Originally Posted by
BertieC
Hi
Can anyone suggest a cheap way for me to get my hours to 155 so I can
take my CPL (H)? I can't afford to buy a helicopter. Renting one out hour after
hour is going to be expensive. But renting one for 3 months might be possible if
anyone knows somewhere with reasonable pricing? Or is there another way?
Thanks
Thanks.
Afraid there is no cheap way, yes you can go to America and blast the hours out cheaply but do you have to factor in time off work? Accommodation, flights, time away from family, its not always as simple as just go to america and fly. Plus after you've passed your PPL do you really have much experience of flying in the UK, enough to roll straight onto a CPL when you come back, maybe - I don't know your flying history.
Where did you do your PPL? Personally I wouldn't just stick at one school for hour building, I would use the opportunity to visit various schools and get my name around the industry a bit - After all, you're probably going to be contacting lots of companies POST CPL trying to get your first bit of work ( unless you're going straight to IR and want to try get offshore? ). If they've never heard of you before it will be even more difficult to get your foot in the door.
Or are you going to FI route, still - best to get your name around different schools.
Dont just look at the cheapest way to do things, there is no cheap way in aviation unfortunately.
If I had to do my hour building again I would do 20 odd hours at a few different schools. Most will offer a discount if you buy in blocks of 10. I would also use my time wisely in the air and visit as many airports as I possibly could to increase your experience level even more, Heli Lanes etc too.
Take a look at what landing fee's schools charge, the odd school is very expensive, they will charge more than the actual Airport is charging them, which I understand during your PPL as you don't want to get charged per circuit so its simply just one landing fee per sortie no matter how many circuits you do.
However, post PPL I don't agree with schools still charging a flat fee like they do for Dual. For example - some schools will charge up to £30 per flight but during SFH you'll only likely do 1 circuit ( so should be only one landing fee ) usually around the £11-£15 pound mark. That extra money is a lot over 100 hours of SFH ( Already saved yourself 1500 minimum there )