Aloa Flying School and 43 Air School, South Africa

[Piper Warrior Pilot]

I am considering flying out to South Africa next summer to do my PPL. Ive been looking at the Algoa Flying School and 43 Air School, both of which have excellent reoputations and good stories from people who have visited.

I was just wondering, from an instrucotrs point of view, what the level of instruction is like at these two schools.

If anyone has any comments about the above, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys, look forward to hearing from you

[gearupgone]

They are both good - . Of the 2, my personal preferance would be Algoa
Why don't you check out Progress - they are also in the Eastern Cape - I can definately recommend them.
I know some of the Folks at Algoa (but not flown there), done a little instructing at 43rd (for a 3rd party - used their facilities and planes) and recieved excellent instruction at Progress. It's a smaller outfit, much friendlied and "homely".
Otherwise I can recommend a school in Canada or???
The most important thing is to find an instructor YOU get on well with. If you can, don't commit to one school untill you have visited a couple, see which one you are more comfortable with. Some schools in South Africa promise a lot, and once you are there it is difficult to get away. I am aware of schools where students have paid for multi, only to get there to find there is no longert a multi aircraft and "you can't have your money back - read the fine print"
The Eastern Cape is a beautifull place to train - the RAF didn't use it during the 2nd world war for nothing. Enjoy it.

[Irv]

if you've already decided to learn abroad rather than in the UK, I do think SA is more suited to UK conversion when you return compared to some other places.

I recently visited Algoa, and briefly 43rd, and one or two schools at Grand Central - I did a few days of training, tests and rental at Algoa. ALL the SA PPL schools I visited gave a good impression whilst there - but obviously using Algoa I spent more time there and actually flew with their instructors - all a good bunch. Everything was the way it should be - including enthusastic pupils, etc. I've also checked out 2 Algoa 'products' when they came back to the UK and they've both been fine. I've also flown with SA PPLs recently from other schools and haven't found any horrors.

As an outsider walking into the middle of it, I think they've kept good 'old fashioned' standards generally throughout SA aviation training - obviously I can't vouch for every single school but judging by my experiences there, the feel and the end results, you should get good tuition.

Slighty off topic: The price you pay is getting the Algoa newsletter when you are back in the UK and seeing "It's happy hour next Wednesday evening in the Algoa bar - why not drop in on your way home". :( Still - happy hour doesn't actually save you much as "half off" nearly nothing for a beer is still nearly nothing.