Runway 23 Virginia

Runway 23 Virginia Airport.. our flight school home base. 23 designates the magnetic compass direction (230 deg ie south west) or heading that you would land or take-off in when the wind is blowing from the south/south-west. 

Durban from the skyye

Our PPL student Brandon took these great shots of the Bluff, Harbour and City whilst doing his pilot's licence conversion from NPL to PPL this week. Brandons holds an NPL light sport aircraft (LSA) licence and Durban Skyye Flight School offers a conversion to a PPL licence which requires an additional 10 hours of dual training and 5 hours of solo training to qualify. If one has not done the PPL exams at the start, these also need to be passed, which Brandon is in the process of finishing now.

Scattered lower clouds, a partly cloudy skyye and clear visibility made perfect flying conditions

Meet our student Brandon who is working for us part-time at our kiosk at Virginia Airport over the school holidays, whilst escaping from time to time for some fun in the skyye.

Nice photo of the Bluff with the city, beachfront and Stadium in the background

Rounding the harbour entrance - a compulsory reporting point before arriving at Virginia Airport - Brandon took this great shot of the Bluff, harbour and blue waters of the Indian Ocean that sweeps past Durban.

Beautiful Skyye

Not every day is a perfect as this but yesterday was a beaut with clear skyyes and some superb photo opportunities as our Chief Flying Instructor Brad and Instructor Kyle headed out along the coast showing some budding pilots what it looks like from 500 ft along the beachfront. Bookings - click on the online booking tab above, or phone Brad 082 820 4840 / Dave 083 7033329.

The Umhlanga beachfront and clear waters

I wanna be a pilot!!

Up and away

Soaring over the Umhlanga beachfont

7m whale shark off Durban

Whale watching is best from our microlights, 500 ft up in the skyye off Durban. Our Instructors Brad, Kyle and their passengers were lucky to spot this whale share this week. Even the lifeguards paddled out to get a better look.

Getting some airtime

Students getting some airtime with Durban Skyye.

Load-shedding

Our PPL student Brandon is used to bulking, not shedding, but with Eskom's load-shedding and a PPL exam looming, Bradon had to revert to battery power to get through his studying.

Happy 50th David

David Tilling of Durban was treated to a 50th Birthday flight in our Sling FYA and to his surprise on landing his family and friends had secretly arrived to join him for a birthday welcome. Happy Birthday David, glad you enjoyed the flight and surprise.

Rupert goes solo

It's a big step for a student to see his flight instructor get out the airplane and take the plane up into the sky by himeself for the first time. Here our student Rupert has just achieved that. We are very proud of you Rupert and wish you many happy hours in the skyye.

Matric Celebration

Jess was ecstatic to have finished her Matric and celebrated with a flight along the Durban beachfront with our Chief Flying Instructor Brad

Brad's students take flight!

Brad's students Mike Atter (above) and Valerie Watts (right) - Mike's just completed his 3rd solo and valerie's on her third lesson on their way to their NPL pilot's licences with Durban Skyye.

First PPL student

Durban Skyye welcomes our first PPL student since obtaining the additional approval from the SA Civil Aviation Authority to offer Private Pilot Licencing (PPL) in additional to the National Pilot Licence (NPL) presently offered by the Flight School. Llewellyn had commenced his training last year and has finished most of his exams and he will now complete his PPL licence with Durban Skyye. We also welcomed our new part-time PPL Instructor Justin who will be flying with some of our students.

Justin welcomes PPL student Llew who is also a part-owner of the Sling aircraft ZDL in which he will complete his training

Llewellyn signs up as Durban Skyye's first PPL student

Carrying out the pre-flight inspection of our Sling aircraft ZDL

All in a day's work

Having fun at Virginia Airport - all in  a day's work..

Brad taking a prospective student for an Intro flight in our Flight School Sling FYA

Val enjoying her second lesson with Instructor Brad

My other plane... 

Cassidy in the skyye with Brad on her 21st Birthday

Superb meals are available most times of the day at Head Office, the restaurant upstairs from our office in the main Concourse of Virginia Airport

Dave is CEO of the Flight Schools - PPL and NPL and an NPL flight instructor

New branding for PPL training

Dave and Brad are proud of their new training approval from the CAA

Showing off our new Aviation Training Organisation Certificate for Part 61 - PPL pilot training

PPL Pilot Training Approval

Our sister company, Durban Skyye Pilot Training (Pty) Ltd, has been granted authority by the SA Civil Aviation Authority to offer PPL (Private Pilot Licence) training in addition to the NPL licence presently offered by the Flight School.

This means we now cater for the recreational pilot who prefers to fly light sport aeroplanes or microlights as well as those intent on a career in aviation who need to obtain their PPL en route to their Commerical Pilot's or Airline Transport Pilot's licence.

There are still many advantages of first obtaining your NPL licence - it's cheaper, can be obtained in a minimum of 35 hours of flight experience (45 for PPL) and the exams are less hectic. Once you obtain an NPL licence you can also upgrade easily to a PPL licence by doing the extra hours as long as you also have the PPL exams under your belt. This is the way I did it, writing the PPL exams instead of the NPL exams first time around. The NPL licence got me into the air on my own quicker and with the NPL licence you can also take passengers and have some fun in the skyye with them.

Either way, we now offer both licences as an option and we do so in a relaxed, friendly environment, enjoying our time as Instructors and Students.

Durban Skyye are the only flight school approved for both NPL and PPL licencing at Virginia Airport, and possibly KZN, so come on down and start your training with us.

It's the way to go.. and The Sky's No Limit !      (Aviation Training Organisation ATO CAA / 0262)

Getting the hang of things

My student Bob had his second lesson today and has progressed well in learning to handle the plane at this early stage of his pilot training.

Instructor Dave (left) with Bob at the flight controls of our flight school Sling FYA

The old Durban International Airport which has become a Toyato new car parking lot as seen from 1000 ft seawards abeam the Bluff

Durban harbour and the city as we return via the Bluff to Virginia Airport

Bob concentrates on keeping a constant airspeed and altitude in gusty wind conditions

Getting to understand the Flight Controls

Starting out your training for a Pilot's licence, you will need to know about the 3 axes and the plane's centre of gravity about which it moves, either pitching, rolling or yawing.

This requires also an understanding of the flight controls that will enable you to pitch, roll, yaw and control the plane in flight. These flight controls - ailerons, rudder and elevator - have primary and secondary effects and the article linked here explains this in more detail. It's essential to your understanding of flight and what keeps the aircraft's flight controllable.

Theuns flies

Durban Skyye student Theuns gets involved in the admin part of flying aeroplanes.. refuelling. Our Sling aircraft run on 95-unleaded car petrol so this keeps the costs of fuel lower, compared to the expensive Avgas used by the airplanes of yesteryear built with older technology. The fuel economy is also excellent and the 75l fuel tank can get you to Johannesburg from Durban with 15l spare.

Theuns is trying not to underestimate the force..

Clouds swirl over an uncertain skyye as we find our path back to the airport after some exercises in the Virginia General Flying area inland of Amanzimtoti

The cheapest way to refuel is to fill up with 95 unleaded from your local petrol station. The fuel is filtered with a special electrostatic discharge filer that also takes any moisture or water out of the fuel to ensure a clean-burning engine free of contaminants.