Is PPL worth it - ongoing costs?

[EMA747]

The love of aviation and flying is not in doubt for me and learning to fly has always been a dream. I am now 30 years old with no commitments so I have started to seriously think about doing a PPL here in the UK. I could just about afford the money to do the course by selling some things and putting up some spare cash. The problem I have in my mind is when I've finished the PPL I'm really very unsure if I will have the spare cash to be able to fly for fun. With this in mind would you say doing a PPL is worthwhile or would I be better off leaving it for a few years until I am sure I will have the cash to be able to do lots of flying after I do the course?

What has everyone else gone on to do immediately post-PPL?

Andy

[Genghis the Engineer]

I've been adding and learning ever since my first solo 22 years ago. I think that either you enjoy flying, and learning about improving your flying, enough to keep finding ways and reasons, or you don't.

But the dream is for just about everybody, built upon actually flying, not on sitting on the ground looking up.

For me, the next step after getting my first PPL was to buy a share in an aeroplane, and start getting to know it, and using it properly in the way that aeroplanes should be used - that is going places, or fettling, or just enjoying the freedom of the skies. But not just learning to fly or doing a metered 60 minutes out and back from home base.

G

[Cenus_]

I'm in a similar position to you (and location by the looks of it!). I'm about 20 hours in to my PPL training now and some months are harder to justify financially than others and I expect that will be true once I've got my licence. In reality sooner or later life will probably get in the way and I'l stop flying for some time, maybe forever. I love learning this, I'm enjoying it for its own sake and that, to me, is worth every penny.

[EMA747]

Cenus_ Yep looks like we are in the same city. Who are you doing your PPL with?

I am just about to complete a scuba diving course and I been training for for the least 6 months and I have loved the challenge and satisfaction of learning a completely new skill. Part of me wants to do a PPL for the same reasons. I love learning new things, especially technical ones, and feel I would really enjoy doing a PPL.

It's just the costs are much higher than diving! The diving course cost me £300 and will cost about £20 if I want to go for a days diving. A PPL would probably cost the best part of £10K and about £120 an hour to fly for fun once qualified!

[The Fenland Flyer]

You don't have to pay £120 an hour to fly post licence, with a share you can fly an economical type for £25-£35 an hour :) and cost share to make it half that :)

True you will have some capital tied up and there will be a monthly fee, probably of around £40-60 a month but it's the way to go if you want to do loads of flying rather than just the minimum needed to keep your licence.

You could get a microlight NPPL and a share in a modern fixed wing microlight for the same cost as a PPL.

[EMA747]

How much would be needed upfront for a share though? I'd be blowing pretty much all my spare pennies on the PPL haha.

[dubbleyew eight]

there are two types of people in aviation.

the type who succeed in private flying ignore the cost and go and pursue it and enjoy all the trials and tribulations along the way.

an allied consideration is 'how on earth can you afford to buy an aeroplane?"
answer is similar. want to own an aeroplane and eventually it will happen.

....because in both cases you start to prioritise life and expenditures to make what you want happen.

the other type we all wish would bugger off because their endless worrying about the costs just gets everyone depressed.:E

decide which type you are and work from there. (close the door as you go :E:E)

[thing]

As it happens we have a computerised paying system at our place that logs every flight you've ever done and the cost. I've spent around 22K in the last three years, that includes PPL, night, IMC and 250 hrs total, 190 hrs P1. Factor in about 7K in cost sharing and I would put the actual cost at around 15k, or 5K a year. However a lot of that was spent on training in the first year. I budget £300 a month for flying and got around 55 hrs in the last year for that.

Our club rates are on the cheaper side, a four seater with a couple of mates on board costs me £33 an hour or £50 with one mate. I hardly ever fly on my own. It can be done. I glide as well so powered for me is all about getting to the airfield at 7am and going somewhere for the day. For the sheer joy of flying then gliding is a no brainer on cost and pilot involvement, but you can't put a couple of pals in a glider and go to Dublin for breakfast.

