[Air_Kerala]

Originally Posted by di1in

I've had this dream about 15 years ago but was told that people with spectacles or who have done LASIK can't fly, and I've never questioned that ... until now when I learned it's perfectly ok as long as they the person has full vision now. I figured I might as well try to get a private license to see if I'm lucky enough to enjoy this hobby (tried flight simulators, didn't cut it ).

I'm seeking a weekend learning option to get the license over a longer period than the usual 1 year training.

Any recommendations from BHPians on recommended sources to learn and get the SPL and PPL in Kerala? I found RAGAAT in Trivandrum, but they are not responding to emails or calls. I heard there's a RAGAAT centre in Kannur but I'm not able to find them online.

I also found Capt. Anuj Kulshreshtha who leads JAG Air, but they are not based in Kerala.

Any leads?

A little bit about me. I am a captain on the Airbus fleet with a major airline in India. I did my CPL from the US in 2013, post that, came back home, had to go through a process called conversion of license, which required just a handful of flights in India, but the amount of paper work and running around I had to do to get that done was mind numbing.

Flying in India is a cumbersome process. The number of hoops you need to jump through to fly makes it strictly for professional/career aspect only. The concept of obtaining a PPL and using the PPL to fly on weekends or when the mood sets in is non existent in India, not due to lack of enthusiasts, but due substantial amount of red tape and archaic rules.

In India, all airports, small or big require approvals to enter them. These are issued on the basis of a police verification certificate (PVC) issued from the city where you reside in, which then leads to issuance of the Airport entry permit (AEP). When I had to do the checks as part of my conversion of the US FAA license to Indian DGCA license, I had to obtain the said PVC. As a student pilot, I was summoned to the police commissioner's office and had to explain it to him the whole process as to why I need this and specifically what I intended to do with the PVC, if issued. Once I joined the airline, the process was seamless. A dedicated team ensures that your documentation is done on time and if needed, they make the necessary changes. Trips to the comissioner's or equivalent ranked police officers offices were not required. One step closer towards flying the plane in India.

PPL is entirely visual based training. You take off, fly and land visually. Good weather is really really important, especially when you start flying. In a country where it rains a lot, you will see a que of cadets waiting to fly on a clear day. Anytime the visibility drops below 5km, you need a special VFR clearence to fly, which basically means an instructor needs to hop in with you to go fly. And visibility below 5km is really really common in India. Add to that thermals that pop up due to the heat and terrain, it makes it quite challenging. Once you have a few hours under the belt, fighting the thermals and flying your plane down onto the runway is a rush, although some days I wish it would just be calm and serene, all the way down to touch down, especially when you have been up from 4 a.m.

Lastly the whole rush of flying is experienced in full during take offs and landings, more so during landings when flying the smaller trainer aircrafts. In India, each time you land, you pay a landing fee, which is calculated on the basis of your aircraft's weight. To circumnavigate this, Indian flying schools do something called overflying, where they report overhead the airport, loop around and fly back to the home base and land there. Pretty much the entirety of your training in India, you will land at the same airport, except when you do the two or three mandatory cross country flights. The same rule was not applicable in the US, you can land at any airport and there are plenty of airports, most of them with multiple runways, pick up a courtsey car from the airport, step out, grab a meal, fuel up and fly back. You can fly into any major airspace, provided you are cleared for that airspace (Class Bravo cleareance). In India, they do not even let a trainer aircraft approach a major airport. At smaller airports like Bhubneshwar or Indore, where flying schools coexist with airlines at the airport, most of the time they are asked to track out or hold till the airline lands or takes off. In the US, they just make it interesting, they let you know what is the type of aircraft follwing you and their groundspeed, you can either fly fast, land and vacate the runway or break off the approach and shoot it once the bigger aircraft clears.

Time lines for trainig in aviation should ideally be computed in hours. Each stage of training , PPL, IR , MULTI ENGINE is based on a said number of hours. Now these hours are manoeuvres that you need to perform to certain degree of acceptence before you can proceed to the next one. And like driving a car or a bike, some pick it up real fast while others take their own time. Similarly in aviation some trainees require the exact number of numbers, some a few more. Flying schools always display the bare minimum number of hours required and the cost for the bare minimum hours as the course fee.So keeping windows like a year for PPL, three months for IR etc is a little arbitarary.

In conclusion, if you want to walk into a flying club with your date, pick up a single engined twin seater, file a flight plan on phone( filing a flight plan in india is a nightmare on its own) pick up a random airstrip, fly half VFR half IFR, land there and grab a meal, sleepover and come the next day, you will not be able to do that in India. The US is a fabulous place to do that. Peace

[di1in]

Originally Posted by Air_Kerala

A little bit about me. I am a captain on the Airbus fleet with a major airline in India…

In conclusion, if you want to walk into a flying club with your date, pick up a single engined twin seater, file a flight plan on phone( filing a flight plan in india is a nightmare on its own) pick up a random airstrip, fly half VFR half IFR, land there and grab a meal, sleepover and come the next day, you will not be able to do that in India. The US is a fabulous place to do that. Peace

Thank you so much for such a detailed post that gives me a very clear idea of things. It was super helpful.

Especially considering this seems to be your first post here (Welcome to TBHP! )

Things make a lot of sense now, so I’m going to see how I can take my career and business to the USA.

[shivmarwaha]

My son wants to get into commercial flying. He is in class XII and will be appearing for boards next year. Indigo and air india have both started flying academies and cadet course that guarantee a job but prohibitively expensive (1.2cr min). How does someone with not so much money get into flying. For pilots trained elsewhere, have to struggle to get jobs. Pilots from their own academies are guaranteed jobs. I’m in a fix as some pilots recommend cadet courses and some recommend academies outside that cost less than half. I’m also not sure about the loan for such a huge amount. Wouldn’t be very comfortable spending all my retirement savings on this. Please help.