Renting in southern England

[RichyRich]

SAS's topic of flying schools raised the question (in my mind, and in my rant) of where to rent from in southern England. Another poster, monster, seems to have a similar problem (perhaps he/she is from my school?)

So, to ask directly, are there any good rentable aircraft (read: good availability, I'm tyro PPL and don't care too much if it has the latest gadgets or not). My catchment area is Hampshire, Surrey.

I'll go fishing one of these dreary winter weekends, to see what's around myself, but perhaps you know, and will save me the trip?

RR

[paulc]

Have you tried Popham - there are usually aircraft shares available there and it is within the area you specifiy.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I'm in a good Warrior Syndicate at Popham, £50/hr, £30/mth. There is a share going, I'd guess for about £3k - if you are interested drop me a PM and I'll give you details of the chap trying to sell his share.

More generally, Popham at any time has numerous shares going - most of the flying there is done in syndicates, varying from large and very cheap microlight syndicates, to 6 people sharing a Yak-52. In the long-run it's far cheaper, so long as you don't mind having to come along to the occasional committee meeting,

There are also a handful of privately owned aircraft that are rented out, Irv can probably advise better than I since he does most of the checkouts. I think the going rate for a rented 172 at Popham is about £90/hr.

If the place is reasonably close for you, I'd simply come down at the weekend, buy a mug of tea and slice of cake, and sit and look over the noticeboard. Most of the aircraft advertised are on tie-downs or in the hangars too, so you can stroll down the flightline and see what's being advertised.

It's not the easiest field on the planet to operate from (I refer to the approaches, not the people), and no night lighting, but cheap, friendly, and lots of aeroplanes.


Failing that, I'd try Thruxton which has fair quality rental light aircraft at good-ish prices.

G

[tomcs]

If you want to go a little bit past thruxton there is Old Sarum, just north of Salisbury. Has 18 a/c for hire i think, including a bulldog, a seneca and 2 arrows.

Great facilities and a friendly club

Tom

[Johnm]

Try Southampton and Goodwood, aircraft for rental at both.

[sunday driver]

Gotta be Thruxton !!

Grass for the summer, tarmac for the winter.
Lights and PAPIs
Sooper bright flasher near the big hangar
Fire truck for those difficult days
Friendly help from Boscombe, just a couple of miles further on if you're REALLY in the s--t
and runway 26 is dead in line with the 265 radial from OCK

PA28, 38, Cub, 172 and a choice of T67s (no I'm not employed there, sadly)

What more could you want ?

sd

[RichyRich]

Hi all

Thanks for all the replies. Sorry for not replying myself earlier. I think I will schedule a visit to Popham, as Genghis suggests. As for actually crossing the threshold and buying a share, that's a very very scary step to take and gotta think a little on that. But at the prices (Genghis again) indicated, compared to my current £100 per hour (which is really really good for a rented Warrior) you almost can't go wrong. Hmmm...

RR

[Irv]

The older 172(H) is £75 solo hire, and the newer 172(N) is £90 - prices to make an American or an SA pilot collapse but not bad for Central Southern England! There are other optins like 150s at £65 and an AA5A at 80. (These are not mine, I don't get any of this, so I'm not advertising!)

We've had pilots in from certain airfields nearer London who asking about prices and when i quote them they then ask 'how much is fuel we have to put in?'. when I say 'included' they ask to start the conversation again. :D

I'll send you the rentals website to give you more info, they won't let me quote it here - most aircraft have minimum total hours rquired though, so you need to check as each owner sets his own rules.

This is also true of some of the syndicates - it always amazes me that they say they want 'x' hours total time rather than 'y' hours POST-PPL. That could mean they refuse to rent to a low hour ace with a new PPL, yet are quite happy to rent to someone else with a new PPL who really found it all very difficult but finally got there on a good day!

[FlyingForFun]

it always amazes me that they say they want 'x' hours total time rather than 'y' hours POST-PPLHmm - interesting way of looking at things.

Not sure that's it's necessarilly a good way of looking at things, though. When I was learning to drive, someone told me, rather flippantly, that "everyone who passes their test first time has a crash within a year." Sure enough, by the time my friends and I were all 18, almost everyone who had passed first time, me included, had been involved in an accident. None of my friends who failed their first driving test but went on to pass on a subsequent attempt had an accident in their first few years of driving.

Hardly a scientific study, I know, and I don't know how this anecdotal evidence would apply to flying. But, based purely on that, I'd rather have a 100-hour pilot who took 90 hours to get his PPL flying my aircraft than a 100-hour pilot who got his PPL in 50 hours.

FFF
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[Irv]

I'd rather have a 100-hour pilot who took 90 hours to get his PPL flying my aircraft than a 100-hour pilot who got his PPL in 50 hours.

I'd rather have them individually judged! I just don't think people with low hours should be auto-rejected.

[FlyingForFun]

Yes, very good point Irv.

FFF
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