My first flight was flying home after the PPL test in a DR.221. Looking at my logbook now, it’s not there! I must have been tired and forgotten to log it. I do remember it was a hot day in the high 30s.
The next flight was a demonstrator flight in an Aquila A210 the club was thinking of buying.
Then followed 10 flights in 2 weeks, all local and circuits, where I also got instructor signoffs on a PA28 (heavy and unresponsive) and a DR.250 (fell in love).
Then the first A-B flight was taking one of the planes for maintenance 25nm away.
5 weeks after the PPL I took my girlfriend to the south of France for the weekend.
It’s quite nostalgic looking back at those summer CAVOK days when anything seemed possible.
Wow Capitaine you did more flights in the two weeks after PPL than I did in the almost two years since passing mine… :(
Those were the halcyon days of my youth before any responsibility 
I moved to the UK shortly after, which was a big shock, so only flew on holiday in France for two or three years
After slightly more than 2 years of training, and almost 2 months waiting for the paper license (being an expat and doing the theory exams in another country made the issuing more … ‘bureaucratic’ ), my first flight as PIC was with my family; two short flights to see the views around the airport.
But days later, my second flight was a cross border flight from Lelystad to Leer Papenburg with my sons. Was really proud of that! Wonderfull weather, everything according to plan, and my eldest son was so good at holding course and altitude that it felt like having an auto pilot :-)
My PPL was kind of a non-event because I had the Brevet de Base (BB) before and a few dozen local flight as PIC under my belt (about 27 hours solo).
Just checked and first flight after the checkride was one month after, a checkout on a DR400-160 (was trained on DR300 and DR400-120).
I remember it, it was with the same FI but the atmosphere was much more relaxed
Then some solo circuits on my new machine and a round trip to our maintenance base 22 NM away.
Reading my logbook, it was an intense time of checkouts and the first summer after getting the PPL was quite full of small trips, mostly with my dad keeping a eye on me :)
It wouldn’t have been so quick if I hadn’t have the BB before the PPL. Mostly for confidence.
Passed flight test on Jackeroo 21/8/64. Next flew with instructor
Passed flight test on Jackeroo 21/8/64 at Thruxton. Next flew at Perth with instructor in a Chipmunk 9/1/65, solo on 23/1/65 after 1 hour 20 minutes dual. Didn’t go anywhere before giving up due to cost.
Regained licence at Inverness on C152, 17/4/87, and flew to Glenforsa with an almost-PPL pax on 30/5/87 for the Glenforsa Fly-in. The Highland Aero Club encouraged going places.
I think Maoraigh ought to come to one of our fly-ins, and show us all how it’s done
I was fried after a 3h session PPL exam this day, a saturday of summer in Provence, full of planes. 3 hours to take care of others. I even crossed a plane that was in my 6h during a 360 exercise. The info ATC told me “you are 3 in the same 5mile area, you ensure your own separation”.
After that, I had to cool down, and find again the pleasure of flying, so took the DA40 3 days after and went to drink a coke in Gap (LFNA) over the mountains (From Cannes LFMD), nice and mighty in summer and winter.
I sometime went there again because this is always a nice place to fly around. Did also a Pee stop there after I couldn’t land in Grenoble Versoud.
The nice ATC women told me “you can also refuel if needed”. “No I don’t need, it’s just an hygienic stop!”.
My first flight after passing my skills test was back from the airfield where I collected my examiner – about 15 minutes flight time away. My instructor made me complete flight plans for the flight to the skills test and back, signed them off because – in his words – until I actually received my licence, I was still a student and as my instructor, he could authorise me to fly solo.
Once I held the licence in my grubby paws, I flew to Marl, picked up a friend and his wife and flew around the Ruhr Valley, enjoying the scenery for a change, rather than studiously following exercises
