which aircraft to use for PPL

[herbertdz]

does it matter which aircraft you use when doing your ppl? I have been offered Jabiru 160 at a school in capetown and offered Cessena 150/152 at another school in Durban.

AND

Anyone knows of the best pilot school in SA?

[Solid Rust Twotter]

Best?

Personal choice. Whichever one pops your rivet....

[Deskjocky]

Its up to you, choice of aircraft should be informed by where you want to train ie don’t choose a C150 up in Joburg. Best prices are being offered on the non type certified aircraft which is like the light sport category in the US. Jabi;s Technams, Samba's etc fall into this category. Although I would advise some time on the traditional C172 and PA28 because you will wind up flying them at some point.

Flight school wise there are a lot of options, who’s the best is a matter of individual experience. Choose where you want to fly and then go from there, there have been discussions about this before so a search here will help you out, there is also a site called avcom.co.za that is more inclined toward general aviation in South Africa a search there will also yield a lot of information.

One last thing, always be wary of schools that want you to pay upfront- insist on paying as you go, it normally costs the same as most schools don’t offer decent enough incentives to make it worth you while to buy hour blocks. It also has the added advantage of giving you flexibility if you decide you don’t like the school you are with!

[oerlikon]

Good advice from deskjocky about not paying up front. It is possible that a school could put on a good front to get your money out of you and then let you down. Chat to some current and ex-students before you commit yourself to anything.

There is much of a muchness in choosing a school. I would look at practical scenarios, such as time of year when you want to train, bearing in mind that there are different weather patterns for different parts of the country.

As far as the aircraft go, no disrespect to jabiru's, but when you've oiled your way into the cockpit it feels a bit like sitting in a radio controlled aircraft. You can get in a 150 with slightly less oil and it feels more like an aircraft because the controls are where they're supposed to be.

At the end of the day, though, I don't think many people will judge you on where you trained, unless it is really a very dodgy fly-by-night training school.