2014 of the 7 April 2014, amending Commission Regulation (EU) No 965/2012, pilots are allowed to share flights as long as the aircraft does not exceed 6 seats and has a non-complex motorisation. Furthermore it is only allowed to share the costs, pilots are not allowed to make any profit on the flight. We received a written confirmation of the EASA, stating that flight sharing and advertising flights is totally legal, as long as the costs are fairly shared. The CAA also confirmed it is legal in a letter to us. However, it is important to note that Air Navigation Order 2016, where it is written that advertising a cost shared flight is not possible, has been superseded by Order 1188 General Exception E4277 which allows cost sharing in the same way EASA does. In other words, because the flight remains a private one, the pilot does not need a commercial pilot’s licence to share his cost with passengers.
 
I used to analyse an aviation book for an insurer. Believe me, you do hear of a lot of small planes crashing if you insure them. The frequency of crashes is depressingly high. Not anywhere near as bad as helicopters though, which are just plain death machines as far as I can tell.
I love the fact that helicopters are so hard to fly. It makes it so much more awe-inspiring when you see it being done properly. :cool:





 
I love the fact that helicopters are so hard to fly. It makes it so much more awe-inspiring when you see it being done properly. :cool:

An early stage of the Harrier conversion involved learning how to hover in the Gazelle with minimal supervision. It was great because we didn't have to do any of the Gazelle ground school and proceeded immediately to the 'arsing about' phase of the training. Me and my oppo used to spend sunny afternoons tooling around rural Shropshire in our plastic chicken leg trying to tally pubs with a handily adjacent field so we could stop for lunch. These days, I imagine we would be Instagrammed, featured in the Daily Mail and then summarily cashiered.
 
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The mighty Lynx? Or something a tad newer?

The Mighty Wokka.

Dunno if it was an older one or a new one - don't pay that much attention, and I'm not sure you can tell - it wasn't the legendary Bravo November, but it had the larger fuel tanks on the side, so probably a newish one!
 
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