Aircraft Hire in the London Area

[TOM87]

Hi Everyone,

New to posting on pprune - serial lurker!

I'm looking for a way to fly in the London area without remortgaging my house! I'm a new PPL and I'm not particularly sure if I will be heading down the CPL route yet, however I would like to build my experience and be able to take friends/family up at a reasonable price.

Everything I have found so far seems to be in the £130ph region with a club membership required.

A C150 or PA28 type would be ideal, does anyone know of anything suitable within London or the surrounding area?

Thank you in advance!

Tom :)

[The500man]

Have a look at the North Weald Flying Group (http://northwealdflyinggroup.co.uk/). They have a C150 for £98.50 per tacho hour and they have several C172's and a PA28. It's a well run non-equity group and probably not far from you if you are in East London.

[OpenCirrus619]

There's The Pilot Centre - Price List (http://www.thepilotcentre.co.uk/price_list.php) - £115/hour if you use the discount scheme.

If you chose to go down the CPL route they can provide training as well.

OC619

[YODI]

Open Cirrus, the price of membership at £65 per month seems very excessive, especially as the PA28 is £145 an hour. However I try and it it the figures just don't add up.

[TractorBoy]

YODI, I've been a member of NWFG for several years and the prices are competitive.

The C172s are £125 p/h and the C150 is £98.50 p/h. There are no hidden extras such as fuel surcharges that alot of other places add on, and they are all well equipped and maintained.

The PA28 is £145p/h which is more expensive, however it is an Archer II which tends to be more expensive than a Warrior anyway, and it is the only aircraft in the fleet that isn't owned by the group so we have to lease it. It's there to provide a bit of variety from the high winged Cessnas, and it's a great aircraft to fly.

Plus bear in mind it's tacho hours, so you can expect at least a ratio of 1.1 : 1.... making the prices £90, £113 and £132 p/h logged respectively.

[hegemon88]

I couldn't find a cheaper Archer anywhere and that's why I ended up in NWFG. Take Flight Aviation may have a slightly better deal but are a bit too far for me. The Archer's tacho gives 1:1.1-ish but jump into one of the 172s and you can fly for 1.2 hours until the tacho clocks 1.0.

I think they also offer a C150-only reduced monthly sub for hour builders.



/h88

[YODI]

Its more the monthly membership I think is expensive not the price of the Aircraft. I'm not doubting for a second it's not a good aircraft, but for me personally it doesn't work out financially at just a couple of hours a month.

[TOM87]

Thank you very much for the responses!

NWFG and that Tomahawk sound good. I guess it really comes down to how many hours I want to do a month, which I'd like to think is about three.

3 hrs in the C150 would be £360.50 - with a desposit of £200

3 hrs in the Tomahawk would be £330.00 - no deposit

I might give the Tomahawk a ring as I guess after 12 months an extra 30 per month will add up.

Thank you guys!

[YODI]

Yep good point, the difference is 3 more hours in the Tomahawk and to be honest, I'd rather fly that

[A and C]

It is not usually the headline price that you pay, there are usually "add on" bits that bump up the true price.

I once worked for a flying club that was totally honest about the price of an hours flying and almost no phone enquiry's turned into business because the other clubs in the area were only quoting the cost of the aircraft and not telling people about the costs such as landing fees, fuel surcharges and VAT.

This resulted in the club warning all that enquired to ask a few searching questions before deciding on a place to fly, the long departed Cabair group were the masters of flying hour cost with the true price of an hours flying at Cabair being about 30% above the price quoted on the phone !

You should also understand that you are trusting your life to these aircraft and ask do you want to be flying a PA38 that the owner is putting as little money into as he can knowing fully that the aircraft will be scrap at 13,000 hours due to fatigue issues. By the same token do you want to fly a Cessna 152 that is owned by a bloke that just dismisses the SID's checks as non mandatory so we don't do them.

It is very easy to get a seemingly good price but to get a good price on something that is not an undermaintaned death trap is a lot harder.

[YODI]

I worked for Cabair for 6 years, figured out all of the tricks by the end and I was on staff discount.

Its just me, I'm not use to paying flying school prices.

[Steevee]

Try www.flyersflyingschool.co.uk]Flyers Flying School, which is based at Elstree. They have PA28s, a DA40, and AA5s.

[letpmar]

Have a look at a few permit aircraft. Many of them are very well equipped and cheaper than the prices quoted so far. Most of the time you will find there are only two of you and it works well. Pay for old ga four seaters when you really need to not otherwise.