Why go on a flying safari in Africa?
Africa is a large continent.
The US can fit into just West Africa alone (brown area), and France (purple area) is just a tiny area compared to the sheer size of the African continent. To visit the Greater Kruger Area in the eastern part of South Africa, then travel on to Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe to then visit the Victoria Falls would take more than 25 hours of driving, not counting waiting times at border crossings, delays at roadblocks, and time spent during fuel stops. Flying the same route would take you several hours instead, with no traffic jams along the way or queues at the border, and with a unique view of the African continent below you while you move from one highlight to the next.
If you are a pilot and already have, for example, an EASA, FAA, or ICAO pilot license, you can convert that license to a South African version – giving you the opportunity to fly in Africa. If you do not have a pilot license, there are opportunities available to use air transportation to move around from one hotspot to another.
Available rental aircraft
In South Africa, the most commonly available aircraft for self-flying or rental are Cessna 172s, 182s, and Cessna 206s. Most of these aircraft are equipped with traditional 6-pack instrument panels, providing a familiar and reliable setup for pilots. The only Cirrus aircraft dealer on the entire African continent is located near Johannesburg at Lanseria Airport (FALA). However, they have ceased renting out Cirrus aircraft for multi-day safari tours, as the typical flying hours do not meet their operational requirements, with most of the time spent on safari activities or staying at lodges. While it is still possible to rent Cirrus aircraft occasionally from private owners in South Africa, the best availability and selection of aircraft are with the Cessnas and a few Piper Archer or Cherokee models, which are primarily based around Johannesburg. For group safari tours, we also source aircraft from other regions across South Africa to ensure the best options for our travelers.
Flying through the Namibian desert
Information for Pilots
Pilot License Validation Procedure
You can obtain a South African (SA) Private Pilot License (PPL) based on your existing foreign pilot license. The validated South African license is typically restricted to a PPL VFR-only license, valid for either 28 days or five years, as long as your original EASA or, for example, FAA license and medical remain valid. The process involves some paperwork, passing a theory exam in South African Air Law (for the five-year license), and completing a checkride with a South African flight instructor. The 28-day validated license is available without the need for a theory exam, but limits you to a specific aircraft type and VFR flying during daylight hours within a continuous maximum period of 28 days.
We recommend aiming for the fully validated, unrestricted foreign-based license, which allows greater flexibility and the opportunity to fly with us again in the future—something many pilots choose to do.
Alternatively, you can opt for both licenses: a quick 28-day license issued shortly after your checkride, and a five-year license issued later, after additional processing by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), typically at the end of your first safari in Africa, just before returning home.
Flying through the Namibian desert
The paperwork
The best way to deal with the paperwork is to arrange the paperwork well ahead of time before your actual arrival in South Africa. A copy needs to be made of several documents, such as your pilot license, medical, passport, and the last three to four pages of your logbook. In addition, you might have to request your own CAA to provide you with a letter in which they state that your pilot license record is current, valid, and up-to-date. In most cases the South African CAA will send that enquiry directly to your CAA/FAA themselves to verify the status of your license. Send us a copy of your paperwork, so we can screen it and forward it to the authorities for processing.
When you then arrive, all you need to do is one Air Law theory exam (only for the 5-year license) and one checkride with an instructor before the South African license can be requested from the South African CAA.
Your 28-day license is made available almost immediately after your checkride with the instructor. For the 5-year license, the SACAA needs about three to four business days to process your documents and actually issue the license. That license is valid for 5 years and can easily be renewed for another 5 years without having to redo the Air Law theory exam and without having to do another checkride.
Make the proper arrangements to allow enough time for you to do the checkride and to allow the SACAA to issue your license ahead of the starting date of the tour.
Use our form to submit your documents. It can be found here.
The Famous Victoria Falls from above
Checkride with a South African flight instructor
The South African PPL license you receive is based on your existing foreign pilot license. To obtain it, you'll need to pass a theory exam in Air Law (only with the five year license) and complete an initial checkride with a South African flight instructor.
The checkride is designed to be straightforward and typically includes basic touch-and-go landings, a simulated emergency landing or approach to stall both in landing and clean configurations, and fundamental manoeuvres such as steep turns to the left or right. It also involves an overland flight with a dead reckoning navigation section in it and a landing at a controlled airport. The entire checkride usually lasts between 2 to 3 hours of flight time with an instructor.
