hour building in South Africa?

[acuba 290]

hase anybody done it? is it expensive or not? what kind of licence nned for that? Is it difficult to get validation from JAA PPL? accommodation? any tipps, folks? ;)

[Shunter]

It's cheap. About £50/hr for a 172. I flew from the Algoa Flight Centre at Port Elizabeth airport (45min flight from Cape Town, bit more from Joburg - Kulula are the cheap domestic airline). Fantastic country, can't recommend it enough. If you fancy splashing out for a night somewhere plush while you're there, I can highly recommend Hitgeheim (http://www.hitgeheim-addo.co.za/) which has its own runway, from which the owner (a pilot) will drive you to his supreme hill-top lodge for some fine dining and selection of SA's finest from his walk-in wine cellar. The seafood in SA is out of this world, and the game is also very good. Zebra, Crocodile and Kudu are excellent, Warthog is a bit chewy though.

To validate your license you need to pass the local Air Law exam. You should try and do this as soon as possible after arriving in SA as it needs to go to the SA CAA in Joburg to issue your SA PPL. The best thing you can do is purchase this book (http://www.uksa.flyer.co.uk/saonappl.htm) which tells you exactly what you need to do.

Having flown in the USA and SA, I'd say that sure, the flying culture is very strong in America, but the whole experience of SA wins hands down for me. Plus they drive on the correct (ie. left) side of the road.

[Leezyjet]

I too did most of my hours in SA, also at Algoa (where I got my PPL too). As Shunter said, it's a great place to fly. Brilliant scenery and plenty to do when not flying too and accomodation over there is cheap as chips. Lots of remote air strips to fly to as well as big ATC controlled airports too, so a good mix and the way they do things is more akin to Europe than the US is.

Try getting in touch with Irv Lee (he is also a member on here), he is a UK based South African instructor (also a JAA instructor) and he will be able to guide you through the paperwork from this end. (type Higherplane into Google, and his site is the first that comes up).

:ok:

[acuba 290]

thanx for information! I see it is good priced place, but I don't like the idea to validate licence with some additional exams. I am in the middle of ATPL exams at the moment, so any additional need for exams(URGHhhhhhh :ugh::ugh::ugh:), no thanx :=
so no way to do HB just with with regular JAA PPL in SA? Only doing complicated validation with SA air law exams?

[Mikehotel152]

I did some hour-building in South Africa in February. My advice is that it's a great place to fly but only do it if you are going to do 75 or more hours. Otherwise the economics don't add up. Remember, you're paying for flights out there and accommodation, and don't forget that SA is such a beautiful and diverse place that you'll have to do the touristy stuff.

You will have to get your JAR PPL validated. You can do this at any FTO in SA as far as I know. I chose Lanseria Flight Centre because of its proximity to the SA CAA in Johannesburg. I was told that the internal postal service delays could add three weeks on to the validation process, so I wanted to be nearby. Lanseria Airport is just outside Johannesburg and is quite a busy Business Jet and Charter Airline hub, so it's a pretty good place to experience a full ATC airport.

I just looked at my Statement from Laseria Flight Centre and they charged me £415 to validate my Licence. That figure includes the SA CAA PPL Air Law exam, which you sit online. You definitely ought to get Part 61 of the SA Air Navigation Regulations in advance. It's not really something you can study the night before. Half the questions are absurdly detailed and relate to licensing rather than flying. Do you care about the competency requirements for SA Student Pilots when you're a JAR PPL holder? I think I paid an additional, but modest, fee direct to the CAA when I drove there to get the document issued. Incidentally, despite my initial problems, they were very organised on the day.

The Validation included a briefing, a familiarisation flight around the local area, a general handling flight and a cross-country Nav flight. It's an absurdly detailed validation process when you consider SA is an ICAO nation desperate to join the JAA, the people doing it are probably only wanting to hire a plane for some sight-seeing, yet it's pretty much the same as doing an SA PPL test. Surely an abbreviated PPL Air Law test (focusing on the differences between JAR and local SA operations and procedures and not licensing) plus a check ride would be sufficient?! To rub it in, after doing all this rubbish, it only lasts for a year.

Oh and I also spent £200 on a week's accommodation and food in a B&B near Lanseria. I also had to pay for a week's car hire (only about £100) and a replacement internal flight to Cape Town because the delays caused by the FTO's disorganisation (aircraft and instructor availability) meant my general handling and nav flights were conducted seperately and the whole process took 7 days rather than the 3 they promised when I booked it.

I don't know if Algoa are more experienced in doing JAR PPL licence conversions, but Lanseria seemed a bit unsure of requriements. To be fair to them, the SA CAA had just changed the rules. Apparently. I did come out of it feeling I had been taken for a ride. :(

I then flew to Cape Town and stayed with my Dad for a month. I joined Cape Town Flying Club and flew their C172s around the Western Cape. It's a truly wonderful place to aviate. I know SA very well, having spent many years there, so I know that Algoa and the South-east are also worth seeing, but for me Cape Town is too special to miss.

Basically, a C172 was costing about £65 per hour when I did my hour-building. It's probably a bit more expensive due to oil price hikes. When you add-on the cost of accommodation and flights, you are only looking at making a saving on flying in the UK if you do a lot of hours. But then again, I spent amonth flying in and out of Cape Town International's busy airspace, amongst the 747s, and with that fantastic view the whole time!!!! :ok:

[Leezyjet]

I took a couple of guys from my ATPL course down there last December. We were only there for 4 days, but one guy did the conversion, by using Irv's services the paperwork was all dealt with before we left, so the only thing to do on arrival was the air law and the check flight that were both done on the first day, leaving 3 days to fly (well 2 because the weather was cr@p on 1 day) but we both got just short of 10 hours in !!.

Algoa are pretty good at dealing with the CAA in SA, they are one of the oldest flying clubs in SA after all so have lots of experience in that area.

:)

[Mikehotel152]

Leezyjet - What did the validation checkride comprise? As you can see from my post above, my 'check-ride' at Lanseria was effectively an orientation flight and a seperate full PPL skill test (split in two because of aircraft and instructor availability problems)! :ugh:

[Leezyjet]

He had to do a nav flight from Port Elizabeth to Grahamstown and then general handling and local area fam, but did it all in the one flight - so more or less a full PPL skill test.

As Algoa are fairly organised and they knew we were only there for a few days, it was all arranged before we arrived, and they moved a few people around to accomodate us.

:)

[Mikehotel152]

Yeah, sounds like they have their heads screwed on at Algoa.

As for Lanseria, there was absolutely no excuse for making me do 3 seperate flights when one would have been adequate, and seeing as they had 3 months notice of my arrival I can't understand why they didn't try to move people around to get my flight done on my first day. :ugh:

[cavortingcheetah]

:hmm:

Easy enough from FALA to the GF to FAWB to FAGC. cross country, familiarisation and upper air work in one flight of probably no more than two hours. Racking the brains here but isn't Lanseria Flight Center owned by Val H?

You've probably seen this link?

CAA Website (http://www.caa.co.za/)


Happy flying in ZA. Don't forget to pack a packet of condoms. If you come down in the bush a condom holds a lot of water - if you find a water hole. And it takes up no room in your flight bag.:)

Just came back from down there, having recently renewed my Grade II, won't be back for a while now but happy to try and help of you guys want any further information. Just make sure to check, if you are going off the beaten track, that where you are going has fuel and/or Avgas in particular.:)