RAA or GA

[Nev25]

I'm wondering what the difference between RAA and GA Licenses.

 

It may be a silly question but I believe Ive not been told honestly previously

 

Many years ago I went though the exercise of inquiring about getting a pilots license and was told a grand figure and was also told the training had to be done within a certain time and to keep the license a minimum flying hours had to be kept a year.

 

I'm now told this is not true?

 

A RAA instructor told me recently the only difference between the RAA And GA was RAA couldn't land a some Airport in Melbourne.

 

I PMed someone locally that had just obtained they pilots certificate his opinion was go for RAA unless I'm planning on a career(I got told 10 years ago I was to old to be taken on by a company as a pilot (I'm now 46 years old))

 

I even inquire about rotary wing and got told around $30.000 to Commercial license

 

I guess the question is what are the restriction on RAA and what do other readers think??

 

 

[leestanley]

Hi Nev,

 

Have a look at the thread under Announcements - Costs of RAA v PPL - for some great discussion on this topic.

 

I'm 43 so in a similar position to you. I've just got my Certificate and soon I'll have my x country endorsement. I am considering a PPL solely so I can take the whole family with me eventually (4 + me). If not for the need to fly a people mover, I'd stick with RAA only.

 

Cheers,

 

Lee.

 

 

[slartibartfast]

Close Lee - it's under Cockpit Talk/General Discussion.

 

Link here.

 

 

[leestanley]

oops... thanks Ross!

 

 

[Guest pelorus32]

Hi Nev,

 

I went through the same decision making as you are going through last year - I was a year older though!!

 

Bottom line for me is that the RAA Pilot's certificate is a great qualification to have. I completed mine with Passenger and Cross Country endorsements earlier this year.

 

The key restrictions are:

 

1. The aircraft you can fly are restricted to 2 seats;
    
    
   
2. The Max Take Off Weight (MTOW) is limited to 544kg or with an Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) variant to 600kg;
    
    
   
3. You may not fly within controlled airspace;
    
    
   
4. You may only fly day Visual Flight Rules (VFR).
    
   

 

Other than that you have exactly the same privileges as a PPL. The MTOW will probably increase at some point to 750kg and it is expected that a controlled airspace endorsement will come on line sometime in the next 18 months or so. That simply leaves the 2 place aircraft and VFR as the limitations. VFR means that you must not fly in the dark (though there is a night VFR rating in the PPL stream) and you must maintain prescribed distances from cloud.

 

Further to all that if you learn on a 3 axis aircraft like a Jabiru or Tecnam then it isn't a hard step to a PPL and the hours all count towards it. The RAA training costs tend to be about $50/hour cheaper than GA.

 

Best of luck, it's a great thing to do.

 

Regards

 

Mike

 

 

[Admin]

The Max Take Off Weight (MTOW) is limited to 544kg or with an Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) variant to 600kg;

Mike, can I just jump in here and add that whilst the current MTOW is 544kg some aircraft have a lower limit placed on them by their certification. For example a Gazelle MTOW is 520kg.

My CT is currently limited to 544kg even though it is a 600kg certified aircraft. If I were to register it as LSA then I would be able to have a MTOW of 600kg but whilst it is just simple RA-Aus registered it is limited to 544kg.

 

When the RA-Aus limits do increase to either 600kg or 750kg the CT will then automatically go to 600kg as this is the max that it is certified to.

 

Hope this helps and sorry Mike for butting in here.

 

 

[Guest pelorus32]

Hi Ian,

 

quite right, I'd forgotten that. The more the merrier, that's what this place is about.

 

Kind regards

 

Mike