South Africa is an ICAO state and visiting pilots may fly on any ICAO licence. However, there are a number of potential restrictions and, depending on what the visiting pilot wants to do, as well as how often they envisage visiting South Africa, one or more of the following options should be considered and may be necessary.

Pilots wishing only to fly as P1/us or P/ut during their visit to S. Africa:

For those pilots anticipating only flying dual during their stay in South Africa, for a short Aerobatics course for instance, or for simply the experience of flying a particular type, need only turn up with their ICAO issued licence and evidence of a current medical cerftificate to embark on their chosen course of flight training or dual flying holiday. No local exams, flight tests or endoresements are required.

Pilots wishing to fly solo on a new type

Pilots who wish to go solo on a new type will not be able to on their home state issued licence, but must apply to the CAA in Pretoria for a South African Student Pilot Licence and can then be signed off solo by a suitably qualified instructor.

The pilot may then operate under the priveleges of a student pilot licence holder, which means that the pilot will not be able to carry passengers and must operate under the supervision of an instructor.

An example of when this particular route might be desireable might be a pilot completing tailwheel conversion training and wishing to go on to locally fly that aircraft solo at the end of the course.

Please advise your chosen operator at the time of booking if this is something you think you may wish to do and they will advise you from there.

If you simply want the training required to fly that type once you're back home, or do a few hours flying one of the aircraft on offer in South Africa for the experience itself, then flying dual on your UK licence will be more than sufficient.

Pilots wishing to fly as PIC in South Africa

Private Pilot licensing in South Africa employs a similar endorsement to the SEP rating in the UK  A pilot in South Africa must undergo a formal course of familiarisation training and be signed off by an appropriate instructor to fly a new type, however.

In practice, this is just the same as most UK pilots do, when moving on to a new type. The only difference is that the process is formalised in South Africa.

Pilots wishing to self fly / hire in South Africa may do a South African Licence Validation to exercise the priveleges of their licence, in day VFR conditions only.

The simplest way of being able to fly any new specific type in South Africa as PIC for your holiday, is to complete the necessary training and be signed off by an instructor on the relevant type in the UK, prior to coming out to South Africa and completing your validation.

You will then be free to fly as you would at home on that type or other types for which you have prior experience, or on which you complete 'Familiarisation and Differences' training locally.

Validation Entitlement

1.The Validation entitles the pilot to act as PIC in a South African registered aircraft by day only in VMC.

2.The Validation can only be undertaken on aircraft covered by the applicant's Licence  ( Single Engine Land Planes in this instance ).

Please advise us if you wish to obtain a South African Licence validation in advance. You can use the 'relevant experience' section of the booking form to do this at the time of booking.

The Validation process itself is very straightforward. It involves three basic steps:

1. Self study and the completion of a short 25 question open book multi choice gound exam, covering South African Air Law, with ground tuition covering the differences in airspace and radio procedures.

2. A General and Navigational Flight Test of anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours duration, but usually lasting about 1 hour.

It's a good idea to do an hour or so dual with a local instructor prior to this to get the lay of the land and receive a little coaching on local differences before taking the test.

3. Radio Licence Validation ( form filling and a fee of around R280 )

Your logbook, medical and licence is then presented to the South African CAA in Pretoria, near Johannesburg, along with the radio licence and fee and they will process your validation.

Pilots should allow two to three days for the whole validation process, but it may form part of your chosen course and the course operator will assist with this and organise things for you ( eg - a pilot who wishes to conduct Tiger Moth familiarisation training and then solo hire at the end of the dual training element, which may be able to form part of the validation process ).

They will also advise you on any additional costs if the validation can not be incorporated into your chosen course and make the arrangements for your ground exam, flight test and registration of the relevant documentation with the SA CAA.

We realise that some of this might seem a little confusing. It took us a while to get our heads around it! We hope that the above clarifies most cases, however and more information on flying in South Africa can be found by clicking on the links.

www.caa.co.za/ for regulatory information

www.africanpilot.co.za/    for more general info on the flying scene in South Africa

You can also get in touch with us for further clarification.