Learning to Fly at Sportfly
At Sportfly, we fly aeroplanes in the Light Sport Category (LSA), under Recreational Aviation Australia (RAAus). RAAus is a private, member owned organisation with in excess of 10,000 flying members across Australia and 180 flight training schools. The organisation registers their own aircraft and is responsible for training and certifying its pilots. To fly our aircraft, pilots and student pilots are required to be members of RAAus. You can obtain a FREE temporary membership online, which lasts for 90 days of the first 3 hours of flight training, which gives you ample time to consider if recreational flying is for you.
TRIAL INSTRUCTIONAL / DISCOVERY FLIGHT ADVENTURE.
The first step is to arrange for a trial instructional flight or TIF. A TIF flight includes a pre-flight briefing where we explain how the aircraft flies and how the controls work. We will give you an opportunity to handle the aeroplane on the ground, taxiing onto the runway. We will demonstrate how the aeroplane takes off and how to operate the controls, before flying to the training area where we will give you the opportunity to take the controls to try some straight and level flying and basic manoeuvres. We might even spot a whale or two or fly over your house! Then we will fly back to the airport and demonstrate a landing. Our training areas go as far north as South West Rocks as far south as Crescent Head and as far west as Bellbrook. The best thing about a TIF is that its actually your first flying lesson and counts toward the minimum hours required to obtaining a recreational pilot certificate! A TIF experience goes for around 60 minutes including briefing and a post flight debrief, where we will have a good talk about what is required to obtain a pilot certificate and the costs associated with flight training if you are interested in continuing. The actual flight lasts for a minimum of 30 minutes from the time we start the engine.
FLIGHT TRAINING
Flight training consists of a mix of dual flight training and supervised solo training.
You will learn how to assess the weather as suitable for flying, prepare the aircraft to fly and learn how to operate the aircraft, on the ground and in the sky. Our lessons follow a logical pattern. You will first learn the effects of each controls, then progress to straight and level flying, climbing/descending and turning. We will then move onto the important lesson of stall training, where we teach recognition/avoidance and recovery from aerodynamic stalls. Then its time to hit the circuit - which is a pattern of flying around an airfield. You will take off and climb to 1000ft, turn and level out, then turn and perform a "touch and go" landing on the runway, where you touch down, then take off again, in a continuous "circuit". We also teach how to react to some emergencies that may happen in a circuit, including how to land safely should a problem develop with the engine. Once you are assessed as being proficient to do so, and have passed the first two written examinations, we will send you for your first solo flight - a moment no pilot ever forgets! This wont be the last time you fly with the instructor - as after 2 more hours of supervised solo circuit flying - you will go back out to the training area and learn to perform some advanced flying, including steep 60 degree turns, spiral descents, advanced stalls and practice forced landings. Then its time to consolidate your learning with some more solo flying in the training area, followed by preparation for the flight test with our chief flying instructor.
THEORY TRAINING
You are required to undertake a number of briefings with your instructor to understand the theory behind each sequence of flight training. You will also learn about the rules and regulations of flying an aeroplane. You will also need to successfully pass four examinations. Two of these exams are required to be completed prior to your first solo flight. Those exams are the radio exam and the pre-solo air legislation exam. The third examination, (pre-certificate) air legislation is required to be completed before you can fly solo in the training area. The final exam is the basic aeronautical knowledge. All exams are delivered at our flight training school and require a pass mark of 80%. All exams are multiple choice. Following the exams, we will sit down with you and go through any questions that were answered incorrectly, to make sure you understand the theory to which the lesson relates. How many hours of theory varies from student to student and there is no minimum hours required, however a fair estimate would be about 10-12 hours. Our theory and ground school training includes conceptual and procedural training in our high-end professionally licensed flight simulator. The simpit is an accurate representation (with a couple of tweaks) of our Foxbat aircraft and includes a 270 degree field of view.
PILOT CERTIFICATE
A pilot certificate will allow you to be pilot in command of a recreational 2-seat aeroplane. You will be initially restricted to flying without passengers and to a radius of 25 nautical miles from your departure point. However, these restrictions can be removed with further flight training. A passenger endorsement requires 10 hours of solo flight experience. A navigation endorsement takes a further 12 hours of flight training and will allow you to fly anywhere in Australia that is not controlled airspace.
BEYOND SPORT AVIATION
One of the best things about sport aviation is that all the flight experience and qualifications that you have gained can be transferred to general aviation. With a recreational pilot certificate, you can transfer across to general aviation and obtain a recreational pilots licence in a few easy steps and all of your sport aviation experience will count. This will allow you to fly an aeroplane up to a maximum take off weight of 1500kg (a good example is a cessna 172). Progressing beyond the recreational flying scene, your experience will also count toward the minimum requirements for a private and even a commercial pilot licence. Brian, obtained a commercial pilots licence in 2021. Of the 200 hours required for the commercial licence, only 50 of those hours were in general aviation aircraft. The remainder of those hours were obtained flying light sport recreational aeroplanes!
An additional benefit of holding a recreational pilot licence (with a controlled airspace endorsement) is that you will then be able to fly most sport aircraft (including our foxbat) into controlled airspace!
WHY SPORTFLY ?
There are a number of good flight training schools in the area and we encourage you to look around and speak with them all to find the best fit for you. At Sportfly we offer the following :
-
A fun and relaxed learning environment. We utilize a mix of learning to ensure you understand every aspect of flight training - but importantly you have fun along the way. Recreational flying is supposed to be fun and if you aren't enjoying yourself, we are not doing something right! Sure - you will be challenged and taken out of your comfort zone from time to time throughout your training - but the feeling of accomplishment at the end will be the reward.
We continue to invest in the latest technology to facilitate the most effective flight training experience for you. Unlike most training schools, you won't be handed an old dodgy headset and be expected to learn in a noisy cockpit environment. Instead we guarantee you will use the Bose A20 Bluetooth noise cancelling headset (worth $1850 each!) in our aircraft - the same as your instructor uses. If you're out and about flying solo on a cross country flight and have a question, you will simply be able to phone up your instructor through the bluetooth phone function on the headset. Our aeroplane might look small and basic but it's actually loaded with modern technology including an electronic flight instrument display that records flight data, an ADSB transponder and ADSB in receiver for monitoring other aircraft traffic. You'll be using Ozrunways electronic flight book. We also make available our suite of Go-pro cameras , including a 360 degree camera on the wing (on request) to review your flying and allow you to share your achievements!
Modern flight training - you wont feel like you've been taken back in time during your flight training experience, or taken page by page through a textbook. We use an effective combination if videos, animations and our simulator to learn like its 2023!
We think outside the square. Our simulator is possibly be the worlds most advanced light sport aircraft simulator and is right here in Kempsey! We offer theory sessions via zoom. You wont find yourself buried in textbooks and we wont leave you to self-study the theory. We will be with you every step of the way.
We are student focused. We believe that our success as a flight school will derive from delivering a quality product that our students will highly recommend to others. We understand your flying training journey is exactly that - yours. We are here to facilitate your flying goals, not the other way around! Our instructors are not here to build hours.
We fly! We respect that there a number of youth based organisations that facilitate an interest in flight based operations and there are many dedicated people committed to these organisations. Unfortunately, the reality is that opportunities to actually engage in real flight training activities (ie in an aeroplane) at many youth organisations are very, very limited for our local youth. We are first and foremost a flight training school and we teach people real life skills in a real environment.
Foxbat aeroplane. Our aeroplane is built for function over form. It doesn't go for speed records, in fact it prides itself on how SLOW it can fly. It's a very strong and versatile factory built bush plane used by many farmers for bush flying across Australia and the world. We can fly pilots weighing up to 120kg and 6'2" and still take enough fuel to stay in the air for 5 hours. The foxbat is a great aeroplane for mastering important stick and rudder skills.
Recreational flight training is our core activity. It's not our side business and we are not a social flying club. Recreational flight training is about having fun and everything we do is aimed at putting YOU in the pilot seat of an aeroplane, with pilot qualifications, at competitive prices.
We are a boutique flying school - we are not a pilot factory. We keep our student numbers small to be able to provide good availability for our students and our costs down. Kempsey airfield is very quiet and for 90per cent of the time we have the airfield to ourselves!
We cater for big kids too! Although we are aimed at youth and young adults, we can and do cater to all ages. Our manager only started learning to fly at 41 and took his mother for her first TIF for her 71st birthday!. Our youngest student is in year 6 and out oldest student is 79.