Have to agree with IO540.
But will these savings on fuel make all that much difference?
I doubt it.
If we assume that the typical fuel cost for a training mount (150/152/PA38 is approximately £20 per hour) This may reduce to £5 for the fuel with an additional cost of £5 for the engine (being more expensive and to get converted). The saving per hour would be £10.
For a the PPL syllabus this equates to £450 and for the average PPL annual budget (lets say 15 hour) £150.
Now nobody will sneeze at a 10% saving but it is not suddenly going to fill the skies with diesel machines. Most peeps live within their means or just outside them.
I suspect that they will continue to do so and will just burn of an extra hour per year to stay within theirs. Nobody will embark upon a PPL course just because it will now cost 'only £4150 rather than £4500.
Will fuel savings be passed on to the punters?
No. Maybe you can get to fly a better machine for the same price (as I think the conversions will likely be done in the better club trainers rather than the most clapped out 150) but the justification will be in the higher capital outlay for the converted machine.
If you think that cheaper fuel means cheaper flying you only have to study a 'where to fly guide' and look at the places where fuel is really dirt cheap and compare their training/rental prices with the UK average. No difference last time I looked.
AndrewM
Not for ab initio PPL's - that would be pretty foolish. Teaching how to use the mixture/carb heat and running checks is a basic part of the PPL
The same way as you teach them to use flaps/sideslipping/retractable gear/wobbly prop/fuel injection/2engines and anything else which they have not encountered during the initial training and need later on in their PPL life!
You teach them what they need to know for the mount they are using at that moment, not for something they may or maynot encounter at some point in their life.
FD