PPL Self Hire London

[GoProPilot]

Hi All

I recently achieved my PPL however my 'home' air field is grass and almost always non flyable when wet and not long enough to go 3up in a pa28-160 let alone 4.(nope not tried yanking 2stage of flap to leap over a hedge thank you :)).

So I am looking for somewhere new.
I am central London based and happy for a 40mile drive radius to new airfield.

Interested in
Cessna 152 <=120p/h Wet
PA28 161-180 <=140p/h Wet

Those are the current rates I pay, on the hobbs though, think its worse than brakes on brakes off?

also have a quarterly membership of £90. No landing fee.

Anyone able to recommend a club with similar or cheaper rates with a hard runway? oh within 40 miles to central Lon.

Probably quite hard but someone might know?

Thanks

[Straighten Up]

Stapleford - near M11/M25 junction

£112 for a 152 and £157 for a warrior both subject to fuel charge. Membership is about £100/year - free landings in club aircraft.

Charged Brakes on - brakes off.

Grass and Tarmac runway.

Private Flying Lessons, Gift Experiences, Private Pilot Courses, PPL, Stapleford Flight Centre, London, UK (http://flysfc.com/private-pricelist-private.php)

[hegemon88]

I trained at Stapleford - PPL + IMC. It is a good airfield with hard surface on part of one runway - gets affected by long and heavy rain but not to a point of closing down. Mind you, its main focus is "zero-to-hero" training so being a PPL and a paying customer, the last thing you should expect is being treated like a paying customer. I go there only when I have to (e.g. want to practice flying with Garmin GNS-430 in G-PJCC).

4 miles to the north is North Weald with two hard runways, main is 1800(ish) metres long. I joined the North Weald Flying Group, who charge £65/month for membership (more than at Stapleford), and have a C150, four C172s and an Archer II, at £98.50, £125 and £145 per tacho hour, respectively. Depending on your flying the tacho should tick 1 hour every 1.1 hour you fly. There is a discounted membership for C150-only hour builders as well. Apart from that you pay £160/year to the airfield itself but that gives you nil landing fees in any aircraft. Quite a bit in standing charges, I agree, you get it "back" if you fly a few hours a month.

If you fly 1 hour a month, Stapleford will work a shade better I think. Any more and you're better off at North Weald. The Stapleford fuel surcharge doesn't seem to depend on fuel prices too much and last time I flew was £7.20/h. NWFG aircraft look OK, Stapleford ones look bad (albeit properly maintained and OK mechanically).

Hope that helps,



/h88

[MrAverage]

GoProPilot

Archer at Elstree £144 or less, C152 £128 or less, membership £115 per year. No fuel surcharges or landing fees.

Send me a p.m. if you're interested.

Mods please delete if you see this as an advert.

[Camargue]

airfields with flying clubs/schools to consider:

Panshanger - north London flying school
Fair oaks airfield - think there is both a club and school there
Redhill
headcorn - flying school and Tiger Club

[jollyrog]

There is a non equity C152 at Biggin Hill available for £25/month and £80/hour, wet. Do a search on UKGA for the details.

[trident3A]

There a few 150/152 non-equity groups at Elstree which are pretty cheap

[Corsican]

The Pilot Centre at Denham - The Pilot Centre - Price List (http://www.thepilotcentre.co.uk/price_list.php)

C152 £125 or discounted £115
C172 £145 or discounted £135
PA28 £145 or discounted £135

The discount is if you pay £750 on account which is refundable. Do it on your credit card which protects you if the school goes bust but they are pretty busy and just took another plane on fleet. Landing fees included and it is blocks on / off although you need to join the Club (I think £150 annual but discounted if you are an AOPA member).

Hard runway of 775 metres with a parallel grass runway but rarely used.

Short transit to the Local Area which is worth bearing in mind.

Up the A40 if you have a car or a 20 minute walk from Denham Train Station.

Sorry - I just noticed, same as Mr Average's remark - MODS - if this is considered an advert, please delete.