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The Leading Edge Flight School is now situated in Hoedspruit, the heart of the Lowveld, but it did not have its early beginnings in Hoedspruit. The school started in 1995 in Grahamstown. It was the bad weather of the Eastern Cape that drove the owners of Leading Edge Flight School, Deon and Rowena Kraidy, to move to a place with weather that is friendlier to our light aircraft. The school started out in Grahamstown with a single Windlass trike, ZU-ABC. Yes you might think I am joking, but I am not. That really was the registration.
Deon and Rowena, the instructors at Leading Edge Flight School had their flying careers start in “blik aeries”. It was out of necessity for pilots for their skydiving school, E P Skydivers, that they both learnt to fly. Her husband booked her first lesson without her knowledge. Told her that the local school instructor, Ted Baines had a ferry flight to do and that she was invited to go with only to be told after takeoff that this was her introductory flight and first lesson towards her PPL.
Today, having moved to Hoedspruit, the school has grown to now to offer the full range of licences ranging from WCM to CCM, LSA and PPL. CCM training is done on the Bantam aircraft. The LSA and PPL licences are done on the Jabiru SP. The school has two full time pilots and offers full time and part time courses.
Training in the beautiful Lowveld, at the foot of the Drakensberg mountains is special for many reasons. The view is amazing flying over Bushveld and Big 5 game. It is unique where training can be done both in controlled and uncontrolled airspace throughout the licence. Get on top of your radio procedures with or without an air traffic controller. The weather is awesome for flying allowing flying to be done almost every day and if you are not flying you are close to the Kruger National Park and many other beautiful tourist opportunities like the Blyde River Canyon and the Three Rondawels. You will get training on flying around and over the Drakensburg. Mountains being the one thing that all students fear. The runway is situated in the middle of town well within walking distance of any of the bed and breakfasts in town.
There are also no long flying distances to the general flying area, so no time wasted getting there. One hour’s instruction is all instruction time, thus getting the most out of every lesson. Come and enjoy the experience and learn to fly. Bring your own aircraft and we will teach you or hire ours – the choice is up to you.
With all the licences available, how do you know which one to choose. Well, the big question that you need to answer when you want to learn to fly is WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LICENCE. If you know the answer to this question, you will then know the answer to many questions like what type of licence you need to do, as there are many options to choose from, what aircraft am I going to fly. You will then need to answer the following questions; who am I going to fly with and where am I going to fly to with my aircraft. Microlights and light sport aircraft can only carry two people, pilot plus one. The National Pilot Licence will then limit you to the number of people fly. If you have a family of four, then you would have to go for the Private Pilot Licence. Depending on whether you want to use your aircraft for fun or for ferry from one place to another as a means of transport will let you decide on which aircraft you are going to need and then the applicable licence to go with your choice.
All you need to sign up to do your licence, is yourself with a passion to learn to fly and a little money. The rest is up to the instructors at the school to teach you both the practical and theoretical knowledge so that you can pass the examinations at the end of your training. Yes, you read correctly You didn’t think that you were going to get away with that aspect did you? Full time courses take from a minimum of about three weeks to how long you want to make it last.
The solo party. Once the instructors think that they have taught you enough, and you are landing the aircraft by yourself so that we can use it again, you get to go solo. The party celebrates this most amazing feeling. You will only go solo once in your life and it will be a moment you will never forget. The cutting of the tie, symbolises the instructor cutting the training leash that he/she had on the student.
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