68volksy

1. Don't know where you're getting your information from but I think that's way off. Local DAME pilot at the airport has issued several of the new style medicals and it's a one-page document with the sign-off that you're fit to drive a motor vehicle. Any RA licence holder who signs the "fit to drive a motor vehicle statement" should legally have had the same exam done by a GP first or they'll find themselves getting sued should something go wrong. 2. You'd be up for the same costs if you paid a LAME/L2 to inspect your RA-Aus registered aircraft. Some people actually do not do their own maintenance and have no desire to. I will never vote for that requirement to be removed - there are too many aircraft of questionable integrity in the air as it is. 3. Not sure whether the CFI or the CASA staff member was confused but there will be no "new licence" so to speak. Simply a removal or alteration of the restrictions that are currently in place - such as the alterations to the requirement for a medical that is currently underway. A dislike of CASA will get RA-Aus nowhere in all of this. It's only by the good grace of CASA that the organisation exists at all and the more the director gets pissed off the tighter the leash will be pulled.

Canberra airport owned by Terry Snow and managed by his son Stephen Byron. Personally i blame the lack of people to get together in happy and harmonious :"clubs" nowadays rather than the commercial operators. Flying clubs should be forming to own and maintain airports for recreational users. Not much different to Golf Clubs or Tennis Clubs really - if a decent club formed there's a very good chance of applying to the Crown or a local Council for the use of some of their land. Not much chance with the ego-laden world of aviation in my view though...

Not necessarily true - RA-Aus planes out primarily due to Canberra being controlled airspace. There are a couple of RA-Aus registered planes kept down there where the pilots/planes meet the requirements. One guy has just done his conversion with Goulburn Aviation and now has his J230 parked down there under covers. GA still alive and well with the flying school quite busy. Lack of hangerage is the only drawback to the Canberra life - the airport is in quite a good location in regards to access to the rest of Canberra so land around there is worth an absolute fortune unfortunately... That said the airport has provided and maintains a very nice little building solely for the GA pilots and passengers with toilets, seats and a brilliant viewing deck.

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).

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.

Hiring makes sense if you're flying only an hour or so per week on average. $135/hour including GST for a Gazelle or $150/hour including GST for a new J170 is damn cheap when you think about it. The flying school can amortise the fixed costs (insurance, hangerage, initial purchase price, depreciation etc.) over a lot more hours than pretty much all private pilots. Also factor in all maintenance of the flying school aircraft being done by a LAME/L2. If you do your own maintenance then it's a different argument of course but not everyone is keen to do that - i'll show you my lawnmower if you think I should try doing my own maintenance! There's also no stress if (heaven forbid!) you can't fly for a few months! That said it's often cheaper to rent than own a home but most people simply like having something they can call theirs...

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.

I'd have to agree. I know of schools paying their guys $15-$25 per flying hour. It's what's proven so immensely frustrating - we've never put our pay rates out there before but the award rate is close to double that. A part of it just seems to be instructors that don't look outside of their school to see what's really available? In the accounting field (one of my "other" jobs...) you can guarantee every accountant knows exactly how much money they could get with the firm just down the road! .

I have considered becoming an instructor. My main problem is I'm still to get my damn GFPT! I've never wanted to push in front of students and due to the guys being absolutely swamped with work i only fly when there's a cancellation and no other students waiting. Many people get frustrated with not being able to get bookings. Sum total is close to 60 hours flying for me but spread over almost 6 years (might explain the slightly grouchy smurf disposition?)... We've now got an instructor doing weekday work by appointment in Goulburn and i'm first in line so at the moment things are looking very good for me!

Already had a crack at that. Twice. Had some luck but we still have demand to fill. Also - if there are any RA-Aus instructors out there keen for weekend work (one day or two) please send your details through.

Canberra Aviation require an enthusiastic Grade 1 or Grade 2 Instructor to join our busy team in Canberra. We are offering a generous salary package including annual bonus system and company car as well as negotiable payment arrangements with the option of either permanent part-time or casual employment (or a combination of the two) to suit the selected applicant. Applicants should be self-motivated, dependable and professional in their manner. We are an enthusiastic team of highly experienced flying instructors who seek to provide our students with a relaxed yet professional atmosphere to ensure they get the most out of their training dollar. The position will involve training primarily from our Canberra location with some work from our Goulburn location on an irregular as-needed basis. Ideally the applicant will be available for work at least 3 days per week however 5 days per week (including weekends) is preferred. Other experienced applicants seeking part-time or casual employment for one ot two days per week are also invited to send an expression of interest outlining their experience and availability. An RA-Aus instructors rating or the willingness to attain one will also be highly desirable to provide occasional relief at our Goulburn base which also caters to the RA-Aus market. If interested please forward cover letter/email outlining availability and brief resume outlining qualifications, previous work experience and breakdown of total hours to [email protected]. For further information regarding the position please use this email address also. www.canberraaviation.com.au

I've run it past several lawyers - one of them's a client actually. Are you suggesting a public liability claim could possibly pass through the company and on towards the directors? Company law is pretty straightforward about what liabilities can pass through to the directors - trading whilst insolvent and employee pay and super being the primary issues. Haven't heard of any cases where they were able to ping the directors for anything other than the above issues. It's why the word "Limited" appears in a company name after all. If there's evidence to the contrary though it would be most prudent of me to hear it.

