Your license to Fly
To fly an aircraft registered in South Africa you will need to have your European licence validated. This includes some paperwork beforehand as well as some theory testing and practical flying upon your arrival. Generally there are 2 options:
A Long term validation lasting 5 years
A short term validation lasting 28 days and thus being sufficient for your upcoming trip
No matter which option you want to choose, some prepation is necessary beforehand so we will ask you to send the following certified copies approximately 3 months before your arrival with DHL or any other courier service:
Copy of your license
Copy of your medical
Your English rating (not necessary when stated in your license)
Copy of your logbook with total hours flown
Two passport pictures
As local authorities will double check the validity of your license in your country it helps the process along when you can give us the details of the respective authority.
You want to apply for the 5 years validation? This will include an air law test which will be held online while you are with us. Certainly we will provide you with some preparation material to train on while still in Europe. Don’t worry, most of the questions you will remember from your previous pilot exams – but obviously some local rules you will have to learn.
The practical part of both options include...well...practical flying!
To get you used to the airplane you will fly during your time with us as well as getting you accustomed with the area one of our instructors will take you out on a familiarization flight. Which are the reporting points and different traffic zones around Johannesburg or Cape Town respectively? What are the landmarks which are easy to recognize? How do you handle the plane and are you comfortable with the basic practical exercises of turns, stalls and emergency landing procedures? How does a plane perform in warm high altitude conditions and what does that mean for your daily flight planning? Only when you and our instructor feel comfortable with both, we will ask for an official flight inspector to come for your practical flying exam the following day.
Depending on your level of confidence your license validation will take 2-3 days.
NB: On a 5 years validation prolongation can be done simply by providing actual paperwork at the time of renewal.
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