What is hour-building?

Most budding airline pilots do not have the funds to pay for the training costs to get to the level where they qualify as an Airline Transport Pilot.

They usually get their Commercial Pilot Licence then work for a company, often a charter company taking guests to Game Lodges or reserves around Africa, and in doing so get paid whilst they are logging up hours or "hour-building" as the industry terms it, so that they gain the requisite number of hours to qualify for the higher licence.

Get paid while you fly

In this way you get paid while you fly instead of paying for your flying hours. All of these logged hours count towards your next licence. To become an Airline Transport Pilot you need a minimum of 1500 hours. This could cost you near R2mil if you had to pay for them yourself, but by working and logging hours you can get your licence to pay for its own way.

1500 hours required:

(a) 500 hours must be pilot-in-command-under-supervision; or

(b) 250 hours must be as pilot-in-command, of which up to 150 hours may be pilot-incommand-under-supervision; and

(c) 200 hours must be cross-country flight time, of which 100 hours may be as co-pilot or pilot-in-command-under-supervision;

(d) 75 hours must be instrument time, of which not more than 30 hours may be acquired in a flight simulation training device (FSTD) approved for the purpose;and

(e) 100 hours shall be night flight time as pilot-in-command or as co-pilot.

NPL Training Credit

You can claim a credit of 30 hours gained while doing your NPL licence with Durban Skyye Flight School towards this total.