On the other side of the world...
I've always had a life involved in flying and aviation in general, and had
probably done more time on a jumbo at the age of 15 then most people would
do in a life time. The person that gives me my motivation and is my biggest
inspiration in flying is my father. He is a flight engineer for South
African Airways and has worked for them for 42 years. He also has his
commercial pilot's license and instrument rating, and has a vast general
knowledge as well as a practical mind.
Kent Street SHS has two Cessna's (C-152 and C-172) and a RV-6A, both ofwhich, being a student of the school, I could fly at cheaper rates.
During my last year at school 20% of our year mark was based on going solo.
This was good because you could do some time flying during school hours.
There are a couple of different ways of becoming a pilot (commercial) in Australia. You start off by applying to CASA (Civil Aviation Safty Authority) for a student pilots license (cost about R80), then you do your medical (class 1 or 2), and do your ab initio training in a C-152 or similar - it usually takes about 12
hours before going solo and then about another 12 hours before you can do
your GFPT flight test (a restricted pilots license enabling you to carry passengers but only flying in the genral flying area).
At this stage you have about 25hours, now it's time to decide if you want to
do a 150 hour commercial licence or a 200 hour one.In order for a flight school to
do a 150hour commericial they have to have an approved course, and you have
to follow it hour by hour. The flight school I did my PPL (private pilot's licence) at had an approved 150 com. course which, after GFPT we had to do seven NAVEX's and a Flight test, this takes a minuim of 25 hours so you get your PPL in about
55hours but a lot of good navigation experience, about 3 hours
instrument flying to enable you to handle difficult situations, and you also get your license to fly into all contolled zones including those that have radar services.
There are a few rules, in that you have to do at least two Nav's before you write your PPL theory but you must have passed your theory before you go on nav seven, if you get your CPL theory you dont have to do you PPL theory but you must have 5 hours solo cross-country before you do your CPL theory and before nav 7 ( which is a 4 hour solo cross-country). There are a few more but you get the piont and it's really quite difficult to find out what all of them are as the instuctors of the school I started off with didnt tell you the in's and out's and if you end up doing a 200hour com it would be rather disappointing.
Before you start you com. training you need around 55-60 approved solo cross-country hours. This is because they dont want you to just take your friend's up for flips and build up hours that way, they want you to get good navigation experience.
I'm going to be flying a Tiger Moth from Sydney to Perth ( about 2000nm) later this year and by getting the 30 to 40 hours flying, it will count for most of my cross -country flying, as it should, only having the original instruments and having to navigate by a magnetic compass all the time. Another prerequisite for you to do your com training is that your aircraft must be a CSU (constant speed unit) and have a TAS of at least 120kts. I've chosen a C-182 to do my training in as it can carry a good payload and is still quite cost effective to run. A night rating used to be compulsory but is no longer. Before a company can hire you as a commercial pilot you need to have a first aid certificate and a dangerous goods licence.
It is not easy to get a job with just a basic com licence, so some clubs here offer their students ICUS (in command under supervision) hours. My club is a charter company that also does instruction. This is really good as they are very small and personal and are actual commercial pilots not just instuctors who are teaching you to be a commercial pilot but have never even done one hour of charter work, other then joy flight's. Being a charter company their main work is in charter and as a student with them, I will be able to charter their clients (under supervision) and log it as command time if there are less than five people on board, once I have passed my CPL test. I would do everything from the pre-flight checks to the wash down of the aircraft but with a 1000hour pilot watching me as a safety pilot. Of couse nothing is free so I have to pay about R200 per hour but if I hired the aircraft privately it would cost about R900/hr ( C-210 six seater) and I would not be getting the charter experience. It would also enable me to get a reference stating that I have command hours in charter work. They also have contacts in smaller regular transport companies and they have been able to find about 95% of their student jobs.
There are many different schools, in Perth, some better then other's. The best advice I can offer to any person wanting to learn to fly is choose the flying school very carefully. Don't just go to the biggest one as you might just become one of the numbers. Don't just go to the one that has the cheapest prices because if another school has better instructors and she/he can save you one hour in every six it will probably work out cheaper in the long run. And YOU choose your instructor, never ask the CFI who he will recommend as the chances are he will put you with the least experienced instructor to try and help him get off his feet at your cost. Always remember who is paying, if the instructor say's he has control and does a loop or a barrel roll, yes it may be great at the time but think of it this way, if you are paying R450/hr instuction you are paying R7.50 per minute, and by him doing a loop it just costs you. I fell into all of these traps when I started flying, I went to the biggest flying training school in the southern hemisphere, that had the cheapest rates and the most insturctors (30 odd) and I asked the CFI who he would recommend as my instructor and I got put with the newest grade 3 to join the company. I found out later that I was his first student ever. Ask youself if a grade 3 instructor who has zero hours instructing is really going to know when to tell if you are ready to go solo or is he going to make you do 2 or 3 hours more just to make sure( 2 x R450= R900) My first instructor fell asleep on most of my Nav's and I was paying him to do so.
I have a web page " www./users/90" and you can e-mail me if you have any questions regarding flying in Australia or anything else at :
mitton
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