PPL Questions
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PPL Questions
Hello, I have been interested in flying for many years. I am finally at a point in my life where I have the money, and the time, to pursue a PPL. From what I have gathered, in my area (Tennessee) it will take roughly 60 hours of flight time, and around $8,000 to acquire my PPL. I plan to work on it over the span of around 8-12 months. My Brother-In-Laws father owns his own plane and crop dusts for about 6 farmers in MS. He has been flying for 45 years. So I hope to leverage that.
My main questions are surrounding what will come AFTER I acquire the license. Can someone please tell me about my options as far as traveling the US after the licensing is complete? What kind of costs would I expect to incur? If they are rather high to take short trips, are there alternatives to owning a plane? While I am in a financial position to get my PPL, I am NOT in a position to buy a plane. How much would I expect to pay to fly from say, TN, to Colorado for 4 days for example? Do you end up any better off than flying commercially?
I realize the reason to do this is for the love of flying, and that is my purpose, but my wife is asking me the benefits, and I can't fault her for being curious. I would ask her the same thing if she had a 10,000 dollar hobby.
My main questions are surrounding what will come AFTER I acquire the license. Can someone please tell me about my options as far as traveling the US after the licensing is complete? What kind of costs would I expect to incur? If they are rather high to take short trips, are there alternatives to owning a plane? While I am in a financial position to get my PPL, I am NOT in a position to buy a plane. How much would I expect to pay to fly from say, TN, to Colorado for 4 days for example? Do you end up any better off than flying commercially?
I realize the reason to do this is for the love of flying, and that is my purpose, but my wife is asking me the benefits, and I can't fault her for being curious. I would ask her the same thing if she had a 10,000 dollar hobby.
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Welcome to the forum! I'm on the other side of the Atlantic from you, but just passed my PPL in April and dealing with similar questions from the wife...
I think the general answer to "is it better off" is a hearty "yes" - no check-in time, don't need to worry about the flight leaving without you, MUCH better view, no cancellation fees if you change your mind about where you're going on the day, and you can take a scenic route and actually enjoy the airborne experience.
But sadly, it's always going to be significantly more expensive mile-for-mile than commercial airlines, so you're going to need to stick to the "quality" argument ...
I think the general answer to "is it better off" is a hearty "yes" - no check-in time, don't need to worry about the flight leaving without you, MUCH better view, no cancellation fees if you change your mind about where you're going on the day, and you can take a scenic route and actually enjoy the airborne experience.
But sadly, it's always going to be significantly more expensive mile-for-mile than commercial airlines, so you're going to need to stick to the "quality" argument ...
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Hello Trips,
You cannot compete with the costs of the airlines for air travel, even if you do own your own plane. You fly ganeral aviation (GA) because you love it, and it takes you exactly where you want to go, when you want to go (and you can carry your pocket knife onboard!). Not to save money over commercial air travel. That said, for distances in the 100 mile range, which are not served by commercial carriers, but are convenient to small airports at both ends, GA can save you lots of time.
You will find some difficulty renting aircraft for very long, multi day cross countries. It can be done, but many aircraft renters are not looking to have their aircraft used that way. The main reasons are the extra effort they get into if you have a problem far from home, and the loss of rental opportunity for them, while you have the aircraft away. If you fly four hours a day, they loose four more hours a day (at least) of opportunity to rent that aircraft locally.
You might find a private club who caters to this type of aircraft use, but plan to make an investment. Your best hope is to find someone else (who perhaps owns their plane) who wants to do such a trip, and wants to share costs and flying.
In the long term, I suggest that you save your money to buy even a modest aircraft, it will cost what it's worth, but it will set you free for flying. In the long run, renting is going to cost you a lot more!
You cannot compete with the costs of the airlines for air travel, even if you do own your own plane. You fly ganeral aviation (GA) because you love it, and it takes you exactly where you want to go, when you want to go (and you can carry your pocket knife onboard!). Not to save money over commercial air travel. That said, for distances in the 100 mile range, which are not served by commercial carriers, but are convenient to small airports at both ends, GA can save you lots of time.
You will find some difficulty renting aircraft for very long, multi day cross countries. It can be done, but many aircraft renters are not looking to have their aircraft used that way. The main reasons are the extra effort they get into if you have a problem far from home, and the loss of rental opportunity for them, while you have the aircraft away. If you fly four hours a day, they loose four more hours a day (at least) of opportunity to rent that aircraft locally.