You're right - it's certainly busiest on the weekends. Students are a real mix of backgrounds nowadays though. Everything from the retired to kids still at school. Weekends are a very social time also so it's more popular for that reason as well. That said the planes are booked solid on the weekends so rather than purchase another plane to work a couple of days a week we're taking appointments on weekdays. A lot of our clients have flexible work times as well so ducking out for a couple of hours is easy enough for them to do.

A bit of our problem with finding RA instructors is the demand for GA flying really. The young(er) instructors we've got would rather be flying the Warriors than the Gazelle's - they're after hours really to help them get into other things like fire-spotting and charter and the Gazelle hours are (to put it bluntly) a waste of time for those on the GA side (GA employers will throw away a resume with nothing but RA time). The young guys also like flying the Cirrus, Bonanza, C182T and C210 when they get the opportunity. The older instructors are recently retired (work part-time) and given we pay the same money for both they'll generally choose the Warriors when they can. We advertised recently for instructors offering above award wages and free use of a work vehicle and had only a couple of suitable replies - both part-time. There's a lot of junior Grade 3's around which we aren't setup to hire - whole lack of overheads thing and they didn't display any true commitment to instructing. We'll keep beating the drum - word will spread.

The only real living to be made in Aviation is working for CASA or the ATSB. Failing that there are some CFI positions that pay appropriate wages however they can be pretty borderline. We're working hard with our school to change things around though and pay well above award rates to our GA and RA instructors. If they're committed full-time (5 days per week) they'll get $50-70k a year out of training. We've cut the overheads out of the business - realised the "office" is really the aircraft - not some bricks and mortar and admin staff sucking the cash out. Gives us more to pay the instructors! Problem from a business point of view is that everyone is of the opinion that RA should be much cheaper. We did the sums very thoroughly and a $60k Warrior costs only about $25-30 more per hour to run than an $85k Jabiru when you take the opportunity cost of the funds and pay an L2 properly to do the maintenance. So we make little to no margin out of RA training at the moment basically. But with low overheads at least the instructors can get paid well. I suppose from a purely business point of view the guys doing it for the love of it keep the RA prices low. Some of them are happy working for $20 a flying hour which is less than half the award rate but they're generally not about to take themselves to Fair Work Australia! Only problem for us is there are no instructors around willing to step up to the plate!

You can never have too much insurance - just have to way up cost versus risk as with many things. Owning your aircraft through a company structure is a great way of limiting the liability - especially if you have a few. I've recommended this to many clients. Something to think about anyway.

CASA runs an extremely good Avsafety seminar on this stuff - covers all the things you can find online and how to use them. Takes 45-60 minutes and covers the CASA, BOM, and Airservices websites. Few interesting little nuggets in the presentation too about what will cover the legal aspects of flight planning and what won't (basically comes down to carrying printouts from the right website). Recommend getting along if anyone hasn't already - they also put on a free meal!

Great little site for getting measurements and stuff in NSW is Six Viewer: http://lite.maps.nsw.gov.au/ Maps can be much more detailed in some areas than GE also.

It's largely to do with how it looks isn't it? I've seen arguments one way and the other - each better given the right circumstances. I've always loved the aesthetics of the tail-wheel when on the ground - looks like an eager puppy waiting to leap into the skies. That said when you're sitting inside it you can't appreciate it - same goes for sports cars...

Welcome Diddy! I'm next door with Goulburn Aviation but it's good to hear another passionate aviator has been bitten by the bug. Used to be just Goulburn Aviation's one little Gazelle floating around Goulburn for many many years - now the air is thick with them! Merimbula for lunch is a big ask in the little Gazelle at 70 knots (It's about 2 hours each way in the Warrior at 110 allowing for a little sight-seeing/whale-spotting). That said it's a great fly-away destination for a weekend - we had 5 planes head down a year or two ago. Fly safe.

Quite right turbo - but where do you draw the limit?

General rule of thumb is $1million per seat in the aircraft in my dealings with the brokers.

No Club at Goulburn as such but a group of passionate aviators have been hanging out around the Goulburn Aviation kettle/BBQ for longer than i've been learning to fly so that got one vote for me even if there are no membership fees. Teraya (owner of the school) has been supplying the tea, coffee, soft drink and BBQ supplies for almost 20 years with near-perfect reliability! That and the Canberra Aero Club membership keeps me in touch with ATC nights, CASA seminars and access to their fleet as well as the odd fly-away and social night down that way also.

There are a few schools/instructors around that promote a "Crash course" in aviation (ie guarantee GFPT or RA-Aus licence in 20 hours regardless of ability). I find it funny that some also offer "Guaranteed employment" to those they teach (once again regardless of ability/personality/)... This is definitely not the kind of industry where a passing appreciation of the general areas and the "gift of the gab" will get you out of any situation (unlike, say, Accounting...). Might add the question above "How frequently did you fly during this period?" as I think we'd all agree that consistency counts for a good deal in the "circuit phase" of training?

Best guess for me - did 24hours and GFPT pre-flight with ATO and then gave it all away for 2 years (work issues). Now I hang around and been flying only when there's a cancellation and no other students waiting (for about 3 years) so up around the 60 hours but no GFPT... Interesting to see so many with minimum hours being set loose. Not often the bureaucrats get something like this so close to spot on? Also like to see a first solo poll as a good 16hours of my first 24 were with my instructor chained firmly to the right seat (I passed on her offer several times before I let her get out)!