Having finally succumbed to your long time desire to learn to fly, the next question that needs to be answered is "How much will this venture actually cost?".

As simple as this question may seem, it is surprising that after spending a whole day talking with every Flying School in your area, you may still have this question unanswered. You will no doubt have been quoted many varying prices, on a cost per hour basis and you will now believe that Flying Schools vary by as much as 50% in their charges but wait, this is far from the truth.

A simple example of this how this misinformation could be deemed legally correct, but can be also deliberately deceptive is as follows:

For the sake of not inciting an argument with any other school, I will use our own January 2007 prices as the example. I must state at this point that our staff are trained NOT to give deceptive answers.

In answer to your question, "How much will it cost to learn to fly," the person you ask at the school could truthfully answer; "Our aircraft prices start from $147 per hour. Most people take around 50 hours". This could leave you thinking, "H'mmm... 50 x $147 is just $7,350, that's pretty good. Another school told me $14,000 and yet another $17,000!"

In this example, the Flying School representative did not actually answer the question you asked however, what He/She did tell you was correct. You would naturally think that your question was answered, because the information given, probably answered what you were expecting to hear. It was just conveniently forgotten by the school representative to mention that you will also need to buy reference books, theory courses, landing fees, flight planning equipment, overnight accommodation, fuel, excess insurance waivers, instructors, test fees for theory and practical Flight Testing Officers. All of these costs must be added to the final bill, which in the majority of private pilot cases will also attract GST, most commercial pilot courses are exempt from this.

The more correct and morally truthful answer from the school representative should have been; "Each student varies a little, but the current average for our students is 57 hours up to the flight test for the Private Pilots License. I recommend you budget for around  Fifteen thousand dollars. This is a fairly realistic figure that you should expect to have spent at the end of the course on everything and none of this need be paid up front. Most of our students pay for each lesson as they go. We have credit facilities through the major bank credit cards and we have found that this helps our students on tight budgets to achieve their goals within reasonable time-frames.".

At this point you may not have any concept of the legal differences and the varying qualifications of Flying Instructors. Similarly, you might not understand that the combinations of qualified Flying Instructors and modern purpose built trainers can make your flight training hours flown vary by up to 50%. You will probably have been told that, "It's not possible to give an exact quote, because the capabilities of students vary". What would not have been explained is that the capabilities of instructors vary even more. An experienced senior instructor, who is motivated and just "loves to teach", will use His/Her skills to minimise the individual learning rate differences between students. By applying good teaching practices to analyse individual student mistakes, misunderstandings and/or fears, your instructor should be able to guide all students to achieve the same required outcomes, within very similar flight times. This technique is called "teaching", it has been around for a few thousand years, however it is surprising how few "qualified instructors" know how to do it. 

At Bruce Hartwig Flying School we pride ourselves in our ability to teach. That's why we still call our school, a school. Not an Aerospace ***, an Academy, a Logistic *** or the latest business buzzword, we are a Flying School. We teach you to become an aircraft pilot, through assessing your performance, developing individual ways to help you overcome any learning difficulties, being able to help you to understand what caused a mistake, as opposed to just saying that you have made one. We have achieved a proud 30 year history of capable graduates. Our graduates range from Airline Captains to competent private pilots. They number in the thousands and none of these graduates have ever had an air fatality. I guess we may have been very lucky with whom we chose to train, or just perhaps, we may be doing something right.

I don't like to give away too many "trade secrets", but the fact is an aircraft is just a machine. It is a machine which has had a hundred years of development, with the sole purpose of making the design easier to operate and thus safer. Learning to operate these machines is very simple. As simple as pull control "A " back - aircraft goes up, push control "A" forward - aircraft goes down. As with any machine there are systems and principles that need understanding to make the machine as a whole work smoothly and within its' design limits, however it's not "rocket science" and to learn how to drive the machine usually takes less than 15 hours tuition. The rest of the flight training syllabus is all about training you to handle emergency procedures, navigation and understanding the environment in which you are operating (flying) this machine. The trick to becoming a pilot is to understand what type of environments you are likely to find yourself in and what types of possible emergencies you may face. This is about how to understand yourself and your reactions to these situations, how to avoid them and most importantly, ****Knowing how to tackle the task ****. These things all require a change in your thinking from normal day to day. 

