PPL in South Africa.

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Member for

18 years 11 months

Posts: 144

Hi everyone. I am finishing college this summer and I am intending to go get my PPL straight away. I was looking up flying schools in South Africa, and more precisely in Durban, it is a good price with accommodation included. I was wondering two things.

1. Is this a good idea or should I go somewhere else.

2. Would that PPL be recognised in U.K and Ireland.

Cheers.

p.s I ultimately want to fly commercial flights so any info on the quickest and easiest way (even though I know it will still be hard) to do this would be much appreciated.

Original post

Member for

18 years 2 months

Posts: 18

PPL in RSA

A PPL from any ICAO country is recognised worldwide but to progress you may find employers insisting on a FAA or JAR.
A JAR PPl wishing to fly in NEW Zealand for example has to take an air law exam and a GFT. A British CPL would only be allowed PPL category if wishing to fly in NZ, this is partly because there is lots of mountain flying and different
procedures locally.
I flew whilst there on holiday in 2003, the air is crystal clear, on a grey day from 2000 feet the visability was about 50 miles.
The biggest civvy fleet is the good old US of A, it is more difficult to train there than it was with visas etc, but they have a can do attitude to aviation

Member for

18 years 11 months

Posts: 144

Cheers man ya i was also thinking of doing it in the u.s but it is more, but i can see now that in the long run it can be cheaper. I can aso get a j1 visa as I am still a student.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,606

Bear in mind, each aircraft is treated as a separate type in SA so if you say train on a 152 then wish to fly a PA28 back the UK, you have to get a SA instructor to do differences training. As there are very few UK-based SA instructors, this generally means a visit to Popham to see Irv. :)

Irv Lee > http://www.higherplane.flyer.co.uk/

Member for

18 years 2 months

Posts: 18

One Very Important Point I forgot to stress before you spend loads of money is to see if you can pass a class 1 JAR medical, if you can't the rest is irrelevant.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,606

p.s I ultimately want to fly commercial flights so any info on the quickest and easiest way (even though I know it will still be hard) to do this would be much appreciated.

Seriously the quickest, (hardly easiest) way still seems to be giving Oxford at lot of money.

Member for

18 years 11 months

Posts: 144

Seriously the quickest, (hardly easiest) way still seems to be giving Oxford at lot of money.

Ya but would that be as much fun?

Member for

18 years 1 month

Posts: 96

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.

Member for

18 years 11 months

Posts: 144

I am thinking of dinig a six week course so the first thing you mentionrd should be ok. Also I would like to reccomend Irv Lee's website to anyone going for a PPL. Especially if you are thinking of doing it abroad. His quick response and informative answers were great to recieve. There's a link to his page above.

Also thanks to everyone who gave me some great info.