SKYWAY

WHICH LICENSE TO CHOOSE WHEN STARTING FLYING ADVENTURE?

You've probably wondered more than once which pilot license to choose and where the price differences come from. First of all, the cost of getting a license is affected by the number of hours you have to spend in the air, as well as the theoretical training time. The choice of training should begin by determining whether you plan to develop our skills and for which type of flights your pilot license will be used in the future.

An ultralight aircraft pilot qualification certificate (UACP) is the cheapest possible financial option. For the lowest price you will get an absolutely minimum scope of theoretical and practical training which also means getting minimal set of privileges. According to the regulations, with a UACP you can fly an aircraft that does not exceed 495kg maximum take-off weight (MTOW) and takes not more than two people on board. In addition you don’t have permission to fly inside the controlled space, i.e. traffic airports. Another disadvantage is also the inability to extend one's flying privileges including for example night flights. If we decided to obtain an LAPL or PPL pilot's license when holding such a certificate of qualification, our existing airfare would be honored in the amount of 10 hours only. An important issue is that the UACP qualification certificate is not recognized at all in many EU countries.

Recreational pilot's license LAPL entitles us to perform non-commercial flights, on single-engine aircrafts with a maximum take-off weight of 2000kg and with no more than 4 seats on board. Practical training takes not much longer than for UACP certificate, but when having this  type of licence we can gain further privileges, and our airfare gained on light aircrafts counts towards subsequent licenses. Unfortunately, for pilots who poses this type of license controlled space is also not available With a recreational pilot's license LAPL, we can obtain night flights as well as international flights in the EU region after passing the ICAO Level 4 English language exam. The cost of LAPL is not much higher than a qualification certificate, and for this we can gain a lot.

The PPL tourist airplane pilot's license entitles us to fly single-engine aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of as much as 5700kg, and there are no restrictions on the number of seats on board our aircraft! On the other hand due to the biggest scope of theoretical and practical training, it is the most expensive pilot licenses. You will be allowed to fly in controlled space and, as in the case of the LAPL license, you can obtain a night flight rating, and with passing the ICAO Level 4 English language proficiency exam, national borders are not a limitation for us. This is the best choice if we want to pursue a CPL or ATPL commercial pilot license.

Below we present table in which the course requirements, limitations of the certificate of qualification or pilot's license is shown.