Benoit,

Halfpenny Green is a possibility, Shawbury is military.

Also worth considering are Shobdon or Welshpool, which have active flying clubs and are close to the Welsh borders, offering some nice flying scenery.

There’s also a gliding club on the Long Mynd which still occasionally uses bungey launches when the wind is favourable.

Quite a while back I was working on the Lockheed Tristar installation.
It had a tail engine fed through an S-duct with the intake above the aft fuselage.
One of the issues was lowish frequency structure born noise which was quite noticeable for the passengers in the back. It led to a technique for tweaking the fan blade selection to optimise the fan noise in this range just for the centre engine. At high power settings the fan blade tips are supersonic, and the shock waves they generate cause a rather harsh “buzz-saw” noise.

In principle there is no insurmountable problem with cheek intakes and an aft fuselage mounted engine, although cabin noise, as you rightly suggest, could be an issue.

SA is certainly worth considering. Nice climate, good exchange rate, generally good flying schools (there are always exceptions).

Be wary of the 3-week PPL. It is (just) possible, but leaves no breathing space. Try to get the ground studies done in advance and have some contingency time available, if at all possible. It may save having a second trip just to finish it off.

As has been said, the licence has ratings that are specific to type, so you need the services of someone like Irv Lee (good chap) to extend your repertoir.

There were a few JAR schools in SA, but I think no longer. A conversion to a JAR PPL in the future wouldn’t be too burdonsome.

A SA CPL is also recognised by most southern African countries, but not much use over here except for the credit you get towards a JAR licence.

Supposedly this will be the answer to your prayers.

My inclination is to wait as long as possible, as they are likely to come down to the price of current transponders once the sales volumes are up.

With most of Europe mandating them sooner or later, the market should soon be swelling.

Weren’t the Turbulents factory built?

I seem to remember seeing them being built by Rollasons at Shoreham/Croydon, possibly under licence from Druine.
The Ardem engine was a type certificated VW conversion IIRC. This could have given them some kind of grandfather rights if they were later orphaned from their type certificates.

Have you got PPR for Hornchurch?

Aeronautical engineering degrees aren’t that specific. Really, it’s a mechanical engineering degree with a bias towards lightweight structures, aerodynamics, gas turbine cycles etc.

There is a role for professional engineers in large maintenance organisations, but day to day maintenance is done under the supervision of licensed technicians. Very responsible, and often poorly paid work.

I don’t know what stage you’re at, or what your aim is job-wise.

An aeronautical degree is a good start if you’re interested in design, development or testing for either fixed wing or rotary.

I thought that I’d share this here.
MG taken last year over Warwickshire after her engine re-fit.
I believe she’s the only aircraft still sporting CoAT livery.