Approx. NPPL / PPL costs

[Superseven]

Morning all,

Can someone give me an idea on the approx cost of getting an NPPL / PPL in the UK? I know the minimum requirement in terms of the number of hours but I want to know the actual average cost.

Thanks and all the best.

Martin.

[IO540]

For a comparable competence, there won't be much difference.

A PPL is going to be £7000-£12000 with the figure depending a lot on your age :)

[joelgarabedian]

Hi Martin,

I'm about to take my Skills test (in fact I've had to cancel three tests due to the recent weather), so although I'm not the proud holder of a PPL yet, I'm hopefully close enough to have a reasonable idea of how much it'll end up costing :)

In terms of the actual flying, I bought a "bundle" deal from my flying club. This was 45 hours for just over £6000, although there's no guarantee that 45 hours will be enough to prepare you for the test. I'm currently in my 45th hour, although I've had to book another lesson because I'm starting to get rusty waiting to take my test! So plane and instructor hire will come to a little over this figure.

With all the other costs (which can add up quite quickly!) - medical, headset, kneeboard, map, plotter, flight guide, books, ground exams, RT practical exam, plane hire for the test, Skills test fee and most significantly landing fees (which can really mount up when you're in the circuit), I think my total cost of learning to fly will be around the £9000 mark.

I've not cut corners, but I've done everything I can to manage the costs - home study rather than ground school, trying to get as much as I can from each lesson by reading up beforehand, and running through procedures in my head at home - which has been really useful!

You don't mention whether you're learning yet or not. You may well already know that it is a big sacrifice - not only financially, but in terms of your time too. Not to mention the disappointment of cancelled lessons (or tests!) But overall it's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done, and I'd heartily recommend the experience to anyone else.

Hope this helps, if you have any other questions feel free to ask or PM me :)

Joel.

[waspsad]

£3000 on extras that is quite steep! i was hoping to get everything out of the way for a little under £8000 with the flying costing £6165 for 45 hours.

[Lister Noble]

I'm not sure how much age has to do with it,PPL took me 53 hrs at 63 years old.
Did most of my ground school just swatting, with one hour instruction for each subject.
Can't exactly remember total cost,but that could be my age;);)
The machine costs were around £140/hr for PA28-180
Materials were not major,borrowed headset,board,watch,charts,plotter,books, etc say £350.
It's cheaper if you really want to fly,and try hard!:)
good luck
Lister:)

[waspsad]

Does anyone know if Swansea charge landing fees ontop of the hourly charge ?

[flybymike]

In terms of the actual flying, I bought a "bundle" deal from my flying club.

Not sure whether this is what you meant, but I would be extremely careful about paying large sums up front for so called discounts, (which are illusory if the FTO goes out of business.) Credit card payments may offer some protection under the Consumer Credit Act

[IO540]

a) any block deal will be based on 45hrs - most people take longer (ave is 55-65)

b) NEVER EVER pay up front. Schools go bust all the time.

[av624]

Mine cost around £5700 plus an additional £350 for books etc..., completed in 51 hours due to weather! :ok:

[joelgarabedian]

FlyByMike - I paid in a couple of chunks, although each time I topped up my account it did cross my mind that I stood to lose out if the club went bankrupt. I also used my credit card for an additional degree of protection. Trying to fly twice a week through the summer, I managed to burn through most of each payment before the card statement arrived and I paid it off :) Luckily my club are still in business, although browsing PPrune, it seems clubs go under more often than I'd like to think. If I were to start training again, I'd probably avoid paying up front!

