Learn to Fly Here!

The Tasmanian Aero Club specialise in teaching people to fly. In fact we have been teaching people to fly for nearly 80 years. Whether you want to fly for fun, for business or a for a career we can help, full time or part time! The types of pilots licensing we teach are detailed on this page. At the end of the page are documents detailing all the costs involved.

Recreational Pilots License

The recreational pilots license is a license that lets you fly small two seat aircraft up to 600 kg maximum take off weight. Recreational pilots licenses are issued by the Recreational Aircraft Association (RAA). Flying under the RAA banner is the most popular form of flying available in Australia today and for good reason:

RAA flying is controlled by a private association and the emphasis is on fun!
RAA flying is largely free of the bureaucratic influence of government
RAA flying is affordable to both learn and to own your own aircraft
RAA flying hours count towards a general aviation pilots licence and RAA aircraft make ideal training aeroplanes
Competent mechanics can maintain their own RAA aircraft or even build then maintain their own!

The Tasmanian Aero Club is proud to be associated with the Recreational Aircraft Association and the Tasmanian Aero Club was one of the first flying training organisations to offer RAA pilots licenses with the training conducted from a major airport with controlled airspace.

The costs of obtaining a RAA pilots license are outlined in a PDF file at the bottom of this page.

RAA is flying on a budget!

General Aviation Private Pilots License

The General Aviation Pilots license (GA)is the more traditional way of becoming a pilot. Controlled by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and taught by licensed flying schools like the Aero Club, the GA pilots license was the only way to become a pilot prior to RAA.

In keeping with modern times we believe that to become a competent pilot you should hold both RAA and GA licenses unless you are either becoming a commercial pilot on a 150 hour accredited course or you never intend to fly RAA registered aircraft.

The Aero Club can teach you to fly to GA standard using either RAA registered aeroplanes or our Piper Tomahawk or Cessna 172 aircraft. We recommend a combination of all three.

Alternatively we recommend you get a RAA pilots license with us then do some conversion training to hold both RAA and GA licenses.

GFPT

Should you decide to learn to fly GA aircraft only the first stage is to pass the general progress flying test (GFPT). this takes around 20 - 25 hours of training and solo practice. This course and associated costs is outlined at the bottom of the page in PDF format.

PPL

To progress on to a pilots license from the GFPT navigation training is required. This training is a series of instructional and solo navigation exercises aimed at teaching you the skills of aerial navigation so you can safely find you way from A to B and back again!

General Aviation Commercial Pilots License

The commercial pilots license is the starting point to a career in aviation. A commercial pilots license can be gained by two methods:

Do a recognised 150 hour commercial pilots license course with an accredited flying school like the Tasmanian Aero Club.

Attain at least 200 hours of flying experience in GA aircraft or a combination of GA and RAA aircraft then do a flying assessment with a flying school. the flying assessment will then determine the training required to meet the standard required to pass the commercial pilots flying test.

All forms of pilots licenses require some theory exams as well as practice training.

How Much?

We have detailed the costs of flying training in these downloads:

Latest Hire and Training rates