checkflights (abroad)

[stolport]

Hi

I'm currently in Australia and have a UK PPL with about 230 hours and have an Australian Special Licence.

When in Perth, I was only required to take a 1 hour checkflight before going solo but the school I have picked in Brisbane wants an hours general handling, half a days briefing and 2 landaway dual navigation flights before allowing me to go solo.

Is this really fair?

[MLS-12D]

Is this really fair? How long is a piece of string?

Their requirements sound pretty involved to me. I guess they might be appropriate if you don't have much experience flying in Oz and want to take the airplane away for extended touring. If you just want to make local flights, it sounds rather excessive.

The 'bottom line' is a two-sided coin:

(1) It's their aircraft, so they can insist upon whatever checkride requirements they want.
(2) It's your money, so you can always walk away if you think that they're being unreasonable.

I hope that you will be able to arrive at a compromise that you can both live with.

[djpil]

When I went to the UK (from Oz) many years ago I needed something like that. When I went to the USA more recently I wanted something like that before venturing out of our little valley alone. I found lots of traps for Australians in the USA - extreme weather, mountain flying and tall aerials for example.

stol - if you wanted to fly my airplane down in Melbourne you may get a similar answer - depending on how much flying you had actually done in Perth, where you wanted to take my airplane and time on type.

2 landaway dual flights? - well, one good one is probably as good as 2.

[FlyingForFun]

MLS-12D has summed it up perfectly, IMHO.

Time to show my total ignorance of Australian geography now: what's the terrain like in Brisbane? When I flew in Arizona, after being checked out on the aircraft, I was allowed to fly south or west. But I wasn't allowed to fly north or east until I'd had a mountian-flying checkout, consisting of a thorough briefing, and two dual land-aways, which sounds similar to the requirements you've been quoted. I wonder if there's some specific training that's needed for the Brisbane area?

FFF
-------------

[Dude~]

I wen to Archerfield in brisbane last year. I think the school was called RQAC, Royal Queensland Air Club. http://www.rqac.com

I did an hour of circuits in a C172RG in preparation for soem multi engine training and they signed me off on all there 152s, 172s and the RG on the basis of that flight.

I'd be surprised if what you talk of above is at RQAC. Go have a chat with Don Mitchel, he's a top bloke and excellent teacher.

They signed me off solo in a Duchess after exactly 6 hrs and then I did a 400nm cross country with my girlfriend up to Fraser Island and Bunderberg, that being the first time I left Archerfield. Its not difficult at all. However, I do think they want you to be very careful about heading more than 100nm inland because then it becomes progressivly execptionally remote and potentially dangerous.

[Gertrude the Wombat]

There are wild places in Oz. You cock up your nav and get lost, it could be decades before anyone finds the body - go look at the museum in the Alice.

There are wild places rather closer to Brissie than to Perth I think? - certainly a bit further north, round Tully say, you've only got to fly half an hour inland to get to country you really wouldn't want to get lost over.

It could also depend on what you asked for - you don't need the outback nav briefing and test if you're not leaving the farmland round Perth, but you might be well advised to take it if you're wanting to do XC from Brissie other than up and down the coastal strip?

[MLS-12D]

I flew from Brisbane to Perth last year; but it was in a GOANA (http://www.goana.com.au/main.htm) tour and even though we did not fly in company, it was good to know that there were at all times other aircraft aware of our general whereabouts. I would not have felt very comfortable doing the trip on my own.

We can give you some general feedback, but really you need to have a chat with the CFI at the flying school. Perhaps they are just 'milking' you for extra money, but it could be that there are very valid reasons why they want an extended checkout. You can probably size up their honesty fairly accurately; and if you're still unsure, check with some other local schools and see what their requirements are.

[flyingfemme]

Most requirements like this are set by insurance companies, not the CFI. Perhaps they have lower insurance rates because they do more checking out?

[MLS-12D]

Most requirements like this are set by insurance companies, not the CFI. Personally, I'm a little sceptical about this. Certainly different policies have different conditions, but often flying schools tend to avoid arguments by hiding behind non-existent insurance requirements ("I'm sorry, but our hands are tied ..."). Might not be the case here, I don't know.

What really galls me is when a school claims that its insurance requires that renters maintain currency by flying the school's airplanes every 30 days (or 45 days, or whatever). :yuk: This is just silly: no underwriter cares whether you fly the school's particular airplanes, they just want to ensure that you are current on type (a 152 is a 152 is a 152).