How it works

Book onto a BYP course near you and you will join a group of around 10 like minded young pilots for a course that spans 10 sessions.

SCHOOL CLUBS: If you are lucky enough to have a BYP flying club in your school, you will attend a weekly session, usually after school, 10 sessions in 10 weeks.

WEEKEND CLUBS: Most students attend a BYP club on a weekend, you will come to your local BYP centre for 10 sessions across 5 x half days.

WHAT HAPPENS IN A SESSION?

Each session is at least an hour long. The first half is more formal and feels a bit like a school lesson (but way more interesting!), your instructor will be explaining a concept using a white board, video and models.

The second half of the lesson is less formal, your instructor will introduce you to the days flying exercise and you will swap between flying the days mission, acting as co-pilot and engaging in informal group discussions, completing a quiz or exploring the days subject in greater detail with your instructor. Groups are small so you get lots of attention.

REAL FLIGHTS!

Once you join, you can start booking real flights at one of 14 BYP locations around the country. You will fly for 30 minutes and will have the controls for the majority of the flight. Some of these are run directly by BYP, others are flight schools partnered with BYP. We recommend one to two real 30 minute flights each term, each of these will count towards your ‘hours’ to become a pilot.

HOW MUCH DOES THIS COST?

£330 per term and £99 for each real flight. If you stay with BYP all to way to level 4, then you will complete a total of 9 terms spanning three years.

WHO WILL BE MY INSTRUCTOR

All BYP instructors are qualified experienced pilots and they are all great with young people. You might have an airline or military pilot or a passionate private pilot as your instructor but they all have their own experience to bring to the classroom. You will normally keep the same instructor for the whole term but not always. If you don’t like your instructor, you can contact HQ and move to a different class (though that almost never happens!).

HOW FAR CAN I GO?

When you start, BYP is mainly about fun and getting you up in the air BUT everything we do leads you towards a qualification. You initially sign up for a single term to do our ‘Wings’ course but you can carry on and complete a further 8 terms of training (Levels 1-4) and you should comfortable be able to leave school with a pilots license - specifically and ‘NPPL Microlight’ which can be upgraded to higher status licenses with more training over time. Note, the MINIMUM requirements for grant of this license is 5 x ground exams, 25 hours of flying of which 10 must be solo - that’s what we are pushing you to get.

WILL I BE WITH KIDS MY OWN AGE?

We try and run groups in two age bands; 11-13 and 14-17, we occasionally merge groups if we don’t have enough numbers to run two but this works surprisingly well.

WILL IT BE TOO HARD OR TOO EASY?

The BYP Syllabus is exactly the same content that is taught to adults and it gradually becomes more complex - this isn’t a kids gaming club, this is real flight training delivered by real pilots and you will be flying real planes. We find kids don’t struggle to keep up at all but equally, don’t worry if you don’t understand EVERYTHING first time. If you are a little older you will engage with the syllabus at a deeper level and you will find your instructor will give you stretch tasks and help you explore the subject in more depth, small groups allow us to do that.

I WANT TO BE A PROFESSIONAL PILOT - WILL THIS HELP?

Yes, absolutely. You are getting a head start, making friends with people like you and being mentored by real pilots. We aren’t directly teaching you how to fly passenger jets but everyone who flies a jet has to first get a PPL and this is a fantastic place to start your journey.

WHAT NOW?

Find your nearest BYP training centre here and sign up to the next WINGS course, or if you have more questions, call us any time for a chat - 01264 300747.