Hi all

[Jonny_J]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm a little new to flying and a little new to Australia! I'm originally from the UK, where I racked up somewhere in the ball park of 20 hours as a teen in an RAF youth program, but haven't flown in nearly 20 years. I've been in Melbourne for almost two years, and now starting to feel like it's really time to get back up there! I did a TIF a week ago, just to see if maybe it wasn't as good as I remembered, and boy was that incorrect lol!

 

So far I've mostly just been trying to work out how the licencing differs here to home, and what's changed in the last 2 decades lol! The plan now is really to save and head towards my PPL(A). While saving I'm mostly going to be studying theory, practicing in desktop sims and taking occasional lessons until I can afford to have an intensive couple of months of lessons to get my RA cert or RPL and go from there.

 

Long term goal? Personally I think it's too early to be concrete about one, wait until I've got 50+ hours on my belt and I might have a better idea what's next, but I've been training people in technology for years, so flight instructor is a very appealing long term goal :)

 

 

[Nightmare]

Hi and welcome Jonny.

 

I'm sure that with your experience from 20 years ago, you will breeze through the training. I can speak for RAA, you will need at least 25 hours with 5 of those being solo before you can go for your flight test, and pass 5 multiple choice tests, maybe 4 these days. That qualifies you to fly a 1-2 seater with MTOW no greater than 600kg with fixed undercarriage and a stall speed in landing configuation no greater than 40kts(not sure about this, it may be 35kts). If floats are attached, and you have a float plane endorsement, MTOW can be up to 650kg.

 

Not sure what you need for a CASA RPL, but I know you can convert over quite easily after you have your RAA RPC with XC endorsement. I think you need a Class 1 or 2 Aviation Medical Cert and do a flight test in the bigger plane.

 

Most people just pay as they go, booking a lesson as they can afford it. I would suggest that you keep them regular, as you sometimes play catch up if you have too much time between lessons, one a fortnight is good, but I was generally able to fit one in per week.

 

What did you do your TIF in?

 

Cheers,

 

Tony

 

 

[Jonny_J]

Hi Tony, Thanks!

 

Ah my TIF was in a little thing called a "Foxbat" - the Aeroprakt A22. I actually found the tif by the plane. I started looking on groupon and most places that seem to use Jabiru aircraft by their websites have a height/weight limit of 190CM/90KG... sadly I'm 195cm/97kg - so too tall and too fat lol. Honestly I really liked the Foxbat. 55 minutes of flight isn't really enough experience for a noob to make any opinion, but I was pleasantly surprised.

 

Thanks for the info! Ah it's the combination of moving to the coverage of a new region and all the licence and regulation changes that go with lol - I think being a little familiar with how things were once is actually something of a hindrance now lol, but it's going to be good practice learning to keep on top of things. I'm definitely interested in the RA cert. Not knowing much, I went into it thinking that PPL and GA aircraft was the way to go, but as I say the TIF experience changed things a lot for the short term. I just couldn't believe how much cheaper that A22 was - unless I misunderstood, the instructor said they find it burns half the L/hr of a C172. Sure it's a 2 seater and can't lift as much, but I don't see either of those coming in to play for quite a while lol. Plus it handled really well.

 

I don't know, I might be a bit unfairly biased against the poor 172 going in - it was the first plane I ever got to fly, because at the time the RAF were changing their trainer planes over. Naturally with all the efficiency and organisation that comes with anything connected to the British government, there was a temporary shortage of planes so they hired C172's from a local school. Whatever the circumstance, we started on those, then the Grob G115's arrived and to 13 year old going up with a Tornado pilot and getting to do some basic aerobatics and such, it felt like getting out of a minivan and into a gokart lol.

 

I definitely hear you on the importance of regular flying. I'm planning to save to the point where I can manage at least an hour a week to get the RA cert.. or RPL.. that's still confusing lol. It seems that a few schools seem to do the RPL exactly as you say - get the RA cert and convert it. In the mean time I'll be getting the Bob Tait book, X-plane 11 and studying lol... probably still buy a lesson from time to time to keep the enthusiasm up!