Cost Of PPL

[Shiny_Pants]

I seriously considered working towards gaining my PPL a little over a year ago now but had to put my plans on hold for a number of reasons. Now that i am in a position to go ahead with my plans again i've noticed that the cost of flying training has increased quite dramatically from when i last looked. Can anyone reccommend any flying schools in the South East who offer value for money?

I don't for one minute want to sound as though i'm looking for the cheapest option, however, i also understand that the more expensive and more corporate flying organisations aren't always the best.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Alan_D]

Where abouts in the South East are you? What costs have you found so far vs last year?

[mixsfour]

I was in your situation when I started out a year ago. I gave up trying to compare costs as it was just too complicated! Quite often the website prices are out of date.

Some include home landing fees, some don't. During circuit training I was doing up to 6 t&g's and one full stop landing in a lesson with less than one hour of flight time, that could be another £60 at some places.

Some charge a/c & instructor seperately and for different durations. Even if you study at home (or in my case on my daily rail commute) for the exams there will be a few lessons that are solely one to one ground briefings with your instructor and no flight. What about R/T training?

Does the school charge a club membership fee?

There are other important things to consider such as;

Is a grass runway prone to waterlogging or does a coastal location get affected by sea mists? The more lessons that get missed because of things like that, the more hours you'll likely need to do.

What about the journey to the airfield? - you'll be making it a lot!

How many instructors do they have? - what happens if your regular one goes sick at short notice, on holiday or onto a commercial training course? What happens when aircraft go for maintenance?

Best thing is to short list a few schools then go and see them, find out how they operate and go with the one that feels right for you - it probably won't be the one with the lowest hourly rate.

And be very very wary before paying a huge sum up front to get a discount. If they go pop, you've lost it!

[Duchess_Driver]

The Pilot Centre - Denham Aerodrome (http://www.egld.com/tpc)

Great place to learn, extremely competatively priced, nice tidy aircraft.

[Shiny_Pants]

I live in South West London so i've been looking at flying schools in and around Surrey mainly. As for the differences in cost it would appear as though the average cost of hourly training is in the region of £160 compared to £130 when i looked into it last time although i appreciate some flying schools add VAT, landing fees etc whilst others don't. I suppose i'm mainly looking for somewhere with a reasonable reputation which doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I looked at one 'leading' FTO in and around the M25 who are charging somewhere in the region of £3000 more for a PPL than many other smaller flying schools.

[Heliport]

Cost?

Have you read this thread? http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/401883-free-ppl.html

[Halfbaked_Boy]

£160 compared to £130

Wow, how much it's increased in the space of seven years... When I learnt in 2003 it was circa £90 ph dual...

Sorry this doesn't help the OP, but it's unbelievable...

[Juno78]

Is it particularly expensive around the south east? I'm training at Wellesbourne and I'm paying around £155 an hour but that includes all home landing fees and VAT. How much of the increase is down to the increases in the price of fuel, come to think about it...?

[AlphaMale]

I think this thread is quite current;

http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/400712-pilots-license.html

:ok:

[Kolibear]

Getting your PPL will cost the thick end of £10K, and once you have your license, flying doesn't get any cheaper.

Its like learning to drive. Once you have a driving license, then you need a car. And insurance. And fuel. And services and MOTs and more fuel and then you want to change your car etc etc.

Getting your PPL is relatively simple, it just needs time, money and effort is fairly large quantities. Keeping your license afterwards is the hard part.

So the question is; what will you do post-PPL training? If you go with the majority and give up, then your PPL will cost you c£10K. If you carry on flying then your PPL will cost you a lot, lot more than £10K.

[Captain Smithy]

The thing is Shiny Kecks, it all depends on what aircraft you learn on... your older figure of £130/hr seems about the current going rate for a two-seater e.g. Tomahawk/152, where as your other quoted £160/hr seems more like a typical figure for a <180hp 4-seater e.g. PA-28. I would be surprised if there was much variability from that, all clubs/schools in my area seem to be charging about that. Not sure about rates Dahn Sahf but I would reckon they are similar.

In my region all clubs' hourly charges seem to have drifted upwards by about £5-10 over the past couple of years. Most even seem to charge for groundschool now :suspect:

Only thing that is variable is landing fees, some schools/clubs at smaller airfields with lower landing fees have a slightly higher hourly rate but landing fees are included in the price. You pays your money etc...

Smithy

[Mickey Kaye]

Shop around a bit I know of a couple of schools who dual renting in C150 is under 100 quid.

