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Old 11th Feb 2017, 08:05
  #11 (permalink)  
A and C
 
Join Date: Jan 1999
Location: north of barlu
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First I need to declare a former interest.

I at one time did lease aircraft to hours builders ( and would do again if it made money ) but I have moved on.

The guys who leased my aircraft on a short term basis usually for blocks of about 50 hours seem to have all found themselfs jobs in the industry. Most of them took the aircraft on long trips around the scotish islands & the south of France being two examples. This flying exposed them to the desicion making and developed pilotage skills required in commercial aviation. One thing I am sure about is potential employers did see this type of hour building as a very positive approach and not just burning holes in the sky.

Unfortunately the business case for hour building did not stack up some I rented to chickened out at the last moment leaving me with weeks in the middle of the summer unfilled and others would be on the phone morning noon & night giving minor gripes about the aircraft as reasons they could not fly when the real reason was they has got bored with the short trips around the local area and had bitten off more than they could chew when to came to venturing out from under their safety blanket.

My business model has changed now and I lease to a flying club, I now just have the problem of providing a serviceable aircraft and the club has the people problems, I would not rule out leasing an aircraft to someone for hours building but I now know the type of person that is right for this type of hour building experience and am much more able to spot those who's lack of confidence means they are better closely supervised.

It is important if you are going to build hours you recognise what type of person you are and if you lack confidence in your ability to make your own flying decisions then I would asvise you to stay at your flying club and cook some sort of discount deal this will be cheaper than getting into a flying group and finding that you don't have the confidence to use the aircraft to its best advantage.
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