Flying Club in Katherine

[3downandlocked]

Hi all,
I need your help. I'm trying to set up a flying club in Katherine NT and have a few interested people, and 3-4 of them are realy interested in Learning to Fly. Now I would love to get this off the ground(no pun intended) but I need access to a Grade1 Instructor(preferable from Darwin), who is willing to come here for a couple of weekends a month (with a C172/PA-28(161-181)). Now I can give accomodation, but you'd have to put in for food.

Not much is it?? but is it worth your while? YES it is.:ok:

contacts are
[email protected]


regards


Jon;)

[High Altitude]

Phil Foster would be your man. Don't know about an airyplane though. Maybe try Doug Clark?

[3downandlocked]

thanks HA, but how do I contact them????

[Tinstaafl]

Who/when was the last school in Katherine?

[Jards]

I was there from Jan 98 - Dec 2000 and we had a nice little club running on the RAAF side of the house. Local Civilians were allowed to join and we had a couple of instructors come down from Darwin on a couple of occasions and also a couple come up from down south. Fred Knudsen was one of them. I think we ended up with about 15 people who learnt to fly.

What made it easier was one of the blokes posted to Tindal had a 172. Can't remember if that was used for training of not (due to AOC issues) but when Fred came up (on two or three occasions for a couple of months each time) a CPL student came up from down south and bought an aircraft that was used fro training. I believe it came from a flying school at Coolangatta?

When I left another guy was posted in who had a 172 or a 182 (can't remember) and he hired itout as well. Doesn't help on the training front, but allows the guys to hire an aircraft after they have done their training.

Anyway suffice to say we had a bunch of guys who wanted to learn to fly and whilst it was a convoluted process we did manage to arrange it. Where there is a will there is a way.

I am not sure if the RAAF Tindal Aero Club is operating there at present but if you give the switch a call they shold be able to put you onto someone who would know. If you have any dramas let me know (via this forum) and I will find out for you.

Best thing about the RTAC is that no landing fees are payable as it is a RAAF airfield.

Cheers
Jards

[Captain Gerry]

Good luck Jon.

Jards. Pity I'm in Roma and not Tindal. :ok:

[3downandlocked]

Jards, thanks for the tios, but alas it's not much help, I really need someone who will instruct, I DO NOT want to let these people down. And I need a aeroplane.

Capt Gerry, Come on up :-)

Keep this thread going Please any help is very appreciated.

Jon

[Islander Jock]

3downandlocked,

Mate without an AOC you won't be able to do any ab-initio training regardless of what grade of instructor you have coming up.

My advice would be rather than contacting individual instructors, approach some of the flying training organisations either in Darwin or further afield directly and see if they will help you out. They would need to put Katherine on their AOC as a remote base if it not already there and then be responsible for the conduct and supervision of all student flying conducted through the club.

As Jards aluded to earlier, it is the AOC issue that is really going to be your stumbling block. Having said that, there are ways to work it out. It all depends on being able to reach a mutually beneficial arrangement with the flying training organisation concerned. It really comes down to cost effectiveness of having to pay an instructor to stay in Katherine. If your mates are going to go at it full time then it can work out. However if they are going to limit it to perhaps 1 or 2 hours a week then it will not be worth either the club's or instructors time and effort.

Of course you could pay a CFI a salary, get your own AOC and be totally independent. Wouldn't wish that obstacle course on my worse enemy though.;)

Good luck with it.

[George.Handel]

Suggest you contact Darwin Flying School (aka Bruce Hartwig Flying School) on 1800-FONBUK. If you had 3-4 people each committed to doing a couple of hours in a weekend you may be able to make an arrangement worth while.

Otherwise, have you thaught of doing weekend sessions from Darwin... perhaps in training pairs. Probably workout alot cheaper than regular ferrying costs.

[Bob Murphie]

If you have any Pilots already, why not consider a C150 /172 on a joint ownership, the licenced pilot flies the crew to Darwin, he gets some hours, the pax get some experience and you all don't have to pay the Instructor ferry costs or accommodation.

A fair sort of C150 has about the same resale value with 1500 hours or 1000, so you won't loose much when you burn some hours off and then sell when you are all licenced.

Just a thought.