Cheapest Place To Get A Ppl & Cpl Licence??

[Baby Blade]

Hey guys,

 

I have a strong desire and will to become an airline pilot but the costs for getting the licence are insane!!! nearly $80,000 for ppl cpl+instruments ect.. I would not mind moving anywhere in Aus if the price of these licences are alot cheaper elsewhere, was hoping if someone here knows of an affordable school where I can obtain my licence at :)

 

Cheers

 

 

[Guest Michael Coates]

Go to India... i got an email from a guy with 208 hours who said he was looking for work, he was approved and flying as caption on Airbus A320 ! All this with just 200 hours ??

 

Hard to believe but seems you can do it in India... WARNING: IMO don't fly on the Indian airlines.

 

 

[sixtiesrelic]

AWAY from secondary airports where the people get together to work out how much they'll charge and you pay landing fees.

 

 

[mnewbery]

Aye, India. My CFI noted that Indonesia has an active training environment that favours high volume and low cost. You might like to give him a call and have a chat about that. However, would your CPL be recognised in Australia? I guess it depends on where you want to fly. If you only want to fly in Indonesia, no problem.

 

I am aware of at least one flying school that has accommodation on the airfield and uses RA-Aus aircraft for hours that count towards a CPL licence. You would get an RA-Aus licence on the way of course. PM me if this is of interest.

 

Other things that can be considered are flying motor gliders, pure gliders or any other three axis aircraft as part of your training. This all counts (today, rumblings about not counting these hours towards CPL persist).

 

It all depends on what you want to do with your licence(s) - fly jets, IFR piston twins, turbines or move onto helicopters? $80K is a bit steep if you want to fly regional jets for THE MAN, not so bad if you want to work for someone who owns a G550 and needs their own personal pilot to take them around Europe.

 

 

[Guest avi8tr]

If it was that cheap over there, then why are they all training over here!

 

 

[Baby Blade]

Haha, I would actually consider doing it in india or indonesia if It was ALOT cheaper and I could convert it to an Aus CPL.

 

My main goal is to fly for a Major Airline (which I hope is a reasonable goal) if not flying private jets for High Rollers sounds cool too

 

 

[TAA Student Pilot]

Might pay to kick around airfields for a while to see what's involved. If your that keen then money won't matter, you'll do anything to get dollars to pay for it. If after a few months of sweeping floors or washing aircraft AND seeing what crap people put up with your still keen then I'd say go west young man and earn some money for a year or two. A couple of years growing up working hard won't hurt you and if you put money away instead of drinking it or hangin round wuth loose wimmin you'll have enough to go straight through from go to whoa.

 

 

[Baby Blade]

Thanks for the advice, regarding growing up and working hard... im 23 years old with 3years armoured infantry service and years of labouring/scaffolding so im not stranger to hard work, i figured I dont want to have a buggered back when im older, plus I want to travel and see the world so being a pilot really does seem like a dream job to me , regardless of the hard yards I have to put in at the start.

 

I am considering re-enlisting to the ADF for 4years in a combat job just to get some savings, would this be a good idea or should I pursue the CPL licence and try and start work in aviation straight away? I know the latter seems like the obvious choice but due to some family complications im in this situation.

 

 

[TAA Student Pilot]

So you know what hard work is then :) My advice would be work for the money first rather than borrowing it. Then when you are finished you owe no dollars. The first few years usually these days there's not much money to be made in aviation till you get a few hours, it's purely just surviving. Unless your very lucky and snag a good job first up. GA these days is hard, with the over supply of pilots (Despite what your hear from the press and big companies) and people willingness to work for nothing or actually pay to work for some hours. The mentality goes right through aviation now through to airlines where some are willing to work for half of what used to be paid. Now it's considered normal to pay for your own endorsement on the likes of 737's or mostly they get their parents to pay for it.

 

There are good jobs out there that pay well with good conditions (AG for me), the likes of RFDS and some instructional places. I'm sure a more mature bloke with a bit of life expirence like yours will have an advantage over a kid just out of school who had a gap year in Europe and then had his parents pay for him to become a "Captain" ;)

 

 

[bas]

200 hour A320 captain? I doubt that. FO for sure. Happens all the time in Europe and US too. And seeing as how their safety record (US and EU, not India!) is the same as here, I don't see why everyone makes such a big deal about it here.

 

 

[bas]

I heard a wise old woman once tell a young wannabe that the quickest way to the airlines is leaving Uni at age 22 with a degree (a real one, not aviation!) and a CPL.