We do advise to add some bush training to it. For some of the aircraft you can rent, it is required to have done a bush flying training. The training can be done on the same day as the checkride for your license validation or you can do the bush training at another time prior to your safari tour with us.
Besides flying in Africa, you also go on safari!
How the SA CAA deals with different aircraft types
The South African CAA works with aircraft type-specific qualifications. If you have, for example, experience flying a Cessna 172 but no experience flying the Cessna 182, you will have to either get some hours logged as pilot-in-command in your home country on that specific aircraft or you will have to do a familiarisation training before you are allowed to fly on the new aircraft-type (the C182) in South Africa. In Europe, we work with class ratings, so both aircraft types C172 and C182 fall within the same class rating and nothing stops you legally from flying either the C182 or C172 other than that you might want to become familiar with it or do some additional training on the new type of aircraft. Also, the insurance might require you to do some more training on the new type before they cover you.
Another example is when you migrate from a Cessna 172 or, for example, a Cessna 182 to a faster and more complex aircraft such as the Cirrus SR22 Turbo. You EASA license doesn’t legally sit in the way of flying the SR22, but the insurance company might demand from you that you do some extra training or follow a Cirrus transition course before they will insure you on the aircraft as pilot-in-command. More or less the same holds true for FAA licenses, where the FAA classifies aircraft together in a group as single-engine land (SEL) or, e.g., multi-engine land (MEL) aircraft. Not so for the South African CAA.
If you want to fly a Cessna 182, 206, or Cessna 210 in South Africa, you need to have some hours on that specific type in your logbook of which some hours must be recorded as pilot-in-command. If you have never flown that type of aircraft before, the best you can do is fly some hours on that specific aircraft type at home in Europe or in the US, so you can prove to have flown pilot-in-command on that type before you arrive in South Africa.
Alternatively, you can do a familiarisation training on type as soon as you arrive in South Africa, together with a South African instructor. If you have some hours already in your logbook on the specific type, that familiarisation training is not needed as you have proof that you are already qualified back at home to fly on that type.
If you do not have any experience with flying complex aircraft or aircraft with a variable pitch prop and, for example, a more heavy nose wheel, it might be difficult to get you insured on a more complex aircraft for flying the safari in Africa. Best is to get that experience ahead of time at home and to add some good hours into your logbook.
However, if you have, for example, good experience flying the Cessna 206 and you want to fly the Cessna 182, the two types are quite similar, but you still need to get a few hours of pilot-in-command recorded in your logbook before you come over in order to fly it legally and to get you insured.
Contact us if you have any questions.
How best to prepare for the Air Law theory exam
We have created a free online course that you can study while still at home and which prepares you for the Soth African Air Law exam as well as for flying aircraft in Africa in general. You can find this course here. We can provide you with a theory book on South African Air Law and point you to an app for iOS / Android tablets that you can use to check that you are up to examination standards. To get a 5-year South African PPL license based on your EASA or FAA license, you will have to pass one specific theory exam on Air Law and do a check ride with an instructor, before your 5-year South African license can be issued by the SACAA and handed out to you. For a 28-day license, no Air Law exam is required. We strongly advise all our Tour participants to do our online course before they come to Africa in order to familiarise yourselves with the laws of the air in Africa and with the actual bush flying done.
Aircraft rental options in South Africa
You hire the aircraft from African Flying Adventures under our Aircraft Hire Agreement; we hire it from the aircraft owner. Most of the aircraft owners we work with are private owners. Some of the aircraft belong to flight schools in the Johannesburg, Cape Town, or Nelspruit area. All of the aircraft are well maintained, but with basic 6-pack instruments. The aircraft are rented out on either tacho, Hobbs or block time — each owner uses a different basis, and the one that applies to your aircraft is ticked on your Booking Form. Rates exclude fuel (dry rate). Aircraft owners require that you take out an excess insurance policy for the rental period and charge a minimum of 2 hours per day. Aircraft for group tours are positioned from their home base to the tour's starting point; the positioning hours appear on your Booking Form on top of the trip hours.
