Once you decide to become a pilot the next big challenge a student faces is choosing a flight school. It’s one of the most crucial decisions one has to make during his/her career.
Choosing a flight school
While choosing a flight school there are several things you need to keep in mind. The number of aircraft a school has. Quality of flight instructors there, how well the aircraft are maintained and the cost of flight training.
Indian Flight School
As you might know, you need to clear a total of 4 examinations to gain your CPL i.e., Air Navigation, Aviation, Meteorology, Air regulations and RTR(A). In addition to that if you want to gain CPL from India you also need to clear two extra subjects i.e, Technical General and Technical Specific (On the aircraft your flight school possesses).
There are certain advantages of flying in your home country. You get practical knowledge and experience in radiotelephonic communications from ATC. You don’t face much language barrier when trying to learn new concepts.
There are certain disadvantages as per current scenarios such as slow rate of flying, greater student to instructor ratio due to which you don’t get much quality of training. In order to achieve CPL in India, you need to first give an examination and a viva with the chief pilot of your school to gain Student Pilot License(SPL) on which you get permission to fly aircraft with your instructor and fly solo after getting endorsed by your flight instructor. Thereafter you complete your DGCA requirements to gain your CPL.
Click here for a list of DGCA approved flying schools.
USA Flight School
There are certain steps you need to take before starting your flying training in the USA. The visa process is complicated and a bit costly. In addition to visa fees, you need to pay SEVIS and TSA clearance fees to start your training which effectively adds in your pilot training costs. You need to give a total of three DGCA examinations for conversion of your FAA CPL to DGCA CPL i.e., Composite (Air Navigation + Aviation Meteorology), Air Regulation and RTR(A). You need to pass 4 phases to gain your FAA CPL.
- Student Pilot License
- Private Pilot License
- Instrument Rating
- Commercial Pilot License
For Student Pilot License, your flying school will be conducting a basic examination and you have to pass that in order to gain your SPL. Thereafter you need to pass the rest of the three phases in order to gain your CPL. Each of the phases except for SPL has a checkride which is taken by a Designated Pilot Examiner which you need to clear in order to gain your license.
There are certain advantages to doing your flight training in the USA. The rate of flying is fast and you can complete your training in an average of 7-8 months.
The cost of flying is much cheaper as compared to India there.
The ratio of students to instructors is also low because of the availability of instructors there which in turn increases the quality of flight.
There are certain disadvantages too. There are many costs that students don’t take into account such as the cost of living. If you fail a checkride you need to pay your DPE again and take a practice flight in order to give your checkride again which turns out to be costly. Then there’s a language barrier that is faced by the students that makes it difficult to learn new concepts. Thereafter the main difficulty faced by students is their conversion of FAA CPL to Indian CPL. You need to have certain flight hours logged within a certain time frame.
Click here for requirements by DGCA for conversion of CPL.
Conclusion
It’s totally up to an individual choice to choose a flight school. DGCA is getting strict day by day to increase the standards of Indian flight schools in order to attract more and more students to do flying training in India. Every individual has different needs and requirements and needs to choose the best place where their requirements are fulfilled.
