Aircraft rental - Just a quicky

[tobster911]

Hello all. I do not yet have my PPL, but when I do, I plan on doing a trip of a couple of days in a rented aircraft.

My question is this:

If I do a trip that lasts, say, 3 days, how much will rental cost. Does it work in the respect that, the aircraft is £110ph, and I'll have to pay £110 every hour it's away (approx 70 hours!)? £7700!? Or will it only be £110 for every hour flown, say, 6 hours in total? How does it all work?

Thank you

T

[phiggsbroadband]

Some Flying Clubs will charge a minimum of three hours per day, which covers their anticipated income for the period. This can take up a lot of your vacation time spent in the aircraft, when visiting your far-flung relatives.

[reimomo]

Hi Tobster

No, don't worry you won't be left with a bill for £7700 :)

Rental operations vary, but you'll only be paying for the time the engine is running, or the time the aircraft is airbourne, or sometimes a combination of both.

BUT.... some flying clubs insist that if you take the aircraft away from the base for say, 3 days, you'll have to fly a certain minimum amount per day, or be charged for it. This is because they are losing their asset whilst it's in your capable hands, so can't earn revenue from it.

The minimum hours varies, but is usually 2-3 hours a day. So you can't fly it to a field 15 minutes away, leave it there for a week, fly it home and expect to pay for 30 min flying times I'm afraid... :)

[Andy_P]

My club charges tacho time wet for private hire. So you only pay for the hours you are flying (and taxi). I assume most are like that? We pay VDO time only when an instructor is involved.

[tecman]

By booking ahead and negotiating with the owner/operator you can often strike a deal. It might be in the form of a minimum number of hours, as others have noted. But if you're prepared to negotiate, and to look at using the aircraft in periods of otherwise low utilization, the operator will often bend their rules a bit.

I may have just been lucky but I found everyone willing to do their best for me during rentals in Australia, Europe and the USA. If you can find an aircraft to hire from a private owner you may do even better: often they can be more flexible than a school. Just double check that all is OK with the insurance etc. Mindful of the assistance I received, since owning aircraft I've frequently tried to return the favour to others. Good luck!

[piperarcher]

One should also consider what might happen if you take the plane away for 3 days, and you find due to weather or something else, that you are stuck there for much longer. The additional costs would be something to factor in.

Happened to a pilot in my aircraft share, so it didnt cost him like it would have done if he was renting, but I recall him being stuck the other side of Welsh mountains for 3 days waiting for the weather to clear and having to get a train home, and then go back out later to fly it back.

[tobster911]

Speaking of this insurance, again, I don't know anything about it.

Is it the aircraft that's insured, or the pilot?

Like I can drive my car because I'm insured on it, but can't drive anyone else's car and no one can drive mine (unless they have the any other car thing on their policy)

Thank you

T

[piperarcher]

There is probably more than one possible answer to this. On my group owned plane, only names pilots with specific amounts of hours + any instructor from a named flying school are insured to fly it.

On a club aircraft, the aircraft would surely be insured, on the proviso that the pilot approved to fly it meets certain requrirement by law, or by club dictat. For example some clubs might require you to have a quick checkout with an instructor if you havent flown in the last 4 weeks. What cover is afforded to the pilot and or passengers in private or club aircraft I suspect could have many different multiples of answers to the plane/pilot perspective.