Originally Posted by
pcnut
25 hours in the sim plus 15 in the aircraft comes out at £10925, so using your calculations you would save £925. (No approach charges or landing fees in the sim so that knocks a bit off too.) Which wouldn't pay for the MEIR upgrade, or anywhere near it.
Not exactly. You'd save £925 PLUS the cost of an extra 25 hours of hour building, which could be £2500-£5000. (The cost of landings would cancel out.) £3425-£5925 Should easily pay for most if not all an MEIR upgrade....
I agree that it's better to train in the SIM. But only if the training is appropriate. You won't be learning anything new after the first 10 hours, and my experience was that most of my 30 hours of sim time was spent flying full practice profiles which would have been the same price in the real aircraft AND loggable towards the CPL. Now my advice is generally to use the SIM as little as possible (unless you can get free practice time). The higher the SIM costs the higher the break even point and it may be cheaper to train in the aircraft even if it takes you 50 or 60 hours, and let's be honest here - IR flying is easy. I've never heard of anyone going over minimums.