For Aircraft rental prices
We will assist you in renting a matching aircraft in South Africa. The prices below are solely indicative of the most common aircraft types available in South Africa and ex VAT when applicable. For flights in South Africa, we have to charge VAT on top of the rental price. For flights flown fully outside the Republic of South Africa, no VAT is charged. All prices exclude the fuel (= dry-rate) and can be based on block times (off-block to on-block), tacho or Hobbs. Rental prices differ from one aircraft owner to another, but the table below should give you an indication of what you can expect. Most aircraft owners expect you to fly on average a minimum of 2 hours per day during the rental period. Aircraft for group tours are positioned from their home base to the tour's starting point; the positioning hours appear on your Booking Form on top of the trip hours.
| No | Aircraft | Type | Price (Dry/Euro/hour) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cessna 172 | C172 | 175.00 |
| 2 | Cessna 182 / Piper Cherokee 235 | C182 | 195.00 |
| 3 | Cessna 205 / 206 | C206 | 245.00 |
| 4 | Robinson R44 helicopter | R44 | 625.00 (wet) |
Fuel prices, landing & handling fees, indemnity forms
The fuel price at Lanseria airfield (FALA) is roughly 30 to 35 Rand per litre, which is around 1,75 euro/US$1.90 per litre at the moment of writing. At some of the airports or with some fuel handlers, you are charged a bit less or more for the fuel. At some airfields, we will have to resort to arranging AVGAS fuel barrels ahead of time, in which cases the price per litre can go up to around 55 Rand per litre, all depending on the number of drums we have to order and where they have to be delivered. At some remote airfields in Namibia the price of AVGAS is also higher than average.
You will have to pay the landing fees yourselves at the major airports. At most bush airfields, there is no landing fee to pay. Many bushstrip owners require the pilot's signed indemnity, which AFA obtains from you and must hold before clearing the landing.
Satellite flight following
We actively follow all aircraft during group self-fly safari trips as well so that we can follow your aircraft on our tours with the Garmin Inreach Messenger Plus or Mini 2 satellite trackers. If you do not own one, you can rent a tracker from us.
Garmin Inreach Messenger Plus tracker
Aircraft insurance: the deductible, and how we take the sting out of it
Every rental aircraft in South Africa is insured by its owner, and every policy carries a deductible (also called the excess): the first part of any damage claim, there to make sure hirers treat the aircraft with care. The amount differs per aircraft and is stated in the Insurance Summary we send you with the details of the aircraft allocated to you.
You never need to pay that deductible out of your own pocket to fly with us. For a fixed fee per trip, shown on your Booking Form, we arrange Excess Cover for your hire: if the aircraft is damaged while you fly within the rules of your Hire Agreement — ordinary pilot error included — the Excess Cover pays the deductible, and you owe the owner nothing. The only way to lose that protection is to fly outside the rules that come from the owner's insurance policy, such as carrying a paying passenger or leaving the policy's geographical limits; we brief you on exactly those rules before you fly.
We also arrange personal liability cover for you as pilot, sitting on top of the owner's policy, so that passenger and third-party claims are insured beyond the owner's limit. On South African hires both covers are part of your booking with us; you don't need to shop for them yourself.
If the aircraft breaks down
Aircraft are machines, and even a well-maintained one can go unserviceable in the bush. When that happens through no fault of yours, the aircraft itself costs you nothing: the owner bears the repair, the parts, the engineer's travel out to you and the cost of getting the aircraft home, and no hire charges run while it is down. We have engineers across the region who fly out to stranded aircraft, and through the satellite trackers we know where you are.
For the tour itself, we work on a best-effort basis. We try to find a substitute aircraft, a seat in another aircraft on the tour, or a way onward by road, and we re-plan the itinerary where we can — but a breakdown in a remote area can delay or shorten a tour, and we cannot always prevent that. A substitute aircraft is hired at its own rate against your unused prepaid hours, onward transport is at cost, and lodge nights we cannot recover from a provider remain payable; unused prepaid flying hours that can't be re-used are refunded. In short: the broken aircraft is the owner's problem, the recovery plan is ours, and we'll do everything we reasonably can to keep your safari moving.
We can track your aircraft (flight following) through a satellite tracker datalink. Ideally, you will buy and bring your own Garmin Inreach Device, which also gives you a way to communicate through a satellite link with us through text messages.
We will take care of all the flight plan filing for you and arrange overland and landing clearances.
Table of contents
- Why go on a flying safari in Africa?
- Available rental aircraft
- Information for Pilots
- Pilot License Validation Procedure
- Checkride with a South African flight instructor
- How the SA CAA deals with different aircraft types
- How best to prepare for the Air Law theory exam
- Aircraft rental options in South Africa
- For Aircraft rental prices
- Fuel prices, landing & handling fees, indemnity forms
- Satellite flight following
- Aircraft insurance: the deductible, and how we take the sting out of it
- If the aircraft breaks down
