Hours building recommendations (2023)

[Joshua_PZ]

Hi all,
looking to do around 50 hours to bring my total to 100/169 for modular CPL etc.
Has anyone had any recent experience with hours building providers outside of the UK (for context I have a UK PPL)
So far I’ve come across
Skyborne - Vero beach FL
Pilots Paradise - FL
A few in Europe that have G-Reg aircraft

Any recommendations and feedback from any providers that people have used recently would be much appreciated!

Cheers
Josh

[cacho22]

Following this one.

Do the U.S based schools have G registered aircraft?

[rudestuff]

Have you done your IR yet? That should be the next thing you get. Include it in your hour building so It doesn't you at the end.

[mrguy]

Hi all,
looking to do around 50 hours to bring my total to 100/169 for modular CPL etc.
Has anyone had any recent experience with hours building providers outside of the UK (for context I have a UK PPL)
So far I’ve come across
Skyborne - Vero beach FL
Pilots Paradise - FL
A few in Europe that have G-Reg aircraft

Any recommendations and feedback from any providers that people have used recently would be much appreciated!

Cheers
Josh

Ravenair at Liverpool have dry leased tomahawks out to hour builders in the past, worth giving them a ring.

[Joshua_PZ]

Have you done your IR yet? That should be the next thing you get. Include it in your hour building so It doesn't you at the end.

The course I’ll be doing at the end is for ME IR so SE IR flying I guess doesn’t count much towards it? Could be wrong though

[Joshua_PZ]

Ravenair at Liverpool have dry leased tomahawks out to hour builders in the past, worth giving them a ring.

Will reach out to them! Ideally looking for a fair weather base for guaranteed weather to speed things along

[rudestuff]

The course I’ll be doing at the end is for ME IR so SE IR flying I guess doesn’t count much towards it? Could be wrong though
Yup, you couldn't be more wrong I'm afraid. Sure your plan works but you'll spend £10k more than you need to. If you hour build first then do a CPL & IR course you'll be doing a lot of Sim flying - none of which counts towards your CPL. You'll typically fly 30 hours FNPT2 and a minimum of 15 hours multi for your MEIR. If you get your IRR and SEIR it all counts as hour building too, which means your IR costs what the instructor costs (and the airplane is effectively free since you have to fly those hours anyway). Plus the SEIR to MEIR conversion is only 5 hours rather than 15.

[CaptSackJarrow]

Yup, you couldn't be more wrong I'm afraid. Sure your plan works but you'll spend £10k more than you need to. If you hour build first then do a CPL & IR course you'll be doing a lot of Sim flying - none of which counts towards your CPL. You'll typically fly 30 hours FNPT2 and a minimum of 15 hours multi for your MEIR. If you get your IRR and SEIR it all counts as hour building too, which means your IR costs what the instructor costs (and the airplane is effectively free since you have to fly those hours anyway). Plus the SEIR to MEIR conversion is only 5 hours rather than 15.

First off, thanks for your help across this forum, advice is short to come by especially that which is aimed at reducing the cost of training!
I've heard from a couple of friends that the issue they had with the IR(R) to CBIR route was that the were unable to do it in the minimum amount of hours - ending up costing same / more than a standard MEIR / SEIR. Now of course this is of their own doing and should have invested more time in IFR hour building. My question being did you find with adequate preparation you were able to do the CBIR in min hours and how many hours had you built up under IFR at that point?
Second question, unrelated to the thread and slightly hijacking, any suggestions for places for hour building? One issue I'm having with the IR(R) CBIR route is I can't exercise the IR privileges outside of the UK meaning I'm stuck at £137/hr wet (blackbushe 50hr package), I know there's aircraft shares etc but they're pretty hard to come by in the south and not always a fan of hour builders. I've heard of going out to the States to log IFR time there, if you could elaborate on this I would be super grateful. Appreciate this is probably sounding like a broken record now so any help would be amazing. Thanks.

[rudestuff]

If someone doesn't meet the standard after any kind of IR course I would suspect something seriously wrong. Either with the training or the student, but not the structure of the course. 40 hours of SE flying is probably double what most people actually need with good preparation. It's not like you're learning how to fly from scratch. You're taking skills that you already have, polishing them and combining them with instrument approaches and holds etc. In truth the only hard thing is the NDB hold and approach, master that and you've cracked it. ILS is a non-event.

[B2N2]

In any case don’t just look at Florida.
Time building requires no visa so you’re not limited to a particular type of school.
You could go anywhere.
Some mountain and desert flying after an appropriate amount of training, Alaska if the time of year is right.
If you need 50 hrs you could split it up between different states, fly 20-25 then move 3 states over and go look at something else.
Time building can be as interesting or as boring as you can make it.
Please don’t limit yourself to put putting around within 50 miles of an airport in Florida.