Just a question on costs

[Arnold E]

Back in the stone age when I used to hire and fly regularly, all charges were on tacho time. Recently I have been a hire and fly customer again at my local flying school.( different school than when I used to hire and fly before) Now I find that I am paying hobbs, not airswitched, but when you turn on the the master switch,:eek::eek: even flying LSA aircraft:eek::eek:. Is this the norm now or is this just my local flying school being somewhat "enthusiastic" in its charging.
If this is normal now, its no wonder numbers of trainees are down and I cant wait to get my new aircraft in the air.

[Clearedtoreenter]

The norm these days seems to be engine VDO, which is activated by an oil pressure switch. That is you pay as soon as the engine is started and the oil pressure activates the switch. You don't usually pay for just switching the master on! You'll be very lucky to find anyone who charges by air switch or engine tachometer.

[BlatantLiar]

Sounds like you've hit the jackpot. Turn the master off in flight. :E

[Frank Arouet]

A Hobbs meter connected to the master switch will wear an engine and an annual out quicker than a Tacho! The aircraft should be rented out solo on Tacho, or airswitch, and if an instructor is on board his time is switch on to switch off Hobbs.

But there's always someone who wants to cheat the punters.

[Centaurus]

You don't usually pay for just switching the master on!

From personal experience on LSA you do pay as soon as the master switch is turned on. A wise pilot will conduct most of his before start scans and checks before turning on the master switch. At upwards of three bucks a minute for an LSA, any dithering about after the master switch is turned on will add measurably the cost of hiring. Reading checklists will also add to the cost which is why good knowledge of checks rather than relying blindly on written checklists will save you heaps in the long run.

[Frank Arouet]

I must qualify my previous post by adding some seemingly wastefull antics like a pre shut down check can come back to bite you on the bum.

I remember shutting down my aircraft at Adaminaby without checking MAGS.

Guess what? I landed with one dead and in that cold couldn't restart. (not that I would have attempted a 4000' amsl TO with one MAG). Thing is I was grossly inconvienienced and learned a lot about Whiskey over the course of a few days.

I still go fishing on Eucambine and I do pre shut down checks for whatever it costs me. But not on Hobbs time.

[Arnold E]

A Hobbs meter connected to the master switch will wear an engine and an annual out quicker than a Tacho!

Nobody in their right mind would do their maintenance on master switched hobbs time............surely:eek:

[Wally Mk2]

Back when I flew in the days of 'Noah' it was always VDO off the donk's oil press, a buck a minute on a C182....ohhh that hurt at the holding point:-)Flew it almost flat out at that rate!:-)
A clever guy I used to know pulled the wires off the VDO switch under the dash of the old C172 so the hourly rate was real low,although he had to add fuel so it kinda matched up on paper:-):E He's now flying with the angels,bumma:-(

I'd hate to be paying for flying these days!


Wmk2

[Frank Arouet]

Nobody in their right mind would do their maintenance on master switched hobbs time............surelyhttp://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/eek.gif

Exactly. So why the rip off?

I can cop the instructors time.