P&M Aviation Australia Training

Individual financial members of RAA or HGFA as well as RAA and HGFA schools are insured for legal liability that includes Bodily Injury and Property Damage to 3rd parties arising out of occurrence caused by an aircraft or by an RAA and HGFA member. Insurance is also available to insure your aircraft, if you wish.

You are very welcome to use the school aircraft for your training. However, using your own aircraft is cheaper. Many student pilots buy their own aircraft once they have completed a few hours on the school aircraft, so they are ready to fly solo in their own machine.

Yarrawonga Flight Training is Victoria’s preferred dealer and training facility for P&M Aviation, the manufacturer and world wide exporter of Trikes. We can help you chose the trike best suited to your needs, once you have established just what type of flying you intend to pursue. Whether you want to cover large cross country distances in the GT450 or QuikR, or go paddock bashing and beach fishing in the GT Lite. Please ask us for a brochure and price list.

There are no age limits for recreational pilot training.  However, although you can begin the course before you are 15 years of age, you cannot be issued with your pilot certificate until you actually become 15 years old. There is no upper age limit. Weightshift Trike flying, or Triking as it’s known in Australia, is not a “boys only” sport either. There are many competent women Trike pilots, as well as couples who learn to fly together and share wonderful adventures.

You don’t need to be “academic” to take a recreational pilot training course.  As you’d expect, you do need to learn some theory, because it helps your understanding of flying as well as preparing you for your exams. However, for the recreational pilot’s licence we will concentrate on what you need to know, rather than equipping you to fly a 747!  Many students find it helpful to take some flight theory (“ground school”) classes – these are conducted after the usual flight de-briefing.  We also run group workshops on basic aeronautical knowledge, air legislation, human factors, map reading, basic weather understanding of weather charts, flight radio, navigation and route planning. For those training for their cross-country navigation flights, ground school is a little more demanding, and sometimes people want individual help with specific parts of the course.  Let us know if you need any extra help and we can tailor flight theory sessions to suit.

A special medical examination is not required. A Declaration of Fitness stating that your health is of an equivalent level to that for driving a motor vehicle is all that is required.

For students who have their own aircraft, the average cost of attaining their basic pilot certificate is around $3500. If a student wishes to utilize the Yarrawonga Flight Training school aircraft whilst waiting for their own trike to be delivered, the overall cost of training is understandably higher.

As well as the hourly rate for both of the above situations, (Pilot Training Course Prices page), costs for clothing, annual RAA membership fees, safety equipment, literature, theory lessons and exam fees need to be taken into consideration.

It’s difficult to give an exact answer, as everyone is different. Various factors affect the answer to this question such as, aptitude, previous flying experience, age, weather and your own availability. If you can only fly at weekends, you’ll probably take a bit longer than those who are available for lessons during extended training visits. From experience, for those who are unconditionally available, the average could be quoted at 9 to 13 hours of instruction to progress to solo standard. For those who are training on a part time basis… up to 12 months. But, Hey! The journey is half the fun!