I always surprise people with my response when they ask me how they can make that extra income besides their day job. My response has always been, what are your top five hobbies? What does this have to do with learning to fly and becoming a pilot in Zimbabwe. My extended mentor always say that to make money, you need to find out what you like doing as young as you can and figure out how to make a living out of it. Most of the time, you hobbies are the key that will unlock your riches. You need to make a lot of money in Zimbabwe doing what you love. This is what I term making money living. Engaging in hobbies that pay.

Do you want to fly a plane? Have you ever thought it possible that you could fly a real plane? Getting licensed to be a pilot is not a far-fetched dream. If you don’t have a pass in English at ordinary level then this may have slipped you. You can come back after you make that right. You will also need a computer device during the duration of the training like a laptop.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe is (CAAZ) is the responsible examination board for the Aviation training courses. As I mentioned earlier, you need to have a grading of ‘C’ or better to be eligible for training. The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) examinations cover mainly 8 elements as below:

• Air Law, Flight Rules and Procedures
• Navigation
• Meteorology
• Principles and Theory of Flight
• Human Performance & Limitation
• Flight Planning
• Aircraft Technical and General
• Radio telephony (divided into written and practical)

A student is then issued with a Radio License after passing the Radio Telephony exam. Do you still feel like flying? Once you are done with the theory of flying training, you move on to the real deal. Getting airborne! As the old adage goes, life begins at 40. The legal minimum number of flying hours required to obtain a Private Plane License (PPL) is forty. However, flight instructors in Zimbabwe are convinced that an average student requires up to fifty hours of airborne training.

After you successfully complete your Air Law Examination which involves meeting the flying skills required by the instructor, you are given your Student Pilot License (SPL). You will also need to hold a valid PPL medical certificate which can be issued by any registered general doctor. One has to be in good health to attain a medical certificate which involves correct and corrected eyesight amongst other things. This is the equivalent of your provisional driver’s license in motor vehicles. The minimum age to attain a SPL is seventeen years. After completing the full training successfully, a student is then issued a PPL by CAAZ.

The Costs of getting airborne depends with the Institute you use. On average, 40 hours of flying at $250 per hour will come to $10,000. The theory costs and examination costs will revolve around $2,000, thus the total training costs is around $12,000.00. A lot of the PPL holders I know do it for fun and make a lot of money out of it outside their core business activities. This is an interesting niche with a lot of money making opportunities which I won’t be able to exhaust in this article. For further information, go to Guthrie Aviation School or email them at info@gas.co.zw.

This is a training organization approved by the Minister of Higher education, certificate number 0162/98 and the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe certificate number 003 so it’s legit. Take your time to see if this is a worthy venture to pursue and start making money living and as always…

To your continued success