It is the way you are prepared as an individual, that makes the difference between a person who can operate a machine to a sufficient standard, who gets a piece of paper from the government authority i.e. PPL or CPL pilot licence and the person who IS a PILOT. Being a pilot is a way of thinking and being as a whole. The difference between a commercial pilot, private pilot, Airline Captain etc really only boils down to how far you have become a pilot within yourself. It sounds over simplified doesn't it, but that is what it is. This simplification however brings about a very real problem for you. When selecting your Flight Training Organisation, the reality of the whole question, "How much will it cost to learnt to fly?" has the real answer, " In financial terms $X, but it costs you a very large part of your total being . A private pilot takes on the responsibility for His/Her passengers lives and the pain his mistakes will cause many families if He/She makes serious errors. A professional pilot has this responsibility multiplied by many hundreds of times, everyday, for the rest of His/Her professional life .... Lets not think about this too much, but do consider, "What are you really choosing, when you select a person or school to train you. They must prepare you for what you are about to encounter, not just to meet a syllabus of minimum training standards, that will enable you to manipulate a machine."

In reality, when the proud moment comes and you are finally holding your own General Aviation Pilots Licence in your hand, you will have spent the same amount of your hard earned monies (within a few dollars) no matter which Flying Training Organisation you chose. In every case you will have been at least trained to the minimum standard as required by the Day VFR Syllabus. This syllabus is the minimum standard as required by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and encompassed in law. If the minimum is what you are looking for, then its not hard to find. If you are looking for more, then you will need to do a lot of careful research. Be prepared to be coerced, manipulated and baffled by slick salespersons, bored by some and promised the world by other instructors struggling to survive. Its a competitive industry and more often than not, potential students are seen as "cash cows". You won't probably ever know the real ability of your training organisation until you have completed their training syllabus. By the time you have come to this conclusion, you will have enough knowledge of the aviation industry to know which were the best of the Flying Training Schools and whether or not this knowledge adds to your pride. You will know if you have gained the best possible professional training and have developed the skills that you personally aspired to, or if you have just met the minimum standard and been treated as another "body through the door", to achieve the commercial goals of the schools proprietor. Wouldn't it have been a lot better to be given the straight facts in the first place.

The best advice is to make notes of all conversations and promises. Follow these notes up by fax or letter to the school confirming their "offers", and plan for the probable law suit that you are entitled to have if the schools representatives mislead you. Ensure that you sign enrolment forms for your required course and ensure these enrolments include your notes and promises as attachments to and conditions of, your contract.

The Aviation Training Industry is heavily regulated by CASA. One of the requirements of CASA is that students records be kept in such a manner, so that upon request of a student, or due to the commercial failure of a Flying School, the records can be transferred to another training organisation of the students choice. The list of Do's and Don'ts are designed to help you make the right decision before spending your money.

On first contact with any Flying School, don't make your first question "How much do you charge per hour to learn to fly?" By asking this question you are handing over the initiative of the discussion to the salesperson within the Flying School. He/She is trained to pick up this question and to lead you into believing that this Dollar value, multiplied by the minimum hours as laid down by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority will be the amount of monies you will spend when learning to fly.

The technique is designed to encourage a false hope within the potential student that they will spend only $x, instead of their preconceived $2x. By giving this false euphoric feeling to the potential student, the salesperson will then hope to "stitch up a deal" whilst the "customer" is off guard.

Often the Flying School representatives will try to encourage or may even demand, that potential students pay some monies up front. An incentive of a discount to the normal fee structure may be offered as inducement.

Ask yourself:

• "Why do they need my money in advance? The costs incurred in flying training only accrue to the Flying School as training progresses and aircraft are flown."