[Alan_D]

You can learn for less in the South East. I have recently finished my PPL at RAF Halton near Aylesbury. The hourly dual rate on C152's is £105 with no home landing fees. They also have a PA28 but I don't know the rate on that as I haven't flown it yet!

You don't need to be a military person to learn there - civilians can join as a temporary member, cost £80 per quarter.

Instructors all excellent and availability good in my experience, with an on-line booking system. Atmosphere is friendly :).

The website has some info RAF Halton Aeroplane Club (http://www.haltonaeroclub.org.uk) or there is also a Facebook group also with loads of photos etc, search for 'Halton Aeroplane Club'.

PM me for further info if required.

[851Pilot]

I'll echo what Alan said - also a member of Halton Aeroplane Club (just waiting for decent weather to do Skills Test) and can thoroughly recommend both the instructors and the aircraft.

We're quite friendly too! :)

Iain

[A and C]

Take a good look at the way things are charged, as an example if you phone the Airways Flying Club at Wycombe they will quote you a price for an hours instruction that is what you will pay for an hours instruction, the price seems high and you might reject them on price grounds.

During your phone search you will have no doubt Phoned another company in the area, this company is located at a number of airfields and offers a much cheaper price per hour, However the price fails to include the costs such as landings as home base, fuel surcharge, instructor briefing and the like, Oh and the whoe thing is topped of with the VAT making the hours flying much more expensive.

At the end of the day the atractive price turns out to be a trap to get those who are new to flying and dont know any better into a position were they are commited to some sort of "gold" or "silver" package from which escape is expensive.

So before commiting yourself to a "package" take good look at AFC at Wycombe, WLAC at White Waltham and SFC at Stapleford these are people who are offer a clear and reasonable pricing structure.

[24Carrot]

The cost per hour is much less important than the number of hours the PPL "takes", and how confident you are flying after getting through that one test on one day.

Talking around, it seems 45-85 hours covers most people training in UK weather, so anything that improves your learning experience per hour is important.

Concentrating the lessons may help, eg two lessons per day, lessons on successive days, etc. As you get to do things solo, it helps to go solo in the afternoon if you just demonstrated the skill with your instructor that same morning.

Sadly, one thing you will never learn on the telephone to the school is their attitude to cancelling lessons. For example if you have mastered circuits except for the flare and landing, and the wind is 20 knots, gusting 35, you might not learn anything useful doing another six circuits. If it is a typical UK March you could spend 5-10 hours not learning how to land. But will the school tell you that? The school covers overheads every time you fly, the FI gets another hour every time you fly...

This is not a rant against hour-building FI's. The FI for my PPL was a young, inexperienced hours-builder waiting for a job with the airlines. He was also extremely good!

So my two cents worth is be ready to change schools if you get stuck in a rut. (Talk to the school/FI first though). Another reason not to buy a package.

Good luck!

[XXPLOD]

If it's not too far, give Western Air at Thruxton a look. Very long established school with experienced instructors. Piper PA28 is £141 ph dual which includes all landings. Nice place to learn, friendly with a good mix of airspace around for a student. Tarmac runways and no delays on the airfield.

[rans6andrew]

think about why you want to learn to fly and then think about NPPL and possibly 3 axis microlights. Modern microlights are very capable aircraft and will almost certainly beat GA on training and running costs. Look up C42 and Eurostar microlights, both are used for training. Then think Popham, Damyns Hall, Plaistows Farm for training airfields.

The other rule to make training easier is to train at an airfield that is easy/quick to get to from your location. You don't want to spend 3 hours getting to an airfield to find that the aircraft is US/weather is bad etc or any of several other things that can/will cause lesson cancellation at short notice.

Rans6....

[The Fenland Flyer]

I can also recommend the C-42:) If you just want to fly for fun them 3 axis microlights are the way to go.

[Shiny_Pants]

Thank you for all of the replies. Of all of those flying schools reccommended i compiled a list of those within travelling distance and have visited them over the course of the past few days.

Now that i have decided to embark upon the PPL course can anyone reccommend what the best flying training manuals are to study for the theoretical exams? I've looked at the Oxford PPL books which are fairly expensive and seem to contain twice as much information than others. I've also been looking at the Jeremy Pratt books but noticed that the last edition to these books was back in 2003.

[Captain Smithy]

Good luck. :ok:
I used the AFE books, information is very easy to understand with diagrams etc. but I noticed a couple of things that were in my exams which were nowhere to be seen in the books. Either that or that was me being thick :rolleyes:

I have heard that the Trevor Thom books are good, albeit the information is presented in a much drier manner. try speaking to your instructors, they should point you in the right direction.

Smithy