Flying in South Africa (Hourbuilding)
Flying in South Africa (Hourbuilding)
Yes, the licence validation process is a nonsense and cost me about £500 when you add in flying tests, paperwork and extra accommodation costs.
But it's a wonderful place to fly...
But it's a wonderful place to fly...
The license conversion rigmarole might put some people off
Air Law exam, Dual general handling flight, dual cross country, bit of paperwork, S African PPL issued. Easy.
Validation, same validity as your JAA licence (4 years in my case) and thankfully no input from CAA required at all!
The system has only recently changed, and is now much improved.
The system has only recently changed, and is now much improved.
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Validation, same validity as your JAA licence (4 years in my case) and thankfully no input from CAA required at all!
September.
We'd planned the trip since last December. At that time, we were told that the validation procedure took ~3months, to obtain a validation valid for 3 months from the original application
. It did indeed indeed involve the CAA then.
However, the process was changed this year, and was very simple for us (although we did have assistance from a S African aero safari company who no doubt were working hard on our behalf behind the scenes).
The non-ICAO comment regarding validation is interesting as we flew in Botswana & Zambia as well as SA
We'd planned the trip since last December. At that time, we were told that the validation procedure took ~3months, to obtain a validation valid for 3 months from the original application
. It did indeed indeed involve the CAA then.However, the process was changed this year, and was very simple for us (although we did have assistance from a S African aero safari company who no doubt were working hard on our behalf behind the scenes).
The non-ICAO comment regarding validation is interesting as we flew in Botswana & Zambia as well as SA
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: SoCal
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The non-ICAO comment regarding validation is interesting as we flew in Botswana & Zambia as well as SA
BTW, who did you organize your trip through? PM, if you don't want to carry on the conversation here.
I'm delighted that they've apparently changed the system because it was appalling a year ago and it wasn't merely the SA CAA, it was the FTO who weren't particularly organised. 
I arrived in the country having organised everything months in advance. I was told the flying element would take a day or two, meanwhile I could take a short online Air Law test which was 'easy', and I could then drive to the CAA to get the papers issued. I decided to do the whole thing in JHB because of rumours that the paperwork could take weeks if you posted it from elsewhere in the country!
In actual fact, before I could take the general handling and navigation tests, I had to do an orientation flight with an instructor. That took over an hour. Then I had my 'test'. At the last minute that was divided into a separate handling test, followed a few days later by a navigation exercise because of aeroplane and instructor availability. It was pretty silly because you had to fly just as far to do the general handling as you flew on the navigation exercise. My validation took 3 flights totalling about 4 hours. I even spent a further 45 minutes holding for IFR traffic, but I suppose that's no-one's fault.
I hope they've simplified the Air Law test which, like others there at the time, I had to take twice because I missed the pass mark by 2% the first time round. I ought to explain that I had recently passed the JAA PPL Air Law with 98% and had been told in advance by the SA FTO that the validation Air Law test was simple. I had been given no forewarning of its content or study guides. When I arrived in SA I was given 200 pages of Air Law to study and told my exam was the next day.
The content of the exam was mostly (I'd say 75%) irrelevant. Can you tell me why a candidate for a PPL licence validation (which simply recognises the validity of your current licence and is valid for 12 months only) needs to know the precise number of glider hours that an SA CPL student can put towards his minimum for CPL issue? And what about the relevance of the SA-specific student PPL course content to me? Well, as I say, 75% of the exam was a dissection of SA-specific licence requirements. Only 25% of the Air Law exam related to operations and law that a PPL hirer ought to to know to fly in SA airspace. And let's face it, there were no major differences between SA and the UK such that you'd have any problems whatsoever if you flew into SA from Europe in your own Aircraft.
In effect, apart from the 45 hours of flying and the remainder of the groundschool, I did a complete SA PPL skills test, plus orientation flight, merely to hire an SA reg aircraft. Believe me, the actual aircraft was exactly the same as the 172s I have flown in the UK! The least they could have done was give me an SA PPL valid for 2 years! I hope the new system is akin to a check ride plus an Air Law exam tailored specifically to local rules as the may differ from those in Europe, with extras such as an hour on SA R/T differences and hot and high flying and mountainous region flying.
Sorry about this rant but I was very unimpressed with the system as it then was. What ought to have taken a couple of days actually took a full week and required me to change an onward flight to Cape Town, leaving me with a total cost of about £500 for the pleasure of having the right to hire SA aircraft on my JAA PPL for a mere 12 months.
I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of my holiday and the hours I was privileged enough to spend in SA airspace.
I would go again if the SA CAA have recovered from their brain-fart! Ironically, the SA CAA offices themselves were delightfully modern and incredibly efficient! 
I arrived in the country having organised everything months in advance. I was told the flying element would take a day or two, meanwhile I could take a short online Air Law test which was 'easy', and I could then drive to the CAA to get the papers issued. I decided to do the whole thing in JHB because of rumours that the paperwork could take weeks if you posted it from elsewhere in the country!
In actual fact, before I could take the general handling and navigation tests, I had to do an orientation flight with an instructor. That took over an hour. Then I had my 'test'. At the last minute that was divided into a separate handling test, followed a few days later by a navigation exercise because of aeroplane and instructor availability. It was pretty silly because you had to fly just as far to do the general handling as you flew on the navigation exercise. My validation took 3 flights totalling about 4 hours. I even spent a further 45 minutes holding for IFR traffic, but I suppose that's no-one's fault.I hope they've simplified the Air Law test which, like others there at the time, I had to take twice because I missed the pass mark by 2% the first time round. I ought to explain that I had recently passed the JAA PPL Air Law with 98% and had been told in advance by the SA FTO that the validation Air Law test was simple. I had been given no forewarning of its content or study guides. When I arrived in SA I was given 200 pages of Air Law to study and told my exam was the next day.
The content of the exam was mostly (I'd say 75%) irrelevant. Can you tell me why a candidate for a PPL licence validation (which simply recognises the validity of your current licence and is valid for 12 months only) needs to know the precise number of glider hours that an SA CPL student can put towards his minimum for CPL issue? And what about the relevance of the SA-specific student PPL course content to me? Well, as I say, 75% of the exam was a dissection of SA-specific licence requirements. Only 25% of the Air Law exam related to operations and law that a PPL hirer ought to to know to fly in SA airspace. And let's face it, there were no major differences between SA and the UK such that you'd have any problems whatsoever if you flew into SA from Europe in your own Aircraft.
In effect, apart from the 45 hours of flying and the remainder of the groundschool, I did a complete SA PPL skills test, plus orientation flight, merely to hire an SA reg aircraft. Believe me, the actual aircraft was exactly the same as the 172s I have flown in the UK! The least they could have done was give me an SA PPL valid for 2 years! I hope the new system is akin to a check ride plus an Air Law exam tailored specifically to local rules as the may differ from those in Europe, with extras such as an hour on SA R/T differences and hot and high flying and mountainous region flying.
Sorry about this rant but I was very unimpressed with the system as it then was. What ought to have taken a couple of days actually took a full week and required me to change an onward flight to Cape Town, leaving me with a total cost of about £500 for the pleasure of having the right to hire SA aircraft on my JAA PPL for a mere 12 months.
I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of my holiday and the hours I was privileged enough to spend in SA airspace.
I would go again if the SA CAA have recovered from their brain-fart! Ironically, the SA CAA offices themselves were delightfully modern and incredibly efficient!