You might find a private club who caters to this type of aircraft use, but plan to make an investment. Your best hope is to find someone else (who perhaps owns their plane) who wants to do such a trip, and wants to share costs and flying.
In the long term, I suggest that you save your money to buy even a modest aircraft, it will cost what it's worth, but it will set you free for flying. In the long run, renting is going to cost you a lot more!
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All good advice guys, thanks. If you own your own aircraft, what do landing strips or airports charge you to land? What should you expect to pay for hangar space to store your plane?
So what would a modest aircraft set one back? Lets say, an aircraft that would hold the wife and 2 kids + luggage?
My wife's father owns his own airstrip in her home town, so that right there would save us the trouble when traveling to see my in-laws....
I start my classes at the beginning of July, so I am already getting excited!
So what would a modest aircraft set one back? Lets say, an aircraft that would hold the wife and 2 kids + luggage?
My wife's father owns his own airstrip in her home town, so that right there would save us the trouble when traveling to see my in-laws....
I start my classes at the beginning of July, so I am already getting excited!
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Lets say, an aircraft that would hold the wife and 2 kids + luggage?
Dunno what the weather is like round your way, but here in the UK a plain vanilla PPL is essentially not very useful for such a purpose, as most of your planned flights will be cancelled for weather reasons.
See many previous threads on this topic - basically to increase the chances that you personally will be able to take off you are likely to need some instrument qualification on top of the basic PPL, and to increase the chances that the aircraft will be able to take off you need IFR instrumentation and, for the UK in winter (as I said, I don't know what your weather is like), a de-icing capability.
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Trips, I would not worry about the instrument flying for a long time to come. And, as for icing, where you are, it is unlikely that you'll spend much time high enough to have to worry about it. Perhaps Gertrude is not familiar with the charms of the weather in your part of the continent! Any planes you'll be flying in the first few years, probably have no business in IFR flight, don't give that another thought....
New England is the part of the U.S. which has weather like England, where you schedule your flight to depart sometime that week, not that hour.
To carry your wife and kids, you'll want a minimum of $60,000 worth of plane. Half that if just one of them flies with you at a time. It is unwise to plan to become the pilot of the plane, and be hubby and daddy all at the same time, for the first while. Limiting yourself to one passengr at a time lets you get used to passengers, and not be so affected by the distractions and responsibility.
You can buy a lot of airfare for the difference between two and four seats! Tiedowns would range from $30 to hundreds a month depending upon the airport, and hangar probably four times that amount.
Good luck, but plan, and ease into flying, you'll enjoy it more!
New England is the part of the U.S. which has weather like England, where you schedule your flight to depart sometime that week, not that hour.
To carry your wife and kids, you'll want a minimum of $60,000 worth of plane. Half that if just one of them flies with you at a time. It is unwise to plan to become the pilot of the plane, and be hubby and daddy all at the same time, for the first while. Limiting yourself to one passengr at a time lets you get used to passengers, and not be so affected by the distractions and responsibility.
You can buy a lot of airfare for the difference between two and four seats! Tiedowns would range from $30 to hundreds a month depending upon the airport, and hangar probably four times that amount.
Good luck, but plan, and ease into flying, you'll enjoy it more!
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Trips, welcome and I hope it all works out for you
GtW:
The OP says he is in Tennessee, hence southern US. There a PPL is A LOT more useful for travel than it is anywhere in Europe. Of course, you'll never have the dispatch rate of the airlines, bit with a bit of flexibility, yes, you can use your airplane to go places (as you can, to a degree, in Europe, not everywhere is the same sh*te wx and airspace as the UK). All that said, an IR is definitely a good idea!
On a more general note, I'm not so sure if it makes sense at all to compare travel via the airlines with private flying. Private flying really comes into its own on trips of say, 2-3 hours from one small(ish) place to another where a car would simply take too long or be too tedious (leaving the sheer boredom of driving aside).
GtW:
The OP says he is in Tennessee, hence southern US. There a PPL is A LOT more useful for travel than it is anywhere in Europe. Of course, you'll never have the dispatch rate of the airlines, bit with a bit of flexibility, yes, you can use your airplane to go places (as you can, to a degree, in Europe, not everywhere is the same sh*te wx and airspace as the UK). All that said, an IR is definitely a good idea!
On a more general note, I'm not so sure if it makes sense at all to compare travel via the airlines with private flying. Private flying really comes into its own on trips of say, 2-3 hours from one small(ish) place to another where a car would simply take too long or be too tedious (leaving the sheer boredom of driving aside).
