Been into the manuals for two weeks now but unable to manage another flight. Two takeoff attempts on separate days both stopped by bad weather :mad:. Oh well, at least I'm getting really good at taxiing and refueling.
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Been into the manuals for two weeks now but unable to manage another flight. Two takeoff attempts on separate days both stopped by bad weather :mad:. Oh well, at least I'm getting really good at taxiing and refueling.
solmanic,
I guess you instructors have already told you, but you don't need a CPL to fly for your own business reasons. If you are just carting you and your staff around then no CPL needed. A night VFR rating may be helpful, but if you want to have some added flexibility then a (command instrument rating (CIR) is really required. In saying that, in 16 years of flying for business and pleasure I can count on both hands the number of times I have been delayed by weather. And the for the cost of a CIR you need to weigh up the costs in time and recurrent training in order to stay proficient to see if it is useful. You can do a Private IFR rating (PIFR) and although the currency requirements are less stringent you still need to be current and competent in your IFR flying.
In saying the above I also get to claim my flying on tax, which certainly helps reduce the cost.
As a bit of advice, whilst a nice new (well new to you) Baron at 195kts might look very sexy (and they fly nice) I would suggest starting off with something like a C182. They can carry your three pax plus full fuel and do everything you need. Get a few hours, a bit of experience, especially in outback flying (things like Outback VMC - you will learn what it is!) and such like then make a rather large financial decision on what you would like.
Another bit of advice, if you are going to do your CIR then look into the pro's and cons of buying your own aircraft to do it in, actually this goes for all of your training. If you can afford it, it really is the cheapest way to go. Whilst the aircraft out there may be 25-30 years old at the youngest in a lot of fleets, there is nothing wrong with these aircraft as long as they are maintained. The best part is older aircraft do not depreciate, in fact they slowly appreciate, so although you can claim depreciation on them as a paper deduction, when it comes time to sell you will at the very least get your money back, so even if you bought yourself a Warrior or C172 to do your PPL in and then used it for maybe 2 to 300 hours of flying building that experience before trading up to something else, you will get your money back. Now the flip side of the coin is the old saying, if it flies, floats or f&#%'s, RENT IT! It is for good reason, but then again, there is nothing like leaning up against the bar and saying "I just flew my aircraft in from XXX" Up to you and your accountant!
Now to the flying training part. If you can take time off in blocks to do it then I would absolutely advice that way. Even if it is a week at a time and aim to fly twice a day, ie 2 x 1 hour sorties up to GFPT and then 1 x navex a day or at least every second day. Yes people do learn at different rates, and I am sure you will quickly find if this is too much or you can do more, but flying training in blocks is the cheapest way to do it. You retain more, you don't have to go back over stuff you have already learnt and you build on the serials you did the flight before.
As for the RAAus flying, if you want to fly for recreation then by all means go the RAAus route. You sound like you need more flexibility therefore I would suggest doing all your training at a GA outfit. A full PPL, 45 odd hours at $250 per hour give or take plus medicals, AVID, ASIC, exams fees etc, will set you back around $12,000. Take your tax off that and you would be paying no more than about $7,000 depending on which tax bracket you are in. I have my RAAus licence as well as GA (although all my training was done in GA). I did the 5 hours transition to RAAus and have done some time in a Jabiru and a Lightwing and whilst they - the Lightwing in particular - was a whole heap of fun, for me, to go anywhere for business, they simply are not viable. Yes a Jab may do 120kts, but they do not handle turbulence as well plus the other restrictions (if RAAus registered) of certain airspace and airports, night, pax numbers etc. Additionally I like to turn myself (and any willing passengers!) upside down doing aerobatics and you cannot do that in RAAus. But each to their and I guess when it looks like i will no longer be able to hold a medical (hopefully a large number of years away yet!) I will take up RAAus flying just to stay in the air. But for now GA suits me.
RQAC has a fairly good reputation in the GA world. However - and this goes for all flying training organisations - you are the boss, you say who you want to fly with, what aircraft and with whom, not the other way around. Do not be scared of saying "I do not want to fly with Instructor X, I prefer Y and if you do not get joy then go somewhere else. It is not an insignificant amount of money you are spending so make sure you get value for it. There are a number of good schools around Brisvegas so don't think you have to stay with one school. Also never, ever, ever pay upfront for flying hours. Pay as you go. Some schools offer discounts if you pay upfront, but the 10% or so some offer is simply not worth the risk. I don't know whether you have seen the GA news recently but within the last two years a half dozen of the biggest flying training organisations have gone under (arguably the largest three at Bankstown just recently) and if you have $10-15,000 in their account then kiss goodbye to it for the foreseeable future. So if you only take on bit of advice from this post, please only pay as you go.
Do not be too proud to ask questions, especially of the offer from a Grade 1 instructor as offered on this thread. You will find the aviation community much like the 4WD one. Yes there are some idiots but most people are very professional, friendly and have an enthusiasm for flying that is infectious. Welcome to the wonderful world of aviation. It may be expensive but then again so are most fun things in this life.
If you would like any more info please let me know, only too happy to pass my own experience (sometimes expensive!) on to a fellow 4WDer and budding pilot. You never know, perhaps we could have a Aulro pilots meet somewhere!!!
