A Reasonable Deal?

[Robbo0885]

Hi all. Following from my thread on the C152/Warrior question, I wouldnt mind some opinions on whether my current schools CPL hour building deal is good, average, a bit naff. I won't give my thoughts on it, but I'll lay it out and anyone can give an opinion on the deal. by the way, i work mon to fri full time.

£90/h for Warrior or Arrow. must do all 100 hours wuith school. buying in 10 hour blocks. cannot book aircraft. off peak hours offered first, mornings and late afternoons mid week, first there first to fly. if PPL lesson or gift voucher lesson turns up at school, they get the aircraft, not the hour builder. minimum flying time 16hours a month. if account is ever empty, all flying charged at normal rate £129p/h.

What does everyone think? Good, average, or a bit naff?

[JUST-local]

Try some other places!!!

Walk in and say I am looking to do 15 hours per month hour building or what ever, I will pay up front for this. You will get a better deal almost anywhere.

However sounds like a good deal for them.

From what you said I would be surprised if you could do 16 hours a month off peak by look of your location, you would have to be lucky.

JL.......

[julian_storey]

That's not a great deal.

You will find that you usually get a MUCH better deal (and usually a better looked after aeroplane) if you rent from a person rather than a club.

Check out the ads in the back of Pilot, Flyer etc, check the aircraft to rent ads on www.thehangar.co.uk and ask around at your local airfield.

You will often also find that whereas clubs have a minimum daily usage requirement, many private owners don't - so if you want to spend a few days doing a leisurely tour of France you don't end up being charged for three hours a day if you've not flown them.

[hobbit1983]

£90/h for Warrior or Arrow. must do all 100 hours wuith school. buying in 10 hour blocks.

If you're paying upfront for hours - go elsewhere.

cannot book aircraft. off peak hours offered first, mornings and late afternoons mid week, first there first to fly. if PPL lesson or gift voucher lesson turns up at school, they get the aircraft, not the hour builder.

You are most certainly not a valued customer here - at my club at least, a considerable portion of flyers are PPL lessons/gift vouchers.

minimum flying time 16hours a month. if account is ever empty, all flying charged at normal rate £129p/h.

Again, give the amount of money you're spending, this is ridiculous.

In summary - this sounds like a very poor deal to me, especially not being able to book aircraft when you want & paying upfront, then getting penalised for not having money in the bank at any given point!

[sternone]

Robbo,

Please do not pay upfront, the risc is to high, maybe if you pay a few quid more but pay after you have flown it's more safe!!

[Robbo0885]

To get the discounted rate, you need to pay 10 hours at a time. Theres a fair old difference between their deal of buying 10 at a time at £90/h, and the standard "pay as you fly" at £129/h. Personally, I'm happy to take the chance. I fly about 8 hours a month anyway, so its not like it's sitting in their pockets for 6 months or something.

What kind of hour building deals have you guys come across? What are your home clubs deals?

I'm doing my PPL with the school offering this hour building package, and I have to say I really like the school. Just seems to me that for £9,000 of flying and the liklihood of getting a CPL course from you as well, they seem to be treating you as a second rate customer. I would say easily 3/4 of flights at my school are gift vouchers and PPL lessons. To put them first in front of someone who wants to seriously go places and go through all the training to ATPL, seems very unfair.

[hobbit1983]

Down here at Old Sarum; Frequent Flyer membership at £1250pa; then you get rates of £80ph for an Arrow and £76 on a tailwheel :) 152. You end up saving money if you do more than roughly 25 hrs per year, and for me with the mix of hours I'm doing this year it works out roughly £90-95ph overall.

No other stipulations whatsoever re. hourbuilding booking, minimum hours, priority etc, and a very helpful bunch of folks too regarding advice on the course a young wannabe's CPL hours should take :ok:

[Tony Hirst]

I didn't take up the Old Sarum frequent flyer option, as usually happens, I didn't think I would get in the hours that I imagined. Ends up that I've done loads in the last three months and am (or would be) at the break even point already :ugh:

[dublinpilot]

I don't think I've ever heard of somewhere that operated a system cannot book aircraft. off peak hours offered first, mornings and late afternoons mid week, first there first to fly

You can't book the aircraft in advance? You can't plan to fly in the afternoon, because you must be there before anyone else to take the aircraft? :confused:

And they want your money up front for an aircraft that you can't book :rolleyes:

The finances of this is the lest worrysome for me! (And it is quite worrying) I can't believe anyone would want an aircraft on those conditions....how could you plan anything?

dp

[mcgoo]

Why don't you go to the US, for about £6000 you would get 100 hours flying with housing.

[englishal]

Frequent Flyer membership at £1250pa
HOW much!

As said, if you're looking to "burn holes in the sky" just go to America for a few weeks and rent there for $70 wet (£40) for a 172 or something.

Or join a non capital syndicate

Or buy a cheap share in a cheap aeroplane

[sternone]

You could also buy a plane and sell it afterwards ? A cheap hour builder ?

[hobbit1983]

Quote:
Frequent Flyer membership at £1250pa
HOW much!

...£1250pa :}

Like I said, it works out quite well if you're doing the number of hours I am this year. You can also then hire a Seneca for £142ph wet, solo.....

[englishal]

Actually £1250 is not such a bad deal if you want to fly more than 25 hrs per year n club aeroplanes....

For quick, cheap and fast hour building I'd still go off to the USA ;)

[hobbit1983]

True - I did my PPL there, but it's easier for me to work whilst flying at home. I prefer OSFC anyway, even if it does work out more expensive.

[Robbo0885]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Going to America to do a big chunk of hour building is not for me because I think:

1)Its not really feasible for me as I need all work holidays to attend ATPL ground school next year
2)The point of hour building is surely not to just make the total columns in your logbook bigger? It is to get experience-I feel for me I'd rather fly as I go, doing hours while doing ATPL, building experience, and hours, whilst getting through D/L ATPL

Anyway, I dont think i'd like going to America to do 50 hours in a week or something crazy and then not afford to fly or have time to fly for the next 6 months. It may be cheap, but at too much of a cost for me I'm afraid.

[Slopey]

PM me if you want a trip in a 172 out of Aberdeen. You can't log it, but it's time behind the (albeit copilot) wheel.

[A and C]

I am in the aircraft leaseing business and I can do you a much better deal than that !