• "Is this school operating without sufficient capital and will they be in business for the length of my training ?"

• "Are they trying to commit me in case I discover that I have made a mistake in my selection of this school?"

• "Are they going to still be in business in 12 months when I want to hire their aircraft ?"

Not all schools are equal. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority is best placed to know the capabilities and staff experience of each Flying School. The authority issues each Flying School with documentation that clearly shows what they (CASA) believe the school is capable of. If the school isn't approved to do Command Instrument or Flight Instructor ratings, then you know that the school and the Instructors of the school, are not recognised by CASA. as being as experienced or capable, as a school with those qualifications.

If you are aiming for a professional licence i.e. Commercial, Multi-Engine, Command Instrument or Flight Instructor Rating, either now or in the future, ensure your school of choice is capable of delivering the course before you start your initial training.

Similar assessments are made by the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA). In ANTA's case, they will assess the competency of a school to provide consistent training practices, suitable training aids and facilities. ANTA also ensures that he delivery systems e.g. instructor suitability, application of syllabus and educational outcomes, all meet the National standard. It will also ensure that policies for fair and reasonable treatment of students and the rights of students are written and available for students to see. The Australian National Training Authority conducts regular audits on registered schools. Ensure your choice of Flying School is approved as a Registered Training Organisation (RT.

To give you even further confidence that the business you are planning to deal with, is well managed and it's policies and practices meet "world best practice", the "better" schools, subject themselves to annual independent audit through internationally recognised quality assurance protocols. The most recognised and stringent of these bodies is the International Standards Organisation (ISO) which is based in Geneva (Switzerland). The approvals from ISO are varied, however within Aviation, the appropriate approval for a company of outstanding quality in Australia is AS/NZS 9001 : 2000.

Ideally, your Flying School should be able to demonstrate that it holds all of the above independent approvals. In practice you will find it quite rare for a school to hold all of these approvals. Do not despair, if there are no schools in your area that meet this demanding standard, ensure that they at least meet two out of three. Also do not make the mistake of believing that if your chosen school holds all three of these qualifications that "it will be expensive".

The reality is that a quality assured, RTO approved, professional pilot training operation, will in fact be well managed and have systems in place that will ensure you get the best training and at the best price. The greatest cost is inefficiency, in flight training it is you who will pay for this inefficiency through duplication of lessons and increased flight hours required prior to achieving Flight Test standard.

By far the greatest cost to any Flying School is the cost of operating their aircraft and salaries of experienced instructors.

Experienced flight instructors are few and in great demand, they command good salaries and are worth every cent. Inexperienced flight instructors are plentiful and often work for free. Some Flying Schools even advertise for non-experienced persons to undertake junior instructor training courses (at a good profit to the training school), with promises that they (the newly graduated instructor) will be given "flight hours" after graduation. Great for the junior instructor, but very, very expensive for you. You may even save money on the hourly rate instructor costs, (they usually work for less than half the Award wage) but they will be learning at your expense and you will take lots of hours to learn. In fact the more hours you take, the better the newly qualified instructor likes it. In most cases these low experience instructors are only paid when you are in the aircraft with the engine running.

As a "rule of thumb" for your guidance, the General Aviation Pilots Award for a Junior Flight Instructor is currently around $46-00 per hour. If offered a flight instructor for your training at less than this cost, either your chosen school is very generous (loosing money), or your instructor is so inexperienced that they are prepared to work just to build flying hours. If a school's management is so intent on profit as its first priority that it will underpay and abuse its staff, then don't believe they will put your interests first when it comes to your training programme.

The type of aircraft available for use as trainers are numerous. The manufacture of aircraft and aircraft design is a multi-billion dollar industry. It follows that certain aircraft are designed for specific roles and are only successful within specific operating environments.

For example, the historic "Tiger Moth" was the best trainer during the 1930's and much of the 1940's for civilian pilot training. During the same period the Boeing Stearman dominated the Military Training Schools.

