Weight shift training shortage in Eastern Cape.

[bryan]

Can anyone please share some definitive answers.
1. Besides WingsPark in East London, is any other legal training available in the Eastern Cape.
2. Please share such knowledge . We get many enquiries and want to see more trikes in the air.
3.where are guys going for renewals if there are no other schools.

[Tumbleweed]

An honest question. Can one do a renewal with a current and on type instructor who is not affiliated and active with a flying school?

[Dobbs]

Short answer is no - that is the predicament that I am in, and satellite schools are not allowed and the schlep of complying with RAASA's / CAA's rules and regs, do not make it worthwhile for one or two students a year.

[Tumbleweed]

I wonder how many pilots are 100 miles outside of the structured schools and have this renewal issue?

If an AP can check your trike why not any acredited intructor do your renewal?

[vernon11]

I wonder how many pilots are 100 miles outside of the structured schools and have this renewal issue?

If an AP can check your trike why not any acredited intructor do your renewal?

To me, that is a very good question.

[bryan]

That is why I am asking. Uitenhage pilots have been in that situation for a while now. It is not viable to run a school for the low numbers and it is a real hassel for them to come up here. They are not the only guys in that predicament. Further away from Wings Park are more pilots like these. Remember the weathrr also plays a part. When those guys have travelled all the way here it can become windy and then days can pass with no flying time available. It is a big problem and should be adressed. Some pilots then take the easy way out and at their peril fly illegally. I really would like to know of other schools still active in the Eastern Cape or where the nearest legal training to us is situated. Vernon what is down your way. Mike Hubsch who is otherside you guys. Lets see how we can help more trikes to fly again.
Regards
Bryan

[Tumbleweed]

On the one hand there seems to be an initiative to promote recreational flying to BEE's and previously disadvantages through young eagles e.t.c. (who I doubt will buy a trike to fly around the patch on weekends) but the system is alienating the very source of recreational pilots outside of the mainstream areas who's passion get diluted by the beaorocracy of the establishment.

Someone obviously sold a good pitch that intructors with 1000's of hours who hold a professional job and fly for passion can't sustain the level of proficiency of a 'flying' school.

[vernon11]

Bryan. We also have that problem here. Our nearest is light flight, or Emoyeni.
Real bummer.

[bryan]

OK Vernon , hso if I read you correctly the nearest instructore in the east is at Emoyeni. Wow that is far from us. I have had no reply from the western side of East London. Hope someone responds. North of us it appears Bloemfontein is the only active school. Graaff Reinet does not appear to be in operation any more. Or is it anybody know.

[HansH]

And if you fly a Tri-Cubby in Margate the nearest places to perhaps find a Tri-Cubby instructor would be JNB/Secunda or perhaps Mossel Bay. Total fuel cost about R1,600. That's a lot of money to waste on a totally non-productive exercise that these bi-annual checks are.

[bryan]

Hans at least you are a pilot. The trike situation is far worse . Where can someone go to learn to fly in the whole Eastern Cape. A renewal one can go and do as a one off in one day but to learn tofly takes months Iin a trike.

[Dobbs]

Maybe we need to petition RAASA to allow satellite schools. Obviously we would expect the necessary oversight so as to ensure that safety and quality of training is not in any way compromised, but the more consolidation there is of flight schools in their efforts to contain costs, the more centralized they are going to be, and that will be the big centres that have the student potential.

[bryan]

There used tobe satellite schools. However the system was abused by fly by nights who did not operate to the set standards. The biggest problem I am thinking is that the effective policing of satellites was also not being done due to budgetry constraints. In saying this I must point out that we have a problem. The present system is killing grassroots flyers. How on earth can the oke living in sayJansenville get trained if the nearset school is 3hrs away by car. Renewals I could still with difficulty accept, but learning to fly just cannot be done like this.
Can someone confirm that Mossel Bay has a school for trikes. And please what is the status of Graaff Reinet school. There was an instructor at George but I do not know if he is doing any training and if so which school is involved.
Setting up a school is lots of work and not viable unless one has a number of regular students. There is a fair amount of finance involved and a great deal of Admin work. Then the shortage of instructorsalso plays a part. We will have to discuss these things otherwise ALL trike pilots will suffer.. It is already difficult to do renewals because of cost and availability of schools. For upcoming pilots its a nightmare.

[Tumbleweed]

I think the authorities need to relook this.

If an acredited flying school approves the suitable trained 'satelite' instructor and his chosen airfield, has the student attend the ground school at the flying school or in the event of e.g. an LSA upgrade self study and write the exams at the flight school or at Raasa, the instructor should in compliance of requirements be able to fly the training hours, cross country to the flying school or wherever, renewals or conversion to type and have the Grade A owner do the flight test. The flying school would obviously get a kickback per hour for compliance.

What was the logic behind the apparent cancelling of training hours a short while ago where a gyro instructor and student both staying in Pta flew from an acredited airfield, to and from the training airfield in Brakpan?

Visit any airfield and you'll find a trike under covers where the system just outweighed the fun factor of flying beacuse a prospective buyer won't commit to the hassle and the trike is reserved for a flip om die plaas.

[bryan]

Worse still. The pilot lives in the badlands. His licence expires . He continues flying. Then his farmer neighbour buys a second hand wreck of a trike and this guy the teaches him to fly . Why . Because it is now such a schlep to do it legally and the schools and facilities are hundreds of km away.
Surely we can collectively design a better system. Over regulation is NOT the way to go! Lets not re invent the wheel but improve the design so that it is an easier system for the controlling bodies ( who represent us) and for the pilots and prospective flyers to use.
We the pilots have over the last couple of years allowed the system to become cumbersome by not making suggestions, talking to one another. I have some dreams about trike flying and one is to see a new wave of youngsters getting involved. To do this one HAS to simplify the system and secondly cut the costs.

My personal attempt at this is to find older trikes that are standing around and believe me there are quite a few. Get them in a flying condition and get a bum in the seat. Andrew at Wings has been very hard at work doing some of this and it works. There are some guys unfortunately rather let the trike rot than get rid of it for a fair price, but thats another story. Once we have a student we still have this over regulated system and the question of dying schools. Long story but that where my questions originated from.
We at present have two out of town students coming here and one local struggling to afford the trike buying game. What a pity.

I might as well raise the other question which irks me. That is the one of the AP scheme which I really feel has serious shortcomings. Firstly not enough of them around and secondly some AP's abusing the scheme with their prices. But that is a thread on its own
Regards
Bryan Erasmus