Cost Overruns

[JoeGlum]

I've got a number of quotes from different schools but I've been around enought to know that these places are businesses.

If you were to do a "stress test" on these quotes what would the variance be?

10, 15,20% increase?

Any help grealty appreciated.

[BlueRobin]

You should have a 15-20% contingency fund on standby (regardless of who the FTO is)

[dartagnan]

schools give you minimum prices.
it means minimum hours, first time passrate, and how good you can cope with stress...

so add 30%.better be safe than sorry.

[wangus]

Having done PPL in UK, then started CPL at OFT Florida, and finished it off in UK along with Multi, agree with the two prior posts, but lean towards the extra 30%. Taxi time, flight tests, exam fees, plus obvious things like food, petrol, b&b etc.. A few extra hours quickly add up. I spent nearly double what I thought, and in nearly minimum hours. Ouch.

[JoeGlum]

Thanks for replies.

I'll be at home and I live very near the airport but I presume thats not where the overruns lie.

Is there anything in particular that will catch you?

[BlueRobin]

Yup, revision and retests :)

[portsharbourflyer]

UK weather, you may be the best pilot in the world complete your CPL or IR in the minimum hours and then have a really bad run on the weather and not be able to test for a few weeks, hence a few more revison flights may be required prior to test.

[JoeGlum]

whats the deal with Taxi costs?

[BlueRobin]

On a twin in the UK, you usually pay 10+5 mins flying time for taxying. 10 minutes worked back from takeoff time and a further 5 minutes from the landing time.

If your taxi time is more or less than 15 mins, it makes no difference therefore to the charge.

So per session, you have to add one quarter of one hour to your fees.

IIRC I went about £1200-1500 over on the ME CPL due to extra revision and a retest. Plus for the IR, waiting for slots meant some revision flights, a silly mess up at Yeovil (evil field!) meant a retest plus ferry flights for both attempts meant I was over the £10500 by (just a guess) about £2000-2500?

So about 20% contingency would be correct in *my* case. You will save a lot of cash for a first-time pass, but those people statistically are not in the majority.

Don't forget to budget the usual living costs stuff as well.

The best by far bit was the MCC with no cost overrun, masses of the instructor's time and loads of hours in the sim. Very good value :ok: