Train where the aviators train
Ground and flight training from your very first lesson to an airline transport licence — at Zimbabwe’s oldest commercially operating flight school.
Watch · 60 seconds
See what learning to fly with us looks like
Real Guthrie students and aircraft — made entirely from our own photos and footage.
Training pathways
From first lesson to airline transport
Whatever you’re starting from, there’s a clear route through — we’ll help you find it.
Conversions
Hold a licence issued by an ICAO Contracting State and want a Zimbabwean licence? We’ll guide you through it.
Student Pilot — Aeroplane
Required to start your formal licence training.
National Pilot — Aeroplane
Microlight and light-sport aircraft.
Private Pilot — Aeroplane
Fly for private purposes (not for hire or reward) any aircraft for which you are rated.
Course detailsCommercial Pilot — Aeroplane
Fly for hire and reward — any aircraft up to 5,700 kg as commander, and heavier aircraft as co-pilot.
Course detailsAirline Pilot — Aeroplane
The highest civilian qualification, allowing you to act as commander of any aeroplane.
Course detailsOur training philosophy
Learn it right — the first time
A licence is the start, not the goal. What matters is what you do when something doesn’t go according to plan — and that comes down to the depth of your training. Accident and incident reports are full of events that proper training would have prevented. We train you to the depth that gives you the best possible chance of a good outcome.
“In the absence of all other standards, maintain your own.”
It’s the premise we operate on. Wherever standards elsewhere slip, we hold onto ours — and drive every student to be the best pilot they can be, in the hope of a long and successful aviation career, and so that, like us, they’re in a position to make a difference.
The principle of primacy
What you learn first is what you fall back on under pressure. We make sure you learn it the right way from your very first lesson — because unlearning a bad habit is far harder than learning a good one.
Depth and breadth, not exam cramming
Our PPL, CPL and ATPL ground school uses Padpilot’s EASA-approved training material. The aim is real understanding — the knowledge you’ll need when something doesn’t go to plan — not just the answer to the next exam question.
Instructors who’ve done it
Many schools rely on newly qualified pilots building hours as instructors. Ours have spent years both teaching and flying what they teach, so you get the knowledge and the practical experience behind it.
“Teaching someone to fly is not difficult. It’s done every day all over the world.” Since opening our doors in 1995, we’ve focused not just on teaching people to fly, but on giving them that extra something which makes them stand out from the rest.
That extra something…
- Gets you noticed and provides opportunities where others find none
- Gives you the ability to call on superior knowledge and skill, when the chips are down, and save the day
- Makes you an aviator, and not just a pilot
- Makes you a professional and not just a worker
- Gives you the power to … “Make the difference!”
To deliver it, our instructors
- Get to know their student, identifying strong points and building on them, while providing insight on how to cope with challenging areas
- Be dedicated, devoted, and committed to going above and beyond, ensuring their student is the best they can be
- Be selfless — dedicated to the objective, even when it means being unpopular in the short term, for long-term student benefit
- Provide encouragement, motivation and discipline, to ensure the right habits are learnt from the beginning
From our letter to every student: Start the way you intend to finish.
Think of a doctor who studied for seven years, then spent four more learning to put that knowledge into practice. Now picture one who qualified in a couple of months. When it’s life or death, which one do you want looking after you?
Your flight training is no different.
Why the first lessons matter — two examples
Wake turbulence & jet blast
One of the first things a student pilot learns is to respect the wake turbulence and jet blast of larger aircraft. Yet commercial pilots still get caught out by it. Learned properly at the start, a lesson like this stays with you for your whole career.
Say exactly what’s needed — nothing more
Standard phraseology exists so there’s no room for misunderstanding, but standards have slipped: time estimates padded with extra words, or “recycle squawk to zero five five one” instead of simply “squawk zero five five one”.
“Recycle squawk to zero five five one”“… squawk two zero five five one”A five-digit code that can’t exist — 2055? 2051? 0551?Once a pilot has trained themselves into habits like these, they’re very hard to undo — and when things get busy, people fall back on what they learned first.
Experience in the right seat
A safety report raised a recurring issue: fuel and oil caps left off or loose before flight. On no fewer than three occasions the oil cap was found off with the student already strapped in and ready to go — each time, instructor intervention stopped it becoming an incident or accident. Catching what others miss is exactly what experience is for, and why we publish lessons like this to everyone who flies with us.
In their own words
“After starting my training in SA, coming to Guthrie was a breath of fresh air. The teaching was far superior in the classroom and in the air. Thanks to Guthrie for making me a more knowledgeable and safer pilot.”
