New chapter: Chris Gill, Rod Jouning and Kora White.
Soaring into town is a new flight training school that will enable people to take on flying lessons at the Echuca Aerodrome.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Echuca Aeroclub has partnered with Bendigo Aviation Services to provide the training, which will begin in the next couple of weeks.
Learning to fly: Instructor Chris Gill and student Scott Moller.
The lessons can be taken on a full or part-time basis.
Bendigo Aviation Services head of operations Rod Jouning said it was an opportunity for people to try something different.
Proud: Adrian Van Der Sluys and Chris Gill.
The club will provide training for all levels of licensing.
“The lowest level is the recreational pilot licence that allows the pilot to fly an aircraft up to a certain weight — the lighter end of the aircraft spectrum,” Mr Jouning said.
“Next is the private pilot licence and that entitles people to fly a heavier type of aircraft, but still in the private realm, meaning that you cannot earn money by flying commercially.
“Then from there you go up to the commercial licence and then an airline transport pilot licence.
“There’s even an opportunity for those who already hold a licence to expand their qualifications.”
Mr Jouning said someone may want to expand their qualifications by learning night flying or by learning formation flying or aerobatics.
Echuca Aeroclub is hoping that by offering flight training to the public it will be able to draw a bigger crowd into the club.
“The club environment is really good, it’s an opportunity to get people with a similar interest together to talk about aviation,” Mr Jouning said.
“It’s a really good environment from both a social and professional flying perspective.”
In terms of social events, the club often holds fly-aways and competitions for members.
There are no prerequisites to start the training and people from the ages of 16 to 80 are welcome to join.
”It’s not unknown that in the past we’ve had students that are capable of flying to school, but not driving,“ Mr Jouning joked.
It can be a number of weeks before somebody is flying solo and it’s within months that they could have a pilot licence.
Practical flight lessons will be one-on-one, but theory lessons have the potential to be held in a group, depending on the number of participants.
All of the subjects will be studied for a number of weeks and then will require the student to sit in an exam.
Days of training will depend on the demand, but staff at the aeroclub anticipate they will be there most weekends and during the week as required.
The senior pilot conducting the training will be Chris Gill.
Those who are interested in learning more about the new flight school can phone (03) 5443 1030.
31°C