Learning to Fly - Tailwheels Etc. Florida

I arrived in Orlando on Friday the 13th Jan to start flight training for my private pilot license. The flight school I am training at is called Tailwheels Etc.

The schools at Winter Haven, about a 50 minute drive from Orlando.  You can rent a houses along the lake front within walking distance to the airport.

My house is called, 'Piper House.'

How Much Does it Cost to Learn to Fly in the USA?

So the next option I considered for learning to fly was the USA.  I googled "Accelerated Flight Training"  and started looking for options where you could take a 2-3 weeks trip to the US and complete the entire PPL over a short but intensive training period.

I narrowed my options in the US down to a school called Tail Wheels Etc.  based on good references and reviews.

Their pricing is the least complicated of any flight school I have ever seen, as their pricing is all in.

Private Pilot Packages (all in)

Cessna 150                                              Total: $7995

Piper Warrior, Cessna 172M                    Total: $9395

Cessna 172SP                                         Total: $10,495

Cessna 172 G1000 Glass Panel             Total: $11,195

*Includes all Flight Time, Flight Instructor, Written Test, Flight Test, and books.

Looking back at my earlier posts reviewing costs of learning to fly in Australia, Singapore or Malaysia this started looking like a good option.

How Much Does it Cost to Learn to Fly in Johor Baru (JB) Malaysia? (FRAS Flying Club)

	RMB	SGD	USD
Initial Membership Fee	$3,800	$1,556	$1,184
First Year Subscriptionn	$1,200	$491	$374
Ground School	$2,950	$1,208	$919
Flight Training Kit	$1,100	$450	$343
DCA Exam / Flight Test	$1,390	$569	$433
Flight Training (40 hours)	$28,470	$11,659	$8,868
TOTAL	$38,910	$15,935	$12,120

About a 1 hour drive from Singapore is Senai International Airport.  This is the nearest airport to Singapore accessible by road and is a popular alternative to learning to fly in Singapore due to a much lower cost.

The most active flight school at Senai is FRAS Flying Club.  It is run by a husband & wife team Captain Singh and his wife Julie.  They are passionate about aviation and appear to run a professional operation.  I visited their club house and met several enthusiastic pilots and students.

I saw their two AT4 LSA's and an older Piper PA28.  I went on a trial flight in an AT4 with one of their instructors.  It was different flying out of such a big airport as there were Air Asia A330's doing circuit practice and go arounds.  So at that time getting a slot to land and take off took a while.

My key concern in terms of the flight school was the inability to pick an instructor.  Their method is that during any given lesson you will be allocated any of their CFI's.  I am sure this has its benefits but my goal was to find a CFI that would take me all the way through the course.


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Light Sport Aircraft (LSA / RAAus) - A Cheaper Way to Fly

While looking for a cheaper alternative to obtaining a PPL in Singapore, I checked out getting an LSA license in Australia.

I visited Pathfinder Aviation and did a 1 hour trial flight in their LSA Jabiru J170.  They are based in Brisbane at Archerfield Airport.

This is the pricing for an RAAus (LSA) license with Pathfinder Aviation is below.

.
.	Basic Training in Jabiru 170 28 hours* x $199	$5,572.00
.	Before and after flight briefings Included!
.	Landing Fees included!
.	RAAus Student Pilot Membership	$185.00
.	Theory book and Log Book	$110.00
.	ASIC application	$160.00
.	CASA Class 2 Medical Examination with DAME	$170.00
.	CASA Medical processing fee	$75.00
.	TOTAL	$6,272.00
.
.	Passenger Endorsement	$1,194.00
.	Cross Country Endorsement	$3,980.00
.
.	GRAND TOTAL (Unrestricted LSA Lic.)	$11,446.00

It seems like good value compared to Singapore which is at least twice the price.

We flew the Jabiru east from Archerfield out to the coast over Stradbroke Island.  It was bumpy down at pattern altitude but once we got up over 2000' it was a beautiful day for flying.

How Much Does it Cost to Learn to Fly in Singapore?

So being based in Singapore options for flight schools are pretty limited.  Here is a summary of my findings.

I have never visited any of the Singapore flight schools, basically because they are so expensive.  They all operate out of Seletar Airport.  No flight schools in Singapore can teach navigation.  That means you will get a restricted PPL and would have to go to Malaysia or another Country to finish the navigation component.  There is also Singapore Youth Flying Club which is govenerment sponsored to develop pilots from youth for the air-force.

Singapore Flying Club

Entrance fee (non-refundable)	S$ 1,500.00
Flying Deposit (refundable upon resignation)	S$ 1,500.00
First Month Subscription Fees	S$ 100.00
TOTAL	S$ 3,100.00

Above is the cost just to get your foot in the door to the club.  They state that to get the restricted PPL you are looking at between S$20,000 to S$30,000.

They have one aircraft, a Socata TB-9C Tampico Club

Seletar Flying Club (SFC)

TYPE	ENTRANCE FEE	MONTHLY FEES	DEPOSIT	FLYING RATES IN-TRAINING	FLYING RATES OUT -TRAINING
ORDINARY FLYING NON-FLYING	$1000 NA	$80/- $45/-	$1500 NA	$315 NA	$290 NA
FAMILY FLYING NON-FLYING	NA NA	NA NA	NA NA	$315 NA	$290 NA
VISITING FLYING	NA	$100	NA	$365	NA

They do not state the cost of a full course but I assume it will be similar to Singapore Flying Club.  Not sure what aircraft they use.

Bottom line is it's ridiculously expensive to learn to fly in Singapore and that's why many people look elsewhere to get their PPL.

I will cover flight Schools in Johor Baru (Malaysia) in a future post.

If there are any schools or information I have missed please let me know.