 

 

[TAA Student Pilot]

200 hour A320 captain? I doubt that. FO for sure. Happens all the time in Europe and US too. And seeing as how their safety record (US and EU, not India!) is the same as here, I don't see why everyone makes such a big deal about it here.

I can't see how anybody with 200 hours has enough know how to sit in the right seat of an airliner, remember how good you were at 200 hours in a GA or RAA aircraft? Then multiply the workload and complexity by a factor of about 10 and see what happens. The safety record in the US is not that flash with low hour crews.

 

 

[bas]

I can't see how anybody with 200 hours has enough know how to sit in the right seat of an airliner, remember how good you were at 200 hours in a GA or RAA aircraft? Then multiply the workload and complexity by a factor of about 10 and see what happens..

They get taken in at 200 hours, then have on-type (sim) training including multi crew and hit the line at maybe 250 hours. So you can't compare that to coming out of CPL school and not having had any exposure. Those flight hours and many more in the class room make a lot of difference.

 

The safety record in the US is not that flash with low hour crews

Having sat through 10 seasons of Air Crash Investigations, I can't remember any ones where a low time FO was in the cockpit, let alone a factor. Remember that a 250 hour FO is only a sub-1500 hour FO for what, a year or so of their career? There seem to be more accidents caused by complacent 12,000 hour captains! ;-)

 

 

[TAA Student Pilot]

Having sat through 10 seasons of Air Crash Investigations, I can't remember any ones where a low time FO was in the cockpit, let alone a factor. Remember that a 250 hour FO is only a sub-1500 hour FO for what, a year or so of their career? There seem to be more accidents caused by complacent 12,000 hour captains! ;-)

Aircrash investigations is the best, with all that serious nodding and reinactments using cheap laminex lined sims ;)

Having 250 hours sounds so much better than 200 :D I think a 1500 limit is realistic for somebody getting into the right seat of an airliner carring over 200 people.

 

 

[bas]

Depends on the hours; 1500 of which at least 500 ME with lots of actual IMC and at least 100 turbine? Or 1500 hours of flying the same 206 around the same lake?

 

That is, in a nutshell, my problem with the proposed 1500 hour RPT FO rule.

 

And lies, damn lies and statistics - unless anyone can actually prove there is a safety issue caused by having low time FOs (a bit hard as every decade we have less accidents) I don't see the need to go changing any rules...

 

 

[sixtiesrelic]

Bas, talk to the captains who have to fly with them!

 

 

[bas]

I do! I have no doubt that they screw up and have a lot to learn or experience to gain. But that isn't the issue here, the issue is whether that actually causes accidents and the facts say no...

 

It's kind of a moot point here in Australia anyway; we have a big GA industry, more than big enough for the airlines to have their pick of 3000 hour pilots to take in.

 

In Europe, not so much... They simply don't have a choice but hire fresh CPLs and put them in HCRPT aircraft. And it's proven not to be a safety issue...

 

 

[sixtiesrelic]

Yet!

 

 

[bas]

Ah yes, "yet", the final answer in aviation safety. There are still people going "the fly-by-wire system used since the mid 80s in the airbus has not caused an accident ... yet! And that's why if it's not boeing, I am not going!"... :D

 

 

[68volksy]

Simple answer is don't pay for it! 50 years ago it was the way to go but things change over time. If you're interested in flying for the airlines then the only way to go is the cadetship path. Rex at Wagga have a very good system and whilst you may have to sign a chunk of your life away, if you're good enough it will be money well spent over the course of your career. There are many other cadetship programs also.

 

Anyone who tries to sell you a CPL license after you tell them you're after a job in the airlines is either trying to rip you off or is ignorant of the way the system has evolved in my view.

 

The CFI at my school is very blunt about this - she's had a few students who got their GFPT whilst they were waiting to start with Rex in the last couple of years but they cleared it with Rex first. Her feedback from these organisations and the defence force is to fly as little as possible before signing up. The Air Force and the Rex school hate having to "untrain" pilots who have too much experience.

 

 

[bas]

And then at the end of your course, Senator Xenophon gets his way and no more RPT of any size until you have 1500 hours and a full ATPL. :(

 

 

[TAA Student Pilot]

And then at the end of your course, Senator Xenophon gets his way and no more RPT of any size until you have 1500 hours and a full ATPL. :(

Sounds good to me