Very pleasantly suprised

[ChasG]

I was at the Pilot Centre Denham yesterday and my lesson had to be cancelled due to the poor weather. However I had about 2 hours ground school going over the basics - when I asked what the charge would be, the chap looked at me suprised and asked if I had flown. I was then told no fly, no charge. I find that amazing in todays climate and what a nice group of people.:ok:

[PilotPieces]

That is suprising, but good to hear.

See if your next lesson is £300 for the hour....:}

[stevelup]

I think it's quite normal?

[A and C]

I don't think that would happen on the other side of the airfield!

[DX Wombat]

It certainly used to happen at HGFC (Halfpenny Green). From the CFI downwards if a FI was conducting a groundschool session then everyone was welcome to attend free of charge. :ok:

[stickandrudderman]

I don't think that would happen on the other side of the airfield!

Actually it does, but the north side is a much better place to spend a couple of hours studying, especially with the new cafe next door.

[gpn01]

I was at the Pilot Centre Denham yesterday and my lesson had to be cancelled due to the poor weather. However I had about 2 hours ground school going over the basics - when I asked what the charge would be, the chap looked at me suprised and asked if I had flown. I was then told no fly, no charge. I find that amazing in todays climate and what a nice group of people.:ok:

At my Club when it's unflyable the instructors do briefings on Met, Air Law, Aerodynamics, route planning, navigation, stalling, spinning, circuit planning, instrumentation, etc. During winter months we also hold Saturday morning group briefings on all of the above, plus aerobatics, sports psychology, competition flying, how to review your flight, read NOTAMs, ground handling, etc. All of this is done at no charge. but then we're a glidng club and not a flying school!

[Steve888]

So how does the instructor get paid?

[18greens]

It's a tricky one. You are getting professional advice. If it's rubbish why are you still sitting there. If it's useful why begrudge paying for it.

I always charged for the BIG briefings. Ie nav and pfl. And £20on the ground for each of these saved hundreds in the air for the student.

No-one covers sideslipping, crosswind landings, why flaps are fitted to aircraft, or many other subjects in any detail on the ppll course, more lectures by skilled instructors are only beneficial.

I had an aha moment reading the lala mag today. When I was first taught to side slip (in gliders) the instructor said to lower the nose to keep speed up because of the xs drag.however I noticed that generally you actually did not need to, that the vehicle was pretty good at maintaining airspeed and lowering the nose just resulted in an overspeed. The lala mag pointed out that the sideslip blanketed the horriz stabilizer resulting in a reduction of down force hence tipping the nose down automatically. Ta da!!! Never worked that one out in 25 years. Just did it..... Do we really need to know all of the stuff???(of course we do, it makes us better!!!!)

[1800ed]

At my club all the ground training is free. They do run ground school courses/classes in the evening that you pay for if you need something extra. It is a good way of running things :ok:

[mrmum]

You get very little that is worthwhile having for free. In my experience in the UK, places that offer "free" ground training, often either don't actually give any or it's built into some other cost, such as membership or exam fees. Of course the OP may have just come across a particularly altruistic instructor. Or maybe, as he implies it's early in his PPL, it was just a bit of a "loss leader" perhaps?

I've probably flown with half a dozen different FBOs in the US and all of them charged for every minute spent with their CFI.

[MartinCh]

mrmum,
In the UK it's more common not to charge for some ground explaining stuff and pre/post flight. Depending on place I guess.
Different to the US, where (C)FI wouldn't get on with school management if he kept having free ground. Especially as at least half of that hourly rate, if not 2/3 go to school.