subjects at the local TAFE after
work. Flying training could take
three weeks or three years depending
on students’ time and cash.
The two have spent a lifetime
fighting for the viability of general
aviation at Bankstown Aerodrome
in general and Clamback and
Hennessy in particular. Their
contribution of over 30 years
running a flying school and charter
service has been outstanding.
Today, there are only seven flying
schools at Bankstown – no wonder
the non-RTO survivors are feeling
threatened. Other traditional flying
schools are also feeling the pressure.Daedalus Aviation, a new player
at Archerfield, presents their core
business as “the basics of aviation”.
They believe that “in recent times
we have seen the demise of quality
training to make way for profit,
leaving a large hole in the basics
of flying which is why Daedalus
Aviation will be committed to
ensuring that you get the basics
right.” This is golden advice when
shopping around; you need to get
the basics right.Overseas influx
Australia has proved popular with
overseas students as an aviation
training ground. The Middle East
and Asia do not have well-established
GA industries. China Southern
West Australian Flying College
trains up to 220 pilots a year and
has bases at Jandakot and Merredin,
where they own the aerodrome.
There are some scholarships available
for international students in
Australia but eligibility criteria apply
and international students cannot
access VET FEE-Help for training.
Proving the traffic is not all
inbound, Donna Dascoli, an
engineer with the Royal Victorian
Aero Club spent six months
researching flying costs overseas and
comparing them with Australia. She
ended up in the United States andgained an Instrument Rating and
Commercial Licence in four months,
with every hour done in multi-engine
aircraft $310 an hour dual ... “which
is pretty much the same price as
I was paying here in a Warrior. I
did 80 hours dual and 30 hour in
command in a Beechcraft Duchess.”A new game?
So, how has flying training changed
over the years? Instructors generally
give the same answer: “We have not
changed the way we teach students
to fly. What has mainly changed
is the paperwork,” says Beverley
Roediger, a Grade 2 instructor with
Aerostar Aviation at Parafield in
South Australia. Bev has 6000 hours
of flying experience including 4000 as
an instructor. She is a former aviation
course co-ordinator at TAFE SA and
one of South Australia’s first women
commercial pilots.
The paperwork she refers to the
increasing workload on staff required
by the department in filling out
forms and handling administration
requirements rather than teaching
students to fly.
The real change that has financed
aviation training in the Universities
and some big flying schools has been
the advent and popularity of FEE
HELP and then later VET FEE-
Help. All aviation courses have their
own nationally accredited codes.
For example, AV150408 is the
Diploma in Aviation (Instrument
Flight Operations) for PPL holders
and costs around $71,000 at Basair
Aviation College, Bankstown.
Effectively, students in this course
train for a PPL, which they pay for
and then do the Diploma, which is
supposed to be for the Instrument
Rating but covers most of the CPL.
Students can access VET FEE-Help
and after gaining their Instrument
Rating, finish off their CPL at their
own cost. This Diploma is also
offered by Air Wings Academy
(Coolangatta) and Air Gold Coast
from early next year. One could
argue that the method is fudging
into CPL training, which currently is
not available on VET FEE-Help.
Some senior instructors have
also expressed misgivings about the
Diploma because they believe a PPLSWINBURNE UNIVERSITY50 Flight Training
AUSTRALIAN FLYING January - February 2015TOP: A Swinburne student
pre-flights a Piper Warrior at
Moorabbin Flying Services, a
flying school with both RTO
and CRICOS accreditation.
ABOVE: Aminta Hennessy
and Ray Clamback have been
training students at Bankstown
since 1982.
OPPOSITE PAGE: Aerostar
Aviation’s Bev Roediger has
seen a huge increase in
paperwork for flight training.“What has mainly changed
is the paperwork.”