[tecman]

Very true, W8. Always a trade-off you can make, whatever your stage of life.

The one I love these days is 'how can you afford an aeroplane?' coming from the guy who drives the latest and brightest SUV! It's true my periodic maintenance costs are (probably) higher, but in terms of sunk capital and fuel, I'm no worse off than him.

I have a very effective way of dealing with the maintenance, too. Do whatever maintenance you're allowed yourself, find a good LAME, and have a big folder into which you place all the aircraft financial records. Do not look in this folder.

[thing]

and have a big folder into which you place all the aircraft financial records. Do not look in this folder.

:}:}

The car analogy is very good. I was looking at an Auster painted up in wartime colours the other day at an airfield. I said to my mate that I would love one of those but could never afford one. He pointed out that I could probably buy two for the same cost as my car...But then you use your car everyday and it's an essential without which I couldn't do my job. I always look on aircraft as being a luxury. Which I suppose they are really.

[Rod1]

If you go LAA you can get a share in a Jodel for around £3k, flying will then be around £30 per hour and £30 a month. You will get the £3k back when you sell. If this is out of your price range then, with respect, you will give up flying within 18months of getting your license.

Rod1

[FANS]

You never start flying because it adds up.

You start and keep flying because you love it. The cost is only the beginning, there's the sitting round airfields all day waiting for the Wx. Time commitment is massive.

[ChickenHouse]

You entered the dream of piloting at an age when total revenue for a PPL is not to be considered. If you were 20 years older, you could start to think like "spending 10-15k on a license plus annual costs to stay current - is it worth", but, MAN, you are soo young. If you feel you want to fly, GO AND DO. I had a really airyear, closed my company because of the current recession 2.0 and decided to simply go, fly for a year and after that, start to rethink. Nobody will ever be able to pull my memories of these 12 month. It was not so much of airtime, only about 250hs during that year, but I met people and countrysides of Europe I really enjoyed. Flying with the venerable 172 I bought for cheap money and given the fact, that I spent about 150 Euro/hour total costs, up to now and assuming the flying bee is now worth nothing, while still taking me from A to B, I do not regret any penny I spent. I may forget, but the feeling and change remains. Given the fact I am 10+X older, I feel sorry, if you don't feel your youth!

[FantomZorbin]

If you have to ask that question ... it is not for you!

[Maoraigh1]

the type who succeed in private flying ignore the cost and go and pursue it and enjoy all the trials and tribulations along the way.

I've been flying a Jodel DR1050 since 1990 as a Group member. The share cost me £1600. Shares are now £2200 - none for sale. £50 per month, £60 per tach hour, including fuel, but excluding landing charge (£10 at Inverness).
Hangared, run on mogas, LAA permit, making a profit for engine fund at these prices. I'm waiting for a reply regarding night flying, in the light of the CAA allowing the LAA to permit this from April 2014.

£4302.60 for 71.7 tach hours in 2013.

[Gargleblaster]

I donated a ppl to myself when i turned 40, 11 years ago. Here, that cost me around 8000 £. It's been worth it! All the trips to remote airstrips with the family and friends. I'm paying 140 £ for a tacho hour. A week ago i put a long lasting smile on the face of a 12 year old son of a colleague giving him an experience that he'll never forget. I've taken a now F16 pilot on his first motorized flight and he still owes me a trip in his type of aircraft. Go for it!

[500ft]

Why do your PPL as a course, why not start taking a few lessons and see how it goes. Flying once every week or two may take longer but you will get more of a chance to see if flying is for you. Paying as you go also lets you prepare for the on-going costs. Sure after your PPL you may be able to fly for cheaper per hour, but you may find yourself flying for longer. Also the aircraft that excites you may not be the cheapest. At the end of the day what is 20hours either way.

Flying is not really about before and after PPL but the start of hopefully a lifelong experience which starts with your first flight. And after your first solo, you have been PIC and no-one can take that from you, so that is a great initial goal.


