Any RA Instructors or L2's making a living out of RA?

[68volksy]

Maybe this could be part of my 'semi-retirement' plan!

I've always thought a flying school based around semi-retired experienced pilots would be brilliant. We've got a couple of instructors doing exactly that. $70k per year instructing pure RA would be very difficult in Goulburn - instructing both GA & RA and flying at both our Goulburn and Canberra bases is entirely possible. I can't think of many better jobs either.

 

 

[M61A1]

I'm currently hiring a BRM Land Africa from my club and I pay 65 Euros per hour wet.The annual membership fee is 80 Euros.

Annual public liability insurance is just over 300 euros.

 

Landing fees are almost non-existant here. You can fly to a licensed aerodrome with an air-ground comms agent, 1000m of tarmac and a restaurant and pay between 3 and 7 euros.

 

You're certainly right about the deregulation, which is probably why we have over 15,000 members in our microlight federation, and that's not obligatory, so there are certainly plenty of pilots who are not members of the federation.

 

Registration and licencing is done by the French CAA (DGAC).

 

We have 6 classes of microlight, including the recent addition of ultralight helicopters. (example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famà_Kiss_209)

 

Basic rule is 300kg MAUW for single seat, 450kg for dual seat, 100HP single engine, stall speed less than 65kmh.

 

Instructors, licenced by the DGAC, are wholly responsible for signing off a new pilot, no external testing, no minimum number of hours.

 

One theory paper to pass covering all subjects, 75% pass-mark.

 

One medical certificate required before you go solo, valid for life.

 

Initial licence is for solo only, after an additional 30-40 hours, you pass a check ride with an instructor for the right to carry passengers.

 

All maintenance is the responsibility of the owner, can be done by professionals, but the owner is ultimately responsible.

 

Interestingly, despite this total lack of control and regulation, we don't have machines regularly falling out of the sky.

 

Probably because the owner is the one at the controls and he knows it will hurt !

 

(Definition of a pilot: The first person to arrive at the scene of the accident)

That's almost enough to make me move to France. We live in a beautiful place, but it's run by clowns.

[Gentreau]

It may interest you to know that New Caledonia is run under French regs......

 

 

[Mark11]

Flying lessons cost me $180/hr plus GST

 

 

[Gentreau]

I believe the instructors fee will add 55 euros per hour to that, making it about 150 AUD, no tax to add.

 

 

[bushpilot]

Don't most RAA students want to fly on the weekend?

We thought exactly that when we set up our school 3 years ago... But as the word spread down to the Big Smoke (Sydney), they started coming out of the woodwork (or the suburbs at least) and we now are as busy on weekdays as weekends. What started out as weekend 'hobby job' has become much bigger than that. We now have 4 RA instructors and have just started a GA instructor - with 4 RA aircraft and one GA.

 

On the question of making a living out of it - all instructors have additional sources of income - so they are all part-time. But that provides a lot of flexibility, which seems to suit us all. In November we are running an intensive Instructor training program for 6 PC holders - so after that there are going to be a few more RA instructors around!

 

 

[sain]

When I started flying the good team at Goulburn had thursdays, fridays as well as the weekend available for flying. I did most of mine training on fridays, either taking the afternoon off early to shoot up to Goulburn or taking the day off and going.

 

As much as I loved the flying, I also got a lot of pleasure from knowing all those ****s who had been making my life difficult all week were stuck at work while I was having an absolutely fantastic time cruising around in a little ultralight.

 

I'm glad to hear Goulburn might be offering weekdays again - I'll be making use of that.

 

 

[68volksy]

At the moment weekdays are purely GA as there's only a handful of RA students at the moment whilst GA students are coming out of the woodwork everywhere! With any luck though some of the weekend GA flyers will move to the weekday so it should free up a few RA hours on the weekend with any luck.

 

Let Teraya know if you're interested in weekday hire of the Gazelle or J170 though as she's able to do it with prior arrangement.

 

 

[68volksy]

On the question of making a living out of it - all instructors have additional sources of income - so they are all part-time. But that provides a lot of flexibility, which seems to suit us all. In November we are running an intensive Instructor training program for 6 PC holders - so after that there are going to be a few more RA instructors around!

Let me know if any of those guys want work down Goulburn way (if you haven't already got them booked out)!

 

All our instructors have other sources of income also - it seems to be a very good balance for the guys doing it for the love of it. With the GA bookings we have at the moment in Goulburn/Canberra there's more than enough for a full-timer to make a good go at things though and earn a comfortable income (not far off your average Dash-8 pilot anyway).

 

 

[bushpilot]

Let me know if any of those guys want work down Goulburn way (if you haven't already got them booked out)! All our instructors have other sources of income also - it seems to be a very good balance for the guys doing it for the love of it. With the GA bookings we have at the moment in Goulburn/Canberra there's more than enough for a full-timer to make a good go at things though and earn a comfortable income (not far off your average Dash-8 pilot anyway).

Will do - 2 of them are from Sydney and one from Canberra... so not far from you. Plus one from Darwin and the other 2 are locals (Bathurst).