The latest South African CAA regulations have lowered the age of learner pilots to the minimum of 16 years, so this course is suitable for all people aged 16 years old and upwards.

To obtain your Private Pilot Licence, you will do a minimum of 45 hours of flight training. 25 hours will be with an instructor and 15 hours will be solo (flying alone), plus 5 hours on a flight simulator. Of these, 3 hours will be solo cross country flight time.

The School is run by a commercial pilot, with more than 20 years flying experience. The School is very popular with learners coming from all over Africa and from overseas as well. The School is based at Eros airport in the town of Windhoek.

The School has four aircraft and six full time instructors who are fully qualified to Namibian Civil Aviation Authority requirements and ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) standards.

The Private Pilot License (PPL) can be done on a Cessna 152 or a Cessna 172, but type ratings for other aircraft may be undertaken. (This involves about 5 hours flying time on which ever aircraft is selected, plus familiarization study of that aircraft.)

 (* Dual instruction means flying under instruction with an instructor.)

Requirements:

You must be at least 16 years of age to qualify for a Student Pilot License. (This means that he or she can receive dual instruction and can go solo.) You must also be medically fit and be able to pass a medical examination by an approved Aviation Medical Examiner. The medical examination includes chest X-rays, an ECG, vision and hearing tests.

There is no other basic minimum requirement, but you need to be literate in the English Language and be able to understand basic mathematics. The three basic requirements for becoming a good pilot are common sense, good co-ordination and a willingness to stay within the boundaries of both flight regulations and personal piloting ability.

The different elements:

Initially you will obtain a Student Pilot License (SPL). This requires you to pass an elementary written exam in Air Law and pass the Private Pilot License Medical. This will allow you to fly solo, when you have satisfactorily reached a proficient level in aircraft handling and emergencies, as well as take-off and landing whilst in the circuit.

You will be required to write and pass an exam on Radiotelephony to gain a Restricted Radiotelephony Operators License.

Additional to this, you will have to write and pass an exam on Meteorology, Navigation (necessary before you do cross country flights), principles of Flight, Instruments and basic technical, with emphases on engine and aircraft performance based on a training aircraft. Ground courses are conducted on the required subjects.

Finally, you will have to pass a practical general flight test, as well as a practical navigation exercise conducted by a Grade ll or Grade l instructor.

Once you have a valid Private Pilots License, you will be able to fly, within limits of any ratings held as pilot-in-command (PIC), of an aircraft endorsed on your license and carry passengers, but not for hire or reward.

The Flight School:  

All instructors at the Flight School are fully qualified to Namibia DCA and SA CAA approved standards. Aircraft are fully maintained to Namibia DCA requirements and technical standards (this is actually more restrictive that the South African maintenance requirements.)

Time spent at the flight school will be approximately 2 hours per day, but this may increase, depending on various factors. Flying time on instruction is about 1 hour, dual and solo, per day.

The cost of the course includes a Pilots kit, which you will receive, containing three instruction manuals (study material), Pilots Radio Handbook, and certain basic instruments, maps, etc.

License conversion:

The School advises that the Namibian license is recognized worldwide. However, you will need to convert it to your home country's requirements. For example, for UK students, the  license would need to be converted to a UK license with the UK authority, but we have been advised that this is easy to do.

We have the airspace and personalised attention from the qualified Air Traffic Controllers.

The airport has full fire fighting and emergency facilities and the flight school lies 30 metres from the main taxi ways.

WFTC is fully equipped to international standards. Windhoek Airspace has facilities to train on  NDB, VOR, DME, ILS for day and night instrument conditions.