JZ4H8Zy8viw

I saw this video posted online today; it was it on TV when I was about 12. It was posted as an 80s ad, but I thought it was cool then and I think it looks cool now. The airforce would never have suited me and the jets have been gone for over a decade, but as for flying, 12 year old me knew the truth, there is no choice really.

Sing with me. “The sky is the limit …………..

[KNIEVEL77]

Fantastic Ad, imagine watching that as a 12 year old never mind a 48 year old, wow!!!!!

[magpienja]

Have you considered Microlights...some very very nice micros about nowadays...and also some very affordable ones as well,

You should be able to afford to buy your own with the mega dosh you could save getting your licence.

[Pirke]

If we're posting videos, you have to see this:

zD2NtzEPBcA

[glendalegoon]

NO, it isn't. Just forget about it.

After you get your ppl, you will get worse and worse as a pilot unless you actively fly three or four times a month.


Your friends will fly with your for awhile, but they will get bored.

And you really can't aford it.

so , maybe take a lesson or two and chuck it.

you can always rent an aviation movie.

[taybird]

An instructor from an airfield not too far from you posted the following on Facebook just this week.

Has anybody thought about intensive PPL training over the summer? Weather permitting it should be possible to do the whole course in 5-6 weeks. I've just worked out total course costs. Taking into account 45 hours of flight training, 20 hours of ground school, all books & charts, 9 written exams, the radiotelephony practical test, final flight test, buying a half decent headset, landing fees at other airports, medical, and licence application I come to a figure of £7500

I was offered a share in an aircraft before I had finished my PPL. It cost £1000 for the share (minimum equity), £65 per month and currently £40ish p/h to fly. Which is next to nothing for the freedom of being airborne and the chance to continue to hone your skills, explore new challenges and meet some wonderful people.

[mary meagher]

EMA747, 30 years old and no commitments! no wife, no kids, no family, right?
no mortgage, no car,,,,,woops, you do need a car, you can always sleep in it! (I have been sleeping in my Hotel Mondeo now at gliding clubs for years....they laugh at me, but I withdraw from the noisy social scene to a private quiet corner, and you can't do that with a caravan with any agility).

So a PPL, what is it good for? I am eternally thankful that at the age of 50, my husband of 27 years ran off with his secretary, and I decided to do something mad, went for a trial lesson in a glider at High Wycombe.

Never looked back. Now, in the fulness of time, have 1400 hours in power, and 1800 in gliders. PPL, IR, Seaplane rating. Gliding triple Diamond. Flown in competitions, in Wales, Scotland, the Alps, the Soviet Union (!) toured France and Spain in my supercub, which I could afford only because it was used to pull up gliders. And that tremendous total of hours was mostly from tugging and from teaching. Still love it.

But the sensation of purest delight was that FIRST SOLO. In a K13 glider, over the M40, looking down at those wankers driving their BMW hunky machines and feeling completely absolutely magically above them all in every way! So right.

Money can't buy it, you have to work at it.

[magpienja]

Good on you Mary...

[EMA747]

@taybird That's a good price! What airfield is that at?

[150 Driver]

I see you're completing a scuba qualification. Just because you have a cert card doesn't make you a diver, sounds like a cliche but then the learning begins.

i've been diving 15 years, every time I dive I learn something. So use the skills you've just learned, go enjoy and make the most of them.

A few years down the line if you still fancy flying and can afford to commit to it after the PPL then do it then. I've been flying much less time than diving but every time I fly, I learn something. I've learned far more in the 18 months post PPL than I ever did in taking it.

IMHO no point approaching life the way you might a stamp collection, collecting qualifications for the sake of it then not using them to their fullest.

In answer to the original question 'what do you do post ppl?', for me it was buying a plane similar to the one I trained in and then doing as much flying as possible, visiting as many places as I can. Also got IMC for safety's sake. Aim is hour a week flying absolute minimum.

[taybird]

To OP - Tatenhill