Cheers
Dave J.
Welcome to AULRO Dave :)
excellent first post!
but
can anyone say acronym?:p
and in the words of a previous red head,,
Please Explain?:D
CPL
VFR
IFR
Outback VMC
GFPT
XXXX, no wait, I know that one--
RAAus
AVID
ASIC
GA
I'm a bit rusty - haven't flown for ten years, and can't afford it, plus it brings back too many memories of life before I lost my wife. But there are some of the answers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift
I learnt to fly 55 years ago, and did my cross country flying for unrestricted with RQAC, quite good then.
John
Mate - most of that 5000 hrs was done within one hour from base :eek::eek::eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig
I concur with your comment about an outsiders opinion as it can be a breath of freshair, particularly if the instructor is only marking time until they get another job that they want.
commercial pilots licenseQuote:
Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift
visual flight rules [flying in day time and clear weather]
instrument flight rules [flying when you can't see out the windows -by watching and understanding what the instruments are telling you]
outback vmc -a dodgy business - vmc means -visual meterological conditions -what you fly in when vfr, adding the outback to it infers flying when it's not vmc/vfr 'cause no one can see you it's ok - dodgy.
general flying progress test - something you do when training
xxxx, not as good as coopers.
recreational aviation australia
avid, dunno
asic=- a card with your picture on it, which you get after police checks to see if you are a terrosist
ga general aviation - the cessnas, pipers , beechcraft of this world and many others.
AVID = Aviation Identificiation. It is also a security check on you but lasts for five years (as vs two years for the ASIC). It is another check that you have to hold in order to hold a pilots licence in Australia.
I won't go into the doubling up of the AVID and ASIC, suffice to say an AVID will get you into nowhere (but is required in order to hold the pilots licence), whereas an ASIC allows you to access the airside of security controlled airports where you have a reason to be on the secure side. For example you fly into Rockhampton airport and park your aircraft and then you go into the terminal to powder your nose... In order to be able to get back to your aircraft (which is now on the secure side) you need an ASIC. It is also needed at most of our GAAP (now Class D) airports such as Jandakot, Bankstown, Archerfield etc. For your training once you go a bit further and before you go onto your navagation exercises for your PPL it will probably be recommended you get one.
So what makes an airport a security controlled airport? It is simple, if there are RPT (regular public transport) flights into and out of the airport then it is now classed as security controlled and you must have, wear and display a ASIC whilst on the security controlled side. An RPT flight is simply a regular scheduled flight - ie not a charter. The airlines obviously do RPT, but so do a bunch of smaller companies.
As for GA - General Aviation, well, GA is indeed what Harry posted below, but perhaps a better definition is "all aviation minus the Airlines and Military". So you can see it covers all aircraft types and all operations other than RPT/Military. The RFDS comes under GA as do the rescue helicopters. A large business jet (even airliner size) come under GA as well. And it definitely covers pilot training and the smaller aircraft as defined below by harry.
Apologies for all the acronyms. Aviation is as full of acronyms as the military!
As you can probably tell aviation is a, or rather the main passion, other than my family, in my life. I am more than happy to take anyone interested in getting involved for a ride if they like, I just love to share my passion with anyone who shows even the remotest interest!
Cheers
Dave J.
Thanks Dave:D,(you to Harry;))
now all we have to do is get you to post some pics of your
Land Rover / Air-re-o-plane
;)
this is a bit obscure, but has the requsite landie/bit of aeroplane
I lost this thread and see there has been some good activity. Thanks Dave & others for the really good info.
An update...
Well I am doing the second of two pre-solo tests tomorrow and after that, well, we'll just have to wait for the instructor to step out of the plane at some unannounced time in the next week or so :o:cool:. I'm into circuits and loving it, even if there are some hairy moments. Landed on one wheel this morning and tracked a good 150m down the runway on it before putting the other ones down. The instructor said this was very hard to do (not as a compliment I presume) - I blame crosswinds.
Also, now that I am doing circuits I have been taking two lessons a week. I find this really good as the second one gives me a chance to get everything right that I stuffed up the day before. I don't think I can manage any more frequent ones as I still have a lot of "real" (=paid) work to do. At this stage I am just writing off Friday mornings for flying and then the rest of Friday is pretty wasted as I mentally recap on everything and waste time looking at flight stuff on the interweb.:D
I got my first headset today. Brand new, but bulletproof & reliable David Clark H10-13.4. I looked at some of the more expensive active noise attenuating sets but in the end figured I'd play it safe. In any case, this will most likely be SWMBO's in a few years.
I copy what you say Dave about paying as I go. RQAC have agreed to invoice my company after each lesson. I just have to make sure the payment has gone through before the next lesson so they don't place me on their no-fly list. I'm also pretty happy with the instructor as up till now he has supplied me with his previous DC headset. When I went for my standards check a few weeks ago the other instructor didn't have a second set so I had to borrow a student set from the club. I was absolutely shattered after the flight. The noise attenuation on the student set was virtually non-existent and it was like having two bricks strapped to the sides of your head for an hour and a half.
So all-in-all the progress has been good and I'm just bracing myself for the first solo.... soon.