PPL in Bulgaria - Completed
46hrs and 30min – Private Pilot’s License completed.
After several months of studying for the nine PPL exams and 44.30hrs of flight training I successfully acquired my license with Breeze Aviation in my home country Bulgaria. It took me 7 months, 3 months for learning the theory and 4 months for completing the actual flying. Some people take a lot less. I have heard student completing the flying part in just a month. It is achievable. However, I was graduating from high school and it was summer, so had a few school exams and vacations in between my flights.
I was recommended Breeze Aviation (the flight training school) by a person closely involved in the aviation industry and so started with it. It is part of the Institute of Air Transport (IAT), which was founded in 1971 and succeeded the former Bulgarian Civil Aviation Airlines’ Training Centre. The head of training, Captain Todor Simeonov, a Boeing 737 pilot with over 18,000 hours was the one who I contacted at first. Later on he conducted my basic instrument flying training in a FNPT2 simulator (5hrs) and was always there to answer my questions throughout the course. My flight instructor was V. Yankov. A pilot with more than 8000hrs and a great sense of humor.
It all started with studying the PPL subjects and preparing myself for the CAA exams. I was given the Oxford Aviation Academy CD – ROM Pack and started learning. The training is computer based, with lots of animations and a great question bank for each subject, which really helped me with the real CAA questions.
Once I completed all of the subjects I sat an exam at Breeze Aviation and was allowed to start with the flight training from Plovdiv International Airport, which is relatively busy with Ryan Air scheduled and charter flights along with military activity. I have to say, having an international airfield as a home base is amazing - you greatly improve your radiotelephony skills, learn how to fly in controlled airspace, have the opportunity to use some systems sucha as the ILS, PAPI, etc and also land behind Boeing 737s and other big jets.
After completing 10 hours of dual instruction in Cessna 150, I completed my first solo flight which comprised of a take – off, 10 touch and go’s and a landing. It was just an hour but I had a great experience putting all my knowledge and concentration in one place to get things right. After 20 more hours I spend 5 hours of simulator training in a FNPT2 C172 Simulator with Captain Simeonov, who introduced me to instrument flying, strong crosswind take-offs and landings, emergencies etc. I really enjoyed the time with him as I was able to taste the experience of flying commercialy with him. I then continued my training in C172, which felt more like of a complex airplane, with a retractable gear and constant speed propellor.
After reaching 44.30 hours I completed a 2 hrs skills check with a CAA examiner, for which I felt a bit nervous, but was nothing more than what I was thought, so it went well. I contiue my journey to become a pilot starting BSc Aviation Technology with Pilot Studies in University of Leeds.
