Information about South American flight school

[falco88]

Hi I' m Falco88,
I' m Italian and 24 years old.

As well as many people i would like to be a pilot (even in airline...).

My problem is that in Europe, USA, Australia... the ATPL is too expensive...
So I'm thinking to obtain the licence in South America (like Argentina, Chile, Brasil or others), because I think that the money Exchange from Euro to local currency should be convenient, and ATPL prices should be lower....

Does anyone knows the licence's price in South American flight school???

Thank you!:)

[RedBullGaveMeWings]

You can't work in South America unless you have citizenship. There might well be some exceptions though.

[flyingswiss]

Flying in South America isn`t any cheaper then in the USA or Australia, the total course cost in places like Brazil may look lower due to the fact that the total amount of hours required to hold a CPL are much much lower, it can be done with less hours in the US also at the so called 141 flight school. The quality in general is superior in the old world, the Australian system is also very good and in the US they have a much more hands-on approach rather then theory knowledge. On top of the costs of acquiring a license abroad you will have take in consideration the conversion process back in Europe, that will make up for at least a 15-20% of the total cost. In general you can do everything in a shorter time in the US, that will cut your costs down a lot. living in Florida or Texas isn`t really any more expensive then in a big South American city.

Working in South America without being a resident in the first place is not possible, most countries also restrict jobs to local citizens.

On an other note most training is done either in Spanish or Portuguese so unless you know one of those you will have a problem, English is the official language of Aviation, studying in the US or Australia will help you a lot.

Here in Suriname we do have students from Europe, training costs are similar to the US, at the moment there are no multi engine airplanes so you would be limited in getting all the licenses required to be a marketable commercial pilot. I know of other Europeans that have trained in Uruguay, with a flight school in Punta del Este. In Brazil there is an italian guy, also member of the forum, training in Rio de Janeiro.

[falco88]

So it would not be convenient.
According to you it' s better to take a licence in USA or Australia for the cost, and it' s impossible for me to work in South America because I have only Italian citizenship...

Thank you very much for your information!

P.S
If the Italian student who is in Rio de Janeiro read this message , he can say something, if he wants...

[flyingswiss]

No it`s not impossible, just very hard.

Most of the countries down here do allow foreigns to fly, some don`t have any limitations, others like Brazil, only allow you to work as a temporary relief in the case there isn`t a local crew available to do the job. In most cases when I say foreign I mean local resident, gaining residency is very hard, unless you have some experience nobody is going to sponsor you a visa when he can find the same pilot locally for zero bureaucracy troubles. South America, other then maybe in the missionary world doesn`t have much of an expat pilot community. There have been exceptions, my instructor from the air force academy moved to Uruguay several years ago and he is flying there now, In Chile there are several Europeans flying, I know a few in Peru, and myself I`m one in Suriname.

The quality of flight schools down here is not really the greatest, there are bad school everywhere in the world, but lets put it this way good schools are hard to find here, and the average pilot knowledge is poor compared to the EU system for example.

How old are you? You may be able to go to Australia train there and work for a year on a tourist work permit, then maybe stay longer if they wanna keep you.

The Italian in Rio is called Andrea_CTA