Are the training planes still safe ???
 

My son is going to get his PPL. The school where he is going to do it is in Peru. The best and largest in Peru. (Master of the Sky). Their track record is good. But I had a look yesterday at their school and the planes are all a bit old.. but I have no idea about planes. (I am a telecoms guy). And maybe this is perfect ok. Can somebody advice me that I should not be worried and that these planes are still often used and are safe ? The reason that he does it in Peru is that I am Dutch but his mother is Peruvian and in the summer holidays he is with us and then can do his PPL here. The weather in Peru is perfect and you can fly every day in Peru which ensures he can get his license before he goes back to study for his masters in The Netherlands. The training school has also a licensed maintenance team for these planes and does this also for other planes which they not own.

Cessna 150
Cessna 152 (5 planes).
Cessna 172F
Cessna 172R (EFIS ASPEN)
Piper PA-28-180 Cherokee

You should not be worried. These planes are safe.

Aeroplanes are as safe as their maintenance, whether they are one year old or 80 years old. The aeroplanes you've listed there are very common training aeroplanes found just about everywhere in the western world, and whilst not new, all absolutely fine for any level of training, if they are maintained well.

And realistically if they weren't maintained well, they'd probably have been grounded thirty years ago.

Personally (I am an instructor and have flown all of those types), I'd pick the C152 as the best for PPL training, then if he goes on to advanced training the Aspen C172. But none of them are bad. The PA28-180 and C150 are the most elderly and may have less modern cockpits, so would be my last choice, but still fine.

I'd not worry.

G

I second the suggestion that these are more than safe, and for the C150/C152 as the aircraft of choice for a PPL.

They’re stable and forgiving training aircraft and generally fun to fly. They don’t have all the distracting bells and whistles of more modern C172s, allowing the student to focus on learning to fly visually, which is what the PPL is all about. The C172F and PA-28-180 are also a good training aircraft, but many schools rent them out for $30 to $50 more per hour. It’s been a long while since I instructed at that level, but I don’t believe that cost is justified for a PPL. They’re both excellent aircraft for building time after the PPL, especially if one cost shares with friends and family.

I’m a little old school, and don’t believe EFIS has any place in PPL instruction, so the C172R is right out. I believe EFIS is more suited to the CPL and Instrument Rating. As I mentioned, the PPL is an exclusively visual training program - looking out the window, and the cost per hour to fly an EFIS aircraft for a PPL is simply not warranted. Schools will suggest otherwise, but that’s because in my area an EFIS aircraft rents out for almost $80 to $100 more per hour than their non-EFIS counterparts parts. The school gets far more money over the course of the program if they can put a student onto that EFIS aircraft, but the student gets absolutely nothing in return except some feeling that they’re flying like the big boys. Junior instructors will say that’s worth something, but in the end it’s not. Not for the PPL. It’s a lot of wasted money that could have been used to pay for time building afterwards.

These aircraft should be perfectly safe if adequately maintained. As posted here, it's not the age of the aircraft. I leaned to fly myself twenty years ago in a 1964 Piper Cherkokee ! I fly around with my family in similar planes from the 19-seventies.