“I have had flight instruction and testing through FTOs in USA, UK and most recently in my native Zimbabwe. Your professionalism, standards and dedication to developing safe and competent pilots is second to none.”
“The training I received was comprehensive and thorough. There were no corners cut and I believe that it will make me a better and safer pilot as a result.”
It doesn’t stop at the aircraft door
Many of the concepts we teach — crew resource management, decision-making under pressure, first aid — reach far beyond the cockpit, into work, family and everyday life. Learned correctly the first time and fully understood, they lead to the best possible outcome in the long run.
“Important life core values were instilled in me and I rely upon them as a guide everyday.”
Zviko Nyamakura
Over the years, Guthrie-trained pilots have gone on to fly for — and reach the senior levels of — some of the world’s most recognised airlines, including Cathay Pacific, Emirates and Qatar Airways, and to serve as chief pilots for corporate operators and private families.
Our track record
One of our earliest graduates, trained here in the mid-1990s, taught ground school after his CPL, flew bush charters out of Victoria Falls, joined Air Zimbabwe as a Boeing 737 first officer and then captain — and went on to captain the Emirates A380.
As reported by The Herald, 2016 and 2021Since 2013 every aircraft in our fleet has carried satellite tracking. Instructors follow student flights in real time, and help is only ever a button-press away.
Part of our safety management and quality-assurance programmeOur Red Tag notices and non-punitive safety reporting turn real events into lessons for everyone who flies with us — from taxiing on grass to working safely around helicopters.
See our Red Tags · Safety promotionRecorded on our graduates register since 2002 — from first PPLs to commercial licences, instrument and type ratings, and conversions for pilots trained in South Africa, Europe and the Air Force of Zimbabwe.
Browse the graduates registerChoose who you train with carefully. The habits you form in your first lessons are the ones you’ll rely on when it counts.
How you’ll learn
Theory that actually sticks
We pair world-class interactive groundschool with round-the-clock support, so you build real understanding — not just the answer to the next exam question.
Padpilot EASA theory
We teach the theory using Padpilot’s next-generation digital manuals — the EASA / UK CAA syllabus brought to life with animations, 3D models and embedded video, on any device. It’s built to give you a genuine, deeper understanding, not just a way to pass the exam.
Explore Padpilot ↗My Online Academy
Our own learning management system is there every hour of every day to guide you through the syllabus and track your progress. Behind it sits an extensive question bank designed not simply to get you through exams, but to close knowledge holes and latent traps — so you set off on your aviation journey with nothing missing.
Open the learning portal ↗Soft & safety courses
More than stick-and-rudder
The non-technical skills that turn a competent pilot into a safe, complete aviator — run on scheduled dates through the year, and open to visiting crews too. And they don’t stop at the aircraft door: CRM, sound decision-making and first aid serve you at work, on the road and at home.
SEPT
The drills that keep you and your passengers safe when it matters most — emergency equipment, evacuation and survival procedures, practised until they are second nature.
Course details One dayAdvanced Avionics
Get the very best out of the equipment in front of you — glass cockpit, GPS navigation and autopilot, flown with confidence instead of guesswork.
Course details One dayHuman Factors / CRM
Very few incidents are purely technical. This is the course about the people flying — how we make errors, how crews work together, and how to catch errors before they matter.
Course details One dayFire Fighting
A small fire stays small only if someone acts correctly in the first few seconds. This course makes sure that someone is you.
Course details One dayFirst Aid
Practical first aid for aviation, where help can be a long way away — so you can act calmly and effectively when someone needs you.
Course detailsCourse availability varies through the year — see the calendar or ask us for the next intake.
Where our graduates fly
From Charles Prince to the world’s flight decks
Over the years, Guthrie-trained pilots have gone on to fly for some of the world’s leading airlines. Our focus never changes: make every pilot the best they can be, and make aviation safe, efficient, easy and enjoyable.
Ratings & soft courses
Extend your privileges
Build on your licence with additional ratings, each taught to a professional standard — and the non-technical skills that turn a pilot into an aviator.
- Ratings: Type ratings · Instrument · Night · Tailwheel · Instructor
- Soft & safety courses: SEPT, Advanced Avionics, Human Factors / CRM, Fire Fighting and First Aid — one day each
Engineering training
Skills for the future
Through Aesthetechs Aviation we also offer National Certificate and Diploma training in aircraft engineering, together with apprentice attachment — building the engineers of tomorrow.
About AesthetechsTraining enquiry
Begin your aviation journey
Tell us where you’re starting from and what you’d like to achieve, and we’ll point you to the right course.
Prefer to talk?
Call +263-8677000627 or WhatsApp us ↗
Start the way you intend to finish
Talk to us about the right course for where you are now.