What is the true cost of GA?

[Pilot.Lyons]

Originally Posted by thing

Jumping off high wall, nil outlay, half second free fall, 120 times day, 2 minutes a day, 12hrs a year giving two days off at Xmas. Cheapest flying there is.

I just tried that and didnt enjoy it as much... My landings were a bit... Bumpy

[rywing]

So there is a reasonable option of keeping the flying cost to a minimum.

How about the Microlights? What costs are associated with this type of flying and what different ways are there to keeping the cost down?

[Rod1]

If you are talking 3 axis than Microlight / permit are interchangeable. There are around 500 3 Axis micros managed by the LAA and another 1250 ish by the BMAA, but both are permit and the running costs are similar. Older micros are very cheap but not very capable, modern ones are very capable, quite expensive to buy, but a bit short of useful load. Some aircraft, like the Eurostar, MCR etc come in Micro and none Micro with the same running costs and more useful load in the VLA/LSA version (a form of SEP/Group A - the next step up from a micro in weight terms).

Rod1

[rywing]

Thanks rod1,

Looking at the cost per hour to learn to fly Microlights it does look cheaper, which could be the best option for me.

Is the licensing due to change for microlight pilots with EASA?

[Piper.Classique]

How much have you got? That will be how much it costs, usually.

[150commuter]

In a twelve member Cessna 150 group I pay £40 per month and £60 per hour. Add to that about £10 per month for flying club membership and the same for an annual medical (though that's optional if you don't mind being restricted to NPPL) So if I fly for eighteen hours a year (I normally aim for 24 but the weather has kept it down a bit the past couple of years) that's a total of about £1800 or £100 per hour.
To that I also need to add the cost of petrol to drive to the airfield. That's a surprisingly large part of the total as I live a fair distance away but I tend to fly on about the same number of days each year (when the hourly was a lot less I simply flew further) so getting to the airfield probably adds a couple of hundred pounds to the annual total.

That seems like a lot but I've got friends who support a first division Rugby team and I'd be surprised if with travel to away matches, some of them involving overnights, season tickets, club membership, beers before and often dinners after the game, their hobby is costing them any less than mine (If they were premier league soccer supporters it would probably be a lot more) They don't even get to run around with the ball while I get to do something that, even after more than twenty years, I still have to pinch myself sometimes to believe I'm really doing.

Learning to fly and then continuing to fly is one of the best things I've ever done in my life so I'd say DO IT!!!