I've seen a number of different places where there is a 100 hour minimum:
1) Some private grass airstrips won't accept pilots with <100 hours
2) Some aircraft are not available for hire to pilots with < 100 hours
3) Some shared ownership groups won't sell their shares to anyone with < 100 hours
With PPL taking perhaps somewhere between 50 and 80 hours, there's clearly a stage in between.
Two questions about this:
a) Do insurance policies for standard touring aircraft impose significant extra costs for less experienced pilots?
b) Are there any simple ways around these restrictions (other than hour building)?
I'm thinking that for (1) you could land at airstrips by hiring an instructor for the first visit and sweet talking the owner into letting you return on your own; for (3) joining a group on the basis that you are always accompanied by another group member until you reach 100 hours.
It seems to me that once you've passed the test, you are either still somewhat tied to your flight training club or need to go do some hour building where/when the weather is nice in order to get up to the next level. Continuing to be under the wing (pun intended
) of a flying club may be no bad thing - being able to continue to ask dumb questions as you gain experience will help further raise standards.
What did others do when they passed their test and did they find there to be an artificial glass ceiling until they gained more hours?