desreb Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 Hi folks, A quick search revealed absolutely no hits for PPLs, but I guess that's not surprising. I wonder - is anyone who moved over an ex-recreational pilot in the UK (I fly 3-axis microlights), and how hard did you find it to continue your hobby over in Australia? Thanks! D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docboat Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 As far as I know, it is very easy to continue you hobby in Australia. here in Perth we have Jandakot airport, where there are flying schools and space for private aircraft. Also in Merredin a flying school, and all over the state you find small airstrips and people with PPL flying microlights, small aircraft and gyrocopters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calNgary Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Im not a pilot,lol, but Brisbane has a few smaller/private airports too, where we live one of neighbours has a small private plane he is always zooming around in,(I guess acerage living has benefits,lol), not sure how the licence would work here or if they are straight transferable,standard driving licences are straight swap but most other things require some sort of test to get an equivalent. Cal x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desreb Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share Posted January 2, 2011 Thanks for the replies, folks. For anyone else who ever needs to find this out, it turns out there are two regulatory authorities for recreational flying in Oz - the HGFA (HGFA - Hang Gliding Federation of Australia), and RA-Aus; they seem to compare roughly to the UK BMAA and LAA, although 3-axis microlights can't be flown with the HGFA. HGFA seems more organised, but some forums report a trend of clubs to be moving towards RA-Aus. However - I still couldn't find any info on conversion! I've emailed the Ops Directors of both associations, so I'll post any reply I get for reference. D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desreb Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 Just a quick update for any future pilots. I've joined the RAA, which cover my class of microlight (3-axis). Their Operations Director said it should be OK to get a simple conversion (ie. similar to if I was an Aussie GA pilot), and I've since joined a flying club near Sydney to do just that. I'm demonstrating my skills to the aircraft owner and CFI.. which sadly have some niggles from previous aircraft that need correcting, so I don't have my full licence yet. Hopefully soon.... The RAA has separate endorsements such as Navigation, Carrying a Passenger, High-performance/Low-performance, pre-flighting the aircraft - stuff that is a given in the UK - but hopefully I'll get those without too much hassle. Another trick is that RAA aircraft are usually not UK-regs-compatible, in that they are heavier than the 450kg limit of the BMAA's BCAR-S. Not a problem if you're giving up your UK licence, but if you want to keep that current as well, then you need to get your minimum flying time on a UK-regs-compatible 450kg MTOW aircraft, of which are still quite a few, but less choice than the UK. The other surprising thing is that it's not necessarily better than the UK. Apparently my club didn't fly for 4 months(!) last winter due to bad weather (they only fly weekends, but still, that's about the same as the UK). Also, my club is 100km and 1hr20mins from Coogee, but is still the closest uncontrolled airfield to the city. This is considerably worse than London, where there are perhaps 6-7 training airfields within that travel time. Most likely other parts of NSW are far better for flying, and other parts of Aus will have much better weather, but Sydney seems not hugely better than London for flying, so far! I should have taken up surfing! D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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