Paying for flying hours.

[kierton23]

I was just wondering, how do you pay for the rental of aircraft at your flying club. Do you pay by the hour the aircraft is out of the hangar? or just the time logged in the air?

If by the time logged in the air, is there a limitation on how long u can keep the aircraft or is it just generally discusssed withinn the club, before you go flying..

[eharding]

Originally Posted by kierton23

Do you pay by the hour the aircraft is out of the hangar? or just the time logged in the air?

Time spent out if the hangar? Shhhh.... you might give someone ideas.

Clubs usually set a rate based on block time - the time between the aircraft starts to taxy at the start of the flight, to the time it stops afterwards - this is also the amount of time you can record in your personal log.

Syndicates - at least the two I'm involved with, tend to set a rate based on airborne time.

Originally Posted by kierton23

If by the time logged in the air, is there a limitation on how long u can keep the aircraft or is it just generally discusssed withinn the club, before you go flying..

It all depends on the club policy, but usually if you want to take an aircraft away for, say, a weekend then there is a requirement that a minimum number of hours be flown (or, at least, paid for).

[kierton23]

Ahhh right thanx mate. Do you roughly know what the minnimum hours would be for say a 24 hour period away from the hangar?

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Depends on the club. My club charges three hours for a full day at weekends (in theory that is - last time I took an aircraft for a full day I only flew 2:45 and they didn't actually charge me for the extra fifteen minutes), but no minimum during the week when there are likely to be aircraft idle anyway.

It's basically "how much money do we lose by letting this guy take the aircraft away", and trying to make sure that the answer is zero.