Hour building help in Kent area (Aircraft shares, non-equity groups etc...)

[Lew747]

Hi all,

I'll cut to the chase. Basically after qualifying for my PPL last year i've been lumpered with paying high club rental rates for 152/172's and now seem to be spending most of my time trawling around looking for any non-equity or cheap aircraft shares in the Kent region (Rochester, Manston, Lydd, Headcorn etc) in order for me to build hours towards my CPL (and beyond!) Everywhere I look there seems to be nothing to fit my bill in this area.:(

I'm looking for something around £70 p/h wet but could stretch to £80. My current finances dictate around an hour or 2 of flying per week but I don't have sufficient funds to buy a share of £xxxx outright.

Does anyone know of anything that could be available or any contacts I could get in touch with? Unfortunately i'm very 'green' on the networking side of things so have found it difficult to get my foot in the door and finding out whats on offer! I've put a small ad in afors.com but so far no feedback.

Just so you know i'm 19 with only 65 hours so understand if my options are limited but i'm looking at every option.

Hope any of you can help. Many thanks,

Lewis :)

[kevmusic]

Hi Lewis. At Headcorn you can fly Turbulents for £65/hr., all in. You have to like open cockpit, tailwheel flying (I do) but to me, that's fantastic value. To do it, you have to join the Tiger Club and convert via the Tiger Moth - which is a little more costly at £185/hr.

[Genghis the Engineer]

So you have an annual budget of around £4k, but only as the money comes in?

The Tiger Club option is a good one, but I'd also go and meet your local LAA strut - they will have a monopoly on cheap and interesting group A aeroplanes.

You will, regardless, almost certainly need to either get out of your current "club spamcan" comfort zone (this is nothing personal, most new pilots have that), and either fly something old and tatty (such as an elderly C150) or unusual.

I'd strongly encourage the latter - you'll learn much more, and once you've got the hang of it, have a lot more fun.

If you are aiming for an airline job (in which case personally I think you should get out more, but that's just me - I'd much rather do just about any other professional flying job but that myself, and at your age look at the services), then you need to stick with Group A (us oldies preferred term for SEP that isn't a microlight), if you just want to get good at flying and enjoy it, then I'd strongly recommend looking at Microlights. There are several good clubs in Kent, and you could do a lot of flying for £4k per year, and most likely also manage to buy either an aeroplane outright, or a share.

Just for example (http://www.afors.com/index.php?page=adview&adid=10716&imid=0) (I don't know the seller, just found the advert randomly).

G

[Genghis the Engineer]

Postscript...

Is this the answer to your question? (http://www.afors.com/index.php?page=adview&adid=9749&imid=0); AND it would give you an excuse to go and do a tailwheel conversion on a Tiger Moth.

G

[Lew747]

Yes I did have a look at the Turbs. I'm working as a postie at the mo and currently deliver to the man who owns the Tiger Club so I think he might be worth paying him a visit :8 However I would like to be able to take at least one other person up as I do intend on broadening my horizons and would like that extra person with me for confidence sake. I believe the Turbs are only single seaters? What are they equipped instrument wise? But then again, beggars can't be choosers :ok:

[Genghis the Engineer]

Yes I did have a look at the Turbs. I'm working as a postie at the mo and currently deliver to the man who owns the Tiger Club so I think he might be worth paying him a visit :8 However I would like to be able to take at least one other person up as I do intend on broadening my horizons and would like that extra person with me for confidence sake. I believe the Turbs are only single seaters? What are they equipped instrument wise? But then again, beggars can't be choosers :ok:

Yes they can - that is exactly why you should be looking at LAA (or BMAA if your aspirations are compatible with flying microlights).

Do also remember that even if you do most of your flying in single seaters, that doesn't stop you ALSO renting a 2/4 seater occasionally to take passengers up. The mix may well still work out best value.

G