What's the cheapest way to get a PPL?
To echo what many other posters have said: Why are you thinking of doing a PPL in the first place? What do you want to use it for once you have it?
If it’s about getting into the air at the lowest cost, then microlighting, gliding, etc. would be the way forward. Want to make a career of flying? Put the money towards a CPL.
Taking up "power flying" (2-4 seat conventional piston singles) requires a significant outlay not just in initial training but in recency and ongoing use. To maintain an acceptable level of currency == safety needs a continuing spend - doing the bare legal minimum is nowhere near enough.
There are definitely cheaper and more expensive ways of ending up with the same paper qualifications (cost of flying in the particular country has a big input) but sometimes you get what you pay for. Better to have a costly hour of really good instruction than a cheap hour that doesn’t progress you much....
If it’s about getting into the air at the lowest cost, then microlighting, gliding, etc. would be the way forward. Want to make a career of flying? Put the money towards a CPL.
Taking up "power flying" (2-4 seat conventional piston singles) requires a significant outlay not just in initial training but in recency and ongoing use. To maintain an acceptable level of currency == safety needs a continuing spend - doing the bare legal minimum is nowhere near enough.
There are definitely cheaper and more expensive ways of ending up with the same paper qualifications (cost of flying in the particular country has a big input) but sometimes you get what you pay for. Better to have a costly hour of really good instruction than a cheap hour that doesn’t progress you much....
Join Date: Feb 2021
Location: Surrey
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Annual prices vary but you'll have to join a club and if you don't keep your hours up, there's all sorts of fees involved. You need a minimum of 5 hours a year I think?
I'm not a pilot but my dad was for his whole life and even though he owned a plane, for some reason that log book could not be submitted as flying hours so he joined Goodwood because it was local and his mate was an instructor there.
Limited to 150hp too.
Where his plane was hangered, there was some pretty cool looking microlights. Cheaper licence to obtain from what I gather. Anyway thanks again and it might be useful information to you
2 things determine the cost of your PPL
1) How good your instructor is
2) How much work the student is willing to put in
Re point 1. Do your home work and talk to students at the school you want to go to. It’s your money so insist on your choice of instructor. Don’t be shy about interviewing the instructor and have an honest discussion about your expectations
Re point 2. My personal experience is often the students who moan the most about the cost of their instruction are the ones who put the least amount of work into it. Show up for the lesson totally prepared and then do a complete review after each lesson and identify anything you are unsure of and then make notes. Preparation and hard work will maximize the progress on each lesson and minimize the total time and therefore the total cost of your PPL.
I have always been an airplane geek. When I showed up for my first lesson as a 16 year old I had practically memorized the Cessna 150 POH. The instructor started by pointing out the major parts of the airplane. “This is the propeller” he said. I know I said “it is a Mcauley model OCM 6948 which means it’s diameter is 69 inches and it’s pitch is 48 inches”. Maybe a bit overboard but I finished my PPL in exactly the minimum hours.
1) How good your instructor is
2) How much work the student is willing to put in
Re point 1. Do your home work and talk to students at the school you want to go to. It’s your money so insist on your choice of instructor. Don’t be shy about interviewing the instructor and have an honest discussion about your expectations
Re point 2. My personal experience is often the students who moan the most about the cost of their instruction are the ones who put the least amount of work into it. Show up for the lesson totally prepared and then do a complete review after each lesson and identify anything you are unsure of and then make notes. Preparation and hard work will maximize the progress on each lesson and minimize the total time and therefore the total cost of your PPL.
I have always been an airplane geek. When I showed up for my first lesson as a 16 year old I had practically memorized the Cessna 150 POH. The instructor started by pointing out the major parts of the airplane. “This is the propeller” he said. I know I said “it is a Mcauley model OCM 6948 which means it’s diameter is 69 inches and it’s pitch is 48 inches”. Maybe a bit overboard but I finished my PPL in exactly the minimum hours.
Learn to properly fly in a gliding club, upgrade to motor gliders and do the PPL parts left in the minimum amount of time.
I started as a cadet in the Air Training Corps, became a staff cadet at the gliding school where I was taught and was eventually cleared to provide Air Experience gliding to other cadets, completing over 500 launches before was 18 years old, all free but you had to work hard at it by assisting on the ground and sometimes flying almost every weekend. .
When I left school, I applied for and eventually got an Air Traffic Control Officer Cadetship with NATS (or rather NATCS as it was in those days) and part of our training was a 6 week continuous PPL course which once again was free.
I wasn't exceptional, I know many others who went the same route, some being awarded a Flying Scholarship with the Air Training Corps before becoming a controller.
True, you trade the money you don't have for all the time invested. But gliding will teach you all the basics in the best way and the work hours involved a lot more. Plus you might get the network and early informations needed to help your career. I'd go for gliding if it needs to be kept affordable. Later on you can instruct yourself and build hours and profile.