Waspsad - £3000 does sound like alot on extras, but I've been keeping a record of what I've spent - partly because I couldn't find much information about PPL costs before I started! :) I didn't know about landing fees until I was about to start my training - I fly from Shoreham, who charge £17 for a full-stop landing, or £8.50 for a touch and go. Looking in my logbook, I've flown 52 sorties (I love using that word!). Not always landing at Shoreham, but if we average out costs, let's say that's

52 x £17 = £884

On top of that, when training in the circuit, you'll be amazed at how many touch and goes you can do whilst trying to get the hang of landing! I don't know if every school is the same, but after I'd done my first solo circuit, I was required to fly a further two and a half hours of solo circuits before I was allowed to carry out a solo navigation exercise. I've easily flown 50 touch-and-go circuits during my training, so that's another

50 x £8.50 = £425

So that's £1309 on landing fees - over 40% of the additional cost! Other costs I've incurred (which you've probably already researched) include

Initial Class 2 Medical = £180
Trevor Thom Books (Air Law, Human Factors, Navigation, Aircraft General, Radiotelephony) (5 x £20) = £100
AirQuiz membership = £20
Ground Exams (7 x £35) = £245
RT Practical = £92
Map, Plotter, Pens, Kneeboard, Flight Computer, VFR Flight Guide and other bits and bobs = £150

And other costs I hope to incur very soon :)

Examiner Fees for Skills Test = £160
Plane Hire for Skills Test (2 x £115) = £230
Initial License Fee = £160

I also bought a David Clark headset, maybe not an essential item, but I wanted my own headset - the flying club had headsets I could use, but they weren't that comfortable, and were often hot and damp from the last wearer! I knew I'd want my own headset in the long-run anyway, so I thought it would be better to invest earlier and use it during my training.

I don't have my list with me, so I may well have missed out something, but if I add all that up (excluding the headset) I come to a grand total of £2636 on top of plane / instructor hire. Of course, your aerodrome may have lower landing fees than Shoreham, with a corresponding saving on the cost of your training :) To be honest I don't know if these costs are average or not!

As I've seen in another thread recently, try not to focus on the cost of gaining your PPL too closely - after all, you're going to want to fly regularly after you've qualified, so the costs are likely to be ongoing anyway :)

[joelgarabedian]

Waspsad - a quick google revealed that the landing fee for Swansea was £12 in 2007... I can't find any more current information and I don't have my flight guide with me to check. I remember having to rethink affordability when I found out about landing fees - although call the club to confirm, things might not be as bad as you think :)

[IO540]

£12 is the cost of avgas burnt doing a long overhead join :)

Anybody thinking £12 affects GA affordability needs to find a cheaper hobby :)

I guess fishing might be cheaper, but the social scene is not great, and some of the carbon fibre rods seem awfully pricey.

[joelgarabedian]

Go easy on me IO540, I'm pretty new to flying myself and am only trying to pass on some information I wished I'd had when I started out :)

I agree that £12 on the cost of an hour's plane hire is small. But when you're trying to crack the circuit, the costs can mount up very quickly indeed... In fact landing fees have accounted for around 15% of my total PPL costs.

I'm not saying that a £12 landing fee is a deal-breaker, it's just an additional cost involved in learning to fly that myself (and I'm sure others) simply don't know about when we start out.

[IO540]

It's true that landing fees can be a big chunk of the cost of a PPL. Another reason why it is so much cheaper in the USA (your training is subsidised by the US taxpayer :) ).

However, there are not many (any?) places where one can do a PPL where landings are free, so the relative savings are not likely to be great by the time travelling has been considered.

Also, once you start flying for real, you are unlikely to be banging circuits.

[waspsad]

Thanks for all that information Joel, as you say £12 is not the worst but would certainly add up when doing circuits. All those things do add up and are certainly an eye opener! I suppose noone will ever know how much it will cost until they have done it themselves. Hope you flying continues to be enjoyable and successful. :ok:

[joelgarabedian]

Thanks Waspsad, and all the best with your training! :)

IO540 - I completely agree. I looked into learning at Goodwood instead of Shoreham, mainly due to the lower landing fees, but decided the modest saving on landing fees didn't offset the extra effort of getting there.

Now I'm more used to flying, and the service that ATC provides, landing fees seem both logical and fair. I went up for a trial lesson initially, which must have included the cost of the landing fee, because it was an "all in" price. I took away a price list which covered hourly instructor / aircraft rates, not realising that landing fees would be payable on top of the tuition. The additional cost of landing fees wasn't enough to put me off, it's just nice to know the costs you're likely to incur before you commit to learning :)