In the 1960's and 70's a range of small underpowered 2 seat trainers e.g. Cessna 150 & 152, Piper Tomahawks, Chipmunks and the Victa Airtourer dominated the training market. Their demise only came about as the demand on airspace grew and the Training Areas associated with each airport moved from overhead or adjacent the aerodrome, to new training areas many Nautical Miles (NM) from the Aerodrome of departure. Unfortunately these reliable little craft became uncompetitive against the faster aircraft of today, when transiting from Airport to Training Area.

Today at Parafield, the training area extends almost to Port Wakefield. Training aircraft need travel out 35 NM (around 65 km) to the northern boundary. Obviously a modern training Aircraft travelling at near 135 NM per hour (250 Kph) and with climb rates double that of the older trainers will have great advantage over those older little trainers cruising around 85 NM per hour and half the performance. Climb performance and cruise speed is proportional to hours taken to learn. Remember, you are paying by the hour and what you can achieve in this hour will result in the overall cost of your flight training. Quicker aircraft = less hours = less real dollar cost for your licence.

There are three distinct grades of flying instructors:

• A Grade I Flying Instructor is the most senior and experienced , who must have amassed in excess of 750 hours (most Grade I 's have many thousands of hours), of training and have proved to CASA that they are qualified to not only teach pilots but also Instructors.

• A Grade II Flying Instructor need only have completed 250 hours of training other pilots and is responsible for his actions to a Chief Flying Instructor who is usually a Grade I.

• A Grade III Instructor is a novice Flying Instructor who is under the direct guidance of a Grade I instructor. The Grade III is not allowed to send any students solo, in any sequence unless the student has been checked by a senior instructor.

There are very few Flying Instructors who have worked within the Airlines, Military or Charter Industry and have decided to come back to teach because that is their first preference. If you are able to find such an instructor, His/Her experience will help not only develop your flying skills, but will also direct you towards the true professionalism required to make a good pilot in command.

The majority of Flying Instructors do not have instrument ratings. Most if not all casual flying instructors have become instructors so that they can gain flying hours to enable them to get jobs with one of the Airlines or Charter companies.

All Flying Schools start charging the cost of your training flight from the moment the engine is started. The Civil Aviation Orders state that an aircraft taxi speed must not exceed that which can be met by a fast walking pace. Although in practise the authorities "turn a blind eye" to aircraft exceeding this limitation, it is still a requirement that aircraft are taxied very slowly. It is not at all unusual from some of the Flying Schools to be situated in such a place that requires 15 minutes on the taxiway there and back. In extreme cases 22 minutes could be expected. All of this ground time is being paid for at the hourly rate quoted.

Flying Training conducted at "country" based airports has some advantages over city airports, but the disadvantages outweigh the advantages for most pilots. Earlier on in these pages, you will have read "an aircraft is just a machine." This is very true. The advantage that country airports have over larger "Air Traffic Controlled" airports is very clear in the area of learning to operate the controls of the "flying machine". Without the distractions of other aircraft, air-traffic control towers, airspace procedure understanding and all the other day to day things that will affect your concentration, you will definitely learn to operate the machine i.e. turn on/off the engine, make the machine fly up, down, turn etc. in less time than if you have the distractions of the real world of flying. 

The problem here is that most pilots want to learn how to fly so they can go somewhere. That means taking an aircraft and going from A to B. Unfortunately for those who choose to train at an airport or field that does not give constant exposure to the aviation traffic environment, they will be very limited in where A and B must be located. Training at an airport in what in Aviation legal terms is Class G airspace, means you can only be licensed to fly in Class G airspace. You will not be able to fly to any major city in Australia. This includes all the tourist spots like Ayres Rock, Cairns, Gold Coast, Broome, Hamilton Island and the list goes on for the hundreds of destinations that most pilots want to fly to.

