Are we all being taken for a ride?

[Feneris]

Why is flying so damn expensive in the UK? In my case I've accepted the cost of the ATPL, set the money aside, not gone travelling around the world, and set my sights on airline employment in several years time.

While I sit at home working my way through folders of notes(anyone else find Gen Nav hard??) I look at the cost of flying in other parts of the world, especially Florida with which I am familiar.

I accept there will be differences. Cost of fuel in the US is substantially lower, the weather better which makes aircraft useage more predictable.

On to the parts I don't understand.

Florida - I buy a new 1:500,000 map for £5. When it expires I hand it in at a flying club, and am given a brand new one free. (No I don't mean I was using a club map and they swapped it).

UK - I pay nearly £20 for a map, and buy a new one next year for the same amount. ouch

Florida - I pick up a free, Florida Airport Directory, 200 pages, inculding maps and all relevant nav/comms info for Florida's airports. It is published by the Florida Dept of Transportation.

UK - I might Pooleys for £50, then don't replace it for 3 years because I can't afford to justify the expense.

Florida - I decide to go and land somewhere. Radical I know, but it doesn't cost anything. It's a public airport, paid for by the council / businesses that operate from it.

UK - Ouch, there goes another £7.00

Florida - I decide to do an ILS. I do an ILS.

UK - I get my credit card ready, check it's still bendy enough and my flexible friend reluctantly gives me the ok!

FloridaI want to be issued an FAA licence on the strength of my JAR one. Visit FAA in Orlando, I'm issued one for free on the spot. (Temp one immediatly, full one arrives by post a few months later) I don't know wether the CAA charge for one or not, but I've mentioned this as a demonstration of the user friendly FAA.

Back here in the UK, why is everything flying related so expensive. The cost of every part of licence issue by the CAA is prohibitive, and I can't understand why. I know they've got a monopoly, but so has the DVLA and Passport Office.

I've set aside £2000 to pay CAA fees on route to an ATPL.

I wanted a CRP-5. £71 + p&p for a bit of plastic. I accept that it's a very accurate and well made bit of plastic, but £71! I bought a 2nd had one instead. (Thankyou wx_man)

Buy a magazine off the shelf in WHSmith. Shudder while looking at the prices of 'genuine pilots watches' and other associated stuff inside it. It seems that by putting the word 'pilot' infront of anything seems to have a dramatic effect on what it costs.

Flying seems to be hit badly when it comes to pricing goods and services. Maybe it's because pilots are loaded (haha), or maybe it's because we've come to accept it as an expensive sport, and we are now all being taken advantage of.

I'm sure you've seen tv programmes and the papers commenting on 'Rip Off Britain'. We are an expensive country. Cars tend to be more expensive bue to us being Right Hand Drive. If cars were more expensive in France than Germany, the French would nip across the border and buy one, but we can't do that. Or maybe we can. Thanks to EU laws, Brits can cross the channel on coach tours with the sole purpose of buying a car at French prices. (EU forces French dealers to deliver UK spec cars on request, inc RHD)

Back to flying again. Flying schools don't make loads of money, they seem to struggle to make any at all. Hiring aircraft is expensive, but the owners aren't rakeing it in either. So where's they money going? Maybe the aircraft spend so much time sitting on the tarmac, the cost per hour rises, so less hours are flown, downward spiral of finances.

I don't have any answers, I've used the US example purely to compare figures.

Final questions:

Why is avgas taxed so expensive compared to Jet A1? When the new aviation diesel engines arrive (soon we hope), can we run round buring 10g per hour at 20p per litre, or has the chancellor got atrick up his sleve to hit us with. One tax for commercial jets, another for Mr Europa with shiny new diesel engine maybe?

Will local councils stop opposing every airfield, or even more radical, take on an airfield as a municipal one, for the benefit of the community?

Will the tide of high flying costs ever reverse and fall?

Ramble over (for those still awake)

F zzz