Our Story – Sunshine Coast Aerobatics School

  • Sunshine Coast Aerobatics School is NOT your typical flying school. We provide unique pilot training opportunities not addressed by other flying schools anywhere in Queensland.

  • From 2012 operating the ‘Ultimate Thrill Ride’ we conducted extreme aerobatics flights at the Sunshine Coast Airport  providing the local community and visitors the opportunity to enjoy Airborne Thrills, Adventure Flights and for experienced pilots to undertake advanced pilot skills training. The popularity and demand for our adventure flights and advanced flight training courses continued to increase.

  • November 2018 – Co-owners Colin Appleton and Lawrie Stevens expanded, establishing ‘Sunshine Coast Flying School (SCFS)’ with the addition of the fantastic TL 2000 Sting S4 and Sting RG Turbo aircraft.  SCFS,  with  four top class training aircraft, was able to address a broad scope of both RA and GA training requirements, from basic student pilot training through to advanced skills training for experienced GA pilots.

  • New courses included RPC to RPL conversions, RA Instructor Training, CTR, CSU+RG (RA or GA), ADF Prep., Formation, Spinning, Aerobatics and more!

  • March 2024 – Co-owners Colin Appleton and Lawrie Stevens changed the business trading name to ‘Sunshine Coast Aerobatics Academy’ and began focusing 100% on our core skills, teaching Upset Prevention & Recovery Training (UPRT), Spin Prevention & Recovery Training (SPRT), Emergency Maneouvre Training (EMT) and intensive Aerobatics courses (which include UPRT and SPRT). All our course are intensive full-time classroom and in-aircraft training.

WHERE ARE WE? –

  • Hangar N, Gympie (Kybong) Airfield, 20 Lobwien Road, Kybong.

  • Optionally, our ‘4 Day Intensive Aerobatics’ courses can operate from GoFly’s facilities at Caloundra (additional costs apply)

WHAT DO WE DO? –

  • We are specialists in Upset Prevention & Recovery Training (UPRT), Spin Prevention & Recovery Training (SPRT), Emergency Maneouvre Training (EMT), and Aerobatics Training because that is WHAT WE TEACH, EVERY DAY WE FLY!

  • In Australia there’s only a handful of specialised schools teaching these skills, and most of them use tandem (one behind the other) seating, ‘tail dragger’ aerobatic rated aircraft.  However, we use the Robin R2160, which is a tri-cycle undercarriage, side-by-side seating, military style aerobatic rated aircraft. In an actual inadvertent aircraft upset, crew communication and cockpit spatial awareness are just as critical as aerodynamic skill.

  • Unless you intend to fly fighter jets or vintage taildraggers, almost every aircraft you are likely to fly—from a Cessna 172 or a Piper Warrior up to a Boeing 737 or an Airbus A320—uses side-by-side seating.  Our SPRT and UPRT training conducted in the same physical configuration makes the visual cues, instrument scan, and muscle memory highly transferable to your actual flying.

  • In addition to our unique training courses, we offer hands-on “TOP GUN” aerobatics experience flights to ‘thrill seekers’ and ‘the curious’ alike. A pilot license is NOT required!  

  • We are also the Sunshine Coast Training Campus for the Australian Aerobatic Club and, under intense training developed by CFI, Colin Appleton, SCAA have produced more State and National Aerobatics Champion pilots (Graduate / Sportsman level) than any other flying school in Queensland! Browse our website store and choose your flight training course, or one of our adrenaline packed TOP GUN flights.

We are very pleased to be able to bring our unique training course and extreme airborne adventure experiences to pilots, our local community, tourists, thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies alike!  To our knowledge there is no other flying school anywhere in Australia that can do, what we do best!

So, what are you waiting for?  Call us now to discuss how we can help your aviation journey!   Read More