Sure, if you train at a country airfield you can fly to the larger airports and city controlled airspace environments during your training and learn how to deal with these environments. The point here is, "if you are going to spend the money to fly to these airports, fly in these environments long enough during training to become familiar enough to have your flight test conducted in those airspaces", then surely this is costing more money than any you might have saved in the first place. The real world reality is that if you have not been brought up to be comfortable with the environment you now find yourself in, you will probably not go there. If you want to be a Pilot, learn to use the airspace at all levels from day one. Let the Airspace system be a natural place for you and your aircraft to be. Do not be traumatised by "the trip" you have planned, just because it will take you into the real world of aviation/airspace and air traffic.

Your Flying training will culminate in a flight test. This test will be conducted by a Senior Flying Instructor who has been granted approval by the Civil Aviation Authority to be a testing officer at the required level of your licence. Many Flying Schools have their own Chief Flying Instructor who has been granted this approval. The approval is not given lightly, and is continually reappraised by a CASA Examiner. It may be that any Licence test will be met by a CASA examiner who will conduct or check on the flight test.

It is not possible for a student to be assured of whom will be His/Her testing officer, until the day of the test. It is essential that the student presenting for a flight test be ready to be presented to the standard required by any testing officer. The purpose of the flight test is to assure that the student meets or exceeds the standard required for the particular licence required. The number of hours flown during training is irrelevant as long as the minimum has been met.

The number of hours taken to achieve the required standard is impossible to quote at the start of training. The skills of the individual, the Aircraft type and the quality of the instructor, will be the dominating factors. The consistency in the training program, the time spent on the taxiway vs flying, the time spent in learning new skills as opposed to transiting to the training area, etc will all combine to make the number of hours flown to achieve the standard.

Unfortunately the majority of Flying Schools use all or mainly casual flying instructors. The instructor although doing His/Her best to teach the student is inhibited by the knowledge that they are only being paid whilst their student is flying. This does not give incentive to have the student progress toward Solo Flight. Often the students program is as a result of the Instructors financial need as opposed to the training level of the student.

Ground training is critical when learning to fly. An approximate guide is 2 hours theory for each hour in the air. Apart from the structured theory to achieve examination passes at the required licence level, pre-flight and post-flight briefings are essential when learning to fly. It is only natural to expect that an instructor who is being paid to give these briefing will do so with greater consistency and enthusiasm than an Instructor who is being paid only for hours flown.

The time taken for you to learn will be greatly effected by the experience of your instructor.

The possibility of you and your instructor being caught out in bad weather, either in the training area, or during a navigational exercise, is very real. If both your instructor and the aircraft you are flying are Instrument Flight Rated then your safety will not be compromised.

Not all Flying Schools are equal. Some schools have greater experience and skills than others. This is reflected by the approvals given by CASA.

During your training most Flying Schools will put you in more than one aircraft. It is essential that the instrumentation of all these aircraft is standardised throughout their fleet. Confusion in finding everything different in different aircraft will add many hours to your training program.

Often the attitude of the School can be seen. Use the old guide "what is on the outside will probably be on the inside where you cannot see it."

During training the means by which information exchanges between you the student and your instructor is critical for your learning. Ensure the intercom system in each aircraft is voice activated, clear and working. Press to talk type intercoms are not satisfactory in training aircraft. Are the communication radios of modern design. The radio is a vital link in flying. Clarity and ease of use is most important. Again check to see if the fleet has standardised radio's and intercoms. Do the aircraft have up to date Navigation systems. Global Positioning systems or Satellite navigational systems are the way of today and the immediate future. Training aircraft not equipped with GPS are unable to train students to the real world of flying in Australia today.

This is far more important than it first appears. Consider, who has the control over the maintenance of the aircraft. The owner, or the school. Hopefully they will be the same. If the aircraft are not owned by the school then what happens to your training and/or the school if the aircraft owner decides to sell the aircraft. What if the owner does not keep up His/Her payments to the maintenance organisation or the lease company. If the aircraft are not owned by the school and the owner decides to take it away on holidays for three weeks. Where does that leave your training program.