Flying from and around Bournemouth
 

Hello! I'm from Italy, and I'm considering to join the Cabair's ATPL ground school in Bournemouth in january and, as I've to build some hours before starting with cpl/ir after the GS I was thinking about flying at bournemouth during my stay. I've no experience about GA flying in the UK so any information about VFR flying is appreciated. My main question is about Bournemouth area if ther're airports or strips around to do some short flying x-country trips. What about local flying clubs? Cabair offers a 50 hour hour package which results to be £135 / hour incld. fees. Is it possible to find something cheaper around? Well, as I wrote, any advice will be of help! :)

You can look up schools here FLYER Directory. Cabair is one of the more expensive. Best not to take a package as you might not find you are happy for some reason, or you stay is cut short.

Which aircraft are you interested in?

The cheapest :)

And thanks for the link.

I hope you haven't paid in advance for the entire course. There is a another CPL/IR/ME school on the airfield that has a long established history of finishing off Cabair students who have left after lots of false promises. Unfortunately a few seem to lose their deposits along the way as well.

You can rent from Bournemouth Flying Club, if you like Pipers, although they are a bit expensive.

BCFT have a C172 you can rent too, although it can be a bit complicated to get hold of...

Compton Abbas or Old Sarum might be your best solution, if you have a car. Very friendly places & some great English countryside to be flown over!!

Beware Cabair....lots of unmentioned extras.

Rmarvin86:
Old Sarum is about 35km North of Bournemouth and now has three PA28s (glass cockpit and conventional), two AT-3s and a Bulldog - more aircraft will probably be arriving over the next few months. There are also flexwings, C42s, Sky Arrows and Shadows available. There's even at least one Italian at the airfield.
For hours building the AT-3s would give the cheapest option but they're VFR-only.

These links shows many of the larger civil airfields: http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/aip/cu...1_3_2_1_en.pdf
http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/aip/cu..._AD_1_3_en.pdf
NATS | AIS - Home
but there are also lots of smaller ones

HFD

Thx all for your replies so far. That warnings about cabair makes me concern a little but I've read a lot about it around here and I've found very good feedbacks, anyhow I think I'll give a look at the school myself when I'll travel to GTW for my medical revalidation.

To budget my hour building in the UK and to assess if it's worth can someone tell me what normal hiring rates are? C150 or any other cheap VFR aircraft. That AT-3 looks interesting, what about that one?
Are airport fees expensive if flying out from bournemouth? I know tht HR building is cheaper in the US but I will stay for 7 month during GS so I though to take some 20-30 hours?!? Maybe more depending on rates.

Well I never!!! Who would that be?? :D ;) :p

RMarvin86 - PM if you want to understand the joke...

My personal souvenir of Bournemouth is the 62 Pounds approach, landing, and handling fee (free coffee included). If you want to fly in the London area, I strongly recomment the West London Aero Club. Check the links below for more about my own experience of flying in England.

White Waltham and the West London Aero Club

Flying England II - IMC, ILS, and Radar Service

Flying Bournemouth to Guernsey - The Perfect Plan

Very nice website plasticpilot, I'll take a deeper look at it as I have more time. Please tell me about the 62 pounds, I'm not sure I did understand? Did they charge you that much for landing into bournemouth? 'cause I would call it really expansive!

any Bournemouth flying club members here ? I'd like to fly in, but do not wish to pay silly landing fee's, could I join a Bournemouth based club ? and qualify for cheaper landing fee's ? ( my brother has recently moved to Bournemouth, hence enquiry )

Bournemouth flying club charge a 95 squid membership fee....for 1 year. which i guess aint too bad if you plan to do alot of flights in/out of Bournemouth but for a one off its a bit extreme. Heard theres a place that does a/c rentals pretty cheap....not cabair/BCFT/bournemouth flying club. any ideas what it's called??

Mark.

I am pretty sure there are no capital groups that you can get into up at Blackbushe. Its a bit of a drive but I would say the cheap flying would soon outweigh the petrol costs and membership fees that a club would charge. Not to mention the prohibitively expensive landing fees that BOH charges (it thinks it is the next LHR)!

Your going to be busy in class during the week which only leaves you free for weekend flying which invariably is the busiest time for clubs and hence aircraft availability will be at its lowest. Old Sarum might have some groups as well.

Solent School of Flying is the place you want. No messing about, good a/c availability and its about £120 to join the club. BFC tend to mess people about bit (I have heard). checkouts if you havent flown for a week or something similar! ( possible money making tactics! )

Thanks, I check their website, looks great. Regarding other flying clubs around Bournemouth, I don't think I'll be able to move by car during my stay so I think I should consider a locally based club.

Is it possible to find a free chart online with local airfields and airports of the area? I did check the link from NATS but it only depicts the major fields of the UK.

expedite08 "BFC tend to mess people about bit (I have heard). checkouts if you havent flown for a week or something similar! ( possible money making tactics! )"

The management have recently changed and there is a bit of 'messing about' as you put it (have suffered this recently myself) but they operate the standard 28-day rule that most places do.

Their PA28's and C172's are about £25 cheaper if you go for the new diesel versions (as they use about half the fuel), I've not got around to getting diesel-checked yet myself so can't comment on how they fly. I think the cost per hour of a diesel PA28 is £107 or thereabouts so this would be a good move for hours-building.

Could you please explain me what this 28 days rule is?

A good deal. Can you tell me if you have to pay local airport fees if you're a member of the Bournemouth flying club (markp123 mentioned a membership fee which gives a discount, I guess, on airport fees.)

Sorry, '28-day rule' is a standard thing most flying clubs operate when hiring their a/c out. You have to have flown (not necess. with them) in the preceding 28 days to allow you to solo hire an a/c. If you haven't, you aren't considered current and will need a check-flight, the length of which isn't fixed, it tends to depend on how experienced you are and how well they know you/your flying skills.

I try to stay current but when I've drifted outside the 28 days, (who hasn't given the crap wx this year?), I've used a check flight for brush-up training such as grass/short-field ops, instrument flight etc.

I think the currency rule (generally 28 days but it varies, I've seen between 14 days and six weeks) is more to do with insurance companies policy as much as anything but am willing to be told otherwise. Personally, I think it's a good thing as it's often lack of recent flight experience that causes alot of problems.

The BFC hire rates: I've never paid a landing fee at Bournemouth (EGHH) ever and do a few circuits every now and then without issue (bar lots of traffic, it can get V.busy), if you hire from them, they have landing cards for most a/c. Check out their website and full price list on Bournemouth Flying Club
Briefly:
A PA28 is £132 petrol/£107 diesel per hour solo rate
a C172 is £141 petrol/£110 diesel per hour solo rate

They do a frequent flyer scheme but I don't know about this, give them a call if you're interested, maybe worth considering if you want to do a block of hours, rates reduce further but do your sums before signing up to any such thing to be sure it's worth it.

Be seeing you...

Thank you DBisDogOne you've been really clear and of help!

Thanks a lot :-)

That's what I paid for an ILS approach, subsequent landing, handling (marshaller and free coffee). This was with a PA32-Saratoga, as visitor. I guess that based aircrafts get better rates...

PP