PPL Costs

[Elvis21]

I am looking into doing my PPL and have looked at a couple of ir schools.

They are quoting prices of £4700, plus landing fees, plus £20 per hour for ground school, plus £30 per exam.

Is this the normal rate?

I also completed 20 hrs with an RAF flying scholarship about 5 years ago so will I need to do all 45 hrs?:confused: :confused:

[Evo7]

The 45 hours for £4700 (incl. or excl. VAT?) seems reasonable - certainly less than it's costing me.

However, landing fees could potentially be an absolute killer during circuits (what does a touch and go cost? How much do six add to your hourly rate? You'll do a lot of them).

Ground school also seems expensive unless it's one-to-one, although if you do the bulk of the work yourself and then have an hour or two with an instructor to clear up any problems I guess it's OK.

To be honest I'm not sure how much the RAF time will help. In theory you only need a further 25 hours to get your PPL - to apply for a PPL you need 45 hours total, of which 25 are P.u/t and 10 P1 (and five those must be solo nav). I know it doesn't add up, it isn't supposed to. However I'd expect that you'll need to regain a lot of the skills learned during those 20 RAF hours - could you get in an aircraft today and do a flapless landing? Stall with power on? If not then that's stuff you'll have to repeat.

You've ultimately got to learn enough to pass the skills test - the magic 45 hours is really just a distraction (it is just the minimum needed to apply for a licence). People do complete the skills test and QXC within 45 hours - some do it in less and fit in a night rating too - but most people don't....

[QNH 1013]

As has been suggested the landing fees sound high and could cause the costs to run away in an uncontrolled manner. Its difficult to comment on the hourly rate as this varies around the country. There are plenty of places in the midlands charging less than £100 ph dual with all home landings free. The clubs round here also have reciprocal arrangements with other airfields for free landings so some away landings would also be free.
Whatever you do, pay as you go. Don't pay up front for the whole course. You may want to change school part way through or the school may even go bust. Has happened several times in the past few years.

[tomcs]

Hi! I did my PPL last summer and it cost around the £6500 mark and I did it in 47 hours!! That is everything by the way :D equipment headsets etc.

So its definitely not cheap but boy was it worth it!!


Tom

[Genghis the Engineer]

The price seems reasonable, but you're not in a standard position. Your 20 hours technically mean that you only need another 25, but almost certainly you'll need more than that but probably less than another 45.

I'd suggest that this school seems not too badly priced, but you'd be far better of paying "as you go", rather than signing up to a fixed price deal which some might benefit from but probably you won't.

I have to say however that any school which charges landing fees for it's own aircraft is artificially hiking the prices up a bit. at perhaps 8 circuits an hour - and of-course you'll be doing oodles of them, this can add up !

G

[djk]

Elvis,

where are you planning on doing your training?
most schools don't usually charge landing fees for your base airfield.


I worked out if I was to do lessons at a school where they add landing fees on top it would cost me an extra £80 on top for my latest lesson

[Elvis21]

Cheers people,

keep the advise coming
;)