RPL - Recreational Pilot Licence
A Recreational Pilots Licence is great if you want to fly as hobby and be able to take up passengers for fun. It allows you to:
- Fly within 25 nautical miles of your training ground
- Carry one non-paying passenger (with RA medical certificate)
- Carry three non-paying passengers (with class 2 medical certificate)
What you need to do:
- You need to be at least 16 to get an RPL.
- Uundertake a general English language assessment (only required for the first category rating)
- Obtain a Class 1 or 2 medical certificate before you sit your flight test
- Pass an online CASA RPL theory exam
- Pass an RPL flight test
- Have at least 25 hours flying time including a minimum of 20 hours dual and five hours as pilot-in-command
The hours you log training for your RPL can also be put towards gaining your PPL and CPL if you decide to go further. With an RPL you can also add further endorsements so that you can fly in different environments. These include:
- Controlled aerodrome endorsement
- Controlled airspace endorsement
- Flight radio endorsement (this requires an aviation English language proficiency assessment)
- Recreational navigation endorsement (this requires minimum flight time of five hours solo cross-country and a minimum of two hours dual instrument time, of which at least one hour is instrument flight time).
Aircraft & Cost info: Training is completed in either a Cessna 172M, 172SP, 150, 152 or Decathlon. Prices depend on aircraft type. In a C172M dual instruction starts at $336/hour.
