Obtaining a Private Pilot License (PPL) involves several steps, including meeting eligibility requirements, undergoing training, passing exams, and gaining flight experience.
The Lowveld Aero Club team will guide you each step of the way.
First, let us look at eligibility requirements, starting with the age old question: am I too old? Well, the
short answer is that you are only as old as you feel. If you want to learn to fly and you are medically
fit, there is nothing stopping you. You will need to obtain at least a Class 2 medical certificate from a
Designated Aviation Medical Examiner (DAME). Contacts of these specialised doctors are available
from the Club.
In terms of minimum age to start, you can start your training at the age of 15 (which is the minimum
for issuance of Student Pilot License -SPL) but you would only get your PPL at the age of 17.
The school will help you to apply for a SPL by submitting your application form, a copy of your
medical certificate and two passport size photographs to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Secondly, because aviation communications e.g. talking to Air Traffic Control (ATC) is done in English,
you must be able to read, speak, write, and understand English. Easy, right?
With your paperwork submitted, you can start ground school so long. We provide you with a kit full of
reading material for all the subjects that you need to study. It also includes other equipment needed
such as navigation computer and plotting tools. Much of ground school will be self-study but your
instructor is available in case you get stuck. You can supplement your study using question banks as
you get ready to write exams. As soon as you start scoring high nineties in your practice questions,
come and write your exams.
The exams consist of multiple-choice questions covering various aviation topics such as principles of
flight, air law, human performance, aircraft systems, navigation, flight planning and performance, radio
communications and meteorology. Lowveld Aero Club is one of the few accredited CAA exam centres
in Mpumalanga province so you will have an easy time writing your exams from the school with
absolutely no need to travel anywhere. A word of caution: flying is easy. The hours in the cockpit are
fun. Exams are not fun for most people. Get them out of the way as soon as possible!
A minimum of 45 flight hours is required to earn your PPL and this includes 25 hours of flight training
with an instructor, 15 hours of solo flight time and 5 hours cross country time. In reality, you will need
slightly more than this because we all learn differently, some exercises may need to be repeated and
some lessons may be slightly longer.
During your dual hour training phase, you will familiarise with the aircraft, learn emergency drills, learn
how to prepare for flight, learn the effects of the various flight controls, taxi the aircraft, fly straight and
level, climb, descend, turn, and do slow flight. You will also practise how to safely stall the aircraft (you
read that right!) and avoid spinning. There will be hours of practising taking off, climbing, remaining in
the airport circuit and returning for landing…and taking off again for another circuit, thus honing your
landings and learning how to coordinate with other aircraft using the same airport.
At some point, you will have impressed your instructor enough to be “cut loose”. The day of solo is a
day that you will never forget. After a couple of circuits on that great day, your instructor will climb out
the aircraft. You will know exactly what to do because you have been trained well and you will do
everything as you have been taught but this time alone in the cockpit. You only need 1 take off and 1
landing to be admitted into the club of pilots.
From there, the rest of the training goes pretty fast. It will be interspersed with dual training (in the
airport environment and the training area over Barberton Valley) and cross country exercises as well
as practising emergencies and abnormal procedures such as emergency landing and precautionary
flying.
Soon it will be time for you to do your PPL test. This time you will fly with a testing instructor. He will
be in the role of a passenger so you just need to demonstrate the same things that you have been
taught over and over, to the CAA standards