Originally Posted by MikeeB
Who teaches aero's at Sherburn now? I started down the route of the Cap 10B, but nobody could teach me aero's in it. Never entertained the idea of trying in the Robins, so I went to FS in the end.
Stopped altogether now as I'm in a catch22 situation. Pay rental rates and fly, or stop flying and save up for a share/plane. Just be doing the minimum hours with an instructor now to retain my licence.
The Robin's actually not such a bad aeroplane to learn in - good visiibility throught the canopy, controls well balanced, a little gutless - but then, so are Citabria's - and I think there are manoeuvres you can do in them that are forbidden in the Chippie. I've got about the same hours in each and I'd be happy to jump into either one to take someone for a ride. In car terms, the Robin's a Peugeot 205GTi 1.6; the Chippie is a MGA Twincam. The Chippie gives a greater sense of occassion, though.
The pay-off between renting and buying depends on the number of hours you do each year. Typically, that's probably around 150-200 hours for a given type, so for an individual within a syndicate that's probably 35-50 hours. It'd be worth getting a spreadsheet together to calculate the relative merits of each approach. Even if you have to borrow the money for the syndicate share (at, say 7% of 5000 pounds, that's about 2 hours flying a year) it may be cheaper to do so and get into the syndicate rather than keep renting.
OTOH, if you are only doing 12-15 hours a year, buying in less likely to make sense. In which case look at taking a holiday in the US, Australia or NZ and flying a few hours for something much better, for less money....