Multi lateral Price fixing??

[delaneyslad]

Here's one for you guys to chew on.
If you look at the price of doing a FI (R) course (U.K.) they're all around £6.5 K is that because that's what it 'REALLY' costs? or is one trying to compete (price wise) with the other? Or, because one school is charging 'x' amount then we have to be competitive? (within£200 or so).
If you think about it, surely you'd only want to do the rating 'close to home'? (friendly faces,knowledge of local flying schools and contacts etc). 30 hrs. flying, 125 hours groudschool I dunno
This post is only 'thought provoking' rest assured I'm only playing devils advocate. I would be interested to hear what others think.
Are the margins so tight? It may be argued that a PPL course is cheaper. But, thats not what I'm talking about.
Looking forward to the 'insight'

[blagger]

What's your point - are you saying it should be cheaper or more expensive?

[Whopity]

Lets say a PA28 at £135/hour = £4050

An FIC Instructor could charge £50/hour way back in 1989 so asuming no increase in over 20 years thats another £1500

That only leaves £950 to cover 128 hours of groundschool or £7.42 per hour.
I'd suggest the margins are very tight, schools have approval fees to pay and have to be competitive. There is only a limited supply of FIC Instructors however; EASA with its equal opportunities and reduced standards will solve that one.

[RVR800]

Supply and demand

Supply and Demand (EASA style)

Yes, we will know there is a shortage in supply when FIs get paid a professional wage although EASA plans to increase the supply of FI's by not requiring instructors to do professional pilot exams

This will add to the pool of instructors available

[BillieBob]

EASA plans to increase the supply of FI's by not requiring instructors to do professional pilot exams

Who told you that? The current proposal is that all flight instructors for PPL and above will have to pass at least the CPL exams but will not be required to hold a professional licence to be remunerated.

[john.o.pilot]

Schools compare their prices against each other and set them up accordingly. If you look at multi engine training, you will see that most of them are near £500 an hour per hour recently.

Apart from flying, I spent a lot of time in finance and one thing is certain.

When you try to increase the margin by putting the price up, the margins get worse. Greed caused trouble in many other industries too. I am not blaming instructors here as only small fraction is passed onto them, it is the school owners trying to profit.

[A and C]

john o pilot

Greed............. exccesive profit ?

Clearly you have never tried to run a business in this part of aviation, the fact of the matter is that most companies in this sector are only just making ends meet.

Just do the maths........... £50/hour for an instructor, Max 900 hours due FLT that is an annual income of £45,000 from that comes medicals, IR & FIC renewals Ect.

Please get real no one is making big money at the moment and I think that some of the posts above show peope who only read the Daily Mail and have swallowed this "rip of Britan" thing that they bang on about.

[Whopity]

it is the school owners trying to profit

Many people have come into aviation having first made their money in another industry. They soon find out what A&C is saying and beat a hasty retreat when they realise there is no profit to be made. Aviation survives because of enthusiasts nothing else.

Max 900 hours due FLT

However an FICourse is 30 +128 hours so with a 40 hour week, a max of 12 courses per year is all you can realistically achieve. With one candidate/course and 25 hours dual training, thats 300 hours flying/year, or 600 hrs/year with two candidates per course. FIC is usually a one man band renting a room in a flying school; the school gets aircraft utilisation and one man can just about earn a living with a lot of hard work.